


Smugglers - A Shadowrun Story

by krencooper



Category: Shadowrun
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:09:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 119
Words: 707,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krencooper/pseuds/krencooper
Summary: Follows the story of 6 unlikely allies who find themselves thrown together by fate in the cruel and harsh Sixth-World of Shadowrun. These are the narrative adventures of my TTRP group, in our campaign. A new chapter is written most weeks, and I have a backlog of episodes to publish to "catch up" with current events. Chapters 1-17 are short (2K), 18-45 around 5K, 46+ are 6-10K. Because this gets published to my players, it's written from an in-game perspective, with imperfect knowledge - there's very few instances where you read something that wasn't directly observed by them, and as a result sometimes something weird and a little unexplained can happen.Most of the chapters are probably PG-12 - but it is a harsh world, and gun battles and brutal melee is definitely a thing. There's also some adult content and some scenes of attempted kidnapping and rape of some of the team, and there's a few instances of torture. It's all (hopefully) in context for the story, and I try to keep it implied or not too heavy on the detail - enough so you know what's going on, without being gratuitous.Feedback is positively welcomed and encouraged! The location tags match google maps, for each chapter start.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	1. 001 - Escape from the Chechens

Date: 01/12/2059. Location: 41.18821, 48.17886

The sun struggled over the high peaks, turning the grey pre-dawn into true daylight. Nearly 9am, local time, but the camp’s position in the secluded little valley meant that it saw only a few hours of daylight in the middle of winter, surrounded as it was by the high peaks of the Caucasus Mountains. The air was damp, and the mountain fog swirled around the huts, shacks and prisoner cages in the small clearing, tendrils of mist clinging to the buildings like a primeval creature refusing to let go of its prey.

The clearing was perhaps sixty metres long, about forty wide, and surrounded by dense thickets of trees and fast growing bushes. The mountain trail climbed up from the villages far below, clinging to the side of the mountain and following the spurs of jagged rock, first north, then bending abruptly to the east, where it ran parallel to the clearing, which was screened from the road by dense foliage. The mountain trail curved south then, finally entering the clearing at the eastern side, after a short but sharp final climb. Six primitive and ramshackle huts were arrayed around the northern side of the clearing, each big enough to hold perhaps half a dozen residents, with another one to the south, along with a much larger and grander hut in the south-west corner. Parked by the side of this was a large military vehicle, painted a drab olive colour. A set of four large iron cages sat between the truck and the shacks to the north, each about three metres to a side, and each with two inmates. Sodden, bedraggled and wet through from the dew and rivulets of water that ran down from the spur of the mountain and soaked the whole area, they started to rouse themselves, wringing out their clothes and trying to position themselves to catch the meagre rays of sunlight and warm up.

In the first cage was a woman, 1.78 metres tall and weighing 60 kilograms, with long black hair swept back into a make-do bun, held in place with a few twigs. Her black eyes looked around the camp, and a hand wiped at an ear as a raindrop plopped into it from the bar above and headed down her ear canal. She was dressed in basic but hard wearing clothes, with a top that looked to be hand woven. A deep sigh passed her lips, and she shuffled to one side of the cage and began some gentle stretching exercises revealing a relatively limber and lithe body. Next to her was an elf, of almost identical height but tipping the scales at a heftier 72 kilos. Well-muscled but equally limber to the woman next to him, he sat cross legged on the floor, clothes soaked through. He raised his head towards the sunlight, revealing a handsome face that mixed Asian and European features in a strangely alluring mix that looked to be straight out of a catalogue. He was wearing a set of stiff looking cargo trousers and a fleecy top layer that looked to be shaped to his body.

In the next cage over was a tall blond man, at least 190 centimetres tall, weighing 82 kilos. His blue eyes stared out at the camp from under bushy blond eyebrows with a hostile scowl, his eyes slowly surveilling the inhabitants of the camp as they started to stir, fixing each of them with a short vicious glare that clearly expressed his opinion of them. He was dressed in a flight suit that had clearly seen better days, stained and marked with mud and moss. Alongside him was a Japanese male, 1.75 metres tall and weighing around 100 kilograms. Wearing a tattered and ripped business suit, he too sat cross legged on the floor, ignoring the dampness. His face was typical for his race, but his hair and eyes were a very dark brown, rather than the more normal black. His features were serene and he seemed strangely at peace.

In the third cage, a large ork stood at the bars, his greenish-brown hands grasping the iron struts tightly. Standing 1.87 metres tall, he tipped the scales at just over 131 kilos, and his body filled out the white dress shirt – now sadly stained to the point of never being clean again – to capacity. A large and well developed set of shoulders narrowed down to a trim waist, then flared out again to muscular legs. Despite having a body that could easily feature in a bodybuilding magazine, his face was one that only his mother could love. He wasn’t scarred, or marked in any way, but his features just didn’t sit right, and he seemed to be angry at everything. Despite looking at first glance like the Humanis image of “one of those stupid orks”, his eyes moved carefully over the clearing, obviously counting targets and evaluating distances in a way that revealed intelligence. In the back of the cage a tall man, easily over 2.1m tall, paced back and forth like a trapped animal. He weighed about 95kg – nowhere near as well muscled as the ork, but still trim and fit. He had a large set of dreadlocks that framed his black skin, making him look like a dark version of a lion. He was dressed in clothing that looked military in origin, with matching boots – around his chest looked to be the remains of a load bearing harness showing where items had been ripped or torn away from him.

In the fourth cage were two women who from the skin colour, features and clothing appeared to be locals. They were stood at the back of the cage, together, pressed into one corner – apparently sharing body heat. They too glared around the camp, and spoke quietly to each other, watching their surroundings.

As the minutes crept by the camp stirred, and the Chechen rebels went about their unhurried morning routine. A pair came over and examined the cages, ensuring they were still locked shut and secure. A few minutes later they returned with several bowls of nasty looking slops, which they pushed through the bars, being careful not to get too close to the prisoners. After they had left, the eight captives grabbed the bowls of unappetising food, and sipped at them, each lost in their own thoughts, and rueing their capture by these mountain bandits. The day wore on with nothing to do for the captives but stare out of the bars at the Chechen warband and watch them as they carried out their duties in a lax and haphazard way.

It was mid-afternoon when the man with the dreadlocks spied movement on the peak overlooking the camp. He ceased his pacing and focused, watching the vegetation a couple of hundred metres away, squinting to try and make out details. As he watched, the large mountain tiger moved from one piece of cover to another, its 300kg mass weaving sinuously through the undergrowth with an ease that belied its size.

He let out a low whistle and watched with fascination as the tiger stalked some prey, disappearing from view a few minutes later. He watched a while longer – it wasn’t like he had anything else to do after all – in case it came back. The tiger didn’t return, but he did catch a glimpse of something else – a small red light, flashing intermittently. He stared for a few moments, trying to work out what it was, and then he saw the other end of the laser, focussed on the ground by the cage with the two local women in it. They hadn’t noticed it at all yet, and sat on the opposite side of the cage, talking in low voices.

He cleared his throat, discreetly at first, then louder, until one of them glared at him. With a small gesture, he pointed down at the red dot tracing a pattern next to their cage. The woman looked down at it, and then back to him, nodded and raised a finger to her lips. Unhurriedly, she sat down, pulling her fellow prisoner with her. Then she lay down, facing away from the camp, flattening her body as far as possible, and buried her head under her arms.

The dreadlocked man looked around at the other cages, and called out “Hey!” Once he had their attention, he followed the example of the woman – not knowing why, but suspecting that life was about to get interesting.

Peeeee-wheeeeeeeeeeee! The shrill whistle echoed off the mountains, reverberating off the peaks and sounding as if it was coming from many points of the compass. The Chechens looked around and up, a few of them raising their weapons, looking for the cause. About the only direction they weren’t looking was the ridge to the north – which was unfortunate. The screecher round flew up to several thousand meters and then faded away.

Two rockets arced down from the ridge, the troops firing them almost invisible in their camouflage fatigues against the dense brush. The rockets exploded over the camp, the large concussion warheads exploding and sending a vicious shockwave over the area. Men and women were thrown from their feet, ears bleeding and stunned. The blast wave rolled over the cages, mostly leaving the prisoners untouched, though it thrust them into the bars on the far west of the cages.

The heavy staccato of machine gun fire filled the air as two teams opened up on the camp, stitching fire across the camp, rounds punching through the walls of the shacks. The faster “brppp” of light machine guns firing in short controlled bursts started to take down the guards when they were exposed. Chechens ran for cover, returning fire blindly up into the rise – but the combination of range, elevation and blind fire lowered their chances of hitting their attackers to virtually nil.

A loud spang echoed off the cages, followed by a second. The heavy rounds from a hidden sniper destroyed the lock on the cage of the two women, sending parts of the padlock spinning across the compound. There was a pause, then another round slammed into the padlocks of the remaining cages, one after another. Some took one shot, none took more than two.

The captives cautiously crawled across the ground, and shook the doors, dislodging the wrecked padlocks and swinging the rusty gates open with a screech. They watched the two women dive out of the cage and run towards the north, straight towards the fire, heading into the no-man’s land between the two forks.

The handsome elf looked over at the others, and then called out, his voice low and pitched with a strange bass resonance – “You two, check the hut, see if you can get some small arms, you two, check the truck over there, see if it’ll start, you with me, let’s grab something from the big hut. Meet at the truck, 60 seconds – GO!”

Almost without thinking about it, people sprang to obey - he seemed to know what he was talking about, and it made sense, sort of…. 

The ork and the tall dreadlocked man ran in a stoop to one of the huts, bursting through the door and charging in quickly, trying to take people by surprise. Inside the hut they found the bodies of four men, torn to pieces by a long string of fire from the heavy machine gun. Looking around they quickly grabbed a few weapons – a couple of old-looking rifles, some crappy pistols, a few grenades, and a pair of machetes. They threw themselves flat as another string of fire perforated the north wall of the hut, then crawled out on their bellies, trying to stay low and inconspicuous.

The confident-sounding elf and the oriental guy ran into the chief’s hut, arms pumping and heart racing as they tried to avoid the lines of fire. Inside they found a fairly opulent room, many rugs and pieces of luxury furniture scattered around the room – but no enemy. In the middle of the room was a large military-style cargo box, about two metres long, and half a metre high and wide. Steel carry handles were riveted to the heavy duty plastic at each end. The room had many items that looked valuable in it – but nothing that was easy to carry or compact enough to be handy during a gunfight.

“What do you think it is?” asked the Japanese guy. “Dunno… expensive. Let’s have it,” replied the elf. They heaved on each end, staggering out of the hut and heading to the truck. By the time they staggered there, the ork and his partner had almost caught up with them.

The back door swung open, the woman standing in the gap leading to the darkened trailer, waving to the four other prisoners to run around to the rear and put the body of the truck between them and the gunfight. They passed up their booty, with the woman hefting the guns and knives in and to the side with a clatter, before she helped them up the steep steps at the back. The truck bed was nearly one and a half meters above the ground, and it was an effort to get the large box lifted and in through the door. As they were half way through the process, the truck engine rumbled to life, a meaty V8 diesel spewing out a cloud of black exhaust as it fired before it settled down. A voice rang out of a pair of speakers in the back “Thirty seconds and we’re moving – no more.” The ex-prisoners redoubled their efforts, heaving the box into the doorway and sliding it into the truck, then clambering up after it.

The woman reached out for the door and pulled it closed with a slam and shouted towards the front of the truck, “All in!” before moving that way herself. The other four had already moved that way, catching glimpses of strange equipment, a rack of bunks, tables – before passing through a narrow doorway into the front of the vehicle. The ork and the oriental guy had to turn sideways to fit through, but adrenaline drove them onwards.

In the front were two long bench seats, running the full width of the truck. The blond guy sat slumped in the front seat, held up by the four point harness. At first they feared that a burst of fire had penetrated the windscreen and killed him, but a moment’s examination revealed that the window was intact – and a two meter long fibre optic cable ran from a jack on the dashboard into a slot in the side of his neck. His voice echoed over the speakers again “Strap in, this may get bumpy. I am inexperienced with this class of vehicle.”

They piled into the seats, grabbing at seatbelts and trying to work out how they fastened together. Once the belts locked into the mechanism with reassuring “clunk” noises, they were free to look around. The truck was painted the same drab olive colour inside, the seats had only minimal padding and the vinyl looked uncomfortable. Light filtered through the windscreen with a pronounced green tint, and they realised that it was at least an inch thick – hopefully bulletproof. The side windows were much the same, but both sides of the vehicles had a weird rubber gasket and a block of thick Perspex fashioned into two rollers roughly in the centre. The ork tried pushing the barrel of his appropriated assault rifle through, finding it to be a perfect fit, and allowing him to swing the rifle through about 30 degrees in all directions.

With a lurch, the vehicle drove backwards, throwing them all forwards into the restraints. A crunch from the gearbox sounded, then the truck skidded to a halt on the loose soil, before starting to crawl forwards, the front wheels locked hard to the right. They crawled around the large hut, just missing the back corner by an inch, as the ungainly truck fought to manoeuvre in the tight confines. The voice came over the speakers again “Right, ahhh, I have it now. Hang on.” The vehicle pitched back on the suspension, the nose rising as the driver revved the engine high then dumped the clutch. It shot forwards, accelerating ponderously, the cab wobbling on the soft suspension designed to handle rough terrain – but making it handle like a jelly on the hard-packed rough road.

They shot out from behind the hut, hanging on tight and saw the devastation being wrought on the camp by the sustained fire. Most of the Chechens were down now, pools of blood spreading far and wide from the mangled remains of people butchered by the 50 calibre and rapid firing 7.62mm machine guns. There were still a few crouching behind the huts though, hunkered down behind the log foundations, safe from the questing fire. A few of them noticed the truck bouncing past and shouted, and they opened fire.

Rounds spanged against the windows and the body of the truck, streel rain sounding like a drum crescendo. The vehicle lurched as a few lucky rounds hit something vital on the underside, managing to ricochet past the protection into an unarmoured section.

The driver winced as the feedback from the rigged system transferred the sensations of damage into his pain receptors, as he flinched, the truck crabbed over to the side, away from the string of fire. His eyes fluttered for a moment behind closed eyes as he processed the sensations and checked over his metallic body. He felt the wheels turning on the axles, the electronics damaged by the burst of fire isolated and routed around by the damage control system. Eyebrows twitched a millimetre in surprise – as far as his muscles would react past the muscle override built into the rigger interface – this vehicle was military spec alright. Already it was performing as if it had taken no damage, the contingency controls finding alternative routes and backup equipment to handle the load.

They swung around the track, taking the U bend at a reasonable pace, balancing speed of escape against the risks of driving the unfamiliar vehicle off the road and into the river gorge. As they rounded the bend and entered the straight, heading from east to west, all of them could see the numerous steams of fire, lancing down from the mountain, straight across their path.

If the wild bursts from the Chechen 7.62s could get lucky and rip past their armour, the light machine guns could too – probably with ease given the obviously higher skill of the operators. The heavy machine guns would have no issue stoving in the side of their vehicle and leaving them a sitting duck. But, there was no alternative – nowhere else to go. They felt the truck continue to accelerate, its mass driven faster and faster by the powerful engine. It didn’t accelerate well, but it had all the torque in the world, it seemed.

They drove closer and closer to the streams of fire, and then miraculously, the fire stopped. The tracers disappeared and the sounds diminished as the guns nearest to them ceased fire. Ahead of them, they could see the other set of tracers continuing down into the camp. As the truck sped past the first position, the fire resumed behind them – tracers flying down anew and continuing to supress the enemy anew. The second set of guns followed suit, ceasing fire as the truck bounced past, and then continuing to pour fire down onto the camp.

The truck reached the end of the path and slewed crazily around, almost leaving the road, before bouncing down the hill and out of sight. Unseen by the escaping prisoners, a figure stood up from the brush, aiming a large tubular launcher down at the camp. He aimed, taking about five seconds to line up the glowing holographic display over the centre of the camp, before gently squeezing the trigger of the 9M123 Khrizantema. A gout of back blast blew away the vegetation and caused the foliage to smoulder for a few metres behind him, though it quickly died down in the damp air. The round shot down towards the camp, until it reached exactly one metre from the impact point. The spinning laser head hit the critical distance and the round split open. The small first stage charge ruptured the fuel tank, and a large globe of fuel spread out from the central point. A few milliseconds later, the second stage pyrotechnic went off. The globe of atomised fuel was ignited, creating a massive blast wave that expanded outwards from the central point. The huts flew apart under the impact, their structure riven to matchwood, exploding outwards in a wave of destruction. A few seconds later, the vacuum at the centre of the blast zone reversed the direction, sucking back in the debris that had been sent outwards. Bodies were ripped to pieces, the air sucked out of lungs and flesh burnt to a crisp by the initial blast wave was then torn to shreds and whipped across the scoured area. Not a living thing remained in the camp.

The truck bounced down the narrow road, unaware of the destruction behind it. The occupants kept up a watch behind them, out of the side windows, whilst the driver checked his vehicle sensors – such as they were – every few seconds. As they descended down the road, without further incident, they relaxed slightly. The euphoria from their escape flooded their systems with adrenaline, and smiles spread from face to face – they were free. They were mobile. Once again, their destiny was their own…

As they headed down the mountain, putting distance between them and their escape, they checked each other over, wondering who would make the first move. 

The confident-sounding elf spoke up first. “The name’s Kai. Import export man. Trader in fine arts and antiquities. Bastards captured me after a trade deal got rumbled.”

The tall dark-skinned man spoke next. “I am Aswon, a hunter. I was captured by those vermin a week ago, when my convoy was attacked. I am a soldier for hire.” As he said “vermin”, his teeth pulled back, revealing huge incisors implanted into his gums.

“I am Shimazu, a bodyguard. I was returning from escorting a client to a meeting when they struck. They used gas, and we had no respirators…” said the Oriental man, looking down at his hands as he spoke.

The speakers rattled as the driver’s voice was piped through. “My name is Herr Marius Schroder. I am a pilot, for a large company. My chopper was shot with a SAM, and I was forced down in the mountains. Those men killed my team.”

The women spoke up next. “Call me Tadibya. I’m from way up north, but I don’t really do much. I’m just wandering the land, trying to help people as best as I can. I’m an outdoors kinda person though, good with plants and rocks and such like.”

It went quiet for a moment, and heads turned towards the sixth and final person in the cab. “Um… you can call me Hunter. I’m an information specialist.”

Everyone looked around them, aware that much was being left unsaid at the moment, that there was much distrust.

As they increased the distance between themselves and the mountain camp, they examined their “getaway vehicle”. From the Cyrillic writing everywhere, the colour and the obvious armour it was clear that this was a Russian military vehicle – it looked fairly new though, not battered and worn. It had huge ground clearance and six enormous off road tyres, along with deep travel suspension that made the potted and under-developed road relatively comfortable to drive down – though it tended to wallow in the curves a little. There was no steering wheel or pedals, no manual controls at all in the front – just the rigger jackpoint and a set of displays, most of which were dark. In the back left seat was a set of data jacks and a rugged fold out screen – this looked to be tied into the navigation system for the vehicle, and after a little experimentation, could also display the sensor feeds showing the area around the truck. The back right seat had a radio built into the wall next to it, along with another jack point – but it had no frequencies programmed in at the moment. The centre back seat had a strange folding backrest, which collapsed to the side and allowed access through the narrow doorway into the back of the truck through a vestibule about 100mm thick.

In the rear box section was the armoured rear door, with a tiny shower and toilet cubicle in the corner to one side. Next to that was a bunk, about waist high with plenty of headroom. Underneath it was a large storage area, and a pull-out table that would fill most of the central area. In the front corner was a fold-down chair that was bolted to the wall. On the opposite side of the truck was another. Opposite the single bunk was a triple set of bunks – but these were crammed from floor to ceiling, with very little headroom. Finally, in the other back corner, opposite the shower, was a food preparation area, with a rugged fold-out stove and various cupboards and utensils – but no food. There were no windows in the back, and when the overhead lights were turned off, it became clear that the doors were well sealed and let no light through. 

They drove down the mountain, following the winding single track road. As night started to fall, they passed through a tiny village, the buildings shuttered and dark. It was barely more than a dozen houses stretched out along the road. They drove through slowly, but didn’t see anyone or anything moving. As the sun rapidly set behind the mountains, the darkness enveloped them – but the driver didn’t turn on the truck headlights, apparently able to see well enough by the starlight and the optical sensors on the truck

As they left the village, the truck crested a narrow and high-arched hump backed bridge, over a deep gorge filled with a fast-flowing river. Ahead of them the road turned sharply to the left, and continued down the mountain towards the lowlands – and just coming around the mountain was a large red pickup truck. The prisoners recognised it immediately – it had spent several days parked next to their current vehicle back at the camp. It was the personal vehicle of the camp commander, a huge swarthy brute who had organised their capture and incarceration. The driver stopped the vehicle on the bridge and looked around with the sensors, his voice coming from the speakers. “I can see a narrow passing place ahead, about 20 meters from the bridge – but there is nowhere to hide. I cannot see anywhere in the village, either.”

Tadibya was sitting in the centre rear seat, and leant forwards to stare past the unmoving form of Marius. “I’ve got this, if you want?” The others looked at each other and shrugged – they were out of ideas beyond grabbing their stolen guns and engaging in a gunfight. Tads licked her lips, and raised her hands in front of her, a look of intense concentration on her face. Her hands made a fluid gesture, weaving a complex pattern in front of her whilst she muttered under her breath. A single bead of sweat formed on her brow.

The others watched, glancing from the muttering woman to the road ahead, watching the headlights sweep closer and closer. Then a small cry as they saw the road ripple ahead of them – and move. Suddenly the turn in the road was much sharper, more of a hairpin, and the road and humpback bridge were clearly visible about 5 meters to the north of where it had previously been. They squinted and examined the situation, but everything looked solid and normal…

The red pickup slewed around the corner, the back end kicking out slightly, and then accelerated towards the village. The prisoners watched as it followed the new road position, starting to bounce over the rough terrain and then with a massive lurch fell “through” the humpback bridge. Tads stopped concentrating, and the illusion wavered and then vanished, reality asserting itself. The bridge was back in the normal position, as was the road. A pall of steam was rising from the gorge.

Marius edged the truck forward, over the bridge, and they could see down into the gorge. The pickup truck had hit the bottom hard, and several bodies had been thrown out of the front window. Shards of glass had punctured several of them, and blood flowed slowly down into the stream, the churning water a frothy pink colour. 

They pulled to the side, and got out of the truck to examine the wreck, casting an appraising eye at the woman.

“Don’t do much, eh,” said Kai, looking at Tadibya. She shrugged, appearing unconcerned about the crashed vehicle and the dead bodies. “Don’t go around stealing people then,” she said. Glances were exchanged between the others… clearly this was someone to be careful around. They gathered at the top of the rocks, looking down at the gorge. In the darkness, the wet rocks looked slick and dangerous, and not a pleasant climb.

Aswon looked at the others, then stepped forwards and bent down to take position on all fours. Then, without a word, he started to crawl down the rocks, his hands and feet incredibly sure. Without a slip or a slide, he padded down the four metres of steeply sloped rocks to the car. Reaching the bottom, he started to salvage items from the car – another pair of assault rifles, pistols, knives, grenades. An ID card and wallet came from the front seat passenger. Kai called down “Bring me his head, will you?”  
Aswon looked up in distaste, “Really?” Kai nodded again, so Aswon pulled out one of the machetes and hacked away at the head, ignoring the surprised and pained expression on the face. With a mighty heave he threw the head up towards Kai, then padded back up the slope as easily as he’d descended.

The others stared at him, wondering how he’d managed the climb so easily. Aswon just shrugged and said, “The power of Gecko is with me.”

Kai meanwhile had confirmed the name from the ID and grabbed the severed head by the hair, and wandered back into the middle of the village. Raising his voice, he called out loudly – almost shouting. He told the unseen watchers that Azad Gasimov, the warlord that no doubt had caused them grief and hardship, was dead. The camp up the mountain had been attacked, and most of the bandits killed. They need fear this band of Chechens no longer.

Apparently satisfied, he left the head by the side of the road, impaled on a wooden fence post, and returned to the truck. The others had divided up the spoils, and now everyone had either a pistol or rifle, a knife or some grenades – as they saw fit. He examined the ID card and the numbers printed on it, turning it over in his hand. With a flash of inspiration, he moved into the back of the truck, and tried the number sequences on the card against the electronic lock sealing the large case shut.

With a click, the case opened, and Kai heaved on the top – then looked in with a chill running down his spine. Inside were a half dozen class IV biohazard suits, the plastic material shining dully in the light. Attached air bottles fed into the respirators, and thick gloves and boots covered in ridges designed to give grip were neatly folded in their own bags. At the end of the box was a map showing the southern part of Russia and an airport near a town marked as “Elista”, along with a route marked in pen to the north east to an isolated facility on the edge of what appeared to be a large lake. Kai gently closed the lid and sealed the box again.

“What do you say – shall we get down out of these mountains and back to civilisation, and see where we go next?”

Marius got the truck moving, and they continued down the mountain into the darkness.


	2. 002 - The Road to Quba

Date: 02/12/2059. Location: 41.20358, 48.2634  
The team were heading down the narrow mountain road, aiming to get to the town of Quba. Marius, the driver, saw a fleeting glimpse of movement which fortunately alerted him - so he was ready to stamp on the (virtual) brakes as there was an explosion to his right and a large tree was dropped in front of the truck. A platoon of soldiers appeared from concealment all along the upward slope, armed with high tech rifles and a unique looking digi-cam pattern- their field craft was excellent, as nobody in the truck had caught even the merest hint of their presence. The truck skidded to a stop on the moist mountain road, stopping safely about two metres before the tree, and there was a second explosion as another large tree was dropped over the road behind them.

The soldiers had them covered – rifles pointed at the windows of the cab, their wheels and the rear door. Although the truck was solid and at least lightly armoured, at this range missing it would be unlikely. And if the enemy – whoever they were – were as good at shooting as they were at ambush concealment, they’d be able to seek out the inevitable weak spots in any vehicles armour.

“They have us boxed in, and pinned down. I suggest we move carefully!” Marius called over the speakers. Moments later a large troll stepped out from behind a tree, his shoulder carrying some kind of rank patch of symbol, that perhaps denoted him as the platoon leader. He lightly jogged down the slope, moving with grace and poise that looked out of place in someone so big, and approached the truck from the uphill side. The truck was high off the ground, with steps mounted behind the door for crew to use to climb up to the door, but the troll’s three metre height let him just reach up and rap on the window loudly, his toughened coarse hands making a solid noise as they struck.

“Everyone, out of the vehicle, or there will be trouble.”

If two demolished trees and a horde of goons with guns didn’t constitute trouble, they didn’t know what did – but it was best to be prudent. And, when considered rationally, at least they weren’t firing yet either. Given the totality of the surprise, if they had just opened fire, they would probably all be dead anyway. The team filed back out of the cab, through the rear compartment and grabbed an assortment of guns and weapons to take with them, as much for moral support as to actually use.

“I need to see your identification.” It wasn’t a barked order, or a command. Indeed, the troll didn’t even raise his voice. It was a very matter-of-fact statement, with a weird sense of ponderous inevitability. Unfortunately of course, identification was something that none of them had.

“Well, I’d love to help you sir, I really would,” Kai started, “but I’m afraid we don’t have any. If we did, rest assured we’d present them to you at once. It appears though that the bunch of Chechen savages we escaped from didn’t keep our personal effects in a place we could recover them from. Sorry.”

“You escaped from Chechens?” Now the troll sounded interested, leaning in a little closer. Behind him the troops had slowly worked their way around to the rear of the vehicle, keeping them under the eyes of at least a dozen burly orks, humans and dwarves, all of which kept their rifles raised and locked onto the team. If Kai was nervous, he didn’t show it, and he recounted the story about their capture and escape, detailing the gunfight at the camp and the slaughter of the guerrilla force at the hands of some unseen opponent.

“Ahh, I see. Then I must examine the back of your truck. Now.” Kai watched as the troll crossed his arms, the massive forearms flexing and causing the armour plates in his jacket to crack and groan under the pressure. With a little sigh, Kai waved towards the door, and stood aside. It wasn’t like he had a lot of choice, after all.

“The cargo container – that was taken from the camp.” Kai nodded, watching the troll carefully. “That has our material in. We will take it now. Then you will be free to leave.” With a nod of the head, he stepped backwards, clearing the way for two burly men to move forwards, slinging their rifles over their heads and swarming up into the back of the truck, so they could slide the crate towards the door.

“Well, that’s fine. It might be worth mentioning though, that we’re a team of um… relocation specialists. If you need anything moving, we might be able to help?” Kai looked up at the troll, who ignored him, focussing instead on the crate. “See, we found the crate, and thought it looked interesting, so we decided to grab it. But you know what else we found? A lovely little map, that appears to go with it…”

Kai’s voice cut off abruptly as the troll turned on him with viper-like speed. Whoever, or whatever he was, he’d received some serious cybernetic modification to move that quickly. A gnarly finger hovered just above Kai’s breastbone and the troll’s voice rumbled.

“You have a map too? I must insist that this be handed over as well.” Kai opened his mouth to protest, but then closed it with a click and shrugged. He carefully opened his jacket and retrieved the map and codes, moving slowly so none of the watching troops thought he was trying to go for a weapon, and then handed them over to the troll. “Thank you for your co-operation.” The voice wasn’t full of warmth, but it was at least polite. “You have been most helpful. We will supply you with a small gift as thanks.” The troll waved to someone up in the thick foliage above the truck, and another burly figure appeared and started to make their way down the bank.

The team saw they were carrying a large rucksack with them, and they hefted it off their shoulder and round to the front of their body as they approached, handing it off to Hunter as they got close. Next they unslung their rifle, unclipped their pistol belt and ammo pouches and handed those over too, before turning and starting to head back up the slope, all without saying a word.

“We will clear the road, then you will leave.” Again the voice spoke with finality, a statement of events to come, rather than options. With a curt nod, the troll turned and moved to follow in the wake of the cargo container, which was being laboriously lifted up the slope, carried off into the thick vegetation. Troops swarmed back to the edge of the road, while two small teams headed to the trees, and started to unspool some cable and lay it over the thick trunks.

“Det-cord, I think. We should get back inside the truck. Going to be shrapnel all over the place.” Aswon warned them, climbing up the ladder first and then turning to lift the rucksack and carry it inside. One by one the team climbed up and Kai swung the door closed behind him as he reached the top of the ladder.

“Looks like they gave us a pretty decent medical kit, looks like something a corpsman would carry into battle. Plenty of stuff for combat trauma anyway. A decent rifle with two spare magazines, an auto-pistol with two spare magazines, and a small survival kit. It’s going to help, I’m sure.” Hunter told him as he turned to examine their booty. Two loud cracks sounded outside, and the vehicle wobbled from side to side for a moment, and the sound of a million splinters bouncing off the toughened hide of the truck slowly faded away. Marius headed back into the driver’s seat and jacked back in, starting the truck up and slowly driving through the remains of the pulverised tree, so he could continue heading down the narrow road.

As they came down the mountain road, the weather broke, and they had to slow as they drove through torrential rain. Eventually they made it down out of the hills and entered Quba around midnight. They pulled up by the side of the road and checked their map, looking for somewhere out of the way to park up for the night, until they could find a garage to try and make repairs.

Shortly after they spotted a dog walker, and in broken Russian managed to ask about where they might find a garage. The figure shouted back directions, muffled by the thick hood and rain cowl he wore, and gave three separate spots on their map to go to. It sounded unlikely that a town this size would have three petrol stations, but they had to trust the man’s local knowledge. They elected to go to the southernmost spot on the edge of town.

Turns out this was a set of garages for houses, not a petrol station / repair garage - so not what they were after – though possibly what they’d asked for. But, when turning the corner, their lights played across two men, who were carrying an unconscious woman towards the boot of the car. Tadibya let rip with a powerful spell, and dropped them all in the middle of the road, without a word.

“Did you kill them?” Aswon asked, head whipping around to look at her.

“No – it’s a spell that overwhelms the conscious mind, just knocks them out for a while.” 

They climbed down out of the truck and the team moved out with weapons drawn, seizing the two men and their captive and then moved to check out the car. It was dirty and unkempt, full of blankets with noticeable stains, used condoms, trash and food wrappers.

After they had cleared the area and found nobody else, they spent a minute going through the men’s possessions. Checking their wallets, they discovered they had ‘Eldar Asgarov’ and ‘Gulnar Iravari’, two local men. 

“I think we need to get out of the area. Let’s put her in the back seat. Who can drive?” Shimazu raised a hand in response to Kai’s question, and grabbed the car’s transponder key from the small pile of possession. “Great. Um… Tads, can you go with them? If she wakes up, it might be good to have a female there.” Tadibya nodded and got into the car, but only after giving the seat a good wipe down.

They turned to leave, split between their truck, and the bad guys’ car. As they drove out, another car passed the truck, spotted the car and started to flash his lights, then leant on the horn, the sound echoing off the houses nearby and setting several dogs barking. Marius swung the truck around, and boxed in the second car, whilst Hunter vaulted down from his door, holding the new assault rifle and demanding he get out. Behind the window, he saw the driver starting to move, but then heard the driver calling someone on his mobile. After smashing first the window, then his face, he pulled the mobile out and hit the disconnect button, then powered the phone down. A few more moments and they dragged out the guy and loaded him in the truck too, also stealing his wallet, ID and credstick - adding ‘Ferid Babyav’ to their captives. 

Driving away, they found a quiet road to stop on not far outside of town and woke up the driver of the second vehicle with some pungent chemicals from the medical kit and interrogated him. It didn’t take long to confirm that he was a trafficker and had planned to sell the girl to the Chechens for use overseas. Brave he might have been when it came to abducting or selling females, when Hunter stood over him, wedging a pistol into his mouth, his bravado evaporated. The team drove up the mountain road a little, and unceremoniously shot all three of them and dumped their bodies in a gorge, then drove back to the centre of town, and found an available space to park up in. Nobody mentioned the traffickers, and instead they argued about who was going to get the decent sized beds... 

As they were just starting to settle down, Tadibya caught sight of Marius pulling up his shirt to reveal his hairless stomach, and then watched in horror as his fingers probed and pushed to one side, and a whole section of his belly opened up. He glanced up as she made a gagging sound, then smiled at her while he pulled out a compact satellite phone and a small credstick.

“You’re not the only one with hidden talents.” He winked at her, and Tads shuddered, disturbed by the concept of carving out a hole in your body and replacing it with metal and plastic. Marius crawled through into the cab and stretched out on the long bench seat across the front of the vehicle, fiddling with his phone, while Tads crawled into the bottom bunk and curled up in a tight ball, trying to think of something else.

About 5:30 a.m. the woman recovered consciousness, and understandably had a bit of a panic attack on discovering that she was restrained in the back of a strange vehicle and then started to get hysterical. Kai managed to calm her, and in a few minutes got some sense from her and found that she was also from the local town. In a shaky voice, she shared the details of her family, and using Marius’ phone they called her father. He answered the phone almost immediately, despite the early hour, and Kai explained that they had found his daughter, and quickly assured him she was safe and would be returned. They got his address and went to meet him - discovering him to be in the local police force.

After being invited into his home for coffee and recounting the story of how they ‘found’ the bad guys and how they had ‘accidents’ the policeman. Kai was careful about what he said, making sure not to incriminate themselves whilst at the same time communicating to the man just how lucky he was to get his daughter back in one piece. The officer, Yusif Khalilov, assured them there would be no official inquiry, and he was just happy his daughter Leyla was home safe.

As realisation set in of what had happened, and the stresses of the last few hours caught up with her, Leyla zoned out. Shimazu and Kai checked her over, and found her pulse and respiration slightly depressed, and after a quick check of her arms found the tell-tale marks for an injection – probably barbiturates to keep her quiet and relatively docile. At least, with only a single shot and no more going into her system, they were unlikely to cause her any harm, and she more than likely just needed rest and time to recover. Yusif said he would help them out later, and would meet them in town at 9am.

Fearing an ambush, the team deployed on rooftops for the meet, but Yusif appeared with one more police car (which he told to look after Layla) and then escorted the team to the garage of Rhasad Aslanov. Here he introduced the team as "his friends", telling Rhasad not to screw them and treat them like other tourists. After some haggling, Marius was given access to the workshop and some spare parts, for the low price of 5,000 Nuyen. He spent the rest of the day working on the truck, fixing the damage from escape, checking the truck over and filling in the cosmetic bullet holes. The rest of the team went to the market with the funds from Marius, buying burner phones, clothing, wallets and cred-sticks.

After a brief discussion, they decided they were going to hike to the hospital next, while Marius worked on the truck, looking to get hold of some anti-coagulants to resupply Hunter, and make sure he didn't get ill.


	3. 003 - Travelling to Baku

Date: 02/12/2059. Location: 41.36616, 48.53186  
Aswon used his new phone, and made some calls to his contacts - Sing Wan in Hong Kong and Mr Hu in Shangzou. Mr Hu, a weapons dealer based in China, said that if the team could get to Volgograd, he had work waiting for them there, smuggling some arms to a third party. Sing Wan however mentioned that she had customers waiting for rare creature parts - if the team could find any. In particular there were a number of paracritters that were highly sought by talismongers and enchanters, and if Aswon and his team could take them down with natural weapons, she could offer top dollar for them. After discussing the situation with Aswon and finding out that the team had lost almost all of their gear, she also sent him to the bank and transferred money over to him - saying it wasn't a loan, or a gift - but an investment.

Marius started work on the truck with Kai assisting him, making use of the tools and facilities at the garage to repair the damage caused while the rest of the team headed out searching for the local hospital. After some wandering, they found the Aldar Medical clinic - a once-shiny corporate looking building, now definitely down on its luck. 

They headed in, and found the interior just as run down as the exterior -faded mint green paint with a light patina of dirt, missing light bulbs, scuffed tiles and a waiting room full of sick people, all trying to see the "cheap" doctor. The waiting room was oppressive, and they could sense the pain and suffering of the people clearly – it was a building without hope or joy. Approaching the bored receptionist, they asked to see a doctor, happily signing up for the 150 Nuyen "premium medical service".

Very shortly afterwards, Hunter, Shimazu and Aswon went into the examination room and waited for the doctor, whilst Tadibya headed into the waiting room and checked over the people there. She spotted one small child with a gushing head wound crying whilst held tightly in her mother’s arms, a bloody towel pressed tightly over the wound. Tadibya struck up conversation with her mother and then offered to help the child.

The mother, confused, asked her if she was a nurse or a doctor – and Tadibya just smiled at her, evading and not giving her an answer. Instead she prepared her magical skills and tried to heal the child. It was hard to channel the mana in the dismal waiting room – the suffering and depression of the people caused a background hum or malaise that interfered with her ability to concentrate and control the power. After a moment though, her hands began to glow faintly with golden light, and sparkles of mana drifted out from them towards the open wound. The child stopped crying, entranced by the pretty lights, but the mother stared at her in horror. During the attempt to channel the power, her Shamanic mask became visible for a few seconds. Her features twisted and grew, and shifted slightly to resemble Elk – her totem. The changes made the mother recoil, and caused shrieks of horror and "Witch!" to echo around the waiting room. A few seconds later, amidst lots of angry locals, the "security" goons arrived, and grabbed hold of Tadibya.

Aswon and Shimazu burst out of the examination room when they heard the screams, with a horrible feeling that the noise was something to do with them – and found the burly thugs dragging Tadibya towards them.  
“Take your hands off her!” Aswon called out – not shouting, but speaking firmly.  
“No – this one is a witch! She cavorts with the devil!”  
“This one is a close friend of Yusif Khalilov – you know, in the local Police. You might want to think about that.”  
“Local police! Pah.” The thug spat on the floor, leaving a thick gobbet of saliva on the cracked tiles. Clearly he wasn’t impressed with the threat, and they continued dragging Tadibya past Shimazu and Aswon, down a corridor that led further into the clinic.

Aswon and Shimazu followed them, and the two guards looked back at them over their shoulders, with one snagging his radio and calling for backup. As another pair of guards turned up, Aswon ducked into a room and looked around for a weapon, finding a long piece of metal conduit - vaguely spear-like. In the corridor, Shimazu faced off against the guards, who had shoved Tads into a small laundry room and locked the door, before turning to face him.

With arms held wide, they both attacked, moving to engage him on both flanks. They swung, somewhat clumsily, and one landed a punch on Shimazu – but quickly found out that Shimazu was not only athletic, but had stomach muscles conditioned by months of training. The second man’s swing was equally clumsy, and a neat sidestep and a horrible joint lock left him crying on the floor in a great deal of pain. The two additional thugs drew their coshes and moved to attack, and the first guy was just about to swing at Shimazu again when Aswon attacked him from the room, slapping him across the forehead with the end of the metal tube and sending him reeling. In the next few seconds, a flurry of blows left another thug nursing a headache and out of action - at which point they made a good call and backed off - releasing Tadibya from the locked room and telling the team to leave - which Tadibya and Shimazu promptly did.

Hunter meanwhile chatted with the doctor who had arrived who enquired what services were needed. The big ork explained that he had implanted platelet cyberware – a great modification that stopped you bleeding out when shot or stabbed, but with the unfortunate side effect of making the blood very thick and viscous – and as a result needing to have low doses of blood thinners to counter the cyberware when it was working ‘too well’. The doctor listened and offered a choice: Western made Rivaroxaban at 5,000 for a thirty day supply, or Russian made Warfarin at 1,000 for a thirty day supply. Knowing he was going to inject the drugs into himself, Hunter decided to get the good stuff, and spent nearly half the money given to Aswon earlier on securing his meds.

Having established that Hunter was in the line of business where getting shot or stabbed was a reasonably common risk, quick chat with the doctor revealed that he knew someone looking for people with "specialist skills" - he introduced them to one of his patients - a wealthy man in an expensive suit that was towing behind him an IV stand with some unknown drugs being dispensed. He asked Hunter if he and his team would go and fetch a specific individual and bring him to the clinic, at night, unseen. Hunter told him he would have to check with their boss, and then left the clinic, meeting up with the rest of the team back at the truck, where he detailed the potential job offer. As Hunter described it bluntly, most of the team seemed acutely uncomfortable with the idea of kidnapping someone and taking them to a clinic – especially one like that – in the dead of night.

The afternoon was spent shopping for food, water, cleaning the truck out and making it more comfortable and getting additional blankets and other supplies. They also chatted with Yusif Khalilov, and after checking on his daughter’s well-being they asked what the local laws were on hunting, establishing that they didn't need permits to go hunting in the hills - but that some of the local tribes might object.

Discussing the calls from their contacts, they decided not to do the kidnapping for the man at the clinic, but instead head to Baku to meet up with "Kiril Patronovich" near Baku - who Tural Abdulin, a contact of Shimazu, had said needed a team of people to move something. Once that was done, they would look for rare creatures for Aswon to send to his contact, and gradually work north towards Volgograd.

They established a watch order and settled down for the night, planning to hit the road to Baku in the morning. About 1:30am, Aswon was on watch, and noticed a battered car creep around the corner and watch them for a minute. He was interrupted from his surveillance when a spirit manifested in front of him, its pale ghostly body swirling in front of him. With a start he realised that Tadibya must have summoned the spirit earlier in the evening and had asked it to guard the truck.

“Strange men over there. Have bad feelings about the truck. Want to hurt people. Mistress said to tell you!” The spirit seemed insufferably pleased with itself for having carried out the orders, and bounced up and down merrily.

Aswon woke up the rest of the team and told them what was going on, pointing at the waiting car through the polarised windows of the truck, and describing what the spirit had said to him. Hunter and Shimazu crept out of the rear door and worked their way around the buildings to take up ambush positions – and while doing so they spotted one of the guys get out of the car and sneak towards them. He was about halfway toward their positions when a break in the clouds suddenly highlighted the two team members – and their prey suddenly froze before quickly doubling back to his vehicle.

Seeing that their counter-ambush was blown, Aswon decided to walk openly towards the car, assault rifle in hand, with Shimazu as backup. The enemy, whoever they were, backed around a corner in their car. Moments later one of them carefully peered around the corner but Aswon spotted him and shouted across the street as he continued to approach.  
“Evening! You lost? Need help? Don’t worry, we can help you, I’m sure!” The man turned and fled, diving back into his car and they left the area with a screech of tyres and the smell of burnt clutch behind them.

Tadibya relaxed her mind and let out a deep sigh, following the training her mentor had instilled upon her back in her homeland, and let her soul lift up and divorce from her body, leaving the physical meat in the truck and pursued the car astrally. Floating high up in the air she had no problem following them through the quiet streets to a dingy side street bar where she saw them park up and approach a few large and heavy set men nursing drinks. One of them had his arm in a sling, the other a noticeable black eye – the two ‘security guards’ that Shimazu and Aswon had dealt with when they made a grab for her. She hovered over their heads, her astral form invisible, and listened in as the two newcomers described how they’d been spotted as they tried to creep up on the truck and that while the two injured men were friends, they weren’t dealing with bad guys with assault rifles and no qualms about using them.

She headed back to the truck and reported in to the rest of the team, who relaxed when they realised the calibre of their opposition, and they settled down to try and get back to sleep for a few more hours. The team decided to hit the road early, and drove to Baku, making good time down the E119, amidst light traffic. They arrived at a truck stop just outside Baku, between the M1/M4 routes, and bedded down again for a few more hours.  
At 10:00 Shimazu contacted Kiril, and they arranged a meet near the airport. Despite excellent driving from Marius, they struggled to get there on time, arriving at just about the allocated meeting time, then working out who was going into the coffee shop to meet with Mr. Patronovich and discuss the possible job offer…


	4. 004 - Planning the ambush

Date: 03/12/2059. Location: 0.4343, 49.78-68

Arriving at the Cafe Paris, they managed to pull up into a decent parking spot overlooking the cafe - Aswon, Tadibya and Marius stayed with the truck, with Tadibya calling a city spirit to guard and protect them, whilst Kai, Hunter and Shimazu went to meet their contact - Hunter using his internal commlink to keep an open line back to Marius to relay information.

Kiril was sitting at a table by himself, a medium height and weight human male, with dark swarthy skin and five o'clock shadow despite the early hour. Wearing a plain black suit and stiffly starched white shirt, he looked like just another corporate drone, with slightly pudgy eyes - though the team noticed that his right hand which was resting in his lap had a slight tremor to it.

They introduced themselves, exchanged a few pleasantries and then got down to business. Kiril imported various machines, some with some fairly cutting edge computers. He had some friends, south of the border in Iran who would love to get hold of those machines, but alas - the autocracy running Iran was still on the "no-export" list, and now his friends had to go without. He was sad, they were sad... it was all very sad. If only some enterprising people could arrange to "hit" his truck, rough up his guards - though not too much - and steal those parts and run the border.

Kiril then said he'd go and get everyone coffee, and leave them to discuss payment and plans... and disappeared into the coffee shop.

Kai pulled out his phone, and called Ngo, his contact in Vietnam, a reliable producer of documents and passes. She checked with him and asked for descriptions of his team, and where they were going, so she could see what she could knock up. He then called Anahita, his art smuggler and "recovery expert" friend in Iran, mentioning that he might be down her way soon - she said she might have something for him, and she too would call him back later.

At this point, the spirit on guard alerted Tadibya to the "man watching the van and your friends". She looked in the direction reported, but could only see a small box that looked out of place, protruding over the parapet. She alerted Aswon, but although he could see the box, he couldn't work out what it was. Marius checked the comms gear and used his equipment to check for local drone networks, but found only evidence of a radio listening to carrier waves - no data being sent. Tads made herself comfortable and projected astrally from her body, floating up to the roof to check things out. When she got there, she found a man, calm and watchful, observing the road below through an old-fashioned periscope, with a rifle laid by his side. She reported her findings, and then went back to observe him.

Kiril returned, and Kai mentioned that they were being observed, by a man with a rifle - Kiril set the coffee down, pulled out his phone and made a quick call - "Gregory, you've been spotted," then sat down and poured for everyone. Taking their cue from him, the team were not too fussed about being observed, and sat down to bargain.

After some haggling over price, routes and time, they agreed on sixty thousand Nuyen to do the job, with help from Kiril to arrange refuelling in Baku in the future, when they needed it. Delivery to take place as soon as was practical, but certainly no longer than two weeks. Kiril forwarded on a dossier with the routes and details of the cargo to Kai, and then with a shake of the hand, made polite farewells and headed off to his car, making a quick call as he did so. Moments later, Tads observed Gregory taking apart his rifle and stowing it in a bag, and heading off the roof into the hotel.

Kai got a text from his contact, nudging him to send over the details of his team, as he'd not done so yet.

Looking at the route, they could see that the truck would leave Baku, and retrace their steps to the north, via Quba and then head towards the coast and some of the massive oil terminals and refineries there. A quick discussion, and the team decided to use the truck stop where they waited that morning as a good ambush point. If they could get Kiril's truck to stop near one of the overpasses, they would have good overhead cover, in a dark part of the car park with minimal observers. Whilst two of the guards went for coffee and supplies, they could hit the truck and steal the cargo, fleeing whilst concealed by magical spirits and spells, and get straight onto the motorway for a fast escape.

Tadibya and Aswon went shopping for rope, duct tape, broom handles and various other bits of hardware, whilst the rest of the team drove up to the truck stop and made plans for where to attack from, looking at escape routes, camera locations, parking patterns and other details.

During the day, Ngo called back saying she had been partially successful - she could get fake identity chips for the four human members of the team - Shimazu, Marius, Tadibya and Aswon, but nothing for the others - not in Iran, with their approach to Meta-humans. Kai agreed to take them, happy with the quoted cost of five thousand, and was told they would be ready in two days, and that they'd be "medical workers" of some kind, so they could prepare their cover stories.

Marius called his contact Adat, a corporate data pusher somewhere in the Middle East, asking him that if they just happened to be going to Iran, and had some spare room - what he should take with him to provide supplemental funds from black market trading. After questioning his sanity, Adat advised initially that potable water could get a high price - but as they didn't have room for that, that consumer electronics and entertainment electronics would get a good price if they can find a trustworthy vendor. Marius made plans to buy about a selection of optical chips, containing various music, films and other "Western" entertainment that would be banned in the Iranian region and would fetch a good price – hopefully he could buy a few thousands worth of entertainment chips and double his money by taking them across the border.

Hunter called his friend in Copenhagen, Julius, but he was not available initially. He got hold of him later in the day, and asked if they could get some more up to date sat-imagery - Julius said he would see what he could do, stealing some time and resources from his corporate intelligence office to get the data that Hunter needed.

Anahita, the art recovery expert, called Kai back. She said that if he was in the area, she did have a job for him - she had a hot piece of merchandise that she really needed to get to India, if he was interested? In exchange she said she could get some travel permits that would make their in-Iran travel much smoother. Kai agreed, saying "no problem".

Aswon called Sing Wan again, asking to be put in touch with a fixer in Baku - she passed over the contact details of "Germaine Rodderik". Aswon called her and it immediately became clear that Germaine had missed the memo about the fall of the British Empire, but was carrying on regardless, calling people "my good man", describing things as "marvellous" and treating everyone with a faint casual racism and sense of superiority. Aswon explained his need for some hardware, and Germaine told him that he would meet her at the waterfront bar at seven that evening to discuss things further. Turning up at the prescribed time with Tadibya in tow, Aswon immediately spotted Germaine - the loud woman in the floral dress, large beehive hair-do and dripping with tasteful jewellery, haranguing the waiters in a loud and enthusiastic manner.

Aswon and Tadibya approached, and Aswon coughed discretely to attract her attention.

“Yes?” Her voice was polite, but guarded, as she looked Aswon and Tadibya up and down.

“Good evening, Miss. My name is Aswon. A good friend of mine in Hong Kong mentioned that were I to be here at this time, I might meet someone who could assist me with some resource issues. And this is my friend Tadibya, a traveller from the north.”

“Oh, marvellous. Sit down, both of you. A drink?” She smiled at them broadly then turned slightly and raised a finger to a passing waiter, summoning him with a gesture. “Two glasses of the Boursin, 25 for my friends here.”

Aswon recounted their recent adventures briefly, explaining that they were somewhat short of both gear and funding, but looking to engage in some work – which unfortunately needed at least some basic equipment to carry out. As they had little money, he needed something basic, sturdy and workable to get them started, and that he could always expand his options later. Treating her politely and with respect seemed to win him some brownie points, and she asked him if wanted a rifle that had some style, or something plain.

“Well, as I said, we don’t have a lot of money…”

“Young man. You need to understand that ‘style’ and ‘cost’ do not mean the same thing. And that a high price is not necessarily an indication of either quality or workmanship.”

“I think I understand, Miss. In which case, while I need substance, doing it with style has a certain appeal as well.” He smiled at her, and as his lips pulled back, they revealed the large implanted lion fangs set into his gumline. Germaine leant forward slightly, studying them and then clapped her hands together with glee.

“Splendid! Splendid!” She turned slightly towards the restaurant, and then out of the blue bellowed loudly, drawing the attention of every other person seated in the restaurant. “HEEEEENRY!” She turned back to them, ignoring the stares from the locals. “He’ll be along in a moment.” Sure enough, they spotted a man in a dark grey uniform threading his way through the tables towards them, carrying a large wooden box. When he arrived, he carefully lifted the box up onto the edge of the table, twisting it so the hinges faced away from Aswon, then moved around to stand behind Germaine. She made a little gesture, indicating that Aswon should open the hasps and look inside.

As he touched the box he realised that it wasn’t wood after all – but some kind of high density plastic, with realistic grain moulded into it. He ran his hand over the texture, admiring the effort that had gone into the reproduction and then nodded at his host.

“Stylish, and practical – but not real. I think I begin to understand.” He opened the clasps and lifted the lid, and took in a deep breath of surprise. Inside was a long sporting rifle, a sleek-looking mix of black metallic barrel and receiver with a lustrous wooden stock. He let his fingers slide over the stock, and was surprised to find it was real wood – hand carved and polished by the looks of things. There was a manufacturer’s name neatly stamped into the receiver, and he moved his head to the side a little, so the light would catch it and he could read the subtle text – ‘Purdey’. He had no idea who they were, but the rifle seemed to be a work of art rather than a cheap and practical solution, and almost certainly way out of his budget – as well as being one of the loveliest and distinctive weapons he’d ever seen.

“This… would seem to be worth significantly more than I was looking to spend on equipment. I… um. I mean no disrespect of course. But I’m not sure I could justify the cost of something like this.”

“Well, it’s nice to see someone have an appreciation for the form, as well as the function. And a piece like this is designed to be used, not hung on the wall. So, I’m happy to offer it to you, knowing that you understand the true value of such a thing. And besides, I like you.”

Aswon saw her smile again, and felt himself flush. Was she flirting with him? Or working him? He couldn’t tell, so he concentrated instead on gently closing the lid and fastening the clasps.

“So, a thousand should cover the cost nicely.” Aswon swallowed… it was a bit more than he’d been wanting to spend, but he really couldn’t complain. If the gun shot as well as it looked, he was getting the bargain of the year, and could easily imagine someone being asked to pay five to ten times that to buy it as new. He pulled out his credstick and slid it into the reader attached to her phone, watching the Nuyen transfer over as soon as his thumbprint authorised the transaction.

“Besides, Spook has nothing but good words to say about you, and she’s a smashing gal.” Aswon relaxed a little at hearing Sing Wan’s chosen handle, indicating that Germaine really did know her reasonably well – though he had to supress a smile at hearing her referred to as a ‘gal’. “But I do have a little something for you to do, before we next meet. I want to know Aswon – light blue or dark blue?”

Aswon had no idea what she was talking about, so he repeated the phrase, ensuring he’d heard her correctly, and saw her nod in response.

“I will endeavour to find out before we next meet.”

“Good, good. Now – I believe my dinner will be along shortly – so is there anything else you need?”

“Actually yes, if it’s not an imposition. My friend Tads here is skilled in the mystic arts, but seeks a supplier of goods and materials she can call upon. Is there someone you might know?”

“Ahh, an easy one. Of course, let me see.” She pulled out her comm-link and scrolled through her address book for a few seconds, then tapped on the screen, and waved her link towards them, beaming the data over the short range personal area network. “He’s a little way south of here, near a town called Shirvan. Local gentleman, goes by the name of Aslik Mustafan.” She spoke his name without any trace of a smile or humour, and they both tried to match her equally grave expression.

“He’s a dealer in all manner of things arcane, and I’m sure he’ll be able to assist.”

“Thank you, you’ve been exceedingly helpful, Miss. Roderick. And I can see a waiter coming now with what looks like some kind of sea creature, so I will take this opportunity to wish you pleasant dining.” He stood and tucked the chair in under the table as the waiter arrived with a large plate holding a freshly steamed lobster that probably cost enough to feed a family for a week. Tadibya joined him and he gently laid a hand on the case, waiting for the fractional nod from Germaine to indicate that she was happy for him to take the rifle. With a polite goodbye, they excused themselves, leaving Germaine to tuck into her dinner, while the chauffer watched them leave, his eyes studying them carefully.

Meanwhile, Marius had been pouring over the maps and imagery he had, and produced a preliminary border crossing plan - south on the motorway to Lankaran, then west to Lerik, then on increasingly smaller roads up to the mountains, and into one of a number of narrow and twisting mountain passes, looking to make use of the massive ground clearance of their 6 X 6 truck to handle the rough terrain, and then down the other side into Iran, sticking to the back routes as far as possible.

The team bedded down early, trying to shift their body clocks to a different cycle, ready for their heist and escape.


	5. 005 - Ambush and Escape

Date: 04/12/2059. Location: 40.37355, 498078

Sleeping late the next day, they rose at around lunchtime for food, and then in the afternoon Shimazu and Hunter went shopping for medical supplies and lab coats for their "disguises", while the rest of the team drove the getaway route, checking for sensor dead spots, concealed positions and roadworks or other things that might trip them up.

Kai confirmed the schedule with Kiril, and in turn got confirmation that the crew were ready. As they went over the plan again, Hunter found himself gazing up at the roof, where he saw a small grip tab sticking out from the thin material that covered the cab’s upper surface. Moving to stand in the middle of the rear seat, he carefully examined the patch, and tentatively tugged at it, hearing the familiar ripping sounds of hook and loop tape parting, before a large square patch of the roof material came away in his hands. Removing this revealed a hatch, with reinforcing bars on either side and some kind of mechanism.

With a bit more wrangling, he flipped open the hatch in the top of the cab, and could stand up on the back seat, his upper torso sticking up into the night air. He put his weight on the two bars on either side of the hatch, and slowly transferred his weight onto them, without them flexing at all – and he realised that it would be easy to affix a pintle mounted weapon in the future. Marius checked over the bracing and structural bars, pronouncing it fit to mount anything up to a heavy calibre machine gun without issue. For now, it meant that Tads could stand on the seat and poke her head out of the hatch, and get great line of sight all around the vehicle for casting spells.

They drove to the services at about 10pm, and started their observations. While Aswon and Tads took the first shift, Kai grabbed the mirror from over the small toilet in the back, and sat staring into it – ignoring the snorts from Hunter. He concentrated hard, and slowly the tone and texture of his skin started to change. Over a period of perhaps ten minutes, his skin darkened as more and more melanin rose to the surface, and his features seemed to slowly twist and change. His eyes rounded slightly, and the epicanthic fold faded somewhat, changing the shape of his face until he barely resembled his previous form – at least facially. 

“Huh – nice trick.” Hunter’s smile had faded away, and he gave Kai a cool and considering stare. “Very useful.”

“Yes indeed. I think I can probably pass for a local now, yes?” Hunter nodded in agreement, watching as Kai pulled out some of the local clothing they’d purchased earlier in the day. Certainly if Kai did get caught on any security cameras or spotted by witnesses, he’d be almost unrecognisable later.

Kai headed off into the service station, checking out the facilities and the food court. They were fairly run-down and basic, with the weapons scanner at the door non-functional and only the most rudimentary of closed circuit cameras watching over the doors and entrances to the shops. There was a security guard present – but he looked like a retired cop - greying and a little overweight, he was likely to call for backup rather than try any heroics. Even his sidearm looked a little ridiculous – a lightweight 6mm pistol that probably caused more damage to the ears than being shot by it…

At about 11pm they moved their truck, and shortly after the target vehicle arrived - a battered and old cargo transporter, but with extra armour welded onto the doors and a reasonable looking mag-lock on the rear cargo area. Three crew got out, wearing lightly-armoured work clothes and carrying pistols, stretching and working out the kinks in their backs while they called up to the remaining crew in the vehicle, asking for their order from the fast food outlet in the service station. As the team watched them, they could see at least two shapes moving around in the cab, both in the front seats.

As the group of three guards headed towards the service station, the team split into two - Marius driving, with Kai and Tads in the cab, whilst Aswon, Hunter and Shimazu approached the target vehicle under cover of an invisibility spell that Tads assured them would render them invisible to both human eyes and camera systems.

As they approached, they realised they didn't have to be stealthy, as the loud pop music from inside the truck covered their approach more than adequately. They surrounded the vehicle, and on the go command from Kai, Tads stopped sustaining her invisibility spell, revealing the team with weapons raised. Aswon stood with his rifle aimed at roughly where the driver should be behind the reflective glass, while Shimazu had a pistol held in each hand on one side, while Hunter had an assault rifle cradled in his grip on the other.

“Open the door, get out of the truck! Now!” Hunter shouted, his tusks and gravelly voice making the words sound distorted – but still clear enough, they were sure.

Each of the windows opened about a hands width, and then a pistol was carefully thrust out aiming up into the air. A moment later both of the occupants started to fire wildly into the air, pumping shots up into the night sky until the slides locked back on an empty magazine - clearly aimed so the team were not in any way in danger. The team jumped back, confused as hell for a moment – until they realised that while they could see there was no risk to themselves, if there was any kind of CCTV in the cab, it would look like a valiant attempt to scare off the attackers to whoever reviewed any footage later – or the local police.

The crew then opened the doors and climbed down to the ground, then proceeded to lay down on the floor with their hands behind their backs, so they could be restrained. A whiff of gun smoke wafted out of the cab and they could see bullet casings still rolling around in the footwell. As the smoke started to drift towards the team, Tads ducked back inside the cab, trying to keep clear of the pale cloud. Aswon and Shimazu took their guns and holsters, tied up the two guards, grabbed the keys and then headed round to the back. A quick wave of the key and the mag-lock sprang open, revealing a cargo area full of shipping boxes.

They started to check the boxes, looking for the small flashes of red tape that Kiril had said would mark the specific cargo they needed to grab. As they pawed through the cargo area, they couldn’t see anything that matched the description – finding only several with flashes of black tape in the corner

“Thirty seconds! Move it!” Marius called out, spying the three guards starting their return journey down the central corridor of the service station, laden down with bags of food and drink. 

Shimazu spotted a little hand written note trapped between two boxes saying "no red", and realised what had happened – then called out to the others to grab the boxes with the black tape on. They unloaded the boxes, grabbing the three marked boxes as well as one other one, loading them into their truck. As they did so, the three crew emerged from the service station and spotted the team transferring the last of the boxes into their truck. They dropped their food, and broke into a run, heading towards them across the darkened car park, firing their pistols towards them. At this range it was hard to tell if they were shooting to miss or not, but the combination of darkness, movement and distance meant there was no real danger of hitting the team. Tads concentrated hard, and dropped all three to a stun-ball spell, sending their bodies sprawling onto the tarmac.

They loaded up the boxes of goods, including the last box that Shimazu had grabbed, one without a piece of tape. As they skidded across the car park, he pulled open the top of the box and checked the contents, finding random electronics inside in anti-static bags. Hopefully they’d be able to shift those on to make a little extra profit…

Marius expertly drove through the far reaches of the car-park, driving around and through the supports for the overhead motorway and using them for cover, mounting the kerbs and taking the shortest route out of the car park towards their destination – which also avoided most of the cameras. With a final bounce they cleared a small planted area and skidded onto the single lane approach road, driving up the on-ramp to the freeway. Tads concentrated again, her illusion spreading out to mask the vehicle in a spell. As they drove up towards the top of the ramp, a ripple flowed down the truck from front to back, replacing the olive green with white and completely changing the shape, making it look like a white panel van.

She slumped back in her seat, breathing hard and concentrating on maintaining the illusion, and a trickle of blood ran out of her left nostril as the effort of casting the spell and chanelling mana through her body took its toll. Kai checked her over quickly, then handed her a few tissues to try and soak up the blood and give her nosebleed a chance to clot.

They made their escape cleanly, it seemed, and drove for some distance down the motorway, before pulling in at a small layby to stop for a moment, and concentrate on the roads around them, checking for pursuit or surveillance - but none were to be seen. Hunter did have a text waiting for him from his contact Julius however, with a link to a series of very high res satellite shots of the Iranian border. Hunter checked the map and directed Marius off at the next junction, and down to a small strip mall which according to the map included an electronics store.

They purchased a roll-out screen from the electronics boutique at the mall, to help with looking at the images, and then set to downloading the Gigapulses of data over their pocket secretaries. Marius did a proper assessment on the extra box they took, and confirmed the contents - remote sensors for a security system - motion detectors, pressure pads, door sensors, all useful stuff, and probably worth a good five thousand Nuyen at retail prices. They drove south, out of the edge of town and back up on to the freeway, heading to Lankaran, still keeping a wary eye out for pursuit. Kai sent a message to his contact Ngo, saying they were close to the border crossing, and checking on the details of the IDs as they drove through the quiet night, steadily working their way south.

They got to Lankaran at about 5am, driving past miles of fields, greenhouses and agri-domes on either side of the road. The land was lush and obviously very fertile, and the area seemed reasonably clean and healthy, making a pleasant change to what they’d seen closer to Baku. Arriving in the city proper they discovered a mass of tram tracks on all of the main roads, with the city having the sort of mass transit system more often found in a first world major capital. They decided to push on, and drive through the city before it got busy, and took the R48 main road, heading towards Lerik.

As they were leaving the city, on the agreeably flat, straight and well-maintained road, it was suggested that Hunter connect into the vehicle and try driving, with Marius to support and teach him. The team exchanged smiles when Hunter tried to lean unconsciously to get the truck around the first bend – showing that he was much happier on a motorbike than in a car, but he soon got the hang of it, and got some valuable driving practice in.

Even though the truck was pretty large and tended to wobble slightly in the turn, the datajack allowed him to use the virtual dashboard and see the status of the vehicle much more intuitively than if he was using manual controls. It was nowhere near the symbiosis that Marius achieved with his Rigger interface, but it was enough to let Hunter get the basics down fairly quickly. He was nowhere near ready for combat yet, but at least someone else could jack in and drive the truck - an important consideration when it had no manual controls.

Driving up the road, through various villages, they spotted some of the farmers selling the "less than perfect" fruits and veg by the side of the road, and stocked up on cheap local produce for their meals later. They found a good place to lay up for a while, and grabbed some rest, having left the suburbs of Lankaran behind. 

Ngo called Kai back at about 10am, they discussed the crossing, and she advised that she would get a some IDs to them if they could get to the village of Razi, about 20km across the border. Just as he was concluding the call, he noticed the police car behind them, with the officer approaching. Kai got out of the cab and greeted him, watching the policeman doing a cursory examination of the truck. The Policeman asked where they were going, and who they were, obviously recognising them as foreigners, starting in Azerbaijani and then swapping to Russian to talk with Kai. He explained that the truck had illegal tyres with insufficient tread - a barefaced lie - the off-road tyres clearly still had about 20mm of tread depth.

Kai immediately realised that the "ticket" was a request for a bribe, and gave the policeman a careful look up and down, assessing him and trying to work out what this was going to cost him. The policeman saved him the effort by telling him that he had to pay a four hundred Nuyen fine to deal with the matter at the roadside. Kai put a little effort in to looking shocked and a tiny bit upset before capitulating and pulling out a small handful of their paper money, grudgingly handing over the plastic strips to the policeman. It wasn’t like he was going to accept a credstick transfer for an off the books deal like this, after all. With the fine paid though, policeman happily went on his way.

After the break, they continued on up in the foothills, driving towards the forested slopes and higher ground ahead. Aswon was keeping an eye out, looking at the woodlands, and then asked to stop and pull over into the Gizil-Agach State Reserve so he could search for the right kind of timber to make a spear from. Marius expressed his displeasure at stopping and delaying their progress, but the others seemed quite keen on having a small break as well, so he looked for a place to pull up, spotting a lone building up a small side track, on the edge of a large plantation. He turned in and headed towards the building, pulling into the deserted car-park.

They examined the small visitor centre with its automated displays and information screens, purchased some of the e-books showing the extensive fauna and flora in the area and scoffed at the cheap and tacky plastic souvenirs in the vending machines, before they went outside and into the edge of the forest, looking for materials.

Tads had rested after her earlier efforts with concealing the truck, and with a little effort she summoned a forest spirit to help them look, which led them to stand of trees that were perfect – just the right thickness to make a decent staff or spear, and agreeably straight. Unfortunately they were all live trees, with no deadfall around.

Aswon asked if he could take the trees, and the spirit asked what he would give in return. They bargained, and Aswon agreed to plant two new saplings / cuttings in the forest, to replace what he had taken, and two new cuttings outside the forest, to help it grow. Whilst Aswon was searching for his spear material, Tads was picking flowers that seemed to her to have the potential for magical properties, and Hunter found some odd looking plants in a shaded area that triggered some memory. After reading through their books, they discovered that it was a rough analogue for Deadly Nightshade....

After some hours of searching for materials and planting trees, they got back on the road, heading west and climbing into the mountains. As the roads started to get a little more twisting and turning, with the trees crowding together in places and making a tunnel over the asphalt, Marius took over from driving, nursing the truck up the hills. By early afternoon they made it to Lerik, pushing through the terraced but pleasant-looking town, and onto the ever smaller and rougher roads up into the hills proper. The terrain changed, becoming more scrubland and more open, leaving the forests behind them. As they made their way up the valley, Hunter spotted a military jeep pacing them along a ridgeline, obviously watching them as they headed to the border. Marius detected radio transmissions from the vehicle as they called in a contact report, and quickly decided not to jam them - it would only cause trouble.

With the change in terrain to a more rocky and open environment, Tads called a mountain spirit and asked it to detain the vehicle by causing some kind of accident - but the driver of the jeep had other plans. With some expert off road handling, he manged to avoid all of the loose rocks and pot holes that appeared in the way, throwing the jeep around wildly. Realising that the plan wasn't going to work, the team pulled up and started to obviously make camp - starting a fire and preparing some stew.

The patrol watched them for a while, and then started to head down the mountain towards them - the team just managed to notice a chopper in the distance, watching them - not sure if it was a gunship, a troop carrier or some hybrid, they determined to play nice. The commander of the jeep asked for their papers and visa documents, but was told they were all back in the corporate enclave in Baku. Playing on the "medical students" legends they were starting to develop and for which they'd bought all the supplies, Simazu, Hunter and Kai spun an elaborate series of stories about medical studies, pranks and experiences, convincing the Captain that they were just medical staff out camping up in the hills. The team invited the soldiers to join them for dinner, and they shared food and stories with them, before the soldiers headed off to the north, warning the team again that they were to return to Lerik and the lowlands, and not go any nearer to the Iranian border.

The team agreed, waved goodbye, and then set to discussing how to do exactly that, using careful driving and spirit powers to conceal their approach....


	6. 006 - Crossing the Border

Date: 5/12/2059, Location: 38.63591, 4833349

The team bedded down, waiting until 3am with most of the team resting, and only a single person on watch. As the evening wore on, the wind rose and clouds raced across the sky, gradually building up until there was complete cloud cover. The truck rocked slightly on the suspension as the wind tore down the valley, but the extra blankets and supplies purchased in the market kept everyone tucked up warm and safe.

As they reached their "go hour", Tads sank to the floor cross-legged, and attuned herself to the mountains. She called upon the spirit of the land, summoning forth the essence of the rocks to guard and protect the vehicle, and to keep it safe. Then, she cast her eyes skywards, calling the spirit of the wind, binding mana to the spirit to grant the vehicle concealment. As she bargained with the wind spirit she felt her control over the mountain fade - it would carry out her last instruction, until they either left the mountain or dawn broke - but it was no longer bound to obey her. Finally, with two spirits guarding and concealing the vehicle, she cast an invisibility ward upon the vehicle, wrapping light around the vehicle to further obscure their presence. Concentrating on sustaining the spell, she moved to a bunk and motioned for the others to begin the crossing.

Marius engaged the gearbox, and the vehicle started to crawl up the mountain, following the road, then the goat track, and then finally just the best line he could manage over the scrub, low hardy perennial plant growth and loose soil. With no lights, full cloud cover and thermographic senses just showing the fairly uniform surface of the ground, it was difficult and painstaking progress, and once or twice he had to reverse and take a different tack to overcome a gulley or bad patch of terrain.

By 4am they reached the crest of the ridge, and their truck continued to roll forwards, Marius not even using the gas, just letting the idle of the engine pull them forwards in crawler gear. The ground was more barren here, loose rocks and compacted sand and earth, with fewer plants and grasses to cover their tracks. Looking backwards though, they saw little in the way of marks - the spirit concealing them was smoothing the signs of their passing. They continued to crawl forwards until Marius braked sharply, as the dimly seen fence appeared in front of them. The team got out to examine the fence closely.

A triple roll of razor wire formed a loose pyramid, laid out in a two meter wide snake heading to the horizon in both directions, contained between slender wooden posts about a metre high. For a person on foot it was a significant barrier, and it also threatened to snag on the vehicle as they drove over it, leaving obvious signs of their passage. And if it contained capacitance wire, or signal wire in the centre, that would trip an alert if approached or cut. Marius prepared his toolkit and got ready to snip his way through the barrier, as neatly as he could to allow him to repair the damage after they had crossed. The others watched to the north, west and south, straining to see any guards, patrols or civilians which could jeopardise their mission.

Aswon suddenly called for a halt, and quiet - listening to a high pitched hum that rose and fell in pitch. After he pointed it out, the others strained their ears - or used their cyberware to filter for the noise, and could also make out the mournful and sad noise. They checked for the source, and discovered it was the wind, whistling through the tubes of wire, exposed on the bare mountain side. Fearful that there might be some detection method they checked the poles for microphones, before realising that this couldn't be a reliable security system, with its dependence on the wind to generate the noise. Eventually it clicked - the wind was making the wire "sing" because it was under tension - a lot of tension. Cutting it would make it spring back, violently. Quite aside from being almost impossible to put back together, it was very likely to cut someone in half if they tried it.

The team got back in the truck, and slowly and carefully drove over the wire. Only the massive tyres and excessive ground clearance of their purloined Soviet 6 X 6 made it feasible, and only the expert driving of Marius using all his concentration, and the help of the air spirt, stopping the wire from snagging the underside of the truck, or striping the tyres of their treads - only these things made it possible, but after a few minutes, they were across and could breathe again. The wire sprang back up from where it had been crushed, they weren't snagged, and they could move on. They started to roll down the hill....

The wind spirit appeared in front of Tads and warned her about the danger, and she called out for them to stop - Marius slammed on the brakes again, and waited for clarification, which was not immediately forthcoming.

"What sort of danger?" she asked to the spirit. "Dangerous danger". Hmm, not helpful. The spirit didn't know what was dangerous, it just sensed that it was. As a creature of wind and magic, it didn't really have a grasping of the physics that bound the meat sacks together... it just knew that there was risk. What kind of risk? Dangerous risk....

Tads changed tack and decided to talk to the mountain spirit, still guarding their truck. Though she had no hold over it now, having consciously shifted her mind to the air above, she hoped it would at least talk to her. The ground below her feet distorted, showing a gnarly face in the rocks. In her mind, the gravelly voice as two mountain ranges collided and ground against each other asked her what she wanted in a surly voice.

She asked about the danger, about what lay ahead, and the spirit answered by describing the annoying itch. The itch that irritated it, for miles either way. When asked what the itch felt like, it beckoned her closer. Closer. Then a handful of gravel was expelled from the ground, pelting her face and making her flinch away, picking out bits of rock from her mouth, nose and eyes. Slowly it dawned on the team - land mines ahead, buried in the rough terrain.

Tads commanded her air spirit to help them, exposing the mine field by scouring away the top layer of earth in a giant cyclone. The team retreated, and the spirit whipped up the winds, ever faster, a 4 meter whirling dervish that ploughed across the landscape. Earth lifted and flew to the side, the maelstrom glinting in the darkness - and then an almighty crack as one of the grenades less well buried than the rest flew up and the plunger impacted other debris. The team looked around them, watching for signs of activity. Then a much louder retort, echoing down the mountains... something bigger. They watched again - nothing it seemed. Moments later the whirlwind died down, as the spirit reached the other side of the 15m wide strip of mines that paralleled the border fence. It was laid in an irregular pattern, and looking at the layout, there was no way to get the truck though without hitting at least a few. Most of them looked relatively small - probably anti-personnel mines, that would be unlikely to cause catastrophic damage to the truck - though still capable of shredding tires and damaging parts. However, there were a few bigger beasts that had the look of anti-vehicle mines, capable to taking out APCs or light tanks. And... one that looked completely unfamiliar to Aswon.

After discussion, Kai asked Aswon if he was willing to use his knowledge and experience with demolitions to clear them a path through the mine field. By the looks of things they needed to clear about four mines on the left, and three on the right, to make a set of 30 centimetre wide strips they could drive through - carefully. Aswon sighed, got down on the floor, drew his knife and started to crawl forwards. Slowly he scraped away the earth around the mine, excavating it carefully until he could carefully pull out the charge, and move it to the side, out of the way. He crawled forwards, repeated the process. Despite the breeze and the chill night air, perspiration beaded his forehead... he know more about demo than anyone else it seemed, but he still didn't regard himself as an expert. He advanced on the third mine, scraping away and clearing the earth, then setting that aside too. Onto the fourth and last. Scrape, scrape, wiggle, scrape, scrape. As he pulled on the mine gently, some of the casing broke, the cheap components degraded after so much time in the cold landscape. His hand flew up before he could control the pressure, pulling on the side of the plastic material, and with a fateful click the arming mechanism caught and fired. His reactions already spiking from the cracking of the plastic, he flung himself to the side, rolling frantically away from the device. It detonated a fraction of a second later, throwing up a gout of flame and shrapnel in a vicious cone. Being so low to the ground, and rolling so quickly, only the edge of the blast caught him - and he managed to arrest his roll before he hit one of the other mines. The blast echoed down the hillside again, the team back on alert, scanning for lights and movement.

Aswon inched his way back to the truck, wincing in pain. He'd dodged some of the blast, his armoured clothes had soaked a little more - but his back was covered with shrapnel, the back of his head was burnt and also punctured. Shimazu and Kai approached him with a medkit, and spent the next 5 minutes picking out fragments with tweezers, before liberally spraying him with antiseptic gel and skin sealant. Tads came over and examined Aswon, then spread her hands across the back of his head. Warm golden light seemed to form under her hands, and the flesh knitted back together, the swelling receding and the blisters fading under her hands as she moved them in circles around his body. Everyone else in the team watched the power flowing from her hands into him, his wounds healing in front of their eyes, watching in silence, and evaluating the strange little Russian woman in a new light.

With a sigh, Aswon gripped his dagger again, crawled towards the minefield and started to clear the right hand path. The first two were cleared without incident, though he proceeded slowly and with even more care after his recent experience. Just as he was settling down to start on the third, he suddenly gave a start, moving abruptly and unexpectedly as the black scorpion emerged from its tunnel and probed against his ankle. Time seemed to slow as his body lurched, and the others watched, and started to flinch as his arm skated across the surface, towards the plunger. He threw his weight to the side, desperately flexing and bending, trying to avoid contact. He almost made it.

The mine exploded, and another cone of explosive force lit up the night sky, the blast wave rolling down the hill, a sharp "crack" punctuating the night air. With less warning, and less time to react, even his magically enhanced reflexes couldn't save him this time, and the blast wave picked him up and dumped him on the floor hard, fortunately in the cleared space behind him. Blood flowed freely down his face, part of his hair was singed, his nose was broken, and a good portion of his skin was missing, exposing raw flesh underneath. Moving with extreme care, he inched backwards a little, before being plucked from the ground by the others, and carried gingerly to the truck and laid on one of the sterile plastic sheets they had purchased for situations just like this. Shimazu and Kai got to work again with the medkits, and picked out the fragments and rocks, sealing the gaping wounds and packing holes with dermal filler. They sprayed more gel, dousing him in the stuff really, making sure that he wouldn't get infected and being glad they had laid in so many supplies for their cover story. Tads sighed again and moved over to Aswon when the others were finished, and once more gathered her strength. The golden light was stronger this time, brighter, filling the back of the van with its light like a trapped sunrise. She poured magical energy into him, throwing her full power into the spell - and again when she moved her hands, his flesh was whole and showed no sign of his trauma. 

Sparing a quick glance at the weird device in the centre of the minefield, they discovered it to be a starlight shell with a remote pressure pad. If they'd driven over that - or a nearby mine had been close enough to it when triggered, it would have fired a shell several hundred feet into the air - then exploded and illuminated thousands of square meters with a pale light for several minutes - and almost certainly raising the alarm. They cut the line to the pressure pad, just in case, got back in the truck, held their breath and hoped Marius could drive in a perfectly straight line with no deviation - over rough terrain, in the pitch black. Once again though, the rigger didn't let them down, and made it through the mine field to the clear area beyond, and they started to head down the mountain and towards their rendezvous in Razi.


	7. 007 - The town of Razi

Date 6/12/2059, Location 38.63122, 48.29418

The team drove down the hill, carefully, trying to stick to hard ground and keep the noise of the engine to a minimum. As they nosed through the darkness, Marius spied another obstacle ahead - this time a fairly simple wire fence, made up of two parallel strands, about a metre high. Aswon and Hunter got out of the truck to examine it, determining that it was exactly as it appeared after a few minutes of careful checking - presumably just a barrier to stop livestock and people from closing on the minefield. Plucking the stakes from the hard ground and laying them flat with their bodyweight allowed the truck to cross easily, then the fence was replaced to hide their crossing. Whilst doing this they became aware of the sounds of bells pealing quietly in the night, and soon Aswon's thermo-vision picked up a number of goats making their way up slope towards them. The team ignored them, and then as quietly as possible they drove down the mountainside, heading North West to intersect highway 33 to the north of the city of Raazi.

About half way down the hill, Tadibya caught a fleeting glimpse of a vehicle, to the south and heading up the slope towards their crossing point, its headlights briefly illuminating the path ahead of them before they were obscured by some terrain feature. They watched for a few minutes in that direction, but their descent and progress north prevented them from seeing the vehicle again.

Slowly they continued to progress down the slope, mostly letting gravity and inertia carry them to give them time to react to unseen obstacles and changes in terrain, and to stop the massive Russian diesel engine from revving and echoing down the barren landscape. At about 5am they made it down through the approach slopes and finally spied the highway, and drove onto the northbound carriageway. Marius gunned the engine at last and accelerated to top speed, trying to shake off accumulated muck, dirt and to clear the treads of debris.

After roughly a click north, he slowed and swung the vehicle round, and they returned to the south, heading to the city. As they closed on the city the sky started to lighten, and shapes started to appear out of the darkness - but the interposing mountains to the east delayed dawn by nearly an hour. They drove in to the city, and turned off the highway onto the old main road into the built-up area, ignoring the bypass.

As they approached the city, they became aware of a rising stench of death and decay, the smell of fetid meat filling the cabin. A few of the team turned to Tadibya and stared at her - when she noticed she exclaimed, "It's not me," with a certain amount of disgust on her face. Concerned that they may have hit a goat or sheep somehow and not noticed it over the rough terrain, Tadibya projected from her body and surveyed the outside of the vehicle. It looked fine, and there was nothing to see - but as she scanned the area from her vantage point she spotted a darkened and twisted area of the manasphere.

A roiling vortex of pain, suffering and fear created a maelstrom of mana that would severely impede her ability to perform magical acts. She flew down in front of the truck, waiting for her physical body to catch up with her astral form, and re-joined the two halves, made easy by the slow progress of the truck. After relaying the information, Kai called for a stop, and Hunter and Aswon decamped and made their way to the east, looking at the buildings between the road they were on and the main road skirting the edge of the city.

It soon became clear in the lightening sky - the area was a series of abattoirs and meat-packing plants. The stench probably came from poor sanitation and handling of the offal and blood, and the background count from the fear and suffering of the animals. Satisfied that it was no immediate danger to them, they returned to the vehicle, and continued to drive south slowly, looking for somewhere discreet to park up and wait for the call from Kai's contact. 

The sky continued to lighten as they pulled into a driveway for a derelict building, dust and sand displaced under their tyres. They settled in to wait, a number of the team catching a nap after what felt like a stressful few hours. As the minutes ticked by, Kai kept checking his phone and the marginal signal, hoping for a reply from Ngo with news on their IDs. As minutes turned into tens of minutes, then hours with no response, Kai became increasingly fraught. The arrival of a battered and old police cruiser next to them did nothing for his - or anyone else's tensions... the car looked to be nearly two decades old, battered and chipped, with fading paintwork.

Two policemen got out, pulled their nightsticks from the footwells and gave the truck a curious look. One of them approached the truck, swinging his baton idly while his breath misted in front of him, while the other rested on the front of his own car, blowing warm air into his hands. The first approached the truck, tapping on the window with his nightstick, his arm at full extension to reach up to the high cab. Marius cracked the door open carefully, letting in a draft of cold air and looked down at the policeman.  
"Papers, VISA?" the cop called up, looking at the obviously European face of Marius. Marius looked down at the policeman and took a considering breath.  
“Sorry, what papers do you want?”  
The cop frowned, and interrogated him again, wanting to know who they were, and what they were doing here. Trying to ignore the quiet chanting from the back as Tads cast an invisibility spell on a blanket to cover their collection of guns and illicit material. Marius reeled off the story, explaining that they were with ‘Doctors without borders’, and they were a bunch of medical students and interns, all volunteers here to provide medical care, travelling to the south to help people. And, most importantly, the regional director had their passports and travel documents as he was organising the trip.

The cop frowned, and again asked about papers, rubbing his fingers and thumbs together. Thinking he wanted to collect an "administration fee", Marius pulled out a few hundred of the Azerbaijani currency and passed it down to the cop, who examined it quickly, then passed it back to Marius without taking any. His frown deepened and he returned to the car, calling out to his colleague that the truck was not legal.

Just as he was reaching for the radio in their car to call in the incident, Tadibya pointed her finger out of the truck, and channelled mana into a blast of mental energy. Both cops collapsed to the ground instantly and the team piled out of the truck, collecting the bodies and stashing them in the back of the truck quickly before anyone spotted them. They moved the car around behind their truck, hoping that it would be less visible to other people and raise less suspicion, but left the window down so they could hear the radio.

It all became quiet again, until the bells rang out to the south, sounding for a few minutes. People appeared from all of the houses around them, wrapped up warm against the biting winds from the south west, and hurried south into the more built-up areas. About thirty minutes later, they returned to their homes, and shortly afterwards there was another small exodus - all male, and all heading towards the slaughterhouses. It grew quiet again, with Kai checking his phone, almost as if he could will it to ring. The minutes crawled by, the town quiet and deserted before once again there was more movement - this time women and children, heading in to the centre of town, and then once again silence descended.

The radio in the police car crackled to life, a bored sounding voice calling.

"Rhabar, are you coming back in?" Hunter dived over to the car, keyed up the microphone and clenched his jaw, altering the shape of his face a little and tried to do his best impersonation of the policemen.

“Not yet, just checking something out, be about an hour." The voice at the other end confirmed, then cleared the channel, and Hunter returned to the truck. Another twenty minutes passed, and a female came out from one of the houses, and walked over to the police car, looking into the cabin. As she stood up, her confusion was evident, and she spent a minute or two calling out around the building, and checking the car, before she shrugged and returned to her home.

The team decided it was time to move, papers or not, and after removing the radio from the police car, they pulled out to head into the town centre. Looking through the policemen’s effects they found two poor quality sets of ID, two aging pistols, knock off designs of Sig Saurs with two clips of ammo each, and a few notes of the local currency. Driving into town they saw a few houses with trees, bushes and other growth in their gardens - obviously carefully tended and specifically grown, as greenery always cut off at their borders and the ground returned to the scrubby arid land that made up the surrounding areas.

As they reached the roundabout at the centre of town, a second police cruiser pulled out of a side street and started to follow them. Just as they did, Kai made another call to Ngo, finally getting through. He explained that they were a little "pressed for time" and were ready to pick up the papers, and she passed over the details to make contact with Saeed Shirazi in the supermarket to the south west of town.

As he finished the call, he was informed of their tail, and the team had a quick chat - they obviously couldn't go grab their papers with a police tail, but on the other hand they didn't actually want to hurt them. They couldn't really expect to lose them in a town this small, especially not when they had a massive lumbering military vehicle against the police officer’s smaller, faster and more nimble car, along with their local knowledge. Shimazu suggested that Hunter get back on the radio, calling in as "Rhabar" again, saying they were pursuing a vehicle on highway 33 that had refused to stop, and asking for backup.

They decided this was their best option, and called it in - cutting off the cry for help half way through the last sentence, being rewarded almost immediately by the car behind them pulling a U turn, turning on the siren and speeding to the north, leaving the team to proceed south west, looking for the supermarket. They found it nestled in some low-rise housing, with a tiny car park and faded "sale" signs written in Farsi in the window.

The stock looked old and dusty, and the shop felt run down and a little grubby. A few flies buzzed off the ‘fresh’ meat as they entered and passed the counter, and a sales clerk who was idly stacking shelves greeted them with an automatic wave, that again turned to confusion as seeing "outsiders". Kai asked to speak to Saeed, and the sales clerk babbled something at him and disappeared into the back.

A youngish man appeared, and greeted Kai warmly, his eyes widening a little when Kai said the recognition words - "I wonder if you’d like some geometric artwork for your store." He asked Kai to get his shopping, and disappeared into the back for a minute. Kai and Shimazu trawled the store, looking for edible foods to take with them for their journey. When Saeed returned, he met them at the till, and looking at their small bag of food stuffs said "Please, there is so little here, let these be my gift to you." Kai blinked, a little surprised, and slowly reached for the bag. As he did so, Saeed's body language changed slightly - Kai realised that he'd made some kind of social error, and wasn't acting "correctly", so he stopped and said that he really should pay for them. Saeed seemed to relax a little, but again said that the items should be a gift to them both. Kai's reached for the goods again, and again saw the change in body language that said "wrong!", and his mind blanked, and he suddenly didn't know what to say.

The unexpected elevation to team leader, the stresses of the border crossing, the run in with the police, the strange shaman who grew antlers, the blonde goose-stepping German, the African with lion delusions, the enigmatic Japanese dude and not least bizarre –so far – the English ork... it all must have been a bit much. He dimly heard Saeed offer for a third time to let them have the good for free. What kind of madness was this? Next Saeed said that if Kai really insisted on paying, then the groceries came to no more than 100,000.... Kai checked the Azerbaijani currency he was carrying, realising that he didn't have anywhere near a hundred thousand in that, and there was no credstick reader in here... shit. He had no local currency to pay for anything.

Shimazu spoke to Kai in Mandarin Chinese, suggesting they call in the others, and offer to pay in the smuggled optical chips of top release films and movies. Brilliant! He made a call to the team, who had been circling the area, looking for a good place to drop the unconscious policemen off at where they would be out of the way, but safe - or as safe as they were going to get. They got the call and dumped the policemen in a garden they had found, underneath several large bushes, then turned the truck around and headed to the market. They met with Kai and Shimazu round the back of the store, handing over the bag of chips. Kai in turn took the bag and showed it to Saeed, who admired the quality of the packaging, realising that these were originals, and not even first generation knock-off copies. He took the bag, saying that this should cover most of the cost, and he would speak with their mutual contact for the rest.

Kai seemed sick of the negotiations by this point, agreed, and took the envelope of IDs with him - one each for Marius, Tadibya and Aswon. He, and Hunter as obvious metahumans would have to stay hidden as far as possible... They left the market hurriedly, heading south east towards the main road, and found a garage on the intersection. They'd burnt about 200km worth of fuel since they last topped up, so they decided to fill the tanks up to give themselves as much flexibility as possible. Before filling, Marius went into the kiosk, making sure they would take their money.

Inside they found that here too, there was no electronic cash register, no credstick reader, no matrix access line. The till was an old fashioned mechanical affair. He pulled out his Azerbaijani notes again, and showed them to the attendant - who firmly and unequivocally refused them. It appeared that Iranian Riall was all he would take. Back in the truck they used the marginal signal they had to run a quick search - it appeared that Nuyen wasn't legal tender anywhere in Iran, and it was only authorised to change at the border crossings, on entry. The team exchanged looks, and realised that the pittance of pocket change from the policeman wasn't going to get them very far at all in their journey through Iran...


	8. 008 - Altitude and Paintballs

Date 6/12/2059, Location 38.62531, 48.09295

As the excitement of the actions in the city faded, and they settled down on the dusty tarmac of the highway at a steady 50KPH, Marius noted that the truck just wasn't performing quite as he would have expected. Not only that, he had a nagging headache. He mentioned this, and got the same reaction from most of the others - they all had the edge of a headache and just felt a bit rough. Tadibya checked the area magically, in case they were being attacked subtly - but could see nothing, so Marius pulled to the side of the road, and spent a while checking over the truck, looking for damage. Kai and Shimazu broke out their medical supplies, and checked over everyone carefully, cataloguing symptoms. After a few minutes, they realised that they had the edges of AMS - altitude sickness. Hunter pulled up his maps and changed to topographical mode, and they realised that they were about sixteen hundred metres above sea level - a mile high. More importantly, they'd been operating in a stressful set of circumstances for the past twenty-four hours, and had climbed from sea level quite quickly without stopping to acclimatise. They realised that it would be a couple of days before the symptoms faded, and until they needed to be careful. The truck would have less power due to the thinner air - but so would all the other vehicles too, so it wasn't too bad. Reassured, they got back underway.

As they drove along the lonely and exposed two-lane highway, they kept a watch out - not that there was much to see. The land sloped up gently to the east, west and south - brown, barren scrubland with only the hardiest of perennials taking root. At various points on the hillside they say the primitive huts of subsistence farmers trying to get a living from the infertile environment. To the south west they could see a pretty impressive mountain range, with peaks over four thousand metres according to the maps. After perhaps twenty to thirty minutes, they became aware of a pair of dust trails approaching from a side road to the west, from one of the small hamlets. 

Zooming in on them with his scope, Aswon could pick out the shape of two large SUV type vehicles, hammering along the dirt track, weaving from side to side. They looked to be on a not-quite intercept course - they'd hit the road shortly after the team passed the turning. They watched them carefully, checking to see if they had hostile intent, but otherwise continued along the road. 

The two vehicles swung onto the road behind them - now close enough for those with more car experience to see them, they were identified as a Volvo XC90 and a Lincoln Nebraska - both pretty old vehicles, but luxury models at the time. They both looked to be in good condition and obviously handled well - the dry desert air and lack of salt obviously leading to little corrosion and decay. They swung behind the truck, and followed, sedately, for a minute, before suddenly accelerating and splitting to either side. The Volvo went off road, the Nebraska onto the other carriageway, and they quickly pulled level with the truck. Two men, heads swaddled in shemaghs appeared through the sun roofs, pulling out bulky guns - the team started to get ready to return with all the firepower they had, then realised they were paintball guns... they paused, and a few seconds later both of the other vehicles opened up. Splats of lime and orange paint stitched up the side of the vehicle in rapid progression, from rear to front. As the seconds passed, and with no response from the team, they shifted their fire and started to fire at the front windscreen of the vehicle. Marius seethed as they defaced his vehicle and planned horrible revenge, but it was Aswon who struck first. Taking one of the stones from Tads that she used in her slingshot, he checked the movement of the two vehicles, guessed at the wind and then with a mighty heave threw the stone ahead and to the left, watching it arc out ahead, into the path - and then smack, in to the face of the gunner in the Volvo, catching him square between the eyes. With a yelp of shock, he lost his grip on his gun, which tumbled backwards off the vehicle, and he fell through the sunroof and out of sight. Tads dispatched her spirit to go and recover the paintball gun.

A few seconds later, the man appeared again, wielding a shotgun which he started to line up on the truck. Now the scene started to degenerate quickly - Shimazu opened up with his pistol, putting a round into his ribcage and spoiling his aim. On the other side of the vehicle, Hunter used his assault rifle to take out the other gunner with a carefully aimed shot. Both enemy vehicles dropped back behind the truck, following closely. Fearing what they might do next, Marius warned the team to hang on, then slammed on the brakes. With little time to react, the drivers of the SUV were hard pressed. The Volvo driver managed to spin the wheel and slew to the side - but overdid the manoeuvre and ended up rolling the car as he caught the verge, flipping over several times before sliding to a halt in the scrub. The Nebraska was not so lucky - he didn't react in time, and the rear of the truck ploughed into his vehicle, folding it up like a coke can. As they slowed to a halt, the team spread out to check on the vehicles. The occupants were either all dead, or very nearly so - and after a very quick discussion, were finished off to ensure no witnesses. Dash cameras were seized, wallets and IDs taken, along with a small bag of drugs in the glove compartment of one of the cars. Aswon recovered the paintball gun from the wreck of the Nebraska and started to shoot up both cars, making sure it looked as much like a stupid game that had gone wrong as he could.

The team yanked and pulled at the Nebraska, jacking up the rear end to allow them to lever and slide the mangled wreck out of their chassis. Marius checked the truck over, announcing that quality Stalinsteel, heavy duty engineering, vehicle armour and the bulk of their vehicle compared to the SUV had allowed them to come out of this undamaged - but the back end of their truck was covered in paint, scratches, marks and all the forensic evidence you could ask for...

By the time they had finished getting the two vehicles separated, the desert spirit had appeared on the horizon, a small sand dervish spinning up the highway, with the paintball gun being whipped around like a miniature twister. It arrived just as they'd finished with the cars and bodies, and Tadibya handed over the gun to Hunter, before returning to the truck. Hunter took one quick look and realised the gun was trashed, and threw it into one of the cars. The rest of the team got back in the truck and they headed south, checking over the wallets and ID sticks. Altogether, the notes of hard currency in the wallets came to about fifteen million Riall. Spirits soared at the find - until they worked out that with the exchange rate being eight thousand and five hundred Riall to ONE nuyen, what they actually had was less than two grand... still, it was local currency, and it gave them options. They didn't find anything else remarkable in the IDs, and hid their booty in the rear of the truck, then continued south to the city of Ardabil, capital of the district.

The journey to the capital was uneventful, and they entered the built-up area, mixing in with the traffic around the city. Taking the ring road to the west, avoiding the city centre, they were hoping for a smooth ride - but this plan was dashed when a police car pulled out of the traffic and started to follow them. Tensing, the team kept an eye on the car, wondering if it was just idle speculation or if they were being followed for a reason. Tadibya meanwhile was looking through the traffic for other vehicles, spotting what they all looked like, and what vehicles were common. They "drove casual", and the police car followed them for a few minutes before the blue lights started to flash and the siren blared - presumably they'd radioed the details of the truck through, and maybe picked up news that they were wanted - or just that the truck hadn't been cleared through a visa checkpoint. Marius accelerated sharply and started to cut through the traffic, the police car in pursuit - hammering through the afternoon traffic and threading in-between lanes leaving a trail of cursing drivers behind them. He kept a careful eye out, calling out to Tadibya to be ready - then spotted the opportunity he'd been seeking. A sharp turn into a side road at a set of lights, cutting up several other vehicles bought them precious seconds where they were out of sight of the pursing police. Tadibya cast her spell - weaving threads of illusion around the truck, creating a phantasm around them to make them appear like a farm truck, something the same size of them but looking very different. As the spell took hold, Marius wrenched the vehicle around, skidding across the multiple lanes of traffic in a sliding hand-brake turn, narrowly avoiding the other drivers who descended into a frenzy of honking - however it did the job. Suddenly looking like a truck full of sheep, on the wrong side of the road and heading the wrong way - the police car sped past them without a second glance, trying to reacquire a visual sighting on the truck. The team calmly returned to the main road, and continued on their way, watching numerous other police cars heading to the area behind them to join the search. The team relaxed - apart from Tadibya, who sat on her bunk with her brow furrowed as she concentrated on keeping the illusion in place. After half an hour or so, they cleared the city, and drove out to the south west, starting to climb back up into the hills, and felt they could finally drop the illusion and relax. They drove for several more hours, continuing to climb up highway sixteen, trying to relax and use deep even breaths. The sun dropped behind the mountains, and darkness quickly fell, and they decided not to push through the province checkpoint at night, so pulled off the road and parked up a few hundred meters away, concealed by a small spur from the road itself. Setting their watches, they snuggled down under all the blankets they had to guard against the frigid mountain air, and slept without incident until the morning other than their shifts on watch.

They decided to get back on the road in the morning, but were stopped when in the rising light levels, one of the team spotted a number of tracks, or trails, in the sand surrounding the vehicle - all leading from the rocky outcroppings towards them. Aswon slowly lowered himself to the ground, and very carefully peered under the truck. At first he saw nothing, but then as he caught sight of the underside of the engine, he bolted backwards and sprang to his feet - the entire engine block appeared to be covered in a solid mass of snakes. Reporting back to the others, there was a quick discussion about whose job it was to poke a nest of snakes and risk being bitten, strangely enough with everyone feeling that it should be the job of someone else. The snakes had presumably been attracted by the warmth of the engine and had used it like a giant metallic hot water bottle, spending a very cosy night indeed, but while individually they couldn't cause damage to the truck, enough of them would block fan blades, short connections or clog up the works - they had to go... Tadibya gave a little sigh, then summoned a low force watcher spirit to go and make noise and disturb them. The little spirit started to scream and wail, and the Rock Vipers attacked - but were completely unable to cause harm to the spirit in astral space, falling through the projected image of its body. A frenzy of spitting, biting, striking and writhing anger enveloped the spirit for several seconds, before the snakes, perhaps forty or fifty all told, slithered across the sand and back to their hiding points in the rocky outcroppings. After a careful check to make sure they were all gone, the team got underway. Tadibya cloaked the vehicle in another illusion, this time to appear like a first aid supply truck, and they approached the border. As they pulled onto the road they noticed the wind had increased in intensity, and was now whistling through the gorge at a fair rate of knots, whipping up the sand and dust and obscuring visibility.

Approaching the checkpoint, they could see a string of vehicles on the far side, heading down towards the city - mostly farm vehicles or goods vans, but they were the only vehicle leaving the city heading up to the mountains, so they pulled up at the barrier. A disgruntled looking guard came out of the little booth, catching the full force of the cold scouring sand-laden wind in the face, and approached the driver’s side of the truck, rapping on the door with his nightstick and demanding papers in rapid fire Farsi. Shimazu, occupying the front left seat where the driver would normally be found spoke in English, and offered down the IDs. He examined the papers quickly, leafing through the booklet, checking the feel of the paper and the bindings, and quickly sliding a fingernail across the logos - before returning them to Shimazu’s outstretched hand with a grunt, apparently satisfied. He turned to the truck to give it a quick check over, and his eyes widened for a moment... he stared at the illusion, and something seemed to be bothering him at a little. Shimazu tried to distract him, asking him if he was ok and if there was "anything we can do for you". The guard looked up at him, then back at the truck, but this time the illusion seemed to convince him, and he said he just needed a quick look in the back, then they were good. Shimazu hopped down, opened up the back of the vehicle and showed him several of the crates of medical supplies and boxes of equipment. The guard looked around carefully, then turned to Shimazu, opened his mouth, and pointed to a number of rotting and fetid teeth, and in broken English complained about the pain. Shim grabbed some supplies, giving him a hefty doses of antibiotics for the infection, and squirting some quick seal into the cavities, before last of all giving a good shot of synthi-caine straight into the gums. Within a few seconds the guard gave a little sigh and seemed to relax, all the muscles on the left side of his face drooping a little, forming a lop-sided grin. He waved to the guard in the booth to open the barrier, and returned to the booth himself, grabbing a bit mug of steaming hot coffee and slurping it down, some dribbling out of the corner of his mouth - probably the first time in weeks he'd been able to have a drink that hot without excruciating pain. As the team pulled through the checkpoint, they joked to each other that maybe they'd actually do better as travelling doctors rather than smugglers...

The morning was uneventful as they cleared the checkpoint, and they drove along route sixteen for miles without any further encounters, through or around various towns and villages, up through the barren landscape before eventually pulling in to Duzduzan for lunch.


	9. 009 - Here comes the baby

Date 7/12/2059, Location 37.94324, 4712362

The team pulled into Duzduzan around lunchtime, driving over to the side of the road onto the rough dirt area that seemed to be a temporary car park. As they got out, the biting wind made its presence known, the temperature hovering around zero as a strong westerly wind bought down air from the mountains. Looking around carefully to make sure they weren’t being observed, Aswon dug a small but deep hole in the dirt, struggling to get through the compacted and icy soil, but eventually getting a good foot down into the ground. Into the hole went the dash cams and ID sticks, then the dirt was rapidly filled in and tamped down – even if they did have homing or locator beacons, they were unlikely to work being buried. He’d copied the footage to their pocket computer, in case that was useful, but they felt that keeping the hardware was too risky at this stage.

A couple of the team drifted across the road towards a vendor, set up in the lee of a garage. As they passed they checked the price of fuel in the garage, realising that they hadn’t noted down the previous price. Unsure if it was a good deal or not, they decided to compare against the next stop, to try and gauge the best place to fill up. The vendor greeted them in Farsi, but swapped to broken English when it was clear they didn’t understand him, and they indicated that they wanted six of his product – whatever it was. After some back and forth, and gesturing, the seller lifted the lid on his pot and a delicious wash of scented air made the team’s stomachs rumble. They returned to the truck with six enormous wraps of goat stew, delicately spiced with something that gave it a superb flavour – and much change. Doing the maths, it seemed like food for six had cost them only about three Nuyen each, which seemed like a bargain. Tadibya picked at her food carefully, tasting each piece separately and then staring into the distance as she chewed thoughtfully. After a few minutes she spoke into the quiet sound of munching and slurping. “Peppers. Some variety of sweet pepper. That’s what they’ve used for the flavouring”. After this, she tucked in, like the rest of them, filling up on the tender meat and vegetable broth.

After their hunger was sated, they moved out, heading west and watching with a little concern as storm clouds started to gather on the western horizon, and approached rapidly on the wind. About one and a half kilometres from town, they saw a large cargo truck, pulled over to the side of the road at an acute angle, with a guy struggling with the front wheel. A quick chat and the team pulled over behind him, to see if they could help.

On closer examination, the truck appeared to be from a scrap merchants, with a variety of old truck, tractor and other random vehicle parts in the back, most rusty and worn, some obviously deformed and battered. The truck seemed quite heavily loaded, certainly carrying several tonnes of metal in the cargo bed, maybe more. Once again they were greeted in Farsi by the man and what appeared to be his son, struggling with the large truck wheel with a massive crowbar, trying to lever it back into position. The biting wind made the now sub-zero temperature feel even colder, and leeched away their body heat quickly, making them shiver. Marius moved to assist, and helped to check over the wheel, but as the men gave one last heave, there was a horrible crunch, and the axle sheared off entirely, the wheel falling to the roadside, causing the man great distress. The team tried to talk to him, working through Russian and English, along with some Arabic, before discovering with some surprise that he spoke sort of passable German.

He asked for help – his home was only seven kilometres down the road. He could walk, and get supplies to fix the truck, but his daughter was in the cab and was unwell. A little back and forth with him and it became clear his German was great with regards to vehicles, but no so good with humans, but his daughter was with small parts…. Pregnant? Yes, expecting a delivery.

Exchanging looks, the team decided they couldn’t leave him by the roadside, so pulled their truck around to the front, and hooked up – unplugging the winch from the front and moving it to the rear, and blessing rugged Soviet truck building. The truck they were pulling was probably at the limit, maybe over for what would be a reasonable tow, but they were sure their vehicle would handle the strain. The man introduced himself as Eeymal Adin, and then pulled out a portable welder from his load bed and a length of box section, and put in a temporary connection between the back of the team’s truck and the front of his, to keep the damaged axle up and off the ground, whilst the tow cable did the pulling. Very carefully, the team pulled out, their engine struggling with the huge load and thin mountain air, and they rumbled down the mercifully straight road at a blistering fifteen kph. After twenty-five minutes, they could see a large compound on the opposite side of the road, and checking behind them they saw the vehicle indicate to the left. Very carefully Marius angled across the quiet road, in a gentle arc to avoid stressing the weld or jolting the vehicles. As they passed through the gates though, the truck they were towing leant on the horn, blasting out a continuous tone. The driver’s window wound down and an arm frantically waved forwards, lights flashing to add emphasis. Marius pulled forward as fast as he dare, until the rear truck was level with the house. The driver and his son leapt from the vehicle, before it had stopped rolling, shouting at the house.

As the team got out of their vehicle, wrapped up as best they could in their clothes (especially Kai and Hunter), they became aware of both father and son moving frantically, trying to get a very pregnant daughter down from the cab – and realised that she was sweating profusely, even in the bitter cold, and crying with pain. Hunter moved to the cab, gently shoved the panicking men out of the way and used his height and strength to carefully lift the woman down, ignoring the scowling man behind her, and then turned to carry her into the house.

Inside a woman was rapidly clearing the large wooden table in the farmhouse-style kitchen, motioning for them to place the daughter there, and then moving to get some water on the boil on the large open fire. The daughter was in great distress, and Kai and Shimazu moved to examine her, pulling out medical supplies. Marius and Hunter explained as best as they could that they were doctors, and would help. The scowling man started to shout and wave angrily at them, with the father trying to explain as best he could. It appeared that because they were male, they must not see his wife unclothed, it was inappropriate and would cause them shame. Back the conversation went, as the two continued their examination despite his protests – she was sick, they were doctors, she *must* get help or she would get worse.

Kai looked up suddenly and announced that not only was she very pregnant, and apparently going into labour early, but also that the baby was in trouble – it had only partially turned and was in distress. They had to do something, and do it now. The father and mother exchanged looks and nodded, clearly overriding the husband’s view, causing him to become even angrier. The wife pulled out a table cloth and they held it over the woman at chest height, leaving Kai and Shimazu on one side, and everyone else to the other. This seemed to calm him somewhat, and the team went to work, calling for more supplies and tools.

A tense twenty minutes later and the emergency c-section was done, the baby untangled from the umbilical cord that had been tangled around the neck forming a noose, with no apparent damage. The mother had been stitched up, given enough antibiotics to clean a plague pit and enough pain killers to make her float, and then had been presented with her baby, causing many tears. Her husband had crouched down by them and was completely entranced. The team and the mother, father and son moved away, giving them some time and space. After the frantic efforts and drama, they stood around somewhat uncomfortably, with Marius and the father trying to break the ice.

Eeymal Adin introduced his son Ullah, his wife Famah, waved to his daughter still on the kitchen table and her husband – Lorun and Gern, and made them welcome in his home. Hunter had sloped out by this point, and Eeymal insisted he come back in. The team tried to explain that they didn’t want to bring shame on his house, but he insisted. When Hunter returned – reluctantly – and took off his head covering, revealing that he was a meta, the conversation paused again. Then Famah reached over, took Tadibya by the hand and pulled her to the kitchen sink, announcing that it was time for food. Aswon drifted over as well, but Famah seemed to take this in her stride, and was soon working with both of them on preparing a lavish meal. Realising they had no language in common, they were soon engaged in primary school level point and show naming of items… knife, water, bowl, carrot…

The rest stood around and talked, slowly, having to translate through German to hold their stilted conversation. At one point Eeymal went off to fetch a stack of magazines and books, and it became apparent where he had learnt his second language – spare parts catalogues and copies of Mercedes-Benz and other heavy equipment manufacturers’ promotional material. They guy seemed to know his stuff, and was obviously good with repairs and such like – other than to his own vehicle.

After what they felt was a reasonable amount of social time, the team tried to make their excuses and leave, but Eeymal appeared very anxious that they not go – apparently there was a big storm coming. Deciding to take heed of his local knowledge, they agreed to stay the night. Ullah seemed fascinated with Hunter, asking him about his tusks, his physique – he was obviously the first meta he had encountered, but rather than being close-minded or judgemental, appeared to be just incredibly curious. After a hearty meal, and a few hours of conversation they were bedded down in the front parlour in a variety of spare sheets and bedding, most of it a little musty-smelling. Hunter stayed up most of the night on watch, just in case, and kept the fire going. During a quiet moment Shimazu spoke to the team and warned them – he thought the family was using up a lot of their stock of food, and after quietly checking their pantry and cupboards it appeared that they were quite hard up.

In the morning the team discovered that a good six inches of snow had fallen overnight during the storm, but it had cleared and now the sky was clear as far as the eye could see – a brilliant blue, with the air crisp and clean, though it remained bitterly cold. After a simple breakfast, Eeymal took them on a tour of his scrapyard, showing them the five large barns holding a treasure trove of spare parts and vehicle spares – and he indicated to them that he felt he owed them for his daughter’s and grandchild’s life – so they could have whatever they wanted. Scouting around, Marius discovered an old fire truck that had some salvageable sensors and high intensity flood lights that would be useful, and a TV truck that had a small generator and signal amplifier that might be able to work.

After checking on Lorun and the baby again, the team raided their supplies, insisting that Eeymal and Famah took some of their fresh vegetables and fruit, along with a large supply of the dried oats. Eeymal insisted on thanking them all again, and exchanged his details with Kai, promising them hospitality if they ever came back this way.


	10. 010 - Upgrades and Bandits

Date 8/12/2059, Location 37.95665, 46.98886

Marius considered his haul from the scrapyard – the spotlights and sensors from the crashed fire truck, the power amplifier from the media truck and the loose sheet steel that he had mentally earmarked to repair and cover the 7.62mm holes from the AK fire. Checking the limited toolkit they had with the van, and the uncertain road ahead, he realised that the team was far better using the facilities here to install the parts, than trying to do it on the road. It would take less time, be far easier, and the results would be better quality. Eeymal seemed more than happy for them to use his facilities, and they set to, installing the new equipment, and managing to patch up the worst of the holes in the vehicle. This took them until around lunchtime, so of course Eeymal and his wife insisted they stay for lunch before they finally got on the road around 2pm.

As they left the shelter of the garage, they got hit with the strong westerly winds again, feeling the bite of the cold mountain air through their clothing, and cranking up the truck’s heater to compensate. Fortunately, the truck was designed with the harsh northern Russian winters in mind, and they were soon cosy, well fed and comfortable – and back on the road to Bostan Abad. Their heavy duty 6 X 6 handled the road well, the wide wheel base cutting through fresh snow in places, and the deep treads combined with their weight crushing through the ice and slush to give them solid traction – more than could be said for the few cars they saw. Most of these were being driven at what was quite clearly an unsafe speed, and they saw a number of cars failing to take bends in the roads, departing at speed and ending up in snow drifts and banks. They trundled onwards, slow and steady, their 6.8l diesel engine throwing out black smoke behind them as they chewed up the distance to their destination.

After a short while on the road, they came across the village of Seyah Nab, about one hundred houses scattered on either side of the main road, following the gentle slope up to the hills on either side. The crisp, clear air gave them chance to study the settlement, and to spot the fallow fields, covered in undisturbed snow, surrounding the village. The houses were mostly single storey, densely packed with no gardens or greenery present, arrayed tightly to the twisting and turning roads that spread off the main highway. On their way out of the village, they spotted a fuel station, and noted down the price for diesel – 90,000 per litre. Racking their brains, they realised that they hadn’t made a note of the fuel price previously, so they had nothing to compare it to. Not wanting to pay over the odds, they moved on for the moment, continuing their journey south.

Just over a kilometre further on, they came across another village - Gogarchin, which also seemed to have about a hundred houses, along with more fields on either side of highway, laid out in the same manner as Seyah Nab – this seemed to be the standard building practice, and made their first encounter at Raazi seem unusual – nowhere else had they seen the trees, gardens and cultivation that had been present there. There was no fuel station here, so they pushed on further.

About three kilometres further on, they came across another village - Abriz, which sprawled on the left side of road, again seeming to be about a hundred houses in a densely-packed sprawl, but with fields on the right side of the highway. A slight increase in elevation now bought the river into view, winding along the base of the hill to the right of them – presumably this was what made this particular stretch of country fertile and able to support crops, bringing down silt and nutrients with every flood from the hills and mountains. At the moment the river was swollen and fast-moving, the water quite clearly brown and full of froth as the snow and sleet of the previous night added to its’ volume.

As they closed on Bostan Abad, Hunter was looking at the maps, seeing if they could skirt the town, avoiding as much attention as they could. They saw a turnoff to the east, which they were tempted to take, but at the last moment Aswon spotted a sign, which with his limited knowledge of Faarsi said “Private Camp”. They backtracked a little, looking for another way, but again found that the road to the mountains up to the east had another sign, this one with a faded flag symbol and “Mountain Camp” sign. Unsure of what this meant, but unwilling to risk it, they stuck to the main road and drove into Bostan Abad, turning west and crossing the narrow stone bridge over the raging river, into the outskirts. They quickly found another fuel station, this time charging 95,000 per litre of fuel, so they pushed on again. Bostan appeared to have a population somewhere in the two and a half to three and a half thousand range, had a small bazaar in the centre of town, and a variety of shops and services. Again though, the town was a ribbon development, hugging the main roads, and rarely being more than a hundred metres wide. They made the intersection with route thirty-two and turned south-east, without incident and with no attention from the local police force. At the southern edge of town they found another fuel station – this time selling at 89,000 per litre. Marius slewed the truck in, and they added a hundred litres of fuel to the tank, replacing just about everything used between their last fuel stop at Lankaran, back in Azerbaijan. 

As they were filling up and grabbing a few snacks, Marius noticed something odd – despite most of their phones being off for a large portion of the time, they were nearly all on half charge. Sure, the cold would chew through their batteries a little, but there was no way they should be dropping charge like this. They had a discussion, throwing ideas around – maybe it was because they had Azerbaijani SIM cards? Not really coming up with anything definite, they decided to physically remove the batteries from the phones to ensure that they weren’t chewing power when they weren’t supposed to be, loaded back into the truck and headed out. South of the town, the highway swept along the valley floor between the two ranges of hills, or mountains – it was hard to tell from here. The road was equally covered with the compacted snow and ice from yesterday’s fall, and much like route sixteen, there were an equal number of bad drivers, idiots and people who thought that having an expensive car, or four wheel drive somehow made them an expert driver. Marius trundled along at a steady speed, ignoring the traffic when it built up behind them, sighing when a wider part of the road let the traffic power past him, fishtailing wildly or throwing up slush from their wheels in a wide arc, and smiling when someone lost it as they tried a risky manoeuvre to get past him and spun out onto the verge.

The road dropped very slightly as they pushed onwards, but the terrain remained fairly constant – a few fields on the low slopes on either side of the road, giving way to barren land on the higher slopes. As the daylight faded, Tadibya gathered her robes around her and concentrated, calling to the spirits of the mountains. Still suffering from the lingering effects of altitude sickness, she looked even more stunned after the summoning, but announced with satisfaction that the local spirits were now protecting and guarding the vehicle. Taking a few painkillers and some water, she settled back to rest, trying to get rid of the throbbing headache the summoning had given her.

Night fell rapidly as the sun disappeared behind the mountains to the west, and they pushed on through the slush, now taking even more care as the idiotic drivers continued to drive with scant regard for the conditions around them – though this became less and less of an issue quite rapidly, as the traffic eased off a great deal. It appeared that few people travelled after dark, if they could help it. Hunter checked the maps, and selected a place where they could pull off to rest, just a short way ahead.

Aswon was the first to notice the sets of headlights behind them – closing fast on their position. He pointed them out to the rest of the team, and then studied them carefully, watching them in the rear view mirror, his intense body control letting him slit his irises to filter out some of the glare from the headlights. What he saw worried him – four SUV type vehicles, all in the same shade of dark blue. No markings, no decals… but it seemed likely that they were police – or something worse – with them being identical.

Tadibya took a deep breath, and let her spirit divorce her body, floating out the back of their vehicle, and towards the pursuit vehicles. She tried to synchronise her spirit with that of the vehicles, latching onto them so she could peer inside from astral space – but she was unable to adapt quickly enough, leaving her astral form on the road behind them as they sped past. She accelerated for a split second at the speed of thought, then waited for them to catch up with her and tried again – still no good. Giving it up as a bad job, she headed back to their vehicle, and tried to rejoin her body – and found the same issue. It took her three more attempts to rejoin body and soul, and she realised that this was a risky manoeuver to perform until she was a little more skilled. Finally getting back to her body, she announced that she hadn’t been able to gain any knowledge of the pursuers. The four vehicles continued to close, now being less than fifty metres from the truck. With a surge of power, they accelerated hard, and moved around the truck, one pulling ahead, two to the side and one to the rear, and the team saw the windows start to wind down, revealing the barrels of several rifles amongst the passengers.

Marius acted instantly, his hind-brain analysing positions, the road surface, speed, vehicle weights and then throwing the truck hard to the left with a suddenness that surprised the pursuit vehicles. He clipped the back end of the front vehicle by his left side, performing a perfect PIT manoeuver. The SUV spun out of control, doing three full revolutions at speed and bouncing over the central reservation into the opposite lane, ending up facing north with the occupants completely disoriented. The second vehicle to their side got rammed broadside, his vehicle being bashed sideways hard by the much heavier truck, and forced to go wide, throwing off the aim of the assailants there, who fired off long burst of fire into the air.

Aswon stuck the barrel of his rifle out through the firing port, took careful aim and then fired a single shot at the trail car, hitting in the corner of the windscreen on the driver’s side. His high power rifle starred the screen massively, making it almost impossible to see through. Shimazu aimed his pistol with equal care at the front vehicle, firing off a single round straight into the front tyre – but was disappointed when apparently nothing happened. He scored a good hit, he was sure! A moment later, the tell-tale signs of escaping foam revealed that at least one of the vehicles had run-flat tyres.

Hunter moved through the vehicle towards the back doors, thinking he could throw them open to spray the trail vehicle with some autofire, but ducked and threw himself into cover as someone from the rear vehicle opened up, and managed a lucky hit – his weapon punched holes through the back of the truck in a rising line, and lead started to bounce around inside. Another line of fire stitched the chassis to one side, and the truck gave a lurch as something was hit. Marius winced in pain, “feeling” the hit on his mechanical body, and a few drops of sweat dripped from his hairline as he felt the damage mounting – past the level of the redundancies and battle compensators ability to deal with. He activated the speakers and shouted “hang on, hard turn”, and then slammed on the brakes and threw the vehicle around in a punishing turn.

Warned by his shout, the team hung on as best they could and concentrated on the bad guys. Another shot slammed out from Aswon’s rifle, taking out the gunman in the front seat of the chase car. Tadibya concentrated, hard, and threw everything she had into a spell. For a moment, her face became furry, her eyes enlarged, and vestigial antlers appeared around her head as her Shamanic mask manifested in reaction to her tapping into the manasphere. A moment later she grunted and winced in pain… and the truck vanished to the outside world. A powerful invisibility spell bent the world around them, obscuring the truck from view. With the power poured into it, their assailants had no chance of seeing through the illusion. Marius killed his acceleration and let the engine idle, pulling them away from the spot quietly and cautiously. Between the spell and the careful driving the attackers were robbed of both sight and sound, and they quickly gave up the hunt, and started to recover their vehicles – and dead.

The team drove cautiously to the south, glad to have escaped with no injury to themselves. Unnoticed by the rest, Marius gritted his teeth as he examined the truck, and realised that all of the repair work he’d done had now been compromised, and he needed to make another set of repairs to his vehicle.


	11. 011 - The wrong colour ink

Date 9/12/2059, Location 37.73865, 46.95247

The team headed south, through the darkness for a while, until they reached the village at Charmkhowran-e-sofla. They pulled off the highway, and drove down the main road until they found one of the side streets large enough for them to enter easily, then slowed to a halt. Out of sight of the highway and main road, they stopped to examine the damage to the vehicle and to check over the cargo. One of the boxes had taken a round in the corner, but the contents seemed fine – more than could be said for the truck. The rear doors had a number of holes in them, stitching up in a line from bottom left to top right, clearly showing the climb of the muzzle as their attacker had fired on fully automatic. Worse though was the damage to the rear axle and chassis – a couple of holes were blown through the chassis and the axle looked to be slightly twisted and warped. Fixing this was going to take a couple of hours and some serious equipment, not just a couple of minutes in a darkened side street. 

Marius reported back to the rest of the team inside the vehicle, explaining what damage they had taken and coming up with a rough cost to fix – about forty to fifty thousand, to replace all the parts with new. Whatever they were getting paid for the job had just taken a quick kick in the nuts, that was for sure.

Kai also pulled out the main phone for the team, turning it over in his hands, racking his brain to work out what was going on. He slid it over the table, asking Hunter and Marius to have another look at it. Hunter turned the phone on, and when it had finished booting up, went into the menu and turned off the GPS function. As the team bounced ideas around, trying to work out why the phone was acting up, his eyes were drawn back to the screen as an icon quickly flashed. He stared down at the phone for a moment, then turned off the GPS…. Again. A few moments later it turned itself back on. Again. He turned it off for a third time, pushing buttons carefully and ensuring it was really off. And then watched it turn itself back on again. He interrupted the conversation, and showed them all what the phone was doing.

Two minutes later, Marius and Hunter were hunched over the phone circuit board, bits spread all over the table, with soldering iron and chip pullers in hand, carefully extracting the GPS chipset from the mass of electronics. With careful movements they manged to desolder the chip and pull it carefully from the board, leaving an empty space behind. With deft movements the phone was reassembled and turned on – success! Still working, just without any GPS information. That should fix it! They looked at the other five phones and decided to leave those for the moment, to work on in better conditions.

The team mounted up, turned around and got back on the road.

Route thirty-two continued down the valley, between windswept hills rocky escarpments, snow laying over the landscape like a thin white blanket. The ice on the road crunched under their heavy wheels, but the 6 X 6 drive and giant treads cut through it easily, and even with the battle damage sustained, the truck handled smoothly for Marius – a testament to the design of the vehicle.

They continued south, following the road as it wound through the highlands, mostly unlit and with almost no traffic at night. Further down the road they came across the village of Ali Khalaj, unusual in that it lay entirely off the road, clustered to one side of the highway rather than spread along it like a ribbon. Dark and quiet, they only really saw the village from the set of headlights that swept down the main road, approaching the highway. The team kept a casual eye on the vehicle as it pulled onto the road behind them, but relaxed as it crossed over the highway and headed up into the hills behind them.

They continued along the road a while longer, then Marius saw a pair of cars blocking the road ahead, parked at angles across the carriageway. He could probably take the vehicle off the side of the road and around them, but they’d be exposing their flank to a lot of potential fire whilst he did so…. They readied weapons, in case it was another bandit or attacker, and Tadibya got ready to spell cast – then they realised it was a pair of Police patrol vehicles. The lights came on and a spotlight shone their way, with the waves of an officer instructing them to pull over.

A very quick conversation, and the team decided to comply, pulling to the snow-covered shoulder. Hunter and Kai went into the back of the truck, pulling the tarpaulin over themselves and their cache of illegal guns and explosives. Shimazu gathered all of the identification papers together and wound down his window, flinching as the bitter wind scythed into the cab, and passed them down to the waiting officer – who looked equally cold and miserable. The officer spoke to him in rapid-fire Farsi, with a questioning look on his face. Shimazu shrugged, looked confused and turned to Aswon.

“I think he wants to know where we entered the country.” Aswon moved forwards and joined Shimazu at the window, speaking in very broken Farsi and trying to explain that they had crossed the border at Astara, then come through Adabil. The officer frowned and checked the papers again, then waved and called over another officer, showing him the papers.

They turned back, holding one set of papers up towards the pair in the window. “This one? Who is this one?” Aswon and Shimazu looked at the picture, then turned and poked Marius. “I think they want you….” Marius disconnected his jacks and climbed down out of the vehicle into the biting wind, shivering slightly as he stood by the roadside.

With Aswon’s halting translations, it was explained that he had the “wrong” papers in some way. They needed to be fixed – at the consulate. They would have to go there, to get the paperwork issue resolved. And… the policemen would arrange it. After this they demanded to see in the back of the truck. Walking around the back, gave enough time for Tadibya to weave her illusion over the covering, hiding their gear and meta-humans, before the back door was opened and one of the officers climbed in and had a look around at the medical equipment and supplies. Aswon described their mission, sticking to the pre-arranged cover story. As the officer poked at various supplies and boxes, Tads spoke up, asking him to be careful with a piece of electronic equipment. The officer looked affronted, and turned to Aswon, “You should keep your woman quiet.” Aswon looked from him to Tads, then back.

“We find it best to let the doctor speak, to give instructions.” The officer looked uncomfortable with the idea of a woman instructing a man, but put down the equipment, and after a last look around, climbed down out of the vehicle and closed the door.

The officer reported back to one of the cars, presumably to the senior officer, then came back towards the truck and the waiting team. “Go. Go to consulate, get correct papers”. And with that he waved them off…. Not believing their luck, the team got back into the truck and pulled around the two police cars and onto the highway – once more heading south into the darkness.

Their relief was short-lived however – at the next junction another police cruiser joined the highway, settled in behind their truck and followed. It appeared they were going to get an escort – all the way to the consulate service. Needless to say, that didn’t fit with their plans at all, but it was going to be hard to shake off the escort, and they discussed what to do.

The discussion went back and forth – shoot them? Use a spirit to affect their steering and make them crash? Become invisible? Every plan seemed to have drawbacks – mostly centered around the fact that they had a good description of the truck, most of the team and probably radio communications with the police officers in the car following them. For the moment then, it was time to wait.

The road wound on through the darkness, precious little light being seen in the hills on either side from the scattered housing and farms. The police car stayed with them, about fifty yards back, following them along the snakelike two lane highway. After an hour of travelling, they started to climb, the road starting to follow wide sweeping bends up the shoulders of a mountain. Hunter checked the map, swapping to topographical mode and then winced – looked like they were in for a climb. They ascended, the team making an effort to breathe deeply and regularly to ensure they would not suffer any further as they climbed up the rise. They climbed up into the hills, the road nestled into a valley between two ranges but still higher than the plains they’d been on recently. As they travelled further east, the two rises completely cut out all light pollution from around them, and the height and distance from cities meant the air was remarkably pollution-free. Above them the clear skies that had kept the temperatures low now revealed an expansive starscape, millions of stars speckled across the night sky, with a wide band of colour showing the milky way like a slash across the darkness. 

The police car suddenly flashed its lights at them, indicating to the side of the road. With trepidation, the pulled over, weapons ready and prepared to fight if this was some kind of ambush. They watched one of the policemen get out of his car and disappear behind his vehicle…. Then a minute later he reappeared, got in the car and the lights flashed again, with an arm waving them forward and back onto the road.

Eventually the road wound down the other side of the range, descending again to the plains and towards the city of Miyaneh. The police car pulled around them and took the lead, and as they approached the city they saw the border checkpoint – they were about to cross provinces again. This crossing point looked busier than the last though, featuring a wide toll booth arrangement, with an oversized pair of bays to one side for larger vehicles, which the police car led them to. The guard came out from the booth, and approached the driver-side door, reaching up towards Shimazu to take the ID papers again, and examining them under the harsh white light of the floodlit canopy. He grunted, and waved Marius’ ID, and motioned for him to come down. Whilst Marius unjacked and climbed down from the truck, the guard went to his booth and came back with a selection of items. First of all he took a head and shoulders photo of Marius with the rugged camera, before placing the device into his belt holster. Next was an old fashioned ink pad, and Marius soon found his fingertips covered in black ink as his digits were rolled across the card leaving clear imprints on the white paper. With some fiddling, a small image printed from the printer integrated with the holster was peeled from its backing paper and applied to the card – which then disappeared into the booth.

The police escort driver came up, and again translating through Aswon asked them where they were staying for the night, obviously hinting that it was late and time to stop. He seemed dismayed with the team told them they had a pair of drivers, and were planning on driving all night, and went back to his car to discuss with his partner. A minute later, he returned, shook his head and told the team to follow him.

They drove through the outskirts of the city, to the north and east, making good time through the quiet streets, until they came across the hospital. Escorting the team inside, the police officers called for the administrator, who appeared a short time later looking unkempt and badly dressed – presumably called in from home this late at night. The police officer announced that as they were medical staff travelling through the country, but had to stay somewhere safe, that this will be appropriate. The administrator argued, but the officer seemed insistent, and it was decided a few minutes later. The team were escorted to the doctors’ on-call room, and shown the bunk beds reserved for the staff use. Tadibya returned to the truck, saying she was going to sleep there in separate quarters to keep everyone happy – which also meant she could set an alarm for just before dawn and recast the illusion on the truck, that would disappear as soon as she went to sleep – hopefully if they parked carefully in the car park, out of sight as much as possible and with the cover of darkness, people would just see the shape and not the detail.

They bedded down, and actually managed a good night of sleep in the relatively comfortable beds and warmth of the hospital. Tadibya, Kai and Hunter had plenty of room in the truck and twice as many blankets as usual, and as dawn broke Tadibya recast the illusion on the truck, turning it back into the medical transport. Those inside the hospital had a hearty breakfast of freshly cooked bread and meat, taking some spare out to those in the truck. Shortly after they had eaten, the police officers arrived again, and they continued on their route.

An hour to the south, they crossed what appeared to be an ancient bridge, dating back hundreds of years from the stonework. The area looked interesting, with ruins on the sides of the valley to both the east and west, and indications that the area had significant historical value. Alas, their escort driver didn’t seem to be in the mood to stop, and they continued south.

By about 10am they had reached Aras, where the valley and the highway took a sharp turn to the east. As they did, another sight, equal in strangeness to the view of the stars from the night before, came into view to the west, spied in the rear view mirrors of their truck. As the morning sunlight lanced over their heads, the entire mountain range behind them appeared to shimmer and sparkle behind them. Hunter checked his maps, and announced that they were looking at a massive quarry – potentially one of the largest suppliers of marble and decorative stone in the region. The sunlight was hitting the blasted and terraced faces of the mountain, refracting the light in complex and beautiful patterns. 

They pushed on eastwards, still with their police escort trailing behind them, and soon saw Highway two – the Zanjan-Tabriz Freeway - to their south, running parallel to their route. By lunchtime they closed in on Zanjan, and the onramp to the freeway. Their escort pulled into to a set of services, and they grabbed lunch, a drink and a pit stop, ready for the next leg of their journey – still discussing in low voices just where and how they were going to ditch their escorts. 

Kai called Ngo, his contact in east Asia to discuss the problem with their papers and get her advice. When he came back from his quiet conversation he didn’t look happy – and when the team pressed him on it, he said, “She advised me to spill tea on them, in front of someone just about to check them…. That will disguise the colour change then.”

Still, it was a better idea than what they’d come up with themselves…


	12. 012 - The diamond heist

Date 10/12/2059, Location 36.66332, 48.47854

The team arrived in Zanjan just before midday, and pulled into the truck stop just off the highway, getting out to stretch their legs. The police officers assigned to them followed Marius around – not in a threatening fashion, but making it clear that they were keeping an eye on him. They visited the small market next to the truck stop and picked up a few supplies, such as some fresh coffee and warmer winter clothes, to make their lives a little more enjoyable.

Whilst the cops where watching Marius, Aswon placed a call to “Omar”, the delivery contact, leaving a message in English on his answering service, asking him to get in touch.

Housekeeping completed, they got back into the truck and onto the highway, engaging in a discussion with Tadibya once on the move. The team discussed the possibility of using her magical spell to create an illusion around the ID, to change the colour and appearance to match the rest. After some time they came to the conclusion that it was too risky, and not worth it – as the documents were going to be scrutinised, carefully, by suspicious people – the chance was too high that the effect would be spotted – and it would also be very difficult for Tadibya to manipulate the magic to such a fine degree for the intricate work on the ID papers.

Down the highway they travelled, until they reached another province checkpoint. Knowing the drill by now, Marius got out of the vehicle, presenting his hand to be fingerprinted and standing ready for the photograph. Soon thereafter, they were on their way again, still with their police tail, following sedately along behind them.

A couple of hours passed, the truck trundling along the highway with the high mountains on the horizon both left and right, and boring and repetitive views of scrubland on either side of the truck luring them into a stupor. Tadibya glanced out of the window, then gave a sudden start – asking if anyone else had seen that too? Seen what? No? It appeared that no-one had any idea what she was blathering about. She got Marius to run back the sensor feed from about two minutes ago… then on the roll-out screen, showed them a white Toyota Hi-Lux overtake them, followed by a red Ford F350 flareside, closely followed by short bus, painted in yellow. The team seemed unimpressed, not seeing what the issue was – until ninety seconds later in the feed, they were overtaken by… a white Toyota Hi-Lux, followed by a red Ford F350 flareside, closely followed by short bus, painted in yellow. They appeared identical, in every way…

They quickly checked back behind them – no, no more repeats. They contemplated action, but it didn’t seem to be anything aimed against them, and with the police car still behind them, they had limited options. In the end, they continued along the road, slightly more alert to their surroundings.

Shortly afterward they approached the city of Gazvin, the highway curving all the way around the city, up the west side, around the north, and then breaking away to head south east. The town appeared much like the villages, a hodgepodge of closely stacked stone boxes, with almost no greenery or parks, no gardens, a narrow maze of streets and awful traffic. In the centre were some high-rise buildings, in what appeared to be the CBD. As the truck turned east, and travelled along the north side of the city, they did finally see a change in the scenery. A university campus displaced the normal buildings, large sculpted parklands, lecture halls and laboratories in a relatively high-tech looking environment. Shortly afterwards though, they were back into normal buildings, staring again at white, yellow and brown boxes.

Just as the road started to bend towards the south east, they saw another break in the building design – something that caused them to pay even more careful attention. The tank laager had a large clear area around it, with double mesh fences and towers in the corner, and inside were a large number of modern looking main battle tanks, set in three rows. To the south they could see rows of armoured personnel carriers, being worked on by the troops. The road soon bent further east, putting the base behind them, and the scenery returned to “normal”.

Twenty minutes later though, life got interesting – the police car behind them burst forward, blue lights flashing and siren blaring, and they were frantically waved over to the verge. Marius complied, and the police car slowed, letting the officer in the passenger seat jump out and run towards the truck. As he approached he shouted and waved, holding some kind of device in his hand. As Marius started to climb down out of the truck, the officer waved this hands to stop him, grabbed his leg and fitted some kind of tracking tag around it, before sprinting back to the police car and diving in through the open door. The car burned rubber, and accelerating hard headed down the road, out of site, leaving the team by the side of the road looking very confused.

They saddled up again, and followed the police car, heading east towards Karaj. A few miles down the road, as they crested a rise they could see a large complex to the left of the highway, with a handful of police cars forming a barrier across the site entrance, engaged in a heavy firefight with someone inside. Tadibya manipulated the illusion to cover the sides of the truck, but to leave the top open – just in case magical support was headed in to assist the police, hoping that the viewing angle of an aerial spotter would minimise the chance of seeing the spell. As they pulled level with the complex they could make out the name of the factory and what it made – industrial diamonds – and they also saw who was engaged in the battle with the police – a white Toyota Hi-Lux, alongside a red Ford F350 flareside, with a short bus, painted in yellow, at the back of the facility. Marius maxed out the acceleration of the truck, moving away from the battle, just as they spotted someone appearing through the top of the illusion on some of the vehicles, attaching a machine gun to the ring mount and then opening up with sustained fire.

They drove on, seeing more police cars streaming towards the heist on the opposite carriageway, and catching the start of a crash caused by rubber-neckers blocking the scene, adding to the chaos until the road twisted the view out of line of sight of the large rear-view mirrors and sensors. Ten minutes or so down the road, they came across the last province checkpoint before they got to Karaj – and a problem. The toll-booth style setup was clogged up, with traffic four to eight vehicles deep on every lane. By the looks of things, a second group of police had closed the crossing, turning the normal commuters into a very efficient road block. The team pulled over to the truck lane, parking up behind the six vans and delivery trucks waiting there. Already a number of people were out of their vehicles, gesticulating wildly and obviously engaged in angry conversation with the guards, who were responding equally angrily and telling people to go back to their vehicles. Looking around, the team could see the single chain link fence on either side of the road, stretching up the slopes on either side – it certainly didn’t seem that much of a barrier. Their attention was drawn again to the crossing as someone made a grab for one of the border agents, and things escalated quickly with a few shots fired into the air – leading to a general exodus back to their vehicles and some longer ranged, but slightly safer shouting.

A disturbance down the road caused people to turn and stare, then frantically dive into their vehicles – coming up the road at speed was a truck, the bulky figure of an ork swadled in robes visible through the sunroof firing a heavy machine gun down the road behind him at the massive phalanx of pursuing police cars, streams of gunfire taking out tyres and engines and causing cars to flip and explode violently. The red F350 barrelled off road, its heavy duty suspension flexing and sinking as they hammered over the rough terrain, easily pushing 60mph. The ork had spun around, and was now blazing away at the ground in front of the fence, sweeping long bursts of autofire into the ground – and being rewarded very quickly with a series of loud explosions as the mines guarding the fence were set off by the heavy duty rounds. The Ford smashed through the fence, a number of mines exploding under the armoured chassis as it rolled over them but with no apparent effect, then roared off down the highway. A police car, braver than the rest, drove after them – but his luck ran out. The narrower treads of the car couldn’t match the truck tracks, and hit a mine, and by the size of the explosion, it was obviously an anti-vehicle shaped charge, not one of the smaller anti-personnel mines. The resulting explosion tore the police vehicle to pieces, sending debris raining down into the area, in turn setting off a ripple of further explosions in the area around. The other cars slid to a halt, unwilling to risk the minefield.

Aswon and Shimazu climbed down out of the truck and made their way towards the devastated police car, trying to see if there was anyone left alive. Shimazu stopped at the edge of the road, looking at the pockmarked landscape, craters and bits of flaming rubber bearing testament to the mines recent activity – and decided that was far enough for him. Aswon pushed on, getting close enough to the wrecked chassis of the car, peering into see the two carbonised and charred remains of the officers. Shaking his head he turned and backed away, trying to retrace his footsteps, back to safety.

Click.

Aswon froze in place, tuning out the shouts of policemen and civilians back on the road, and carefully crouched down, pulling out a knife and sliding it carefully under his boot, questing with the tip until he could feel the plunger on the mine… it felt quite small, so probably only an AP device… but still not anything he wanted to be near. He slid the blade in between the plunger and his shoe, then applied downward pressure, gingerly moving his foot away and then questing out with his body, until he could reach a piece of the wreckage. Slowly and carefully he pulled the lump of metal over, and rolled it on top of the knife, then pulled the blade out with slow careful movements. Finally he eased himself up, and then taking exceptional care to tread only in his footsteps, he walked back to the road, barely sweating.

Back at the checkpoint, the border agent on the truck line demanded to know what he was doing – was he crazy? Aswon answered in broken Farsi, telling them they were doctors, and he had to check, had to help if he could save a life. The agent interrogated them, and received the story they had worked up – Doctors without borders, going to the refugee camps at Karaj, trying to help the dispossessed. The agent gave him a funny look, then suddenly swept him up into a most atypical hug, thanking them. With shouted commands, he got the line of trucks at the checkpoint to back up, clearing the way for the team to approach and clear the checkpoint, and be on their way. He seemed so happy, that he didn’t even check their papers as he waved them through…

The team watched in their mirrors as the other vehicles demanded to be let through too, and the confrontation between the agents, the police units and the waiting drivers started to heat up again – but for now, they were alone on the road, heading down out of the hills towards Karaj.

The highway swept down out of the hills, giving them a good panoramic view of Karaj – and in the far distance the ruins of Tehran and the mountains beyond, white-capped and forbidding – a quick check on the map showed a number of them over three and a half thousand metres. Karaj appeared to be “more of the same” – massive housing blocks, terraced boxes in white, sand or brown colours, clustered together densely around narrow streets with little to no greenery present. Interspersed were larger mid-rise blocks of apartments, cheaply made but at least having some landscaping around them. They called the contact again and made arrangements to meet, just after prayer time, at the business location in the CBD. In the meantime, they pulled off into a side street and Marius had a look at the tracker on his leg – and snorted. It might be good enough to flummox a teenager or your average criminal – but it was old technology and not that great in terms of design. Less than two minutes later, the tracker was off his leg and ready to dump in a passing bin lorry that would do the rounds of the city, its stupid electronic brain convinced it was still attached. Tadibya concentrated on the illusion spell wrapped around the vehicle, and as they emerged from the alleyway, they changed to becoming just another courier truck delivering goods around the city.

The team headed down to the warehouse and office building of “Precision Communications”, and were mildly surprised at how much traffic there was still on the roads around prayer times – it was still fairly busy. They made it to the offices at about the same time as their contact, “Omar”. He directed them to the goods entrance and called the gatehouse to clear them through. By the time Marius had the truck cleared of the gate, into the goods yard and then turned around and backed up to the raised loading dock, Omar was just coming through the side door and heading towards the back of the truck, rubbing his hands together in expectation. After inspecting the goods and making sure the kit was all there and working, he agreed to pay, and wanted to know what form they wanted payment in.

After much discussion, working out of finances and a bit of haggling with Omar about taking goods in kind, they finally settled on a set of discreet communications gear designed for security use – tiny earbuds, a pickup throat patch and basic encryption to keep them secure against casual eavesdropping – then a bunch of local currency in cash, for use to get them out of the country, with the remainder on a credstick in good old fashioned Nuyen. Taking forty-five million in local currency, and deducting the cost of the comms gear, they ended up with a stick with a balance of 214,706 Nuyen.

Omar said he had to go to the bank to arrange this, and the team should keep themselves busy and wash the truck whilst he was away – so that’s what they did. When he returned, he had a large holdall, filled to bursting with notes for ten, twenty and even fifty thousand Riall – but forty-five million still made for a lot of notes.

The team got back in the truck and made a few calls, looking for a fixer to put them in touch with a chop shop or discreet garage to make some repairs in. Paying a couple of hundred nuyen they were put in touch with “Turkwan” who could accommodate their needs. Starting up, they headed off into the darkness, heading to a small industrial area near the junction with the highway and the Mahdasht Road, looking for a place to fix up the damage to the truck.


	13. 013 - Shootout at the chopshop

Date 10/12/2059, Location 35.79928, 50.96871

The industrial estate was on some ground nestled in the shadow of the highway, obviously polluted and quite undesirable. Large industrial pre-fab units were terraced down each side of the road, mostly light industry that involved chemicals or some process that barred them from other areas of town. As they drove carefully down the road, they saw about halfway along the road a warehouse with double roller shutters, one closed, and the other open to about head height allowing yellow light to spill out into the darkness. They pulled up alongside the door, and after a brief discussion Aswon climbed out of the vehicle and walked under the shutter into the unit.

The building was a fairly average-size warehouse, with an apex roof made out of fibreglass or plastic sheeting. The walls were breezeblock to about three metres high, then a vertical stand of the same roof sheeting up to about six meters before it angled in over the trusses. There looked to be two long pits dug, one behind each of the roller shutters, with room to back two full size articulated lorries into the workshop. Scattered around were several mobile tool chests and random pieces of equipment, welding torches, lamps and other maintenance equipment. In the back left corner was a cheap and battered desk with a few chairs around and a set of filing cabinets.

In the centre back were several rows of industrial racking stuffed full of parts, metal, boxes and random debris. In the back right corner were a pair of sinks, and what looked like a crew break room. Along the right hand side of the unit were a number of barrels, some of which were splashed with paint, while others had various warning symbols sprayed on them. What looked to be the owner was sitting at the desk in the back corner, chatting away on the phone, and three other people were present, all humans and locals by the looks of things. One grunted and waved to Aswon, and started to make his way over. Making introductions in Farsi, Aswon was pointed to the man at the back, who seeing him approach finished his phone call and came around the desk to greet him and introduced himself as Lorac Ahamad.

Aswon explained who he was, and who had sent him, and Lorac told him to get the truck bought in, shouting at one of his workers to open the door. A minute later, Marius was reversing the truck through the roller door, carefully driving back over the yellow chevrons on the floor and keeping the wheels centred, straddling the pit. Most of the team got out of the truck and had a look around, stretching their legs and examining the workshop with interest. Kai and Aswon had a chat with Lorac, and explained a little about the damage to the truck, pointing out the various holes and broken sections of their truck.

Lorac jumped down into the inspection pit and wandered under the truck, playing a handheld light over the chassis and tutting under his breath. Marius watched with interest, wanting to be sure his truck was in good hands, and in doing so got a good look at the inspection pit – and a look of horror spread over his face. It looked like nothing more than a crudely excavated trench in the earth, about the same width as a digger bucket, and the edges looked to have been “reinforced” by old scaffold planks and surplus railway sleepers. Marius watched carefully, his impression of their work and his happiness both taking a sudden dive.

After a few minutes of inspection, including calling one of his workers over, he climbed out of the pit and came to talk to the team.

He announced his price – seventy-five thousand, and after a bit of discussion and checking this was Nuyen, and not millions or billions of local currency, they chatted amongst themselves. 75K was over the odds for the work – Marius had estimated about 50K if they were getting it done at his local garage – but they were “off the books”, in a foreign country… it was expensive, but not downright extortion. Kai tried to haggle, having to translate through Aswon… it made for slow progress.

Part way through the negotiations, the “spare” box of sensors and security system components were pulled out and as part payment, they offered to fix up the warehouse with a top-flight security system. Eventually the team and Lorac reached an agreement – 50K Nuyen and the security gear, and he would get his guys to make their repairs a priority.

Both sides seemed satisfied, and he called the workers over, and soon they were down in the pit, cutting torches blazing and bits of rear transmission and differential being torched off. Marius continued to watch carefully, but seemed reasonably happy with their progress. All of the team had emerged from the truck by now, and Hunter got a couple of glances from the guys, but no one seemed to have an issue with him. Aswon grabbed his rifle and went to lurk by the front doors, which had been lowered to about waist height – enough to let air circulate but stopping casual glances in.

A short while after, Aswon was alerted by the sounds of someone running outside. Ducking under the door, he spied a small child running down the road flat out – like he was being chased. He moved out a little, to get a better view, and alerted the team that there may be trouble. The child closed the distance, only spotting Aswon as he almost reached the doors, and shying to the side, crying out in Farsi “Uncle! Uncle!!” His shrill voice cut over the sounds of the work, and Lorac waved him over. Keeping his distance from the huge black man, he edged through the door and babbled to his uncle. Apparently his mother had overheard some men talking, and they were coming to attack Lorac.

The team gathered round and listened – Lorac telling them there was a business rival that was keen to put him out of business, better funded than he was, and with the ear of the local council. Looking at the huge holes torched in the bottom of their truck, it was obvious they could leave if they absolutely had to, but their truck was in a sorry state if they did. A quick consensus was reached, and they grabbed their gear, getting ready to repel the attack. They broke out their new comms gear, everyone keying in the basic encryption system and firmly seating earbuds and checking the microphones were picking up clearly.

Aswon headed out, and spoke in his native tongue, activating the Gecko Crawl spell his tribal shamen had anchored into his skin with the primitive tattoos, and he walked up the outside of the building, hiding in the shallow gutter between the workshop and the adjacent unit. Marius got in the cab, with the roof padding peeled back and the top hatch open, ready to stick his head out. Hunter knelt on the roof of the cargo section, keeping an eye on the still open roller shutter and Tadibya nestled in by the front wheel of the truck, using the mass of the vehicle to shield her, slingshot in hand. Kai and Shimazu moved to the front right of the warehouse, using the barrels for cover and watching over the other doorway.

Behind them Lorac produced a pistol from his desk, one of the workers grabbed a shotgun from the racking somewhere – something similar to the basic shotguns the team had stolen from the guerrillas up in the hills, along with a cheap-looking pistol. The last guy stuck a tube over an air hose, and started to load screwdrivers and other junk in, obviously lacking anything better. Hunter gave a sigh and broke out the spare weapons, giving them all at least a pistol or shotgun from their cache, then returned to his spot.

Shortly after, Aswon called down – two heavy duty tow trucks had turned into the road and were crawling down, doing about ten miles per hour… definitely suspicious. They both pulled wide and then started to back up towards the warehouse, one to each door. One guy emerged from the back of the right hand vehicle, holding some kind of cheap-looking assault rifle. He ran to the back of the truck, and pulled down the tow cable from the A-frame, and moved towards the door – by the looks of things they were planning on just ripping the door out. Shouldering his rifle and peering down the scope, Aswon sighted carefully, waited for his breathing to steady, and then fired. The large round obliterated the guy’s hand, flesh and blood exploding out in a spray. Aswon ducked back away from the edge, just catching sight of the guy falling – and the tow truck coldly driving over him. The shot might well have been lethal, given the hydrostatic shock caused – but being driven over by the heavy tow truck left it in no doubt. With revving engine, the door to the right was impacted by the reversing truck, bulged, buckled and after a few seconds with a screech of metal and tearing noise, collapsed over the back of the truck, torn off the housing and collapsing into the warehouse.

The left-hand truck lowered the A-frame on the hydraulics, and used it to lever up the roller shutter on the left, being slightly more circumspect about poking their heads out of the vehicle, then reversed in at an angle. Hunter opened fire, taking out tyres to the rear and watching them deflate – they weren’t escaping at speed now. The doors opened, and at least seven more attackers boiled out of their vehicles, all holding what looked like AK style rifles, moving to the sides of pillars and doorways and letting loose with long bursts of wild and unaimed fire into the warehouse. The team returned fire, careful shots punching into the light body armour of the attackers, wounding first one, then another. A lucky shot caught Marius in the shoulder, the rounds punching through and spraying blood everywhere in an arc behind him. Seconds later a rock from Tadibya’s slingshot caught him square between the eyes, distracting him, then a burst from Hunter smashed through his chest and dropped him. Kai and Shimazu fired shots from their pistols, wounding the men trying to climb over the twisted barrier and forcing them back in a panic. Aswon peered over the edge, searching for targets, and his rifle barked again as he terminated another target with a clean shot. Moments later, one of the wounded plucked a grenade from his pocket and threw it into the warehouse, bouncing just in front of Shimazu.

Time seemed to slow, Shimazu reached forwards his hand swinging up fingers outstretched, neatly plucking the grenade from the air before it span out of reach. His other hand reached over, and two fingers uncurled from the grip around his pistol – and pulled out the pin that the panicked attacker had neglected to remove. With a smile, he slid the grenade along the floor, under the roller shutter, aiming for the cluster of feet. The sharp crack and flash of light illuminated a number of bodies and parts flying through the air. Hunter meanwhile was putting tightly controlled bursts downrange, servicing targets and cutting down opponents.

Aswon on the roof spotted another vehicle approaching at speed, pulling up sharply outside and watched the four occupants jump out. He called a warning, “Four more, SMGs, look more pro.” He sighted on one, firing off a quick shot – but at this short range it still took the guy in the eye, the bullet boring through his brain and exploding out of the back of his head. He panned over, sighted the second and snapped off a quick shot. This one was less clean, but the bullet took him in the neck and he fell just the same. “Two left, reloading,” as he ducked back to try and break line of sight. Two long streams of fire burst up into the sky, narrowly missing him, as the remaining two goons fired blindly at his position.

Inside, the rest of the team finished off the remaining first wave, putting down fire carefully, finishing off the wounded. Two more sharp retorts outside signalled that Aswon had inserted a few more rounds and had finished off the reinforcements. Part of the team bounded forward and out, checking for more reinforcements. Kai and Tadibya closed on Marius, checking him over. The wild shots had struck his shoulder, punching through the armour there, causing a deep wound that was leaking blood. Kai got to work – novacaine syringe in one hand, dermal filler in the other, working to stem the blood loss. After a minute or two of work, the wound was filled and no longer spurting blood, and the pained expression had eased.

Tadibya moved her hands over the wound, concentrating, a small scowl forming on her face as she channelled mana through her hands and struggled to force it into the body through the cyber and bioware that resisted her. She found a scrap of his essence, and pushed the golden energy into him, and the glow followed the twisting shard of his being, suffusing his shoulder in golden light. The skin knitted together, binding into a pink and raw looking patch, but whole nonetheless. Marius moved his shoulder gingerly, wincing a little. It was obviously not 100% yet, but nonetheless, was well on the mend.

After dealing with the wound, the three of them turned to face the rear of the warehouse, alerted by the sound of something metallic dropping to the ground. All four of the Iranians stood, motionless, mouths open in amazement at the scene before them. Their enemy, the rival firm that had threatened to overwhelm them lay decimated before them – utterly destroyed within a matter of seconds by this team of foreigners. And the limited damage they had taken, was apparently fixed with a wave of the hands and a quick injection.

A quick cough from Kai broke the spell, followed by a whisper into the comms to Aswon to translate.

“Right. Best get this mess cleaned up then. Dibbs on the best gun.”

The team got to work…


	14. 014 - Looking for work

Date 10/12/2059, Location 35.79915, 50.96868

After the battle in the garage, the team started to help with the cleanup. Scouring the bodies of weapons, ammunition and their wallets, phones and credsticks didn’t take long, and once stripped of useful materials they were manhandled down into the cesspit in the back corner of the warehouse via the trapdoor. The evil reek of the decomposing contents would certainly mask the smell of the bodies, and it would probably help at least start to get rid of the evidence.

The mangled remains of the fallen roller shutter were removed from the crushed and mangled tracks, and then moved into the warehouse, clearing the way for the two tow trucks to be driven into the garage and parked over the northern pit. The pickup truck was parked in front of the team truck, at least getting everything inside and off the road.

A quick stocktake of the weapons showed they had eight working ‘KH-2006’ auto-rifles, made from cheap pressed steel and poor quality polymers. The guns could spit out rounds quickly enough, but creaked when they were held tightly and didn’t inspire much confidence at all - they looked cheap and not very desirable. With a fairly short magazine length, holding only twenty rounds in their abbreviated magazines, it also appeared they only fired fully automatic – perfect “spray and pray” weapons. The submachine guns were better all round – ‘SMERSH-4’ according to the maker’s plates stamped onto the sides, they were much more solidly built, made from decent grade steel, and with a selector for semi-automatic, burst fire and fully automatic and holding twenty four rounds in a mag. Scavenging through the supplies, they ended up with at least one decent magazine full of standard ammo to go with each gun. The team reclaimed their weapons from the garage staff, but distributed the KH-2006s in their place.

A check of the stolen phones showed messages back to someone telling them to get the coffee ready for their return – it was obvious that there was at least one or more enemy back at their base. Lorcan described where the thugs were to be found, indicating their location on a local map, and watched to see what the strangers would do next. After a discussion amongst the team, Tadibya, Shimazu and Kai took the pickup truck and drove the mile or so down the highway to the next industrial estate to scope out the place.

“Farsil Auto Repair” was in a similar location to their garage, and looked to be made from the same modular sheeting over breezeblock wall. It was closed up and showed no sign of life when they drove past, and Shimazu drove to the end of the road and turned the truck around, then pulled up to a halt, watching the darkened building for a few minutes. With no motion or activity, Tads projected from her body and cautiously checked the building out, floating around the area and keeping an eye out for magical barriers or spirits, metahuman guards or anything else of interest.

Finding no wards or other activity she snuck into the top corner of the building and manifested to have a look around. The layout was familiar, though better quality than Lorcan’s place – though that wasn’t saying much – their inspection pit had bricks up the side, not scaffold planks, and the building was better lit and equipped, but what drew her attention was a young man – maybe even a boy, pacing back and forth nervously, and checking his phone. He looked to be in his mid-teens, and gave off an aura of nervous anticipation. At the back of the garage looked to be a selection of small children, playing in one of the offices under the supervision of several women – perhaps the wives, sisters or girlfriends of the thugs that had recently been killed.

Looking around, Tadibya couldn’t see anyone else or other items of interest, so she sped back to her body and relayed what she had seen to Kai and Shimazu. They called back to the rest of the team on their commlinks – just in range - and discussed the situation. They were all in agreement that even though they represented a risk, no one wanted to kill them or even hurt them – not without some kind of intense provocation anyway.

Lorcan joined the conversation, and suggested that they leave the pickup truck just outside the Farsil garage, and leave the keys with the vehicle. Once the team were safely away, he would call them on the phone and tell them he had defeated their attack and the rest of their men wouldn’t be coming back – but that he wasn’t an evil man and had returned their truck to them. They were to sell the garage to him, but take all their personal possessions, take the truck and leave town immediately to begin a new life somewhere else… or face further action. Lorcan suggested that this way they weren’t involved or named, and wouldn’t face any consequences, and if the women and children left, they could start afresh somewhere. If they chose to fight, then…. Well, they’d cross that bridge if they came to it.

The team agreed to this, delivering the truck and then heading back towards Lorcan’s garage on foot. It wouldn’t take long, but did mean walking along the highway at night, which would be a little suspicious. Shimazu was loaded down with the rifle, other guns and anything “dubious” and Tadibya cast her invisibility spell on him, leaving Aswon and her visible. In their walk back along the side of the highway, they got a few strange looks from passing motorists, but only one person looked to be slowing to see if they were ok, and they were dealt with by a quick wave.

Back at Lorcan’s garage, Kai had texted his contact Anahita to say they were at their destination, and would be free in about three days for work. They then set to with blocking up the open doorway – they couldn’t seal it properly, but they could at least make it very difficult to see in from normal height and noisy to get past. After piling up material along the base of the entrance and blocking off as much of the gap as possible with a tarpaulin, Lorcan and his staff went home, leaving the team to crash in their truck and post their normal watch.

The following morning was bright, clear and cold – Lorcan and crew returned at about 8am, and set to work with a vengeance on the truck. Marius continued to supervise and was pleasantly surprised at the workmanship shown. They might not have the best – or even a complete set – tools, but they were not doing a slapdash job. The pace really picked up at around 9:30 when a delivery truck arrived, with new differential casing, bearings and sundry other parts required. At around lunchtime, a replacement roller shutter turned up with crew, who set to repairing the damage to the facility. They cast several sidelong glances at the team, particularly whenever they saw Hunter who was clearly the most abnormal looking of the group – but none of them said or did anything that the team saw. With how impressed Lorcan’s crew had been over the savage firefight the night before, it was quite possible that the door fitters had said something quietly and been told in no uncertain terms to shut up and keep their head down, as these were people that were definitely not to be trifled with.

Anahita called Kai back at around 12:30, sounding somewhat annoyed. Kai wandered to the edge of the road as he talked with her, and they could see him gesticulating and talking rapidly, before his shoulders slumped. When he came back inside he told the rest of the team that because of the lack of contact as they had progressed through Iran, she’d given the job to someone else, and was a little upset with him. A little taken aback, the team called around several of their contacts, seeing if they could drum up some work.

Lorcan approached the team in the early afternoon, telling them that the other garage had been abandoned, with all of the woman and children having crammed into the vehicle and making their way out of the area. He’d sent down a few of his men to go and seize all of the tools and supplies from the Farsil garage, to add to his stocks. Obviously pleased with the outcome of the attack, he made it clear to the team that his mechanics would do everything in their power to restore the truck to full operation as quickly as possible.

Shimazu called Saito, a fence based in China, asking him if he had any leads on the area. Saito mentioned that there was a thing he desired – an ancient manuscript that was originally to be found in Tehran museum. It had been relocated after the attack, and was now stored in Karaj, in the museum there. He’d happily pay thirty thousand if the team would do ‘the museum job’, recover the item and get it shipped back to a safe location.

Kai called Ganesh, a dealer in ‘exotic goods’ based in Nepal, and got another offer. Ganesh was after some very unique ‘art’. He had a client that desired a piece of urban destruction art – steel singed by dragon fire. Would the team be willing to travel into Tehran and see if they could obtain such a thing? Depending on the qualities of the piece, he’d offer anywhere from ten to fifty thousand for such an item….

Neither option really appealed to the team, indeed Marius just wanted to get out of Iran to a more tolerant country and look for work there – but the rest of the team wanted to try and do some kind of work to increase their bank balance. There was risk of course in doing any kind of job, but as they sat down in their van and reviewed the attack from the night before they realised they did work pretty well together, and should be able to handle a reasonable number of threats. As the afternoon wore on, they discussed which of the two options they favoured most, and what they were going to do next.


	15. 015 - Taking the museum job

Date 11/12/2059, Location 35.79918, 50.96852

Tadibya cleared her throat, making sure that she had the rest of the teams attention.

“Regardless of whether we take one job or the other – or indeed just leave the country, I want to take a few hours to put up a magical ward around the inside of the vehicle. It will give us some safety if there are any magical threats we encounter, but also it will help protect us against any kind of magical tracking or tracing if we do a job and leave some evidence behind.”

“Good plan, Tadibya. So what do you need to make that happen?”

“Mostly just time. Though if any of you folk that can see into the astral plane wish to help me, I’m sure we can do a better job as a team, than just me working alone. The more precise we are with inscribing the wards, the longer they’ll last.”

“They won’t be permanent?”

“No – there are ways to make them last until they’re destroyed. One is to use some magical materials in the construction – that will cost you a few thousand to ten thousand or more, depending on just how big your area is, and how strong the ward is. The other way I’ve heard of requires some advanced techniques for manipulating mana. I’m aware of the general theory, but it’s not something I’ve tried.”

“Ok, so, we just need to decide what we’re doing then, and that will tell us how much time we have.” Kai leant back in his seat and waved a hand round the rest of the team, opening up the discussion to them.

“If we’re going to do a job in this wretched country, I favour going into Tehran. It’s going to be away from official eyes, and working in the shadows, dealing with black market sellers and Shadowrunners. Dangerous, but with a good chance of making contacts and getting involved with the scene.” Marius looked around to see who else agreed or might support him as he laid out his reasoning.

“I think I would rather go with the job from Saito – not just because he’s my friend and contact,” Shimazu responded, “but because it’s going to be against a much softer target. A museum might have alarms, guards and cameras – but it’s not the remains of the capital city destroyed by draconic attack and inhabited by the ghosts of tens of thousands of people. Stealing a bit of old parchment doesn’t sound too dangerous. Going into a city destroyed in a show of magical power that forced a million people to flee for their lives and abandon their homes to all kinds of wild creatures and magical threats does.” Aswon and Hunter nodded along with Shimazu as he raised a counter point, and Marius found it hard to argue with the logic.

The world was still coming to terms with the ideas that Dragons and Magical Spirits were real, following the appearance of Ruymo at Mount Fuji in Japan, on Christmas Eve of 2011. The appearance of elves and dwarves had unnerved many, fuelling racial tension and genocidal riots across the world, and leading to the Pope denouncing metahumans as abominations, causing massive upheaval in the Christian world. The organised religions found themselves having to deal with theological questions they could never have imagined only a few years ago – was magic a divine gift from God, or the taint and evil of the Devil? Their world had been turned upside down, but simple human fear and prejudice had swayed many into making judgements based on their interpretation of faith that would split and divide humanity ever more sharply.

The ruling Imams of Iran’s regime had seriously underestimated the impact their words and deeds would have when in the year 2020, they declared a Holy Jihad against metahumans and magical creatures, declaring any kind of Shamanistic practice as Haram and punishable by death. Unfortunately for them, the Great Dragon Aden had awoken on Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey, not far from Iran, and had claimed much of the area as his domain – whether the puny humans in it liked it or not.

It was a wakeup call for the world. The first time a dragon had launched an assault so openly and publicly, and on such a scale. Commanding an army of spirits, supported by mages and guerrillas, Aden responded to the declaration of war with overwhelming, crushing force. Iranian fighter jets were blasted from the sky by megawatt blasts of lightning, tower blocks found their supports turning to liquid mud, sending thirty story apartment blocks sliding to the ground and devastating vast areas of the city, while spirits sent waves of fear and confusion through troops and police, shattering their morale and destroying any kind of organised resistance. The capital city of Tehran was savaged, with large parts of the city destroyed by fires or sunken by earth tremors, with millions dead and millions more rendered homeless, fleeing in panic from a force they could barely comprehend.

The Iranians effectively ceded control of the city to Aden, abandoning it and moving their capital. The Muslim world trembled at the force of the slaughter, finding themselves the target of a Jihad, hating every moment of it, but being unable to respond. With Tehran now a graveyard of epic proportions, Aden simply left, giving clear warning to the world – declare war on the magic of the world at your own peril. The hatred for him grew deep within the clergy, but they never made the same mistake again of openly declaring war upon him. Even when there was a second wave of ‘goblinisation’ that spread around the world, turning what had been normal humans into orks and trolls, the clergy was careful in their condemnation, fearing to bring down the wrath of Aden upon them again.

But now, thirty years later, Tehran was still officially abandoned, ignored by the Government as the consequences of their hubris, an embarrassment of international scope. Over the years, though, drifters had returned to scavenge through the remains, and along with them had come the criminal elements of society. Mixed in amongst the ghosts, toxic pools and charnel pits were smugglers, hired killers and those people for whom living out of sight of the government was a strong preference. It was a lawless place, where the only rules that applied were the ones you could enforce with fist, gun or magical power.

After they spent a while discussing the options, they reached a general consensus - Shimazu got in touch with Saito again, and told him they were considering his job offer, but they could really do with getting more information about the job.

Saito provided the name and address of the museum, and advised them to perhaps scope the place out and see if they felt confident about breaking in or infiltrating the place. If they then decided they were doing the job – he would provide more details. Shimazu agreed, and hung up, relaying the details to the rest of the team. Meanwhile Kai tried calling Anahita, but the number showed as not in service – he pulled a bit of a face and wondered just how much trouble he was in with her….

Shimazu and Aswon said they would get a cab to the museum, and then check out the place, and act as something to spot for Tadibya to come and provide some astral reconnaissance. Marius, meanwhile, got to work on stripping out the GPS chips from the other phones, so they could be used safely, and found that with a proper workbench and good light, the task was much easier to perform, making good progress over the afternoon. 

Hunter and Kai chilled around the truck, enjoying the downtime. Later in the afternoon, Marius started work on a couple of smuggling compartments, building box section hides on the inside of the chassis. By the end of the afternoon he had two compartments large enough to hide a large assault rifle or sniper rifle on each side of the truck bed, and about four more that would take a medium size satchel, all tucked away on the chassis and disguised as far as he could to look like part of the vehicle structure.

The cab deposited Aswon and Shimazu at the museum, but they were initially distracted by a set of hothouses set up on the grassy area outside, showing off plants from around the world. They entered and checked out the plants, examining the flora of five continents, all in separate sections – keeping an eye out for anything with known magical properties or of medicinal interest, but not finding anything worth pursuing. They called Tadibya, who arrived mere seconds later, after spotting them. Entering the museum via a set of wide steps, they walked into a large corridor with a flight of steps leading up to the first floor, side passages leading to wings of the museum and a choice of routes into a rotunda and the information desk. After grabbing handy maps of the museum, helpfully translated into English, they wandered into the north wing – the “Art of the Ancient World” section. Kai and Shimazu found a doorway into the “Morse study room for Works on Paper”, a small windowless room with a bead curtain hanging over the archway, and were just about to enter when Aswon felt a chill up his spine.

Tads was passing through his body, back and forth, giving him a feeling like someone was “walking over his grave”. They moved away, down the corridor, and headed into the gents toilets, looking around to check for cameras and observers. Seeing none, Aswon called out to Tads, who then manifested, appearing as an ethereal ghost. Tads informed them that there was a low level ward over the bead curtain – Shimazu would be fine if he entered with no adept powers up, but if Aswon tried to enter, his tattoos were sure to trigger the ward. Armed with this knowledge, they returned to the section, and Aswon stayed out, scoping out the security cameras, alarms, sensors and lay of the exhibits while Shimazu checked out the room – finding one wall covered in a wooden set of pigeon holes, stuffed full of ancient manuscripts and texts. Two historians were working through the documents, translating and copying the text out, handling the papers with pristine white gloves in a controlled environment.

They happily chatted away with Shimazu, explaining what they were doing, and describing the age of their artefacts. After some time Shimazu moved out to find Aswon and finish the recon sweep, but was distracted somewhat when he came across an example of a set of Samurai laminate armour with paired swords, displayed on a manikin on a large display base. From the glint in his eye, it appeared that two things were now due to be stolen from the museum tonight…

Tadibya was just drifting down the corridor, trying to keep out of sight, when she felt a sudden burst of alarm – looking over her shoulder, an air elemental was bearing down on her at great speed. Twisting and diving sideways, she concentrated hard and accelerated her astral form, bursting out through the walls and heading east as fast as she could go. Split seconds later the elemental burst out of the wall in hot pursuit. Travelling at the speed of thought, Tads was almost to the border with Turkmenistan before the astral entity stopped pursuing her, and it took her much longer to get back, keeping a careful eye open for anyone watching or trying to trail her. She headed back to the garage and her body, and called Aswon and Shimazu to advise them to be careful, and shortly afterwards they left the museum and returned to the garage, too.

Back at the garage they mulled over the floor plans and the target, deciding if they could do it. Eventually they decided to try and keep it simple – stay in the museum until just before official closing time, then hide in or behind one of the exhibits. As soon as the place was a little quieter, thrown on a couple of burkas, disguise themselves as the cleaning staff and try to lift the goods, then just hotfoot it out of a fire-escape under cover of magic, into the waiting truck and away – relying on speed, stealth and big brass balls to do the job.

They all thought that with more time and gear they could do a better job – but sadly they were lacking in both…


	16. 016 - Seizing the scrolls

Date 11/12/2059, Location 35.79931, 50.96860

After coming up with their plan to raid the museum, the team had a quick discussion about the new smuggling compartments installed on the truck, deciding that it was worthwhile to get a ward set up on them to hide the contents from magical investigation – but this was something to do at a later date when they had access to some magical materials so they could make the ward permanent – after all, it would be bad for the ward to fail halfway through a job and them not be aware!

They spoke with Lorcan, and made arrangements to borrow a car the next morning, from one of the garage crew. That way they could drive around the museum to see what the traffic was like, and then travel along their various possible escape routes to check for choke points and congestion - things that might not be obvious just from looking at an overhead map. They could also get a much better idea of police response times and presence in the area, as well as any surprises like army barracks or roadworks that would throw a spanner in the works.

With that sorted out, the team settled down for the night and slept, crammed into the bunks in the truck or swinging gently in their hammocks. Even here in the garage, they decided to stick to their normal watch rota, just in case there was any more trouble from the rival garage or anyone else that decided either they or Lorcan was an easy target.

In the morning, the garage staff returned and went to work on the truck, fitting the new parts and closing up the chassis and transmission box, before they started replacing all the armour and external systems. During this time Marius ran new control cables in the truck from the cabin control systems to the rear and side of the vehicle, taking advantage of the reconstruction to get access to all of the protected pathways and conduits normally buried behind the slabs of armour. Once he’d run the cables, he started work on new mounting brackets and modules so that he could fit the extra sensors they’d picked up from the scrap yard. In doing so he increased the resolution of his vehicle systems greatly, which he was sure would come in handy in the forthcoming job.

Aswon meanwhile was on his pocket computer, researching various turns of phrase in Farsi, and working out phonetic spellings. Although he wasn’t experienced with the language, he’d travelled extensively through Europe and Africa, and had a good smattering of languages to a level where he could more than adequately get by – and more so, he seemed to have a knack of picking up new languages quite quickly when exposed to them for more than a few hours. It made learning the basics much faster for him, and was useful in his current task. He pored over the translation guides, slowly building up a suitable speech and making sure that the grammar translated correctly and there weren’t any colloquial references that would embarrass them.

When he’d completed his speech, he sat down with Kai, working with him to teach him the fundamentals of the Farsi language, and going over the speech, over and over again. When they had it down pat, they approached Lorcan and with a little prodding Kai delivered a fairly flowing and smooth translation, praising his work and hospitality. Lorcan appeared to realise how much effort had gone into the speech, and addressing him in his native tongue – and the fact that Kai’s voice carried easily through the garage where his workers could hear his praise for them certainly didn’t hurt either. He in turn thanked them for their efforts with his attackers, praised their abilities in battle and promised eternal friendship – backing that up with a variety of contact details delivered from his phone to theirs. Although he’d been friendly before, he now seemed to be more of a stalwart ally, and Aswon seemed satisfied. When Lorcan had disappeared, Kai turned to Aswon.

“Why did you feel all that was necessary? I mean, he was on our side already, wasn’t he…”

“If we’re just about to break into a museum and steal some exhibits, then I’d much rather have someone firmly on our side, than just a little bit. Hopefully it will be the last thing on his mind now to turn us in for a cash reward for any information on criminals that broke in and stole from the museum.”

“Ahh, I see. Well, good point. Nice job Aswon.”

Diplomacy done, the team headed out in their borrowed car, and did a little shopping – getting a poster tube from a small art shop in the back streets behind a college. Tadibya managed to pick up a couple of burkas from a market stall, in a selection of sizes and the rest of the team purchased a selection of fresh foods. The food was not of great quality, but the best they could get cheaply and easily – it certainly wouldn’t last as well as the farmer’s stand produce from Azerbaijan. 

By lunchtime they had their supplies and had driven the route, planned out parking places and escape routes and had an idea of where the police stations were to avoid on their way out. Hunter had spent several hours poring over the maps working out a variety of routes towards the Turkestan border, just in case. They reversed their route, checking the roads out from the other direction, looking around the city carefully to ensure they had as much knowledge as possible before they committed to the job.

When they arrived back at the garage in the early afternoon, the repairs to the truck were complete. Kai and Lorcan handled the payment, with firm handshakes and beaming smiles on both sides, and the garage crew surprised them by forming up in a row with their new rifles, as if they were soldiers on parade. Aswon grabbed his rifle and faced them, and then came to a perfect parade ground attention, before swinging his rifle up to port arms and snapping off a salute to the row of beaming mechanics. Hunter had to turn away and face the truck to conceal the snigger that their little theatrics raised – he knew they meant well, but he couldn’t help but smile at how inept they looked. He knew it wouldn’t help them though to reveal that, so he busied himself out with straightening up some gear in the cab, where he couldn’t be seen.

They all piled into the truck and resumed their normal seats, and when everyone was secure, Marius carefully placed the fibre connector into the rigger jack on the back of his neck, sinking into a cybernetic fusion with the onboard control systems. He mentally reached out to the vehicle, and the gestalt between man and machine wrapped around him and subsumed him. He tensed and the ignition sequence fired, pouring diesel into the massive engine and compressing it – the engine gave a cough and then roared into life, before settling into a low rumble.

Smoothly engaging the gears, the truck rolled forwards and purred out of the garage, all systems fixed and operating at one hundred percent. In the sensors they watched the mechanics wave, watching them depart as they drove up the road between the industrial units before reaching the junction at the top and turning out of sight. 

Marius slipped into the traffic and headed up into the heart of the city of Karaj, following the main roads and driving carefully and as discreetly as possible. As they closed on the centre of the city, he slowed and they dropped Tadibya and Shimazu off a distance away to allow them to continue on foot at a slower pace while the rest of the team found somewhere discreet to park, and settled down to wait.

Tadibya and Shimazu walked to the museum down the busy highway, shuffling their way through the crowds on the narrow pavement. Shimazu was wearing some non-descript trousers and a heavy jacket, while Tadibya wore her new Burka, fiddling with the unfamiliar garment as it draped and hung over her, constricting her freedom of movement and making her feel incredibly self-conscious. It mostly worked though – she vanished into the crowd and didn’t draw any glances from the locals – who instead stared at Shimazu’s Japanese features and hefty build with undisguised curiosity – and sometimes contempt or disgust. They crossed the large tree lined avenue and then wandered across the park and gardens that led towards the museum, studiously ignoring the large green armoured truck that was parked at the end of the driveway.

Shimazu led the way, entering via the east entrance again. Tadibya once more passed unnoticed in her burka, but the staff recognised Shimazu and nodded a welcome to him, their fixed plastic smiles lacking true warmth or sincerity. Shimazu smiled back at them equally falsely and then wandered off to the southern wing of the museum, looking at the contemporary artwork there for a while. After some time had passed, he and Tadibya headed for the toilets in the central spine of the building. After a quick check to make sure they were not observed, Tadibya passed the second burka to Shimazu as he slipped into the disabled toilet, before wandering away, keeping an eye out around her. She then headed out of the museum and made her way back to the truck, re-joining the rest of the team.

“He’s in and has his disguise, shouldn’t be too long now until the museum closes.” Kai checked the closing time listed on the museum matrix site, then checked his watch, settling back on his seat with a sigh. After a minute of nervously drumming his fingers on the side of the truck, he squeezed into the back and busied himself with the kitchen, sorting out a round of drinks for the team, trying to pass the time.

Shimazu made his way back to the ancient history section, wandering around apparently aimlessly and examining the exhibits – but checking that nothing new was around, and that his hiding place was still there. He got several strange looks from the few other visitors – but he was counting on their prejudices to count against them. He was broad shouldered and very muscular – but the smooth flowing fabric of the disguise helped to conceal his physique, and the fine mesh that covered his face revealed only faintly oriental features. It was doubtful that they would be able to determine the difference between male and female features with so little familiarity, and it would take a very confident – or very rude – person to challenge him, based on his appearance. With any luck they would take his appearance as being from some ultra-conservative sect that insisted on the burka, rather than the more common Chador or Hijab.

Time marched by, and eventually the public address system called out, advising that the museum was going to close shortly. Shimazu waited for no-one to be looking and then climbed into one of the exhibits, hiding in a huge wicker elephant that formed a diorama in a quiet corner. 

Waiting tensely, Shimazu held still until the security guards had completed their sweep, and the cleaning staff had started to work on the gallery before tapping the push button on his microphone and warning the team that he was starting his run. After receiving a brief acknowledgement, he carefully slipped out of his hiding place and moving towards the scroll room.

Slinking down the wall, carefully placing his feet to avoid squeaks and other noise, he approached the beaded curtain and with a deep breath, slowly parted the curtain and stepped through the ward. No alarms sounded, nothing bad happened, so he slowly let out his breath, and reached behind him into the small of his back and worked out the poster tube from its place in the waistband of his trousers. With something to protect their prize ready, he searched for the scroll they were after, looking for the tell-tale marks and characteristics that Saito had described to him. It only took him two minutes to find the scroll, and after checking the details, he grabbed another dozen scrolls at random from the work area and then carefully rolled them up and slid them into the poster tube.

As he reached the bead curtain, he heard footsteps in the hallway to his right, and quickly squeezed through the hanging beads and ran to the left, heading back down the corridor and sliding around a t-junction and out of sight before he could be spotted. Slowing to a brisk walk, he made two more turns and headed towards the ancient Samurai display. He spotted a few of the cleaners working in various rooms, but managed to sneak past without attracting their attention.

Approaching the display he’d spied the previous day, he stepped over the rope and climbed up onto the dais and moved the manikin a little, partly drawing the sword to check that the blade was actually live. He struggled for a moment, trying to remove the hand from around the sword grip, unable to get the dummy to release its grip on the sword, and after a moments frustration he resorted to just breaking the fingers off the manikin. The second hand was much the same, and suffered the same fate. Thirty seconds later, the sword and scabbard was free – and he could draw the blade, looking at the craftsmanship of the metalwork and the slight marbling on the blade. For a few seconds, he was lost in thought, admiring the beauty of the authentic Japanese craftsmanship before him, until something distracted him, and he realised he could no longer hear the sound of the floor cleaning equipment that had been in the background when he entered the exhibit room. 

That was because the cleaner had stopped work on the floor in the next room, and was standing about five meters from him, staring at his burka encased form holding one of the museum exhibits. She babbled at him in Farsi for a moment, probably demanding to know what he was doing….

He vaulted over the rope, poster tube in one hand and scabbard in the other, landing with panther-like grace on the floor and then turned to face her. Unfortunately she was between him and the exit they’d spied out, so he didn’t have many options but to get past her. With a mighty push, he broke into a sprint, as her strident demands for information turned into screams of alarm, powering past her with his arms swinging. He jumped into the air to avoid her clumsy swing with the brush held in her hand, surprised as she tried to block him. He headed down the corridor to the fire escape, and as he swung around the corner almost ran full tilt into the security guard who was running the other way in response to her continued shrieks of alarm. The guard swung at him and Shimazu bounced off a wall, spinning wildly and using his momentum to slip through his grasp and keep going, hitting the fire escape sideways and bursting out into the paved area. Now the screams of the woman and shouts of the man were joined by the strident honking of the alarm system as the sensors on the door reported a breach to the museum security office.

Skidding sideways for a step or two, he lowered his head and concentrated on his running, arms pumping powerfully and head down as he accelerated smoothly to top speed, leaving the guard in his wake. After only a few steps he head a cry of surprise and bewilderment from behind him, and guessed that Tadibya had finished casting her spell, and had wrapped him in a shroud of invisibility. He didn’t let this distract him though, heading at top speed for the location they had agreed upon.

Tadibya was waiting with Aswon, concealed by some bushes on the side road, where they had a good line of sight to the museum. Aswon had his rifle concealed under his flowing robes, and watched carefully for signs of pursuit, while Tadibya checked the area using her astral sight – quickly spotting the pursuing air elemental that burst from the museum after Shimazu. She dispatched her summoned spirit to engage it in combat and cover his escape, watching as the spirit raced across the intervening space and slammed into the elemental. The elemental was larger and more powerful, but had been focussed on chasing down the fleeing Shimazu – though he was concealed from normal sight by the invisibility spell, he glowed like a beacon on the astral plane as the spell’s energy wrapped around him, and this allowed Tadibya’s spirit to slam into the elemental and get the first hit in, knocking the air sylph off balance and putting in on the defensive. As soon as it recovered, it would start to tear her spirit apart, and if another elemental turned up the fight would rapidly swing in their favour – but every second bought Shimazu more distance, and for such a big man, he was quick – quick enough to give any competent track athlete a surprise. Hunter, Kai and Marius were all at the truck, ready to drive as soon as the team were recovered and with weapons ready to provide support fire.

As Shimazu ran full tilt across the open ground, Tads and Aswon made for the truck to meet up with him, and after checking the air elemental was not closing on them, they vaulted in through the open rear door, pulling it shut behind them. At the all clear, Marius smoothly pulled out and calmly drove away, merging into the dense traffic and quickly becoming lost in the sea of cars, vans and trucks on the main road.

Following their planned route, they moved away from the museum down a maze of side roads and backstreets, occasionally wincing as a police car blazed past sirens blaring down one of the main roads. After about twenty minutes though, they realised that something was wrong – they were making poor time, and the traffic was only getting worse. Friday night around prayer time apparently made the city grind to a halt… maybe there was some festival on, or some event that caused a massive backlog, something that hadn’t been around when they did their reconnaissance – they didn’t know, but there were aware that the longer they stayed in the traffic jam, the more likely they were to get caught. An intense discussion raged as they debated what to do – change their plans, flee in a different direction, or stick with the agreed route and play it casual?

Tadibya kept an eye out astrally, and as they crossed a junction, caught sight of the air elemental, apparently flying in a search pattern – looking, but obviously not finding anything yet. They stuck with their plan, crawling through the traffic, and watching more police cars heading towards the museum, the tension ratchetting higher.

Their efforts to check the city out paid dividends, as they came up on a cross route they could take that had them starting to head out of the city centre on a slightly different direction, before turning to move across the traffic, and the congestion eased slightly, and they picked up speed, heading north east out of the city, towards the highway and the Alborz mountain range.

With the immediate danger passed, Tadibya moved into the back and carefully pulled the scroll out of the tube, and studied it carefully for a few minutes, reaching out with her astral senses to assense the scroll, trying to discover what it was. She discovered that it radiated a certain amount of magic, disrupting astral space around it, though not in a negative fashion. She concentrated on the ancient hide, carefully tracing fingers over the tassels and decorative sigils, letting her magical senses examine the weave of magic imbued into it as she carefully probed and studied it, finding patterns and magical traces that seemed to flow into the air around the actual object. After a few minutes she was able to discern a little more information – the scroll seemed to radiate magic aspected or slanted towards truthfulness – and inhibited the magics of deceit. She frowned – that would make spells like her invisibility or her vehicle mask less effective, from what she could see.

She informed the rest of the group that their phantasm spell used to cloak the vehicle and make it appear like some other type, might not be as effective whilst they were holding the scroll, though hopefully the ward she had placed on the vehicle would help with that.

As they headed out of the city, Tadibya worked to put a low level ward on the poster tube, seeking to bolster their defences by putting another level of magical protection between them and it, whilst Marius drove at just below the speed limit, heading northwest and away from Karaj, his attention cycling through the sensors as he split his attention between the road and checking for any signs of pursuit.


	17. 017 - Escaping the net

Date 12/12/2059, Location 35.82971, 51.02849

As they were clearing the city of Karaj, heading north east on highway fifty-nine, Kai’s phone rang – the caller ID showed as being Lorcan. Kai shared a quick glance of apprehension with the others, before hitting the accept button and lifting the phone to his ear. After the inevitable enquiries about their health and such like, Lorcan took a deep breath.

“My friend. Might it be possible that you have done something on the way out of the city?”

“Well, we stopped to pick up some supplies…nothing too much though.” Kai responded carefully, wondering if the line was being listened to or traced.

“Well, I might suggest you turn on your radio if you have one, or check the local news feeds. Quickly. And I wish you well in your journey – I think you will need it.”

Kai was about to ask what he meant when he heard the disconnect tone, and instead waved for Hunter to pull out his pocket computer and scan for local news bulletins, and to fire up the radio as well.

Getting the vehicle radio tuned in took only a moment, and they scanned through the frequencies, until they found a news broadcast. Aswon and Hunter translated the rapid fire newscast, where the main story was a major theft at a museum in Karaj, with police now arriving in droves, reports of deaths and much confusion.

“I didn’t kill anyone!” Shimazu exclaimed hotly, as several sets of eyes turned towards him. “Honestly – I pushed past a security guard, but I didn’t strike him, or the cleaner. There’s no way they were going to die from anything I did!” The team exchanged meaningful looks, and Marius accelerated slightly, increasing their speed and flight from the city.

Hunter’s pocket computer had found an open relay onto the matrix and was logging on to the local news site, automatically adding English subtitles to the audio stream. Hunter scrabbled in his bag and pulled out the roll out screen to connect to the IO port, and spent a few minutes working to bring up a matrix feed from one of the media channels, eventually getting a somewhat fuzzy and low-res cast of a live broadcast.

As they tuned in, the Police were establishing a cordon, and shooing back the people gathered around, including the reporter and camera operator – the screen tilted wildly for a moment and the footage became shaky as they moved back behind some arbitrary point. A man in a suit emerged from the museum, and walked across the clear space, towards the reporter. As he did, a team of paramedics came out of the front doors of the museum, with a gurney – a human sized lump strapped on the top but covered with a blanket. They moved to their ambulance, but stopped to speak to a couple of policemen on the way, with no urgency to their movements. The team all looked over at Shimazu again who glanced back at them saying, “That wasn’t me!” before returning his attention to the screen.

The man had reached the reporter, and said that he had a small statement prepared, but there were no questions at this time. In a smooth and calm voice he announced that there had been a terrorist attack on the country, and that a priceless Iranian heirloom had been stolen from the museum. Based on the swiftness of the assault and exact methods used they suspected the interference or involvement of far-east organisations or governments, and as a result, the police and all border agents were looking for a man in relation to this incident. 

The screen cut away to an identikit image of a generic Japanese male. It didn’t really look anything like Shimazu – except perhaps a passing similarity in the slant of the eyes. Several of the team snorted as Shimazu muttered under his breath, “That’s racist.” The screen flipped back to the live broadcast, where the man was just finishing his announcement in the same calm and unhurried voice.

A long black limousine style car pulled up, being waved through the police cordon, and a man in a plain business suit emerged, followed by a number of clerics in traditional dress. They grabbed a shot of the man in profile and Hunter set to with a computer search, running facial recognition to establish that he was Imam Safar Naeimi, one of the dozen most respected and powerful Imams in Iran. 

By this point, the reporter was starting to repeat facts and rehash the situation, telling the same news in a slightly different way, for those just joining the broadcast. The team concentrated on getting out of the city as best they could on the main roads, keeping a careful eye out for police patrols, blockades or anything that might affect them.

Some twenty minutes or so later, a new bulletin appeared, and the team gathered around the screen again. Now it was reported that something had apparently been transferred to the museum by mistake, instead of being in a secure vault, obviously the work of foreign agents intent on destroying their ancient heritage. As a result a cordon was being thrown up around the city, establishing a bubble around fifty kilometres or so around Karaj, where the police and army units would stop ALL vehicles, and subject them to a thorough search. Due to the nature of the theft and the attack on not only the country, but Islam itself, this was mandatory, and non-negotiable. Flights in and out of the city were grounded, and armed drones and helicopters would enforce the quarantine with orders to shoot to kill.

Hunter got to work quickly, plotting out a map showing the likely checkpoints, frowning as he did so. Throwing the results onto the screen, the team could see that the check line ran along the mountain range to the north – the roads all came down to the same few routes through passes and chasms, and would be natural chokepoints and very difficult to circumvent. Looking around the map they wondered if trying to break through into Tehran might be their answer.

Marius slowed the truck slightly, in case they needed to make a sudden turn to the side, and change their route. They also discussed breaking all the way across Karaj and trying to evade to the west or south – accepting that it would massively increase their journey time, but making it less clear where they were heading for.

Another news bulletin made them cluster around the screen again. Now Imam Safar Naeimi approached the crowd and the waiting reporters and addressed them, calling on the faithful to look out for those responsible no matter where they were in the country. He elaborated that the stolen priceless artefacts were items of faith, irreplaceable ancient tracts that contained the writings and observations of someone who had accompanied Mohammed, Peace Be Unto Him, on part of his journey, that had been transferred into the museum. He covered again the significance of the texts, their unique nature, and how their theft could only be seen by an attack on Islam itself by the unbelievers.

Kai was watching carefully, and told the team that this guy was good – he was a good speaker, but his body cues and language were all carefully controlled, and he was dialling up the rhetoric, making the crowd angry and feeling like they had been personally insulted. The speech continued in this vein for several minutes, before he pointed to the museum security chief and accused him of being part of the job, of working with these foreign agents. The guards on either side of him stood back, and a clear space formed around him as people stood back, not wanting to be associated with him. The inflammatory language and accusations continued, being spat at the man whose protests of innocence were drowned out by the growing angry chants from the crowd. Someone in the crowd threw a stone, striking the chief in the side of the head, stunning him and opening a large gash. When the police took no action, another stone flew, then another. Within a minute, the body lay curled on the floor as the angry crowd turned into a riot, the ritual beating leaving little chance of life.

The scene cut back to the studio for a moment, before going to another outside broadcast, showing a hastily set up checkpoint, with police officers checking IDs and searching vehicles, backed up by units of the Iranian army in armoured personnel carriers, rifles and heavy weapons in obvious view. The scene was chaotic, and they saw more transports arriving, disgorging troops hurriedly as the checkpoint was reinforced and solidified. Another checkpoint showed a similar set up, with a transport helicopter sitting just off the side of the road, and several squads of troops enforcing the checkpoint. At another, a warning of violence scrolled across the bottom of the screen, before the footage ran, showing some argument with the police, and a vehicle trying to push its way past the cue, before troops opened fire on the vehicle, killing the occupants.

The voiceover for the segment condemned the people in the car for failing to comply with directions from the checkpoint, laying the blame on the incident at their feet and speculating that it was possible that they were in fact foreign agents, working in concert with the thieves. Back in the studio, there was speculation that the museum hit was by the same team who had struck at a diamond facility to the west, and that this was all part of a concerted effort by foreign agents to strike at the country and its religion. The speculations from various talking heads grew more wild and fanciful, but at the core of each was a determined effort by the enemies of Islam to strike at their country and to damage the people. The rhetoric was loud and obvious, but no doubt effective to people who had no other source of news, or for those that wanted to believe what they saw or heard.

The team considered their options again, becoming less happy that they could get through the checkpoints without being caught. Poring over the maps again, they came up with a possible solution. If they followed the route north east, close to the border, they could then take a road east that led to the Varjin Protected Area – a bio-reserve in the mountains that was fenced off, with limited road access, and showed on the map as being heavily wooded. More importantly it straddled the 50km line – if they could get in, they could travel under cover of the trees and travel off road, cross the bubble, and hopefully get out into mountain roads on the other side, without being detected. It was unlikely that the people setting up the checkpoints had considered the mobility of their six by six vehicle, or the terrain that a driver of Marius’ calibre could handle.

Marius plugged the route in as set out by Hunter, and they headed north, once again accelerating to the maximum speed of the vehicle, chewing up the miles. Shimazu meanwhile called his contact and discussed the situation, trying to work out if he could offer any assistance or help with getting them over the border. He also discussed the idea of selling the artefact – seeing as they were already in trouble for stealing it, and Saito went off to make some calls.

Tadibya and the rest of the team turned their attention to the handful of “extra” scrolls they had lifted from the museum, working through them and establishing what they had, and soon spotted an ancient and tatty scroll amongst the collection. A quick evaluation revealed that this was the almost certainly the one… Kai evaluated it as being thousands of years old, significantly older than the others in the collection that Shimazu had grabbed.

A while later Saito called back, saying that he had found a buyer – but was only willing to offer fifty thousand for the artefact. It was worth more – it was priceless, in its way, and absolutely irreplaceable – but it was a buyer’s market when the item was that hot. Shimazu checked with the team, and they declined the offer. Saito actually sounded relieved that he wasn’t going to have to handle the item after all.

Tadibya finished her examination of the scroll, and announced that it wasn’t magical, or radiating a magical aura – it was just old and valuable in its own right. Still, it was a unique item, and if it was as important as it seemed, a team of mages would soon be able to track it down.

“It’ll take a while to set up, but if they can get a team of mages together, they can absolutely find this thing. All they need is for one of the mages to be familiar with it in some way, or have some item linked to it… maybe even just have the container it used to be stored in. They can start a ritual of tracing, and one of their ritualists will follow the astral trail between the two, powered by the mana generated from the rest of the team.”

“What about our wards? I thought that would stop this kind of stuff?” Kai asked.

“It will help – but it is not enough. Think of the ward as a disguise, perhaps. Or, even better – imagine the item is a light, and the ward is a blanket we have thrown over it. It will stop much of the light, hide it, and conceal it. But if the light is powerful enough, and the seekers skilled enough, they will spot the light leaking out from under the edge of the blanket. And once they have seen it, they can track it easily – and send in more usual assets to stop us in the real world.” Aswon responded, to Kai’s question while Tadibya was still looking for the right words to use.

“Yes, what he said, more or less.” She added, realising as she did so that it sounded a little redundant. “But it will slow down things considerably for sure. Against a powerful team that is well motivated? It won’t stop them, and if they do find it, it will be a matter of seconds from then until they can report to the group. From there, they can start another ritual – perhaps one to target the vehicle or us, with some kind of spell to stop or incapacitate us.

“So what are our options?” Kai asked, his eyes flicking between Aswon and Tadibya, who seemed to have the best handle on the situation at the moment.

“Well, we can try to move the scroll into a fixed location and leave it behind?” Tadibya suggested.

“Or even better, transfer it into another vehicle, and let them track that instead.” Aswon added. “Though I pity the occupants of that vehicle when they are located, based on what has happened so far. This has already led to the death of one man – I’m not sure I would be happy in causing any more.” 

“Maybe if we can get it into a police car or something?” Tadibya mused. “Surely that wouldn’t lead to their deaths, based on who they were?” Aswon snorted at her naivety, and just shook his head. “How about if I summon a spirit to actually materialise and to carry the scroll, heading back towards Karaj. And we tell it that as soon as anyone or anything appears, to drop the scroll and vanish back to the metaplanes, so they can’t track it or trace it?”

“That’s a good idea – but instead of that, if the spirit can carry the scroll very high, that would be better.”

“Why?” Kai asked, puzzled.

“Well,” Aswon responded, “to get that high, the observers would need to be in either a plane or a helicopter, and that means they’re unlikely to be able to loiter and observe it carefully. And if an astral mage shows up, they can’t really do anything as they’re not really there… they can only observe. That gives us plenty of time to put distance between us and the scroll – which they should chase as the most important thing.”

“Ok, go for it. Let’s get that thing out of here.”

The spirit was duly summoned, causing Tadibya to wince in pain and look a little woozy from the effort, but the requirements were laid out. The spirit then promptly vanished, leaving the party looking a little confused. A minute later it reappeared in the road ahead of them, physically manifest and with a large bird, a raven or crow of some kind, squawking and flapping its wings and trying to escape from the grip of the spirit. They threw open the top hatch to admit the spirt and the captured bird, confused as to what was going on.

The spirit spoke, a voice that rose and fell in gentle waves, the wind moaning as it washed through the back of the truck.

“Tie your item to the leg of this bird. I will push and guide it through the air, taking it in the direction you wish it to go. If your enemies arrive, I will disappear, leaving the bird to fly freely. They will seek out the scroll, and have nothing to trace back to you, no magical signature or bound spirit.” Tadibya smiled at the spirit past her headache, and mentally thanked it – at least summoning a spirit so powerful came with perks – it had understood her intentions and wishes, rather than her literal requests and had come up with a plan more likely to succeed.

They attached the scroll, and the bird flapping in panic was propelled by the spirit up into the air and to the south, accelerating beyond the limits its tiny brain could comprehend by the spirits powers of magical movement, disappearing quickly into the darkening skies.

Now without the main target of tracking, the team progressed down their route, following the path laid out. They made good time, until they reached a village called Asara – where they spotted an angry mob dancing around a burning car that looked like it might be foreign in the middle of the street. Marius dropped the lights, took the truck off road and followed a goat trail up into the hills and around the town, dropping down to the main road again on the far side, without having been spotted, and then continued on their way, not wanting to get involved in any lynch mobs.

Eventually they made it to the protected area, and located an entryway into the nature reserve. Again, Marius turned off the lights to the truck, cranked up his sensors, and rolled forwards into the reserve, at a brisk walking pace, working his way down the rough tracks and terrain into the wilderness preserve. The rest of the team stared out into the inky blackness, those of the team with thermal vision watching the odd animal shape burst from cover or scuttle into their burrow as they passed.

They worked their way down into a shallow river, and Marius turned to follow it, the massive metre high wheels and high ground clearance letting them trundle forwards relatively safely, and of course – leaving no sign of their passing. They continued on in this way for several hours, with the team starting to become fatigued as the night marched on, and the truck lurched from side to side over the uneven riverbed. 

About three in the morning they all sprang upright though when the truck gave a small lurch as it hit and rolled over an obstacle, and a high pitched shrill scream shattered the quiet. Within seconds, the truck started taking fire from something – repetitive thuds as missile after missile hit the side of the truck. Aswon peered out of the left side of the vehicle, spotting a number of creatures to the side, about the size of a dog, but with a dense and confusing heat pattern. Every half a second, they suddenly got warmer and then “wham”, another impact on the truck. Marius told them they were undamaged, and continued to push down the river, leaving the attackers behind.

A hundred yards down the river, another creature burst from the undergrowth, massive hairy legs propelling it across the floor in rapid bounds, before all eight legs bunched and it prepared to jump towards the truck. Tadibya had other ideas however, and a massively powerful bolt of magical energy was summoned, striking the arachnid hard and dashing it into unconsciousness. They pushed on, hoping not to startle, injure or irritate any more of the wildlife.

As dawn approached, they made it to the western end of the Lar reservoir, and moved around the northern shore, finding a copse of trees down by the water’s edge they could use as cover. Examining the outside of the van they found a handful of quills stuck in the cracks and crevices of the truck – apparently they’d run over a Volleying Porcupine, and the rest of the herd had attacked them, launching wave after wave of toxic spines at them. They carefully gloved up and harvested the quills, in case they were useful later, and then settled down to get some rest.

They were out of the quarantine area, and had only a few hundred kilometres to go, until they got near the border, and with luck could meet up with Saito’s smuggler team in their T-bird and get a lift across the border into Turkistan. It should be smooth sailing from here…


	18. 018 - Birds, dams and strange men

Date 13/12/2059, Location 35.92881, 51.91241

After pulling the truck into the shelter of the trees, the team worked out who was covering which watch shift. Marius got his head down first, having been driving for many hours. Hunter spent some time with the maps, working out routes, examining terrain and checking the roads, looking for checkpoints and province crossings. Aswon set up in the cab with his rifle, watching out in the dawn light, whilst the rest of the team found a bunk or a hammock, and settled down. Soon the truck was filled with gentle snores and snuffles, as they caught up on their sleep and the minutes and hours ticked by towards the 16:30 alarm that would get them all up and back on the road.

In the afternoon, about 15:30, Shimazu was sitting in the cab, watching out of the windows and checking around the vehicle, looking for anyone watching the truck, when he became aware of scratching and tapping noises from the roof. He sat still and held his breath for a minute, listening to the sounds, as they ranged back and forth over the roof of the cab. He craned his head to the bottom of the windows, looking up as best he could, but he couldn’t catch sight of whatever was moving around on the top of the truck. Carefully he pulled down the insulation, and then cracked open the hatch, pushing it up slowly and carefully, trying to be as quiet as possible. As he did so, a pair of red-rimmed beady eyes popped into view, staring at him – unblinking. Shimazu stared back, trying to make sense of the upside-down shape. His trance-like state was broken when in a lightning-fast movement the eyes lowered another few inches, and an elongated bill at least fifty centimetres long darted forwards and stabbed him in the forehead. Almost before he could comprehend what was going on, his enhanced reflexes were in action, his legs folding and dropping him away from the hatch and the ferocious bill.

His cry of alarm and the clatter of weapons landing on the floor of the truck started to rouse the others, and the sounds of disgust and muttering soon had the rest of the team piling out of their bunks and grabbing weapons. Marius plugged his datajack into the vehicle sensors, immediately noting that the back left spotlight was not responding – something had ripped through the wiring and all power and data was out. Checking the other systems though, he found no damage, but there was a swarm of a dozen large birds, nesting on the roof. He jacked out momentarily and focussed on the front of the vehicle, spotting the huge streaks of guano that now decorated the hood and windscreen, and scowled, before jacking back in and resuming his sweep. The birds were huge, looking like albatross or pelicans, with long and vicious-looking bills. The team discussed going outside to scare them off, until one of the birds extended its wings to steady itself as it hopped from the cab to the rear section, and they realised the wingspan was easily in excess of ten metres. Even if they were fairly placid, they could still cause damage from their sheer size. Tadibya projected up and stuck her nose out of the top of the vehicle, checking them over for active magical effects – they seemed not to be magically active, though they were obviously para-critters at that size.

After some discussion of what to do, they decided to just leave the birds alone – other than gunking up the windscreen a little and the minor damage to the spotlight, they didn’t seem harmful. The birds sat on the roof, soaking up the heat from the day’s sunlight warming the top of the truck. 

As they reached their kick-off time, Marius started the truck up, and at least half the birds flapped off with shrill cries of warning. The rest steadied themselves, wings partially extended, as they balanced against the vibrations of the vehicle. Marius pulled away slowly, and as he picked up speed, more and more of the remaining flock dived off the side, heading into the lake and landing in the calm water with large splashes.

Squirting water from the windscreen wipers on the dried guano proved ineffective, so they let it be and headed east, towards the dam at the end of the lake, in the rapidly fading daylight. Stopping after a kilometre, they got out to scrape the windscreen clean and check over the truck, and realised that several of them had mild headaches again – checking the map they realised they were once again over the 2000m line, and their bodies were adapting to the thinner mountain air. The huge peak of Mount Damāvand filled the left-hand side of the forward view, rising up several thousand meters, snow capped with the peak sparkling in the dying rays of sunlight. To the right the horizon was dark, as rippled rows of foothills marched off into the distance.

As the sun dipped below the hills and mountains to the west, and the light levels plunged, a small camp was spotted ahead, perhaps a few hundred metres away on the end of the dam. About two dozen tents were pitched, right by the side of the road, where they needed to drive. To the north was a sharply rising set of escarpments, the foothills for the mountains. To the right was the top of the dam, and a series of sixty to seventy degree terraced steps. Marius looked at his readings and evaluated his chances of getting the truck down there in one piece as maybe fifty-fifty… not exactly betting odds.

They watched for a minute, the truck still and unlit and the best next thing to invisible in the darkening conditions. There were at least thirty people down there, moving around, in and out, behind and through tents and hard to get a precise count on. There were at least some mules or donkeys, or similar pack beasts tethered to one sight. As they peered through their scopes and optics, and let their eyes adjust they could make out the armaments they carried – a mix of the cheap KH series assault rifles, shotguns and some pistols for the most part. However, there were at least a few of the people carrying what looked like RPGs, and they spotted at least one team with a light or medium machine gun slung between two people. The truck would bounce the small arms fire except for a lucky hit, but the RPG and MMG were more than capable of making a mess of their plans.

Aswon was in favour of making contact with them, assuming them to be tribesfolk that could be bargained with, perhaps traded with for safe passage. He was of the firm opinion that trying to fight that many opponents was a losing proposition, with too much chance of them being flanked and overwhelmed. If they were not going to fight, they had to fall back to their alternate route, to the north of the mountain.

Marius raised the possibility of the driving down the face of the dam. He was honest with them about how he rated their chances, and the team didn’t seem enthused with the idea.

After ten minutes or so of discussion, with the team looking at how difficult the northern route was, comparing that to their odds to the dam traversal, the time to go the length of the lake to try a southern approach and how long that would cost them – they agree to let Aswon try diplomacy.

The team got ready to cover him, they powered up their comms gear and Tadibya watched carefully with a spirit on standby to provide concealment to Aswon. He walked forwards, his rifle carried high and obvious, carefully pointed up and away from them, making no effort to conceal himself. At about a hundred metres, he was spotted, and a cry went up in the camp. Ten of the men grabbed their weapons, and fanned out into a line abreast, approaching Aswon with weapons held directly at him. Aswon continued to close, offering no threatening moves and called out to them, trying to establish a dialogue. The men shouted at him to drop his weapon, and Aswon carefully laid down his hunting rifle, standing still with arms spread. The approaching force shouted at him to surrender, repeating their demands louder and louder, and anger rising in their voices as Aswon tried to talk to them, being met only with belligerence and hostility. As some of the approaching troops shouldered their weapons at his continued refusal to surrender, Aswon ducked out of sight, the spirit flitting over to conceal him in the blink of an eye as Tadibya issued a command. Long bursts of automatic fire ripped out through the night air, stitching the ground where Aswon had been, but fortunately not finding him in cover. 

Marius threw the truck into reverse, backing off rapidly, as Aswon crawled away from the approaching men. They continued to fire randomly where they thought he was, and a stray round punched through the sleeve of his top before burying itself into his armour. Tadibya cast her invisibility spell upon him, and after she confirmed that he was hidden, he burst into a sprint, zig zagging across the rough terrain and quickly leaving the men behind as they continued to search for him. 

Disappearing into the night, Aswon rendezvoused with the truck back away from the camp, climbing aboard to meet the rest of the team. They could still see the occasional rippling burst of fire as the enemy scoured the hillside for Aswon, probably spotting rabbits and other small creatures in the darkness. With a sigh, Marius turned the truck around and retraced their path to the fork in the trail, and then turned north, heading around the other side of the mountain. The path climbed up into the foothills, snaking back and forth around the harsh rocky terrain. Soon they were on a narrow road, barely wider than the truck, a steep but short cliff to their right, and an abrupt drop to their left – no passing places were to be seen, and they hoped they didn’t come across anything coming the other way.

As it happened, something coming the other way was the least of their worries. After perhaps thirty minutes of travel, the sensors picked up a lone metahuman, walking up the middle of the road. Marius slowed the truck to match his pace, examining the sides of the road for any changes. Twenty seconds passed, then forty, then a minute – the man made no attempt to get out of the way, or even look over his shoulder at the obvious engine noise from the truck as it crawled its way up the trail. Aswon pushed open the door and stood on the edge of the sill, leaning his entire body out of the cab so he could raise his head above the armoured doorway. Armoured windows were all very nice, but not being able to wind them down had its disadvantages. When he was stood comfortably and securely, he shouted ahead, asking the man if he wanted a lift.

Now he responded, stopping and turning around, and called out that no, he was fine. He turned again, and carried on walking. Turning the truck lights on, they could see the man clearly – middling height and thin, wrapped in cheap and tatty robes, and carrying a wooden yoke over his shoulders, with two large wooden buckets hung from ropes, one on each end. Battered sandals flopped with every step onto the rocky trail, and he walked with a slight stoop. Tadibya leaned forwards and tried to get a read on him, looking with her astral vision to determine his state of mind and to try to get some insight into what he was doing. After a few moments of concentration, she sighed, and then sat back, starting at him with a little frown on her lips. “He’s just a man… nothing magical, nothing special, and I can’t pick up any cyberware or implants in him. I also can’t get a read on him of any sorts – no emotion at all. That either means I’ve done a really rubbish job, or he’s way more powerful than I am and shielding his aura.” The team slowly digested this, and hands that had unconsciously reached for weapons or equipment slowly relaxed. Aswon tried again.

“Excuse me, we’d really like to get past, if you don’t mind?”

The man called back over his shoulder. “No.” Aswon traded looks with the others… no, he didn’t mind? No, they couldn’t pass? What??? The man stopped and turned, and Marius pulled the truck to a stop as well. Several of the team got out, and approached him, and again Aswon tried to start a conversation.

“So, where are you going, sir?”

“Up the mountain.”

“And where on the mountain are you heading for?”

“The top.”

“Why are you going to the top?”

“Because that’s where I need to be.” As the team spoke to the man, his answers were vague and maddeningly cryptic and unhelpful. “I have to take my supplies there.”

A quick glance showed the buckets to be empty, just roughly made wooden strips held together by a crude iron band and mismatched nails.

“The buckets don’t appear to have anything in them?”

“Oh no, they’re quite full. Just because you can’t see something, doesn’t mean it’s not there. Can you see the air that you breathe?” Aswon conceded the point, then asked his next question.

“So are they heavy?”

“As heavy as the world.”

“Would you like to climb into our truck with them, and we’ll carry you up the road?”

“Ahh, but then I won’t have carried the weight, and the task won’t be as worthwhile.” Aswon heard a little sound of frustration from Marius behind him, but tried to ignore it as he continued to deal with the old man.

“Would you like me to carry the buckets for you, for a while?” The man suddenly focussed on him, his eyes piercing and direct for the first time in the conversation. 

“Why would you do that”, he asked, “why would you help me, a stranger?” 

“Well, as long as it won’t cause us any harm, then I’m happy to help. It’s not really going to cost me anything, and we have no problem helping other people. It’s generally a nice thing to do.”

The man hemmed and hawed a little, and then spoke up.

“Would you be willing to help me in the future then, to assist me in some way, as long as it didn’t cause you harm, or cost you anything?”

“I don’t see why not?”

Then the man reached into his robes, and pulled out a small wooden cup, and dipped it into the empty bucket to his right. He carefully passed the cup to Aswon. “Here, have a nice drink then, friend.”

Looking a little confused, Aswon raised the empty cup to his lips and poured, reacting with shock as icy cold, pure, fresh glacier water tumbled into his mouth and down his gullet, causing a little shiver down his spine. The water was refreshing and invigorating and Aswon lowered the cup and stared hard at the stranger, who gave no sign that anything unusual was going on at all. The stranger reached out and took the cup from Aswon’s unresisting fingers, dipped it into the bucket again, and then offered it around the team. One after another they sampled the contents, all receiving a similar reaction – all except Kai. He refused the drink, politely, and instead offered the stranger some of their water from the truck. The stranger refused, equally politely, when he was offered the small bottle of water.

“I don’t suppose you have one of those marvellous bottles do you, that’s empty?” Kai grabbed a bottle, and returned it to the man, who poured the contents of the cup into the bottle, capped it and returned it to Kai.

“Here, just in case you change your mind later. You never know.”

Kai took the bottle, thanking the man.

The strange man looked at the team, the team looked at the strange man, and the moment stretched out in silence….


	19. 019 - Smugglers in the mountains

Date 14/12/2059, Location 35.93722, 52.02906 

The man continued to stare at Kai, saying nothing. When Kai looked down at the bottle, then back, the man nodded at him encouragingly, giving a little smile that revealed crooked and yellowing teeth.

“Alright, I’ll drink some,” said Kai, then raised the bottle to his lips and took a deep drink. The man watched without comment, peering intently, and Kai drank some more.

The strange man seemed happy now that Kai had drunk, too.

“So, where are you going?”

“We’re heading north generally.” Kai responded, giving a wave in the general direction without being too specific.

“Well, I have one piece of advice for you – avoid the lands to the north east, further up the slope and towards the mountain. Instead, ahead when the river turns and heads North West, you would be best to travel that way instead. Stay on the lower ground, and only travel up over a ridge if you absolutely must do so.” Hunter checked the map, and the course looked reasonable, though it was going to be a very sharp climb and descent at the end.

“And now, as you have been so kind, I will allow you to pass.” He gathered the yoke up onto his shoulders, and then straightened his legs, a little tremble passing through him as he lifted the weight. He turned towards the truck, and then placed his hands on the heavy duty grille covering the radiator, and started to clamber up, grunting and straining as he swung a sinewy leg up into a foothold.

“What are you doing?” Marius exclaimed, having just about had enough of crazy old men on the mountainside. “Get down off there!”

“Life is about how you deal with obstacles. There are those that go around them, and those that conquer them.” He strained and then lurched forwards, the buckets swinging wildly and impacting on the trucks hood as he continued to clamber up until he stood on the heavy armoured plate triumphantly. Without pausing for breath he took the two paces to reach the windscreen, clambering up there next to rise to the top of the cab. With that summit achieved, it was only a short step up onto the boxy rear section, and he strode along there to the back of the truck.

Aswon gave a sudden start and ran to the back of the truck, along with Tadibya and Shimazu, as they realised there was no ladder or climbing holds on the back – and how as the old man going to get down with his yoke from the three metre height? With visions of broken legs and hips in their minds they skidded around the back of the truck to find the old man standing waiting for them on the road, his yoke set back a little. Both his hands were on the back of the rear door.

“I’m ready when you are. I’ll give you a little help along, to get you started.”

They stared at him for a moment, wondering just how he’d gotten down from the roof without injury, then backed off a little and waved for everyone to get back into the truck. Clearly something weird was going on, and this wasn’t just an ‘old man’.

Marius started up again, and moved away slowly until the man stopped pushing (where he’d made no discernible difference at all to their forward motion). They drove off into the night, lights highlighting the rough, barren and uneven terrain. In the rear sensors, Marius saw the man walk back down the mountain the ten metres or so to his buckets, then pick up the yoke again and continue his trudge uphill.

Leaving the track they dropped into the river, Marius slowing until they were proceeding at not much more than an amble, as he picked his way through the boulders and rocks littering the riverbed, the raging white waters barely rising halfway up the wheels. They progressed for several hours, crawling along the water course, getting higher and higher as they wound around the mountains and highlands, heading in a generally northward direction. They saw little movement – the odd bat or bird flew through their headlights, but nothing larger, and the hours trickled past. Tadibya got some sleep, swinging in the hammock strung up in the back, but it proved elusive for the rest as the truck bounced and lurched over the rough terrain. The higher they rose, the more the air thinned, and the engine struggled for air, gradually but perceptibly losing power and Marius had to push the accelerator down further and further to maintain their forward motion.

After hours of monotonous crawling, with the first glimmers of faint dawn light starting to show, Hunter suddenly realised something was wrong – the light was dead behind them, not to the right – they’d veered off course and were heading west, having gone too far up the river and “missing” their turn up into the mountain. He alerted Marius, who spied a flatish area off to the side of the riverbed that he could swing around in. The truck pulled out of the riverbed and started to turn, ready to descend back the way they had come for the last two kilometres or so, to correct their path.

As they got into the turn, several of the team spotted something odd in the grey pre-dawn light, with the mountain off to the south. It appeared regular, flat and uniform, without the random undulations of its surroundings. At the same moment, a strident buzzer sounded, shattering the silence in the cab, half a dozen warning lights illuminated on the dash, and Marius flinched as LIDAR, RADAR and a number of other sensor platforms from some hidden source lashed at the truck, locking it up for some fire control system – despite the protective concealment from Tadibya’s spirit.

A voice sounded over the radio, clear and loud, despite low power settings, indicating that it was from somewhere close

“Unknown vehicle - stop immediately or be destroyed. You are now locked up by a Javelot XC34 missile system. You have ten seconds to comply.”

Marius started to jack out immediately, fearful of what a missile strike would do to their vehicle – and more importantly his brain, if he was connected to it via his vehicle control rig. The others started to scan the outside, looking for their attackers, but Kai just cocked his head and listened to the voice. As the voice continued to threaten them with doom and the vehicle slowed to a half, Kai keyed up the radio and responded.

“Hi there. Please fire immediately. We are armed and hostile, and quite short-tempered as we’ve not had breakfast yet.” The others looked at him in amazement and despair as he goaded the voice on the radio. Muting the mic, Kai sounded much more jovial as he explained to them.

“Whoever was on the other end of the radio really isn’t serious, you can tell from their voice… Can’t you all hear? They’re pulling a fast one.”

Moments later, two carefully concealed turrets popped out of the ground, and their doubts solidified, as the threatening profile of anti-armour autocannons trained smoothly on their positions. Then Marius and Hunter, staring out of the right side of the vehicle both gave a snort, almost in unison. Whether it was fear heightening the senses, visual acuity or just a bit of luck was hard to say – but they both saw that the turret uphill from them was resoundingly solid and professional looking indeed, but the barrel sticking out from it was nothing more than a painted cardboard tube. Kai continued to tell the voice on the other end of the radio that he wasn’t going to fire, whilst the voice proclaimed in ever more excited terms that he would, and demanded that they get out of the truck, right now.

Kai agreed, and whilst several of them climbed out, Hunter took advantage to sneak out of the side and creep towards the turret, sliding along the rocky floor like a leopard prowling. The voice came back over the radio, its timbre and tone changed, asking just what the person creeping up on the turret was doing? Kai waved Hunter to a halt, calling out of the team tac-net that this time the voice wasn’t bluffing, that he knew what was going on…

After a few seconds, a figure appeared out of the darkness, striding down the slope, carrying a medium calibre rifle carefully in his arms. The figure was close to two metres tall with a medium complexion. A scruffy mass of black hair with a large white whorl indicated that he’d been roused from sleep, and dark brown eyes stared at the team, with curiosity rather than hostility. He was also dressed “Western Style”, in high-performance mountain trekking gear, warm and close fitting and worn and battered enough to indicate long use. He greeted the team, asking them who they were, and what they were doing on the mountain. Kai spoke to him, fencing with him for information, and finding that he was definitely not the voice on the radio – this man was far too calm and collected. After agreeing that all of them would much prefer not to get shot, or have any unpleasantness, they agreed to go with the man. He led them back up the slope, motioning for the vehicle to follow. Hunter followed him up slope, whilst the rest of the team got back in the vehicle and reversed up the incline.

As he got closer to the shape and could finally make out some details, Hunter realised that he was essentially looking at a number of enormous camouflage nets strung up between two peaks, over the valley between them. Under the nets were a set of thermal baffles or blankets, blocking light and heat equally well. The figure lifted the edge of the netting and then with Hunter’s assistance propped up the edge with two large rods, creating enough room to back the truck under. Inside the area protected by the awning was at least five hundred square metres, with a large geodesic survival tent pitched to one side, a number of smaller tunnel tents alongside, and a mass of cargo crates and boxes scattered across the area. A rugged jeep and a small chopper with a large bubble canopy sat towards the rear.

As they stopped the vehicle, a smaller man burst out of the geodesic tent and sprang into a combat position, straight out of an action show – feet splayed wide, hips open, SMG set ready to spray fire across the ground. Several of the team sniggered, and struggled to prevent open laughter at the man. Examining him, he was a shade over 165cm, also black haired with a dark complexion and large, bushy beard. He, too, was dressed in mountain trekking gear, rather than traditional dress.

Kai and the newcomer spoke, and the team listened in, as they each established their positions. This was the voice from the radio, and he seemed quite belligerent and hostile to begin with - until Kai calmly and quietly informed him that he’d seen through his deception and knew full well that not only was the threat hollow because he wasn’t the type to attack like that, but that the threat didn’t exist at all. The man seemed to deflate, dropping the weapon from his hands and rubbing at his face, before nodding in agreement with Kai.

In a dejected voice, he explained that they’d panicked when they’d seen the truck coming up the valley, thinking it was the army – and had tried to run a bluff on them. Kai continued to chat away, encouraging the man to talk as he worked out where the conversation was going, and then actually started to negotiate. The man introduced himself as Rasheed, his friend Javad with the rifle, and his wife Nasrin – she had to be almost dragged out of the geodesic tent to meet them. Slightly smaller than her husband, she wore a mix of traditional and western clothes, she also had a dark complexion, black hair but with striking green eyes. However, the most obvious feature of her appearance was the ruinous mass of scar tissue that covered about 90% of her face, the flesh rippled, puckered and twisted in a series of craters, ridges and blisters. She obviously was incredibly self-conscious about this, and moved as soon as she was able to, to stand behind her husband and out of line of sight. Several of the team made concerted efforts not to stare at her, trying to put her at ease.

As they spoke, and gradually each side relaxed with the other, the team learnt more. Rasheed and Javad had known each other for many years, growing up together. They had worked in a ski resort further east in the mountains, one of the few places that still actively encouraged tourists and visitors in the land, bringing with them much foreign currency. They lived in a small village near one of the resorts, but following a series of strange occurrences in and around the village, they were forced to flee. Although it was not explicitly mentioned, the team quickly realised that these “strange occurrences” were centred about Nasrin, and the general feelings about magic prevalent in Iran. They fled from the resort, bringing with them everything that wasn’t nailed down, determined to set up a new life.

Taking everything that wasn’t nailed down, they’d found this valley and decided to set up camp here, trying to set themselves up as a stopping point for the smugglers they’d heard used this area to transit from the ruins of Tehran out and across the mountains to the north and east. They didn’t know much about the business, other than the sensationalised reports from the trideo and news casts, but figured that with their experience in running the resort and keeping things operational in the mountains, they had the right skill set to make do – and it let them stay out of official sight and off the books.

They had an eclectic mix of equipment, including some quite unusual devices – such as the sensor system that had ‘locked onto’ the truck – which was designed to search for people trapped in snow storms and avalanches, and the authentic turrets which had been supplied as part of a themed area for corporate management teambuilding courses. But, along with the weird and wonderful, they had a whole bunch of sky and mountain climbing supplies and equipment that had let them set up a fairly comfortable camp that had sustained them well for several weeks. 

During the discussions, at several moments, Rasheed seemed to lose focus, his eyes rolling back slightly and his voice pausing, before he then spoke about a new subject. Marius and Hunter quickly realised that he had at least a rudimentary skillwire system implanted, with a variety of subjects loaded onto a skillsoft secreted somewhere around his body. The cybernetic system allowed him to load a chip encoded with information gathered from hundreds of experts on a particular skill or area of knowledge, along with recordings of people performing tasks – which the user could then replicate. While he had the chip loaded into the processing unit, Rasheed could wire up a generator, repair a ski lift, fix the hotel Wi-Fi or matrix system, repair or maintain a vehicle or do anything else that was programmed on the small optical storage medium. The downside being, that as soon as the chip was popped out, and replaced with another, the knowledge and ability was gone, and he had to rely on his own experiences and skills.

Tadibya spent some time with Nasrin, talking to her female to female, and after several hours had determined that she was indeed magically active, but had no training or understanding of what was going on. Whatever effects took place around her were purely as a result of focussed will and desire, and subject to little control. She spent a while explaining what spirits were and how they could react to people calling them, trying to explain a little to the terrified woman about how she could control the things happening around her.

The rest of the team helped Rasheed and Javad with the camouflage netting, inserting new poles above the wire strung from peak to peak, making the surface less smooth and making new peaks and troughs in the surface, breaking up the flat outline that had triggered their sensors.

Examining the jeep and the chopper, Marius discovered that both of them had been fitted out with a high altitude kit. Discussing with Rasheed, he found that he had a spare kit – but wouldn’t part with it for less than the cost price of 2,500 Nuyen. Offering to pay, they ran into another problem – Rasheed wasn’t connected up to the matrix, and couldn’t actually accept electronic payments.

Later on, Marius managed to persuade Javad to take him for a short ride in the chopper, examining the base from above, and checking out the terrain and local area. He confirmed their route – though it looked like a very hazardous climb and descent, there really wasn’t much of an alternative. 

The team stayed over during the day, Marius awaking once to spot Javad doing some maintenance on their truck – checking air pressure and wheel nuts – but generally getting a solid day of sleep in. The most gratefully received help came in the form of a herbal tea brewed up by Nasrin – which seemed to greatly assist with the assimilation to the thinner air.

By the time sunset approached on the second day, several of the team were itching to be on their way, and looking to Kai to see if they were pulling out that night…


	20. 020 - Coastal plains

Date 15/12/2059, Location 36.02763, 52.01790 

Kai looked around and said they should be on the way, and the team started to get ready to leave – until Hunter came back in from the outside where he’d been exercising and keeping a watch on the world.

“Feels cold out there, really cold, temperature’s dropped a good few degrees in the last couple of minutes.”

Rasheed went outside, returning a few minutes later, and told the team that there was a storm front moving in – they either had to go, right now, or wait here for a day or two. The team hovered in indecision. Slowly they looked around them at the design of the massive shelter, checking out the thickness of the cable supporting the cammo netting, the angle of slope that would shed snow, the strength of the struts installed to break up the outline. It may have been installed quickly and still very recently, but it was obvious that the three escapees had worked hard – and they knew their stuff. The shelter looked solid to Aswon and Tadibya – by far the most practical amongst the team when it came to survival skills – and they said as much to Kai. With a nod from their leader, they decided to wait it out – nobody wanted to get stuck on the edge of Iran’s highest mountain in a snow storm.

Tadibya returned to Nasrin, and continued to try and explain the mystic world to her, teaching her about astral space, spirits and mana. Whilst they were talking, Nasrin was sorting through a pile of mould, lichens and small but spiny plant leaves, kilos and kilos of the stuff. As Nasrin moved her hands through the materials, sorting it deftly with ease, Tadibya’s voice trailed off and her eyes widened. She was no expert on the local materials, but it was clear that these plants were specially selected. Each was pure, and when she looked in astral space they glowed faintly and exuded a magical tang – the whole crop was magically active, and would form the basis for a prodigious amount of alchemy. Tadibya started to ask Nasrin about the plants, and was startled to find out that what she had in front of her was what she had collected in the week or so since arriving – a huge haul, from such little time.

It became clear in the next hour that Nasrin was a skilled botanist or horticulturalist, someone with naturally green fingers, who just had a way with plants. Years of experience of growing herbs in widow boxes, tending to small gardens and building floral displays with eye catching colours for the ski resort had her able to spot specimens and grow plants with ease. She learnt quickly from Tadibya, and taught her a few tricks in return. Making the most of the fact they would be here for at least another day, maybe more, Tadibya quickly set to showing Nasrin how to refine the raw material she had into a more radical form, distilling down the plant material into the components that featured the strongest mana flows and essence.

Meanwhile, Marius and Kai negotiated a price with Rasheed and Javad, and set to fitting the high-altitude conversion kit to the truck. The cold and dark conditions and rough nature of their working area didn’t make the job easy, but after several hours, additional compressors, filters, manifolds and pumps were installed, the system pressurised and the engine fired up to check all of the pipes were holding. Even without touching the accelerator, Marius could feel the engine purring much more smoothly as the increased air supply to the engine led to greater fuel combustion. Whilst they worked, Rasheed described the path they would be taking over the spine of the mountain, expressing polite doubts about the ability of a truck to navigate the route. Marius responded with quiet confidence.

Nevertheless, he took advantage of the downtime and spent a good eight hours after the installation of the kit in maintenance activities, going over the truck’s systems with a meticulous and thorough eye. Once the truck was done, he turned his eye to the chopper, and worked with Javad to strip down and rebuild that with the same level of Teutonic precision.

Kai, Aswon and Hunter spent their time either relaxing, gently working out and trying to acclimatise, helping with the layout of the new base, construction and discussions with Rasheed and Javad, talking to them about black markets, smuggling, border procedures and a million and one other small details about living their life in the shadows. Though neither Rasheed nor Javad were stupid – quite the opposite in fact – they were both very innocent about a life of crime, and several of their assumptions had to be quietly corrected. They both soaked up the knowledge like sponges, grateful to the team for their pearls of wisdom. 

By the time the team were ready to roll on the evening of the second day, the truck was tuned and prepped, as close to 100% as the day it rolled out of the factory.

Gathering for the send off, Nasrin still lurked behind her husband, more confident now and occasionally making eye contact with them but Rasheed and Javad were the focus of the discussion. They wished the team well, and then Rasheed, after a none too subtle poke from his wife, turned to Kai and offered a suggestion. Would the team be interested in a trade – if they were given the raw and radical magical plants that Tadibya and Nasrin had spent the last two days working on – would they carry word of their existence, comm frequencies and recognition codes, spreading them around the smuggler community? Kai looked over at Tadibya, getting an emphatic nod from her – and with general assent from the others, agreed.

Ten minutes later, they were loaded, and making their way back down the river gorge, heading for their turnoff, more easily spotted from this direction. The next hour was spent climbing the slope, tracking back and forth across their route, the huge chunky tires of the six by six cutting deep through the fresh snowfall, biting into the frozen crust of the older falls below. Marius sat in the centre front seat, tightly strapped in by the five point harness with a head restraint to stop his unconscious form from lolling around as the truck lurched and bounced across the obstacles. The slender silvery cable ran from the jack ports at the back of his head to the dash, connecting the cybertronic modules implanted around his spine and hind brain, allowing his consciousness to perceive the vehicle as part of his body. As the truck worked its way up the hill, Marius could “feel” the snow beneath his bare feet, both of his sets of legs and arms clawing on the frozen ice and slick rock for grip, his breathing laboured as he fought his way up slopes of up to forty degrees, but less so than before the kit was installed. His eyes flickered behind closed eyelids as his sensors scanned around him, drinking in the detail revealed by the cameras, radar, rangefinders, lidar and other sensor system fitted to the truck.

Tadibya had attempted to summon a powerful mountain spirit to guard their ascent – but the exhaustion of the last two days of work had caught up with her, and no spirit answered her slightly rambling call for aid, and all she got was a thumping headache from the magical backlash. She wrapped the hammock around her and relaxed as best she could, swinging wildly as the trucked crawled up the steep slopes. Everyone else in the front also buckled up, cinching themselves tight into their seats to protect them from the violent movement – except Aswon. He stayed unbelted, ready to leap out of the truck in case of danger – whether that be natural or man-made. He had to work hard to stay in place, and was sweating from the exertion with aching limbs by the time they were half-way up the slope, but doggedly kept in position, surveying the slopes out of the thick side windows.

An hour later, and the truck climbed over the top of the ridge, having climbed up past 3600m in a snaking and fishtailed course that included several backslides and corrections.

Without pausing to examine the starlit view, the truck tipped forwards, and started to descend. As surely as the journey up, Marius controlled the vehicle, slewing from side to side as he navigated down the slope, his sensors questing forward to find the easiest path, the wheels biting deep into the snow, fighting for grip and purchase. It was a constant war against the forces of gravity, the wheels occasionally spinning in reverse, slowing the truck as it turned into a sled and slipped down the mountain side on a bed of snow that acted like a giant slick.

Under the iron concentration of their driver, the truck bounced, slid and drove down the slope, dropping over a thousand metres vertically in less than six kilometres of horizontal travel. Only at the very end of the descent did the truck have more than a moment of time out of control, and even then Marius managed to turn as a whole shelf of ice collapsed under his wheels, slewing the truck sideways on to the boulder that appears out of the darkness, and managing to spread the impact over the entire side of the van. For a moment, Aswon was thrown against the side of the window, like a cartoon character hitting a cliff, before he managed to peel himself off and resume his seat. Sedately, Marius changed gear, eased away from the boulder and then followed the beginnings of a trail down to the village of Namar.

They crept through the village, lights off, unobserved by the residents who had shuttered their hovels against the biting wind, and uncared for by the mountain goats in their pens. The track improved as they drove east, continuing to drop sharply in places and wind around the mountain, zig zagging around their base course and dropping them lower and lower. By the time they hit Panjab, it was a proper tarmac road, and the village had electric lights – fortunately by now it was late enough that everyone was in bed, and the truck just rolled through the village without observation. Shortly afterwards, they hit highway seventy-seven and turned north, heading for the coast and picking up speed a little on the better quality road.

They travelled north, the road dropping at a steady grade, winding back and forth only a little and dropping down the side of the hills, heading towards the coastal plains. Late at night, there was little traffic, and soon they were cruising down the road at the speed limit, the engine delighting in the normal air pressure and driving the bulky vehicle onwards like a champion. As the late night grew towards the start of a new day, they hit the road that bypassed Amol, taking the major road around, and turning east towards Babol. They thundered along the level terrain and clear wide blacktops – after the journey through the mountain even the pock-marked roads feeling like silk. They eased through Babol, the city quiet and almost deserted at this time of morning, following highway twenty-two, then through Qaemshahr, onwards to Sari, pushing hard to cover as much distance as they could under the cover of darkness.

They continued along highway twenty-two, as far as Galugah, then started to look for a place to turn off the main road. According to the maps, there was a province checkpoint ahead, and based on previous experience, they didn’t want to risk that. Instead, about ten kilometres east of the small town of Galugah, they headed south, towards the foothills, following a farm track and then heading off road until they found a fence in their way. After quick consideration, Marius just drove over it, the three foot wooden posts and twin wires no match for the massive diesel engine and huge off-road tyres mounted on the armoured chassis. As they headed for another farm track, that would allow them to meet back up with the twenty-two, they saw a set of travellers ahead, walking down the track in two by two formation. Marius quickly slowed the truck to a halt, and they all looked forward and examined the group. They were oddly dressed – all wearing somewhat elaborate hats, and a strange kind of ceremonial robes. Two of them carried a large yoke, spanning both their shoulders and the gap in-between them, and suspended from the middle was a large and ornate metal cage, with some kind of paraffin lamp or other light source. A hurried discussion ensued as the group examined the strangers, marching through the dawn light towards them. Tadibya gave a little gasp as she examined them astrally, picking up that at least two of the group of twenty of so were magically active in some way. Then her brow furrowed as she thought – magically active, weird hat, carrying a flame… 

“Zoroastrian!” she exclaimed.

“Bless you,” said Kai, then grinned as Tadibya gave him a very odd look. Once she’d said that, a few others made the connection – Zorastrians were a very old religious movement, far predating Islam, and the “original” native religion of Iran. Likely to be heavily oppressed, these people were unlikely to be official in their movements either.

The team started moving again, driving slowly down the track towards the group. As they closed, the column of monks or adherents, or whatever they were, all started to move to the left side of the track – Marius echoed their movement, sliding to his left to give them as much clearance as possible. As he approached through, one individual, with a slightly more ornate hat than the rest stepped out directly into the front of the vehicle, and raised his hand in what was clearly a motion to stop.

For a moment, it looked like Marius was going to drive straight over him, but then the truck braked sharply, and came to a halt, just in front of the Zorastrian. He appeared completely unphased by this, and then uncorked a small container, poured some liquid into his hand and then started to flick it onto the truck, singing quietly as he did so.

The team looked at each other, and then back at the man – was he blessing their truck? Cursing it? Washing off bird droppings? Nobody knew, but they decided not to investigate, fearing that things could quickly go south, and at this stage, they just wanted to get the hell out of Iran. After a minute of singing and ritual wetting, the man turned away from the truck, without another word and resumed his place in the column, and then they headed on their way west. Marius started the truck and drove on into the dawn light, picking up speed as they transitioned from rough track to a cart track, then a single lane road, then back onto the highway.

They pressed on, driving as fast as they could, through Kordkuy and then around Gorgan, finally turning north onto highway seventy-three. Traffic picked up around them as dawn broke and the farmers drove to market and workers began their commutes. Hunter kept an eye on their speed, the traffic conditions and the map, working out their rate of advance and likely ETA at the border. As they left the town of Gorgan behind, he advised Kai that they were about an hour from the crossing, and he in turn poked Shimazu to call his fixer and see about the details for the crossing.

A quick phone call later, and they had a new destination – a desert area to the west of Alagol Lake, just shy of the border crossing. About thirty klicks from the border they turned off onto a dusty desert road, nothing more than compacted sand, and wound their way off into the wilderness. The green farmlands had given way to scrubland, and the area was barren and wild. After a few kilometres of bone jarring driving, the road suddenly swept upwards, climbing nearly six metres at a thirty degree slope as it climbed up the breach in a massive berm. They saw a few abandoned buildings at the base of the berm – maybe shepherds enclosures, maybe an old house… but they quickly attacked the sharp climb and then emerged onto a plateau of sandy rock and shale.

As they were driving along, Shimazu’s phone rang - it was his fixer. He told the team to slow, and then flash their headlights a few times to mark their position. Marius complied, and ahead of them a huge plane just… appeared. Where once there was empty sky, now there was a large quad engine tilt rotor craft, the body a distended cigar shape, that looked capable of swallowing the truck whole. It approached them smoothly, the engine pods and props rotating as they transitioned from horizontal to vertical mode, until with a delicate touch it settled to a hover over the top of the truck. As it did so, the bottom panel of the plane split open, and two huge cargo doors split down the rear half of the fuselage. Four metahumans dropped down out of the craft on winch lines, large cargo hooks held in one hand, SMGs on friction straps in the other. Their faces were covered with full face dust mask, their heads wrapped in shemaghs but they looked… competent. They dropped to the ground and quickly attached their cargo hooks to fixing points on the truck, and then one after another gave a signal – hand circling fast in a winding motion, and the lines took in the slack and then started to lift the truck, up into the hold.

The engines started to tilt as the truck pulled into the hold, and they got a sense of forward motion. As the winches stopped, they realised that the truck was hanging, suspended in mid-air, the cargo doors still open underneath them as they flashed forwards over the hard and unyielding desert, probably no more than thirty metres in the air. The winch crew had swung themselves over to the edge of the bay, and transferred themselves to safety lines that ran the sides of the craft, and they busied themselves with tasks on various devices and electronic panels. Glancing down through the open doors, they could see when they crossed the border, recognising the huge rolls of barbed wire fence and the long snaking path of the minefield stretching out to either side of their route. About thirty minutes later, they felt the plane lurch again, as the pods rotated, and they slowly lost power and started to descend. 

The crew connected themselves up to the winch line again, and as the truck started to lower from the bay, they received updated map co-ordinates – they were about a hundred and fifty kilometres north of the border now, halfway between the settlements of Ekerem and Kum Dag. As the crew started to unhook, the team received a short transmission, advising them of local conditions, how far north the main road was and checking they were good to go. Kai responded, and in the process dumped the codes and details of Rasheed and his family to them, recommending that there were a good stop off point for anyone heading for Tehran and needing a layover point.

The tiltwing angled away from them, the doors closing as the last of the crew cleared the opening, and dove down towards the coast, dropping almost level with them. As it headed north, it seemed to shimmer, and then just….fade from view. This time Tadibya was ready, and looking in astral space she caught a glimmer of the spell that wrapped light around the vehicle snapping into place, and the spirit that concealed it – two layers of magical protection, on top of the camo paint scheme. No doubt their electronic deception measures were just as competent…

The team stopped, checked the fuel supply and looked at the map. They’d used four hundred kilometres or so of fuel getting here, leaving them with about a thousand kilometres of range – but it was nearly thirteen hundred kilometres to Tashkent. Time to head for the main road, and work out where they could refuel – hopefully using real money…

Marius slipped the truck into gear and started to pull away.


	21. 021 - Corporate sand buggies

Date 18/12/2059, Location 38.62706, 54.47158 

As Marius started to pull away, he gave a massive yawn. Realisation struck him that really, it wasn’t time to drive through unknown terrain for an uncertain number of hours – what it was, was time to get a couple of hours of rest after a pretty stressful ascent and descent over rough mountainous terrain.

They discussed for a few minutes, agreed on a plan and split up into watches and then rested. The truck sat in the grey and barren landscape, 4 sets of snores echoing from the back whilst two stayed on watch. Even in the middle of December, down on the coastal plains the temperature crept up, warming the metal skin and glass of the windows, and the digital readout crept up towards the 25 degree mark. The team slept through the conditions though, swapping out watches half way through the day and leaving Marius and Hunter to sleep undisturbed – their skills would be needed soon enough.

As the sun crept higher and reached its zenith, then started its decent to the west, the watch standers saw nothing. Not birds, not animals, not even a tumbleweed. Occasionally a strong gust of wind would lift some dust and swirl it around, but otherwise the area was desolate and barren.

After a good sleep, the team roused themselves at around 16:00, and started to prepare to move out, stowing sleeping gear and tidying away the bowls they’d made their porridge in. 

Tads suddenly looked up in alarm, examining the sides of the vehicle carefully. She moved from side to side, and discovered that the external ward around the vehicle had disappeared. At first she thought they had come under some kind of attack, and checked around for spirits or astral entities that might be about to launch some kind of assault. As she looked around though and found nothing, the last vestiges of sleep were banished and she realised rather belatedly that the ward had just expired. Without access to the advanced knowledge required for a permanent ward and the thousands of Nuyens worth of warding materials to make it, her temporary ward had lost enough magical force to just blow away into the ether. She sighed, resigning herself to another half a day to putting up a new ward at some time when they were stopped…

Hunter had pulled up the charts by this point and was looking at the various routes possible to reach Tashkent – it mostly boiled down to two routes. Hack straight towards their destination, by a direct over-desert route and take their chances off road, and they could avoid a lot of attention, would be the most direct and shortest route, but could land them in a lot of trouble. Or, go via the roads and major settlements, accept they would be seen and may run into more official attention, but make quick time over decent roads with good access to fuel. Though the former was appealing, they felt they needed the time, and safety, of the second route. Hunter set to working out the journey

From their current location, they would take the M37 east, past Bereket to Ashgabat for the first leg, a total of 375km, then continue on through Tejen and towards the city of Mary, for a second leg of 350Km. After that they turned north east towards Turkmenabat and then on to Bukhara, another 350km for leg 3. Continuing north east towards Samarkand they changed to the M39 then on to Jizzakh with the fourth leg being 345km long. Finally, leg 5 was a short 175km drive to Tashkent – a total of nearly 1600km. As he was planning each morning and evenings drive, he did notice another opportunity – if they left the main route at Bereket, there appeared to be a fairly large train station there, with extensive sidings. Checking around the matrix, he eventually managed to find a price – they could get their truck loaded onto a low-loader, and freighted to Tashkent for about 500 Nuyen, but it would take at least 6 days, maybe more, due to the changes and timetables. The team decided to stick with the chosen route, and Marius once more put the truck in gear and drove north towards Kum Dag and the main road.

They found the rough track about two kilometres north of where they had paused over the day, and in the last light of the afternoon, turned onto the marginally smoother track and headed towards the smudge on the horizon that promised buildings, roads and at least a form of civilisation.

Shimazu and Hunter both barked an alarm, almost at the same time – there was a vehicle approaching them, hammering across the desert fast, approaching them from their five o’clock. Peering through gun scopes and sensors, it appeared to be a large four by four, open topped, with a number of individuals riding in it – all armed with rifles of some kind. Also on the vehicle was at least a pair of light machine guns, attached to pintle mounts – maybe even medium machine guns. The vehicle was painted a drab grey – no camo patterns – and appeared to have some kind of corporate logo painted on the bonnet. No matter how much the team squinted, they couldn’t make it out though – the angle was too extreme.

They had seconds to decide – evade, attack, negotiate…. Kai made the call – “see if you can lose them”. Marius turned the wheel, the truck bouncing off the rough track and back onto the stony wasteland, as he tried to find dips and undulations to mask the vehicle from the approaching hostiles. As he did so, his foot came off the gas, the truck slowing dramatically until it was barely doing 10 kph, but in turn the large dust trail thrown up by the back wheels dying away until it was barely visible. Tads drew a deep breath, concentrated on the vehicle and let mana flow through her, extending her spell around the vehicle to render it invisible. The truck faded away into the afternoon sunlight, and the desert appeared empty once more. The effect on the pursuing vehicle was immediate – two of the occupants rose and readied their support weapons, and the driver started to alter course, opening up a bearing on them.

In the truck, Marius could feel the questing beams of radar lancing out across the open terrain, and with a mental flick activated his jammers and electronic countermeasures. He felt the beams around him, occasionally brush over him – but never strongly enough to get a lock on his vehicle. The team watched as a satisfied smile spread over Tads’ face, as the spell took hold – she was obviously happy with her efforts. Aswon was now pressed up against the side of the vehicle, watching the approaching vehicle through the powerful scope on his Purdey, and saw the front seat passenger stow his weapon and reach into a large box, throwing disks the size of a laptop computer in the air. As they arced into the air, they unfolded, and rotors deployed quickly, the memory plastic snapping out the shape of the skimmer drone from its stowed configuration, and they quickly hovered and then started to approach the trucks position. He called out a warning to the team, and felt Marius slew the truck through another radical course change. Tads called her spirit to her, and asked it to conceal the vehicle, watching as the zephyr worked to dampen down their dust trail and conceal their tracks, adding an extra layer of magical security to their disguise.

As the pace slackened off, Marius steered the truck gently and carefully, moving carefully to go around patches of loose gravel, trying to disturb the desert as little as possible. He’d already lost track of the drones overhead, their drab paint scheme blending into the sky above him. Idly, he tuned his radio gear, and picked up the frequency their pursuers were transmitting on. The undulating rising and falling hiss told him that the transmission was encrypted, so he bought his decryption gear online and set the computer to breaking the algorithm in use. Seconds later, the speaker echoed their communications.

“Base, base, this is unit four, south of your position. One contact spotted, now evading, lost sighting, trying to re-acquire”. The team watched as their vehicle slowed, and started to search in a pattern, their sensors ramped up and trying to detect the invisible truck. Every time their steerable radar washed over the truck Marius flinched – but the invisibility and careful driving seemed to keep them safe. As the vehicle circled them, they finally got a good look at the corporate logo – “Maersk”. A couple of them had heard of the big shipping combine, but they were not sure what they were doing driving around in the desert.

A hurried conversation took place amongst the team – should they try talking to them, letting them know their comms were compromised, should they just try to break contact, should they attack?

They spoke rapidly and decided on a course of action, with Kai grabbing the radio and waiting from the go-ahead from Marius. Marius lowered the power setting, almost to nothing, making sure their radio transmission would only reach a few hundred metres across the desert, hopefully only catching the other vehicle, and then gave Kai the go ahead.

Carefully pitching his voice, Kai called the other vehicle

“Maersk vehicle, this is your lost contact. Be advised we are independent contractors, just passing through the area. We are not seeking to stop, or carry out any work in the area. In fact, we’re heading out of the area, and we’ll be quite happy to just leave you and your base to the north well alone. We will comply with any requests you have for us to exit the area on a specific heading. Over.”

The radio was quiet for a few seconds and then the same voice that had called in the contact report spoke.

“Do you guys want some work?”

The team exchanged looks… it could be a trap, or it could be a genuine offer. Maybe they wanted to speak more to try and locate the truck from the radio signal?

“Maersk vehicle, as said, we were planning on leaving the area to head for work elsewhere. But we’re willing to listen.”

“Unknown contact, be advised that multiple corporate entities operate in this area. We weren’t sure who you were working for, which is why we investigated. But we are quite serious. Job opportunities exist in this area. Please advise.”

Then another vehicle appeared. The team scrambled to positions, fearing an ambush, that the Maersk team had just delayed them whilst they called on a different channel for backup. Examining the newcomer though, they could see it was a very different vehicle – based of more of an SUV chassis, with a single larger machine gun centrally mounted over the cab. As it closed, they saw the change in posture of the Maersk vehicle, which swung away from them opening up distance to the newcomer, whilst the crew scrambled around to train their weapons at the SUV.

Marius swung the sensors around and zoomed in on the newcomers, zooming in as far as he could until he could read the logo plastered on the side of their vehicle as they charged across the desert towards the Maersk patrol. In bold letters the word “Dekita” was stencilled over a simple logo, repeated on the front and rear of the vehicle as well.

The Dekita security patrol activated their sensors and ramped up the power, trying to get a hard lock on the Maersk vehicle as it swung away from them. Whether that was for a missile lock or sensor enhanced gunnery of their 50 calibre machine gun, or just to let them know it was serious didn’t matter – but all of a sudden, thousands of watts of RF power blasted down a narrow azimuth, painting the truck with enough energy to make the threat warning lights start to strobe, despite the cloaking spell, concealment and evasive driving. The effect was profound – but not in the way expected.

Marius reacted first, his gestalt with the vehicle letting him throw it around a small outcropping as if he was digging his heels into the floor himself. A fraction of a second later, the Dekita security vehicle ploughed a massive furrow as the big soft off road tyres dug into the loose ground, the back end of the vehicle wiggling as it fought to kick round and then it was heading away, kicking up a massive rooster tail of dirt as it accelerated madly across the desert.

The team realised how it must have looked to the newcomer – the obvious security vehicle turning to flee, sucking them into the ambush – they pursued, and just before it was too late, a lucky hit with their radar revealed a large apc or small tank, waiting to destroy them... They watched the Dekita flagged vehicle head to the horizon and disappear into evening, as they continued their journey north, now in some semblance of a convoy with the Maersk patrol, which got a whiff of them from time to time on their sensors – but not enough to confirm their position.

As they approached Kum Dag, a huge petrol station appeared on the right hand side of the road, clearly designed for heavy goods vehicles and long range haulers. They pulled in and Tads dropped the spell and concealment, finally revealing themselves to the patrol clearly. The security troops climbed out of their vehicle, removing face masks and goggles and examining the vehicle and team. They were mostly tall and blond, appearing to be Nordic in origins – backed up by their accents when they spoke.

The patrol leader complimented Kai on his truck, and especially his crew – saying his driver and mage were worth whatever he was spending on them. He again offered them work – explaining a little about the town. He worked for Maersk – obviously – and they patrolled various drilling concerns and operations in the area. They had a compound in town, a couple of blocks across. As he described, he pulled up a quick map of the town, sketching out the area of the Maersk Combine. He added an area to the north west of town for Dekita Oil, and a much larger area to the east of town for Espirit, and finally an area to the north for the labour exchange.

Kai was presented with a small business card for Johanna Bjorn, apparently the operations manager in town, and the person responsible for security, and suggested that the team might want to get in touch in an hour or two. They agreed on a codename – “katana”, then the security troops mounted up and headed into town, back to their compound.

After fuelling up – and discovering the “shop” sold only bottled water – not even any munchies, but they did at least take Nuyen – they headed towards the edge of town and hit the main road, and took the east road away from town, making good progress along the reasonable one lane blacktop. Two hours later, Kai made a call, sounding out Johanna Bjorn. She sounded as Nordic as her name suggested, and was generally receptive to the idea of giving the team some work, sounding a little disappointed when Kai said they were actually on a tight timescale and they were headed east at the moment. They left the conversation that they would give her a call when back in town…

They drove into the darkness, the road winding around the scrubby plains to the north and the low foothills to the south, gradually bending from due east to a south easterly course. Over the next three hours they saw only two other cars, heading the opposite direction, with no traffic heading the same way as them either in front or behind. At around midnight they approached Ashgabat, a city of reasonable size, and found a small and seedy motel by the cloverleaf junction on the main road.

Pulling in, they woke up the receptionist, a youngish and very dishevelled looking man. Booking three rooms, they ticked all of the “optional services” on the booking page, throwing money at the man until his demands for proper IDs became muted, and then stopped. Asking about real food, ice, and other sundries, the man said he could “make arrangements”, looking hopeful. He was rewarded with a transfer of cash to his credstick for his troubles, a pittance really, but obviously a significant amount for him.

The team viewed the rooms, quickly determining that they were flea and lice pits – but nothing that a quick blast of magic from Tads couldn’t sort out for several hours. Though it seemed a little demeaning to use her rare and potent magical power to stun the crap out of the vermin, it did mean everyone would get a good night’s sleep without interruption.

The team settled in to sleep, in real beds for the first time in a long while.


	22. 022 - Shopping in Ashgabat

Date 19/12/2059, Location 38.10045, 58.08179 

Whilst the rest of the team settled down in bed, Tadibya returned to the truck and climbed into the back, pulling out her stick of chalk and began to draw. Writing long flowing lines of Nenet text in tiny and precise strokes, she worked for three hours continuously, circling the truck with slow, methodical movements. As she finished, the last characters flowing back into the first, she felt the magical ward spring into life, summoned into existence with the tale of her forebears now etched into the trucks interior. Cracking her back and stretching, she staggered out of the truck, locked the door and then collapsed into the bed in her room for a dreamless sleep.

In the morning, the young man on the reception desk bought them hot, freshly baked sour dough bread that had a very peculiar flavour to it. Aswon stopped eating when he detected it, waiting 20 minutes and watch the rest intently to see if they became ill. When all proved to be ok, he tucked back in… it wasn’t a bad flavour, just…odd. Different. Maybe it was a local recipe, or some variant on ingredient that was a trait of the local area. As they ate breakfast, they looked over the medical supplies that the motel clerk had bought. He’d clearly oversold his abilities somewhat, and had just been to every garage, convenience store and vending machine in a several mile radius and had purchased a variety of small, travel and car based first aid kits. They contained just generic materials, plasters and small bandages, some eye wash, micropore tape – most of which they had in abundance in the back of the truck already.

After they quizzed him, he shrugged and said that if they wanted anything more, they would need to go to the hospital in the middle of Ashgabat.

They got back on the road, and headed in towards Ashgabat. As they drove into the more built-up area, they realised that they were driving through a ghost town – most of the buildings were abandoned, ravaged by time and the encroaching desert. The occasionally inhabited dwelling was heavily boarded and shuttered, and people moved quickly from place to place, hoods and masks hiding their faces as they leant into the wind.

The road continued east, and they spotted the wall – at least five metres high, a big solid mass of heavy construction material, like a fortress or prison wall. The team slowed, and scanned ahead cautiously – checking for gun and sensor platforms, patrols – all the time wondering what they had missed. After a careful examination however, it appeared to be just a massive wall, solid and imposing. They closed on it, slowly and carefully. As they approached, the massive blast door across the road slid open a lane – revealing a shiny corporate enclave behind. No buildup of sand, no desert encroachment. As they drove in, they relaxed slightly amidst the densely-packed housing, corporate towers, warehouses and other signs of civilisation.

They quickly located the hospital and found a parking space, then Kai and Hunter headed for the entrance, Kai grabbing his doctor’s coat and pass on the way. Asking the bored receptionist for directions, they soon found the pharmacy and Kai made enquiries about the anti-coagulants needed. Again they had the choice of cheap no-brand supply or a much more expensive and named western brand – which is what they chose. When the pharmacy technician asked for his ID card and the patient code to update his system Kai leaned in slightly and turned on the charm. The ID card, ahh, must be with the paperwork, all the way back in my office. Such a long way. Perhaps…. a quick scan of the technician’s name badge… perhaps Umar could help me out, just this once. Umar looked over the counter, up and down the hallway. Seeing no one around, the price suddenly jumped an extra thousand Nuyen. Kai smiled, the credit stick was slid over the desk and the transaction quickly processed, the extra thousand sliding off onto Umar’s personal stick. They picked up the two trays of drugs, and slid them into the packing box provided, taking the sixty day supply back out to the truck and mounting up. Hunter was good for another seventy days now.

As they drove through the small central business district, they spotted a large department store, and pulled over to check it out. Inside they found a trove of gear – the small enclave obviously stocked a “little bit of everything” due to the limited choice of outlets in town. They picked up a sun-cell sheet to place on the roof of the truck, to help recharge their gear and keep the vehicle power topped up without having to use a generator, a whole bunch of spare clothes and then found down in the rear of the basement, a small gun section.

Aswon picked up some hollow point ammo for his rifle, Shimazu grabbed a Ruger-manufactured “Super Warhawk” heavy revolver, and many of the team topped up their supply of regular ammo. They also grabbed some armour plated vests and combat jackets from the racks, uparming themselves considerably. When ID checks were requested, Kai once more leaned in and explained that they were in the truck… perhaps they could do a deal? They haggled a little, but the price was still steep – the sales clerk obviously taking a bigger risk with multiple items to cover in the inventory shortfall. They also discovered that the sale of taser weapons was absolutely prohibited – there seemed to be no stunning / incapacitating weapons allowed at all. They also bought some sundries – Aswon buying a couple of chips with details about flora and fauna, and a tourist guide of the area – such as it was.

Resupplied and with a smaller credit balance, they headed south east, leaving the central walled area via another massive blast door. Once outside, again many of the houses were abandoned and choked with the encroaching desert. The southern side of town had more scattered farmhouses with marginal plots trying to survive in the desert scrubland. After fifteen kilometres of scattered suburbs the housing vanished, leaving just trackless wasteland, rocks, gullies and defiles, with the cracked and poorly maintained blacktop cutting through the sandy backdrop. Kilometre after kilometre passed, the truck the only moving thing in the brown landscape, until nearly four hours later they entered the oasis city of Tejen, two hundred and twenty kilometres from Ashgabat. Just like the previous town, the suburbs were choked with sand and the encroaching desert, and many of the houses were abandoned to the wilds. The centre of town was again densely populated – using the surrounding houses to shield them from the desert winds, it appeared. The team pushed on, not even stopping for fuel, and pressed on towards Mary.

An hour out of Tejen, Marius noticed a little twitch in one of his sensors, and spotted a drone approaching, following the road but flying about thirty metres up. The drone swung around them, pursuing them at a distance, keeping them locked up with its sensor system. The team prepped weapons, and checked around them, wondering where the attack would come from.

They spotted a huge dust cloud approaching down the road, and first to appear from the heat haze was a security vehicle, a boxy APC. As it grew closer, they could make out the livery – it was emblazoned with the logo of Saeder-Krupp. Marius tensed, and his face betrayed his discomfort, but he restrained himself from any action stronger than just pulling over as far as he could to the right hand side of the road.

The cloud continued to grow as they proceeded along the highway, eventually turning into a massive convoy – all told there were forty-eight vehicles, with a variety of heavy transporters with trailers between ten and eighteen meters long, a fuel tanker, two low-loaders with massive tractors and other agricultural equipment, three large aggregate haulers and a drilling derrick on a specialist truck. Many of the trucks showed signs of having some armour, and a few had turrets on the cabs that looked to carry light machine guns. Marius tried to “drive casual”, sticking to his side of the road and giving the huge column of heavy vehicles as wide a berth as possible – aware that any move might mark him as “suspect” and in this kind of environment they’d just open fire at the drop of a hat. The team watched carefully, clutching at weapons and waiting to see if anything happened.

At the end of the convoy was another APC, followed by a converted bus of some kind – both again in SK livery. As the convoy passed them, the drone peeled off and raced ahead again, scouting for more trouble on the road ahead. The team relaxed, putting weapons back to safe and settling down into their seats again and continued to squint out into the bright desert, illuminated by the low winter sun.

They pushed on through Mary, another oasis town in the Karakum desert, finding again that it was not walled but showing signs of semi-abandonment. Here the road swung north east, and they pushed on to the next leg of their journey towards Turkmenabat, three hundred and fifty kilometres away.

It was late afternoon, and they were most of the way to Turkmenabat when they passed a warning sign with a picture of a crocodile on it. Hunter pointed out the sign and laughed, thinking it ridiculous – surely there were no crocodiles in the desert! Aswon piped up suddenly, from where he’d been studying his chip.

“Hmm? Ahh, right – means we’re at the Repetek Nature Reserve then. Yeah, desert crocodiles – been here hundreds of years. Famous for them apparently – some of them nearly eight meters long. The landscape of the reserve is mostly arid, with extensive ridged sand dunes, some fifteen to twenty metres in height and large areas of sand dune and valley-like depressions. Apparently Black Saxaul, rare to most part of Central Asia covers more than 1,470 km2, approximately 4.5% of the territory of the reserve. The soils have sandy subsoils, but there are at least twenty-one types of trees, a hundred and four grasses, eight mushrooms, one moss, sixty-eight soil algae and a hundred and ninety-seven different kinds of fungi grow within the reserve.”

The cab went silent for a moment as people absorbed the image of eight metre long crocodiles, wondered what Black Saxaul was or pondered on just how much of a nerd Aswon was…

They drove on, into the dunes, banks of sand rearing up higher than a small building on either side of the road which swept in a shallow series of curves through the reserve.

A roar of engines was the first warning they got, as a dozen scrambler-style bikes cleared the top of the dunes on either side of them and started to slalom down the slope. The figures were wearing light armour, and all appeared to have some kind of machine pistol or gun on a friction sling. Moments after they started their descent, the heavier sounds of V8 engines echoed down the road as a selection of flatbed trucks followed the bikes – five to each side. Each of those had a body standing in the rear portion of the truck, attached via a combat harness and manning the roof-mounted weapon.

Down the road, a good few hundred meters away, two trucks pulled out from behind the concealing berms and came to a halt almost nose to nose. The truck bodies blocked the blacktop, and people could be seen raising the fabric sides up high to allow the inhabitants to see up the road.

The team scrambled for guns and slid into their positions, thrusting barrels out of the firing ports and getting a bead on the approaching vehicles. Marius made a quick assessment of the trucks ahead and then accelerated hard. The trucks ahead might prove an obstacle to the average car, but he’d be able to scatter them like skittles with the weight and power of the 6X6. Shots rang out across the early evening air as Aswon and Shimazu drew a bead on targets. As the truck accelerated hard, their first shots were not effective, thrown off by the movement – but they settled in and kept firing, and were rewarded with solid hits. Tadibya, meanwhile, was looking out across the landscape, looking at the cluster of bikers on the right hand side. She gathered energy into her hands, and flung a bolt of force out of the truck centred on the biker in the middle of the line, trying to stun and incapacitate them. The globe of power hit their auras, but they seemed too strong-willed, and threw off the attempt, continuing their descent to the road, and starting to sweep towards the rear of the truck.

With no warning at all, a large sheet of ice materialised on the road ahead of the truck, giving Marius no time to evade it. Wheels hit the sheet of slick ice, already melting on the hot road, and immediately lost traction. First one, then the others started to spin wildly while the differential fought to redistribute power. The truck slewed wildly across the road, Marius fighting hard to maintain course and speed, and somehow managing to avoid spinning out entirely. A few seconds later they cleared the sheet, the wheels regaining control – but it had cost them vital seconds and speed.

Ahead, the canvas had been thrown up and clear, and two figures crouched with tubes over their shoulders, firing within seconds of each other. The missiles flew along the road towards the truck, Marius wrenching the vehicle to one side to try and avoid the shot – but the attackers knew their business, and dodging one put him more squarely in the path of the other. About half-way to the truck, the back end of the rockets blew apart and a fine silvery mesh burst out, crackles of lightning arcing between filaments. Marius didn’t have time to react, and moments later the zapper rockets impacted on the truck, sending thousands of volts through the sensors and truck systems, shorting out components, resetting computers – and driving a lance of pure power straight through the vehicle control rig into Marius’ hindbrain. His body jolted and convulsed as it leeched away the power, and the truck lurched sharply to the side, losing power while Marius fought to regain control through the pain.

Hunter had moved to the rear doors of the truck, and had clipped in. With his weapon held tightly, he was ready to throw open the back door and spray fire at whoever was attacking them as they tried to board their vehicle. Kai remained in the centre seat, trying to co-ordinate the action around him.

A moment later a black globe appeared around the truck, encircling it and cutting out all light and exterior sight. The magical darkness was obviously centred on the vehicle, moving with them as they hurtled along the highway. The vehicle sensors were half blinded – relying on radar and inertial systems mostly to determine their location. Marius steered for the position of the trucks, and once again accelerated as hard as he could. Tadibya probed at the darkness, assensing the power and signature of the caster – and quickly realised that whoever it was, they were more adept at sorcery than she was. Expecting imminent close quarters assault, Aswon vaulted over the seat and moved to the rear compartment to support Hunter.

Outside the darkness, the two trucks were frantically trying to pull back from the onrushing 6X6, realising too late that the zapper rockets hadn’t shut down the vehicle as planned. The missile loaders in the back were thrown from their feet as the drivers slammed their vehicles into reverse, spilling their reloads into the truck bed where they rolled around wildly. They almost managed to back up enough – almost. The heavy Russian vehicle ploughed through the gap between them, ripping off the bumpers and smashing lights, damaging radiators and shattering the windows from the force of the impact. The men in the back who had just managed to secure the loose rounds lost hold of them as the impact threw them from their feet again.

In the vehicle, the back door flew open as the truck shuddered from the impact, and Hunter dropped grenades out of the back door behind them, whilst Aswon threw additional grenades out at an angle. Moments later explosions rippled through the edge of the magical darkness – but they didn’t see any bodies or cartwheeling motorbikes emerge… on the other hand, if the attackers were driven off by the explosions, that was just as good.

In the front of the truck, Tadibya picked herself up off the floor where the impact had thrown her, glad that at the last moment she had managed to raise her arms to stop her head slamming into the dashboard.

The truck continued down the highway, wobbling slightly from side to side and occasionally misfiring as the legacy of the zapper rockets continued to play havoc with both truck and driver. Shimazu peered out of the left window into the darkness, whilst Kai looked out of the right. Hunter and Aswon stared out of the back door, weapons ready, waiting for the attack….


	23. 023 - Winter Equinox

Date 20/12/2059, Location 38.63671, 63.21395 

Seeing nothing, Hunter and Aswon closed the back door, just in case anyone pursuing decided to spray and pray towards them – sure, they had some armour now – but why court danger? They felt the truck making repeated sharp movements, correcting first one way then the other, lurching from side to side almost at random.

In the cab, Marius was trying to drive at high speed, with a view range measured in metres – his vision and half his sensors cut off by the magical darkness giving him only a split second to react to changes in the road before they reached the truck. The darkness moved with him, keeping him isolated from the outside world, sustained by the enemy mage lurking somewhere out in the dunes.

A moment later, the truck gave another mighty jerk, then another – throwing everyone wildly to the side. Arcs of lightning coruscated down the dashboard and the smell of charred flesh wafted from the cab towards the rear compartment. The two enemies with rocket launchers had finally managed to grab their reloads, forcing the fat projectiles into the launching tubes and sighting on the darkness. They didn’t need precision, and just aimed for the centre of the magical effect as it wobbled down the highway.

With a bang, something overloaded, and the truck made a strange clanking noise, then lost all power. It started to drift down the road, the power steering cut out, speed dropping quickly as it plunged straight ahead. Marius reached around the back of his head and managed to snag the jack cable on the third attempt, pulling the smoking connector out of the socket which was too hot to touch, and the smell of burnt pork intensified. His movements were laboured, and one look made it clear that he was fighting to remain conscious from the effects of the electrical surge. The ASSIST module implanted in his hindbrain was a marvellous creation – helping him to literally become one with the vehicle and interpret the sensors and feel of the vehicle as if it was his own body. The downsides were of course that damage to the vehicle manifested as pain, lances of white hot energy applied directly to his brain – and in the case of electrical attacks such as those that had disabled the truck, feeding back potentially lethal energy to him.

The truck halted less than a hundred and fifty metres down the road, and the magical darkness vanished as quickly as it had appeared, the casting mage dispelling the mana that held the spell together. Now the team could see the trucks arrayed behind them at a distance of around a hundred metres, machine guns pointing towards them. The combat bikes had split, and were racing back up the dunes, moving to envelop and encircle the truck. 

Once again their radios crackled, a voice calling over the unencrypted channel to come out of the vehicle – or be destroyed. Hunter, Shimazu and Kai jumped out of the back of the truck, weapons held firmly in their hands, but not raised at their attackers – standing defiantly to defend their vehicle and comrades. Tadibya remained in the cab with Marius, and Aswon stood by the back door.

As soon as they stepped out of the vehicle, the three team members seemed to lose focus, and they stared up the road, at the clear skies or at each other blankly. Shimazu turned to climb back into the truck, but for the life of him, couldn’t work out how to do it. Aswon felt his mind start to wander a little, but concentrated hard, and focussed on the tactical situation – trying to keep his shit together. He called out to Tadibya, who concentrated for a moment out of the back door, trying to work out what was affecting them.

She peered out of the door into the desert, trying to avoid looking at the huge array of vehicles and weapons aimed at her – she could not see a magical spell being sustained, or a caster – so it was presumably some kind of spirit using its innate powers upon them. Judging by how completely out of it Shimazu, Hunter and Kai were – it was more powerful than her, using its wits to befuddle and confuse them. Her lip twitched in annoyance, and then she composed herself, and returned to the task of helping a badly stunned and wobbly Marius out of the cab and towards the rear of the vehicle.

Aswon called out a cheery greeting that was completely out of place as a door opened in one of the vehicles and a youth emerged, garbed in what looked like native dress. The youth sprinted along the road, zig zagging slightly, something held in his right hand. As he closed, the arm came back overhead, ready to throw the grenade towards the open door of the truck. Tadibya looked out of the back with a grimace, raised her arm and crooked a finger at the youth, concentrating on him for a moment and then raised her hand. His feet slowly lifted from the ground, his forward momentum stopping immediately as the magical force enveloped him.

With a yelp, he dropped the grenade, a great cloud of greenish gas exploding outwards, enveloping him. His body spasmed as he inhaled the gas, then went limp. Tadibya moved his body to the side of the road, and laid it down gently, then returned to helping Marius out of the truck.

The team stood out on the road, and for a moment there was silence – nobody moved on either side. Responding to some unheard command several bikers kicked into gear, driving down the slope again towards the team while gunners in the trucks continued to watch the team and provide cover. They drove to the side of the truck and leapt from their bikes, keeping clear of the lines of fire from the trucks, then got ready to pounce. 

Moving swiftly, they grabbed the team members still dazed and confused, pulling out plastic restraints and cuffing them quickly and firmly, then moving on to Aswon and Tadibya. Outnumbered more than fifty to one, and knowing there was an enemy mage out there at least as powerful as Tadibya, they didn’t resist. They didn’t take their weapons, or rummage through their kit – but the plasticuffs were cinched tight around wrists and made escape unlikely. As soon as they were all secured, whatever effect that had confused Hunter, Kai and Shimazu vanished – presumably at the direction of the enemy mage. Two of the trucks were driven over and the restrained team members were loaded into the flatbeds at the back, along with several guards.

After a few minutes, the trucks started up and drove away from the road. Aswon and Tadibya stared up into the night sky, marking the stars and working out their direction of travel. The others saw a fleeting glimpse of their truck being worked on, being made ready for towing by the looks of things, as they crested the ridge of the sand dune, and then vanished down the other side.

They drove for perhaps twenty kilometres, and when they stopped and were sat upright by the guards could see a number of large tents – a variation of a yurt from the initial glance – arrayed around a central area. More bikes were in evidence, along with a couple of heavier trucks, and some trailers scattered around. Women worked at various tasks, assisted by younger children, most of whom stopped and wandered over to see the arrivals. All told, the camp probably held somewhere between one hundred and fifty, and two hundred souls, split out over what appeared to be four family-oriented groups.

The team were removed from the back of the trucks and walked to the central area, where a number of iron stakes were planted. In short order they were manacled to the iron stakes, then had their plastic restraints removed. Shimazu tested the stake, finding it firmly embedded into the scrubby soil, and didn’t rate his chances of pulling it out or wiggling free. Hunter tried a different approach – pulling on the manacles and using his height and strength to try and lever them apart. He thought he saw one of the links bending, ever so slightly – so he stopped, thinking through escape options and planning for the future.

For the next hour, people around the camp busied themselves with tasks – just going about their lives, doing maintenance on vehicles, washing clothes, a hundred other mundane tasks for a semi-nomadic group… but through it all, a few guards stayed nearby, weapons held ready and watching over them. The team were mostly ignored, though sometimes a small child would come and stare at them intently for a few minutes, before heading back to their parents.

They called out after a while, asking if they could be let down to go to the toilet… a guard motioned that he would pull down their trousers so they could relieve themselves there if required – and offer for which they indicated no to. However, the guard did then bring out a small hip flask, offering it up to the team, giving them a drink of the home brewed rocket fuel that passed for alcohol around here.

At one point a youth approached and tried to remove the slung rifle from Aswon’s shoulder, only to be chided by the guard and cuffed on the back of the head. The guard approached and reseated the weapon, making sure Aswon was still armed, and then babbling at the youth, berating him. Aswon listened carefully, picking out the odd word as he did so.

“I think he’s saying we have to keep our weapons, as a prey with no claws is not worth hunting. At least that’s the general gist of it.”

The sound of revving and labouring engines made them twist in position, staring back to the east, the way they had come. Louder and louder the sounds came, until three of the trucks crested the ridge, engines working hard. A few moments later the team’s Russian truck was dragged over the crest of the sand dune, sliding across the ground on a couple of massive metal skids, tow chains taut to the three pickup trucks. It appeared that these were the last of the tribe to return, and in the growing darkness, people seemed to be ending their tasks and getting ready for something, disappearing into their tents in groups.

Marius fired up his internal comm-link, patching it to various frequencies that he knew were in use by Saeder-Krupp. Activating his sub-vocal microphone, he started to give fake position reports and sightings, as if the base were being surrounded by a strike team – hoping that someone was monitoring the radio and would be able to intercept his transmissions and feel that they were threatened. If they sent out their attack force to prepare against a possible attack, their escape would become much easier. Nothing happened though, and after a few minutes of the deception it became clear that they were either not monitoring the radio, or had investigated and found it to be a false alarm.

Watching the camp, it became clear that there were familial similarities between many of the people, slight colour variations in the home spun fabrics, slight changes in the dress or style – but they all mingled together freely enough. After a while, people started to gather around the central clearing, including several with sets of animal hide drums. 

As people started to gather, more often the guards came and offered them drinks of the potent alcohol, smiling and nodding as they did so. Apart from the fact that they were still restrained and obviously prisoners, they seemed almost solicitous with regards to the six team members.

More time passed, the team members standing in position, arms stretched out to the side with the iron manacles keeping their arms away from their bodies, shifting weight from foot to foot to relieve the aches and strain of their position. The people gathered in the circle nattered away, also passing around alcohol and small strips of jerky, passing the time of day and talking in their native tongue. Aswon strained to listen, gradually becoming aware of key phrases and words and starting to get a better feel for the language.

Around ten o’clock, a few men bought in some more iron stakes, bashing them into the ground on each side of a large fire pit, and then bringing in massive spits with a variety of game animals impaled upon them. Soon the meat was starting to sizzle, and was regularly basted with more of the home brewed spirits. All of the crowd were drinking now except for the very youngest of the children and the guards – some of whom looked less than thrilled by this.

By eleven, the children were chased off to bed, and the drumming started – gently at first but building up tempo. People swayed to the beat, and some sang, hands slapped thighs along with the drumming, and their captors got down to some serious partying. Hunter started to flex a little now, repeatedly trying to bring his arms down to his side, testing the links over and over again His orcish physique gave him leverage, weight and strength that slowly seemed to loosen the cross brace of his restraints, the tiny amount of play growing larger as he continued to flex. He didn’t know if he’d get anywhere – but it wasn’t like he had anything better to do...

A youngish man appeared and sat down directly opposite them, in what appeared to be a position of honour on an ornate chair covered in pelts of some kind. To his right were two more chairs, larger and even more ornate, that both lay empty. Aswon switched his attention to him, as did Tadibya. Coming from a tribal society himself, Aswon quickly picked up that he was a young man apprenticed in some way – either to the chief or to the shaman, from the deference shown to him and the ritualistic way he carried out certain tasks. Tadibya risked assensing him, and discovered that he was definitely shamanic, though she couldn’t get a good sense of his totem. Looking at the skins he was wearing, it definitely appeared to be a large carnivore though – wolf, bear, hyena, jackal – maybe even tiger. Whatever it was, this was a totem that believed in strength and ferocity though…

Just before midnight, the tribal chieftain appeared, accompanied by the presumed shaman. They sat down in the prime positions, as regal as any head of state, and were quickly served with drinks and food. The drumming intensified and took on a more urgent cadence, building up tempo. The chieftain spoke to the shaman in a low voice, too faint for any of the team to hear, but the shaman was obviously in agreement, nodding along to his words. The shaman in turn spoke to the apprentice who produced a large bag of herbs. A cauldron was brought forth, and soon hot water and herbs were being mashed together, releasing a pungent steam.

Aswon and Tadibya sniffed and went wide eyed, recognising the distinctive aroma of Deepweed mixed with some other substance. Neither of them had ever experienced the effects, as it was extremely rare – but the smell was distinctive and easy to describe. Deepweed originated in the Caribbean, so they had no idea how some had ended up here, but it was known to make anyone with talent see the astral realm – whether they wanted to or not. Neither of them knew what the other compound was, but they could feel their astral senses tingle as the smoke enveloped them, doing ‘something’ to them. Both compounds were clearly capable of causing magical effects and would be highly sought after, rare and expensive – which made this a special occasion of some kind. They glanced at their team members, warning them that they were going to be seeing some strange things soon. Hunter was also sniffing the air, with a blank look on his face at first, then a deep frown. He wrinkled his nose a little, then took in a deep breath. The cybernetic receptors in his nasal cavity took a sample of the air and fed it into the highly miniaturised chamber, before sending a tiny jolt of power through the sample, splitting the chemical sample down into its constituent parts, before feeding the data back to his built-in computer, further back in his skull. Opening his eyes a moment later he warned them that there was also a considerable amount of opium in there, along with some other trace psychoactive chemicals. The night was going to get interesting, one way or another.

As the concoction was mixed, the shaman muttered words over it, waving his hands in the air and calling out loudly in his dialect – Aswon continued to listen, trying to get a sense of what was going on. With a flourish, the shaman dropped his arms to his side and raised his head, giving a mighty shout – and the drums stopped. In the silence, the crowd watched him as he lowered a ladle into the mix and drank a draught of the concoction. Smacking his lips together in obvious approval, the two men who had done the mixing, proceeded to carry it around the circle – starting with the chief, then the shaman’s apprentice, then working down the rows in a presumed order of seniority.

Surprisingly enough, the draught was bought to the prisoners, who were all encouraged to take a deep drink. One by one the ladle was raised to their lips and warm mixture poured into the mouths. Aswon drank willingly, the others with a certain reluctance. As the cauldron bearers returned to their positions, Shimazu subtly let the mixture drip out of the corner of his mouth, expelling it without swallowing more than a trickle.

With another shout, a pair of women dragged a large bush forward to the shamans, who then heaved it onto the fire, under the roasting meat. Almost immediately thick white smoke billowed from the dry leaves, carrying a heady smell across the camp. Hunter sniffed again and then went wide eyed – calling out to the rest that the bush was loaded with poppy seeds and they could expect to get really high soon. With a tilt of his head, something weird happened, and suddenly his nose pinched tightly shut, as if he had put on a nose clip. His mouth shut, but he appeared to have no problem breathing – it just didn’t seem to bother him at all. Internally the regulator built into the tank let out a measured amount of compressed air, and a gauge appeared on his cybernetic vision, displaying a timer, counting down from sixty minutes as it compared the volume of air remaining versus his current consumption rate.

The drumming resumed, building up slowly with a complex interleaving of beats from the half dozen drummers, mixing notes from drums barely the size of a fist to deeper booming noises from large drums set out on the floor before the player. 

As the minutes passed, the team started to look at each other, aware that they were starting to feel a little….odd. Apparently they were not alone, as many of the crowd started to dance and sway more and more as time progressed, becoming freer and wilder. People whooped and clapped, moving around in a free-form dance, their bodies gyrating and spinning in time with the beat.

A tingle of excitement surged through the team, a sudden rush of feelings. It started with tremors in the calves and thighs, like the ache after a long run or exercise session. Soon their bodies were quivering all over, their muscles twitching and pulsing with a thousand little tremors. Hearts started to race, their pulse climbing as the drugs took effect, and they started to move from side to side a little, looking uncomfortable as if they suddenly had to pee. Tongues started to repeatedly swipe from side to side to try and moisten dry lips, and occasionally they would nibble on their lower lip, tasting something metallic. Noses wrinkled as they seemed to be able to smell hot sugar. Occasionally one of them would flinch as sand was blown against suddenly sensitive skin as ten thousand nerve endings went into overdrive. Scalps tingled as if their hair was alive, and their vision seemed to tunnel in, becoming sharp and focussed in the centre, but displaying random flashes of bright lightning to their periphery. One of the guards noticed, and bought around more alcohol, and they drank greedily, desperate for anything to wet their dry mouths and throats.

First one, then more of the crowd got to their feet, dancing now with no decorum or sense of self. Hips gyrated and thrust, arms swung wide around them, clothes were flung open as their bodies heated up from the exertion. Chickens and rabbits were bought out, and the shamans apprentice slit their throats on crashing drum beats, spraying arterial blood over sections of the crowd, sending them crazy. The smell of burning blood filled the air as the semi drained bodies were thrown onto the fire. Through the haze and the drugs, the team tried to stay focussed on what was going on, but it grew harder and harder. Hunter was breathing shallowly from the internal air tank nestled inside his body, avoiding the worst of the opium rush but still high as a kite from the drugs in the cauldron. Shimazu had almost no effect from the broth, but was floating in pink clouds from the wafts of opium smoke that he had no choice but to breathe. Kai, Aswon, Marius and Tadibya were all completely smashed, off their faces from the multiple conflicting chemical signals racing around their bodies, fully subsumed by the cocktail of magical compounds and the waves of more mundane drugs messing with their brains.

In the flickering firelight, they could see the shaman and his apprentice, their totemic masks in place now. Snarling wolves looked back at them, and as they glanced around, more and more of the tribe grew fangs, their noses elongating into snouts, their skin covered in short fur and their ears elongating to points. The atmosphere of dancing and merriment grew darker and more menacing, the drumbeat matching their fast-beating hearts and they felt like they were being examined by two hundred predatory eyes. None of the team could tell if this was happening for real or if it was an illusion created by the drugs, but there was a sense of danger and fear in the air that made them think the former.

The shaman lurched forwards on all fours, prowling around the clearing towards the team. Teeth barred he stalked towards them, dancing away on occasion to approach from another angle. His apprentice followed his lead, circling the fire the other way to approach their flank. Aswon barred his teeth in response, opening his mouth wide and fully revealing the two inch-long lion incisors implanted into his mouth – before slowly lowering his head and looking up through his fringe at them with wary eyes. He tried to posture with his body, saying “I am no threat, but I am no prey either”.

Next to him Tadibya stood as still as her body would allow her, erect and upright, with her totemic mask in full view, more clearly defined than any of the team had ever seen before, in fact. An ethereal elk enveloped her physical form, three hundred kilos of well-muscled animal standing nearly two meters high with a large head and dark liquid eyes staring at the approaching predators. Her head was smooth, with no sign of antlers.

The two wolves stalked closer towards the team, darting in and out now, as if to snap and bite at them. Tadibya called on her totem, opening her heart to the forces of nature that she worshipped and drawing forth power to protect herself and her companions. Ghostly shapes formed around them all, visible to all but Shimazu thanks to the cocktail of drugs they’d imbibed – even Hunter and Marius now could see the ghostly traces of the astral auras.

Marius and Hunter appeared as newborns, weak and defenceless astrally. Kai and Aswon took the form of young elk, perhaps in their first season, with small nubs of antlers protruding from their heads. Shimazu appeared as a full grown elk with a large rack of antlers, spreading a meter wide with strips of velvet hanging from the ends of the horns.

The two wolves snarled and howled, backing off as their prey showed defiance and turned to face them, clustering together for safety. They retreated to the fire and started to sway from side to side. The drummers picked up on their movements, intensifying the beat and raising the volume until the booms echoed off the vehicles and sand dunes. Behind the two shaman and their astral companions, a large ripple of power appeared, a twisting maelstrom of energy made visible by the strength of emotion and the magical drugs. The crowd of dancers shrieked and screamed as it appeared, adding their mental energy to its strength, solidifying its presence in the physical world. The two shaman stalked forward again, but this time accompanied by the wolf aspect of each of the members of the crowd. The pack of wolves slowly spread out to encompass the captives, scores of creatures with bared fangs, hunting together as a pack. Again, the mood grew darker. Now there was no festival. No dancing. No joy. Now the pack needed to feed.

Magical energy filled the air, the emotions of the crowd and the team filling the surrounding area with magical potential. A vortex of fear, hunger, desire and defiance whipped around them. A cyclone of power circled the fire, encompassing them all, the normally docile eddies and currents of mana a raging storm.

Tadibya felt a breath of hot air on her shoulder, then another. As she stared at the fire, she saw individual embers leaping off the burning logs, arcing away from the fire slowly, oh so slowly. Time seemed to stand still for a moment. Everything around her was paused, everything still. Even her own heart seemed to pause for a moment.

In the heart of the fire she saw something, something that called to her. It spoke of a primal force, one that could not be countenanced. It offered her a choice, which really, was no choice at all.

A spark of hope entered her, the flames of defiance fanned into full force by the sudden feeling of belonging, as she surrendered herself fully to the totem, committing every fibre of her being to the force that had seen her undertake a pilgrimage of thousands of kilometres, from the frozen wastes of northern Russia to the mountains of Azerbaijan, for a reason she didn’t understand. All of that coalesced here and now as the totem fully revealed itself to her, and she willingly gave her entire being to it.

Time flowed again, the moment gone. The wolves took one more step forwards and then howled, howled loud and long – but not the howl of a predator. The howl of a creature denied. Behind the team appeared a new figure. Glowing blue, the majestic elk stepped forwards through their bodies. The astral shapes of the bucks and doe that had formed around the team flowed into it, binding them together and strengthening them. 

The elk that stood before them was no elk that walked the earth in this age – at least no elk that history had ever seen. It stood five meters tall at the shoulder, and its bulk moved gracefully but firmly, the powerful muscles rippling through its thousand kilo frame. The rack of antlers spread wide, easily matching the height of the beast, sharp vicious spikes pointing out in all directions like a forest of spears. A large hoof scraped at the ground, and then stamped, once. The boom rang out like a shot, silencing the drums and forcing the wolves back a pace.

Hunter chose this time to flex, pouring all of his strength into bringing his arms down, the link finally splitting and shattering and the pin on the crossbeam giving way, sending the piece of iron spinning madly around the centre. The manacle remained fixed around his wrist with a short but dangerous length of chain held in his large hand. The others inspired by his efforts strained as well, pouring all of their drug-fuelled might into one heroic burst of energy.

Shimazu and Aswon followed suit, broken links flying across the clearing. Whether they were aided by the totem or just thoroughly pissed off at being kept captive and threatened with death was unclear – but from the watching crowd’s perspective their prey suddenly looked dangerous and fell, and not like a suitable sacrifice at all. Shimazu drew his hand cannon, and Hunter swung up a rifle. Though still horrendously outnumbered, their defiant stance indicated that they wouldn’t go down without a fight.

Kai and Marius stood in their manacles, lacking the strength to break their bonds, but both looked ready to kick, bite or spit at anyone that came close to them, and Tads stood with her arms outstretched, crackles of power arcing between her fingertips. She didn’t even know any offensive combat magic – never having been interested in throwing fireballs or lightning bolts. But she felt like that didn’t really matter much at the moment, and she’d be able to improvise something.

The two wolf shaman looked to each other, and then slunk away, driven back in the face of the totemic primarch that stared them down. The high shaman moved next to the chieftain and then stood, reverting to a two-legged stance. His hands raised above his head, he called out to the clan. Aswon picked up some of the words, translating as best he could as the shaman told them that these were no prey, that wolf would have to find another sacrifice.

Guards moved over to the team, removing those bonds that still remained, and helping them down to a comfortable position. The crowd gathered around them – not hostile, but unsure of quite where everyone stood. The shaman whispered into the chief’s ear, pointing and waving at the team as he did so. The chief made a pronouncement, his language fast and flowing, foxing Aswon’s ability to translate.

The crowd rushed towards the team, and in an instant Shimazu and Hunter pulled up weapons they had allowed to drop. Tadibya, Kai and Aswon had a better read on their body language and welcomed the sudden embrace of people as they rushed to hug the new “honorary” clan members, and Marius seemed too stunned to do much of anything.

They were plied with drinks again, and given seats. Aswon and Tadibya approached the fire, and stared at the chief and shaman. Carefully, Aswon pulled out his knife and sliced off a thick slice of cooked meat from the spit. Just as he was about to raise it to his mouth, a subtle dig in the ribs from Tadibya stopped him and he glanced at her. Her eyes flicked to the chief and then back to the meat. Nodding in understanding, the black-skinned tribesman moved around the fire and offered the chief the piece of meat.

The heavy-set man pulled out his own knife, and split off a hunk of the meat with it, then returned the remains to Aswon. With a raised knife, they saluted each other, then bit into the succulent meat, dripping with juices – sealing whatever deal had been hatched.

The drumming started again, but now the team were part of the crowd, not prisoners. Alcohol flowed, dancing resumed and the mood lightened as the clan continued to party late into the night…


	24. 024 - Our new friends

Date 21/12/2059, Location 38.86537, 62.66464 

Aswon and Hunter both went and sat on top of separate dunes surrounding the camp. Hunter moved to get away from the remaining odour from the fire and to switch off his internal air tank, breathing clean fresh desert air and letting the drugs slowly fade from his system. His muscles and spine ached from his efforts to break free, but as he replayed the events of the night, a smile tugged at his lips. Nobody had ever accused him of being pretty, that much was certain – but nobody on the team would ever now think of him as weak.

Aswon laid out flat and stared up at the stars, taking advantage of the drugs coursing through his system to expand his consciousness, examining what he was, what he had done and what he would do. His breathing slowed as he concentrated, face upturned to the vista of the Milky Way laid out before him. He meditated, slowing his breathing more and tensing his body. As he focussed more and more, he examined the processes of his self. The nerves on his skin still firing messages as the wind blew past him – he examined and then filtered out. The coldness of the sandy soil under his body – he examined and then filtered out. The smell of the camp fire and his own unwashed body – examined and filtered out.

One by one the senses were experienced, sampled, and then ignored. His conscious mind focussed tighter and tighter, as his senses drilled down, further and further. At the core of his being, his heart beat slowly – ‘lub dub’, over and over. As he sank deeper into his trance, the beat slowed, the gap between them growing. His focus tightened, until he seemed to be entirely the beating of the heart, the valves squeezing and relaxing as they pumped blood around his body. With conscious effort, he reached down towards that life giving organ… lub dub, lub dub, lub………..dub. Time stretched, and for a moment the body was perfectly still, all processes suspended, nothing moving. A moment of perfect stillness and utter clarity. The perfect time to squeeze the trigger.

Lub dub, lub dub… his heartbeat returned to normal, his senses expanded again and the body trembled in the cold night air. Slowly his eyes opened and focussed. A hand dipped into a pouch, pulling out a sliver of jerky which was popped into his mouth and slowly chewed as he contemplated what he’d just done. Interesting…

Shimazu meanwhile sat with the drummers around the camp fire, grooving to the beat and letting the music wash over and through him, his hands tapping a beat on the sheathed sword that lay across his lap. His normally inscrutable face showed emotion, and he swayed from side to side, feeding off the rhythm and focussing on his feelings. After a few minutes he gracefully leant forwards, his powerful thighs flexing and he stood in one fluid motion. He kicked off his shoes and worked his socks off, all the time with his eyes closed and upper body continuing to sway to the music. Bare feet gripped the sandy soil, about a shoulder width apart. His body stopped for a moment, then on a beat, the sword was drawn and the scabbard dropped. The blade flashed around him in a complex pattern, then as the drums hit a beat it flashed out into a strike, the tip perfectly still. It held for a moment, then recovered, and continued to weave a pattern around him. Again as the drummers hit a note it thrust out, held, then recovered.

The drummers increased their pace, and so did the movements of the sword. Faster at first, then slower, the blade moving in graceful sweeps and arcs, thrust and riposte. The drummers beat out a pattern, and the sword danced for them, flashing around Shimazu’s body in a complex web of steel. Firelight reflected off the ancient blade. For an hour, the crowd was mesmerised by the masterful display of swordsmanship. Sweat coursed down Shimazu’s body, but he controlled his breathing and his movements were steady, despite tremors in his limbs. He sliced with the blade one last time, held the strike and then returned to a guard position. Slowly he lowered the blade, then bent to recover the scabbard. He slid the blade away carefully, then took the scabbard in both hands and sank to his knees, laying the sword ahead of him. Slowly he bowed, his forehead lightly touching the scabbard, hands laid out on the ground either side, palms upturned. He held the position for thirty seconds, then rocked back, and moved into a sitting position, reaching for his socks and shoes and ignoring the awestruck crowd around him.

He collected the sword from the ground ahead of him, his fingers grasping the handle and scabbard. There was an electric tingle as his hand grasped them, a connection at some deep spiritual level. Now the sword was his, regardless of how he had come by it. But with that ownership came the responsibility to bring honour to the blade and the history of his art. In his mind he saw the hammer descending on the cherry red steel, thousands and thousands of times, the sweat and blood that had gone into its creation. The sword had been made by artisans hundreds of years before, using traditions that stretched back for generations. It had been wielded by masters, guardians of the peace and traditions that he venerated. Now it was his turn to continue that tradition.

Tadibya sat cross legged by the fire, sandwiched between a male tribesman in his mid-twenties and an older woman who had pulled out some yarn and two shaped bones and was now furiously knitting whilst humming some music under her breath. Tadibya barely noticed through, as she was still reeling from the direct intervention of her spirit totem into recent events. A dreamy smile caressed her lips as she remembered the feeling – the power, the connection, the sense of wholeness as she was enveloped in the spirit of the land and made part of a greater whole. She remembered the fear and doubt, and the sense of love and compassion that had filled her heart to drive them out. She remembered the determination to fight, not just for herself but for the others around her. She remembered the mana dancing around her, obeying her commands, guarding and protecting them with Great Elk’s help.

She glanced around the fire, her eyes seeing both the physical and the astral forms, watching as they interacted. Her senses probed and touched the auras, watching as they responded to her. Slowly she reached out with her power, forming and shaping her will around first one, then another. The mana responded, slowly at first, but then faster as she became less hesitant. The motes of power gathered around their chakra, their spirit, and coalesced. A glowing barrier assembled in astral space, tightly woven around the being. The crowd didn’t notice, being entranced with the display of swordsmanship. With a mental flick, Tadibya released the mana, the barrier dissipating quickly and the power returning to her to use again. She selected a new person, and threw the power at his astral form, weaving tendrils of energy around them in a protective cowl. As she practiced, she realised she could only effect one person at a time, and the barrier was weak and diffuse…. But that was something that she was sure she could fix with practice and time.

Marius and Kai withdrew from the circle too, sitting a little way back and keeping to themselves as much as possible. They smiled politely and took sips of drinks when offered, and didn’t offend their hosts – but they didn’t throw themselves into the celebration in the same way that Shimazu had. 

Marius had suffered a painful and deliberating blast of damage when the second set of rockets had taken out the truck, then been cuffed and kept a prisoner for several hours, apparently ready to be sacrificed. Then… well, he wasn’t quite sure what had happened, but it had all been mystic mumbo jumbo, and he didn’t care for it. Deep inside him the embers of rage burnt, and he idly imagined being in an attack chopper loaded down with munitions, strafing the camp and bringing them a little of his own flavour of sacrifice. The smile faded away as he thought of his truck and the damage it had suffered at the hands of these bandits, wondering just how they were going to fix things out here.

Kai, though, just sat and watched, seeing the people interact with each other, bouncing around in their social circles and occasionally spinning off to go to another group. For a moment he felt terribly homesick, missing his own tribe back in Mongolia, and the sense of belonging he had there. But yet… he knew he couldn’t return. There was something that had driven him outwards, to search for answers, to be part of something bigger. He looked over to the brooding German and watched for a moment as Marius plotted the vehicular devastation of the camp, the athletic Japanese bodyguard Shimazu as he twirled and wove his beautiful but deadly dance, the stunned shaman exploring her powers that had saved them all that evening. He let his eyes flick up to the indistinct shapes on the hill of the odd English ork Hunter, brooding as he stared out into the desert, and the prone form of the giant African tribesman. Strange as they all were, he somehow felt connected to them, as if he was in exactly the right place, here and now.

The hours crept by, and gradually the celebrations diminished, people returning to their yurts to sleep off the drug induced headaches and shivers. The team sat out in the desert, waiting for sunrise, unsure if going to sleep was a good thing or not. Slowly they all came down from the various drugs ingested or inhaled, sweating slightly in the chill morning air and shuffling around as their joints ached. Hands rubbed faces to ease the tension in the cheek muscles.

As life started to pick back up in the camp, Kai went to see the junior shaman, to get him to arrange a meeting with the chief. Within a few minutes he was escorted to the largest yurt, and beckoned inside. The interior was smoky, several fires being used to cook food and heat water, and inside there was a mass of bodies strewn around on mats and rugs, slowly rousing. Various tribesmen and women wandered around naked, unconcerned and unashamed. Kai was shown to the back of the tent where a section was shrouded off with hangings, evidently the domain of the chief. Inside the man lay on a thick padded mat, surrounded by his women, sipping some kind of broth.

The chieftain spoke in English, and to a reasonable standard – saving Kai from trying to assemble words in a hodge-podge of languages to get his points across, and making the discussion go far more smoothly. After complimenting the Chief on their hospitality and the quality of the feast the previous night (while skipping over the ambush, shooting and the whole issue of sacrifice), Kai raised the point about their status – and that of their truck. Was it considered the spoils of war? Were they free to go, could they take all their gear? The chief considered his position, thinking on the night before and the events. As the chief supped at his brew, Kai negotiated, explaining a little about the team and trying to interest the chief into a deal of some kind.

Eventually it was decided – the team were free to go, with the truck. The tribe had a number of needs – mostly spare parts for vehicles, that they had trouble obtaining. The team would get the gear, and bring it to the tribe, who would pay for the parts, but not the delivery. If the team did this, then the account was squared. 

Given the pounding headache that Kai was currently labouring under, along with the aches and the lack of sleep, it wasn’t a bad deal, so he took it. They exchanged commlink frequencies and contact details, and the chief said he would get someone to get a list to them soon. Leaving the chief’s yurt, Kai wandered over with some of the tribesmen towards the truck to share the news with the rest of the team and get them back on the road. Some of the tribe’s mechanics started to lift the bonnet, but Aswon stopped them until Marius could get there to supervise their work. What he saw almost made him wish he hadn’t.

Lacking the correct fuses to replace those blown by the zapper attack, they worked on a field expedient system. Angle grinders were applied to the shafts of old screwdrivers and nails, and they were wedged and forced into the holders to create the electrical path required for operation of the system. Of course, they had a capacity to take a lightning strike, which meant that any other attack would just vaporise the electronics behind them, rather than blowing and saving them… Marius looked incredibly unhappy, but didn’t really have any alternative.

As the junior shaman watched over proceedings, Aswon and Tadibya had a brief discussion, then Tadibya approached him and asked if they had any of the magical compounds from the night before available for sale? The shaman cocked his head and thought for a moment, then deferred, wandering off to speak to his elder first. When he returned, he said that yes, they did. They had a little Deepweed, which they could let the team have for a grand, and doses of Rock Lizard Blood at one and a half grand each. Tadibya glanced at Aswon as he considered – he really wanted some of the compounds which had all sorts of potential uses – but the price was quite steep. Unfortunately, this was a sellers’ market, and there was such limited availability that he really didn’t know where else he could get some. Aswon glanced to the back of the truck, where the herbal radicals they had obtained from the smugglers mountain camp were stored, and raised an eyebrow. Tadibya excused herself for a moment and went for a sample which she presented, and they were examined and found to be of some worth and interest.

Negotiations began, a lazy roaming conversation that was bought to a somewhat abrupt halt when Rakur – the shaman - mentioned one of the things that could sweeten the deal – a 2kg packet of jumbo salted peanuts. The unusual request threw Aswon off his stride for a moment, but on consideration – it wasn’t a normal food here, and was probably not just expensive, but also hard to get. Then he had an idea, making his excuses and going to see Tadibya

Tadibya and Aswon discussed – Rakur wanted nuts. They had salt. Tadibya could create food magically. So far she’d done oats – a nice and simple food, and easy to produce. How did she feel about nuts? After several false starts and attempts, she had it cracked and made a batch of nuts, the mana creating the nuts seemingly out of nowhere and funnelling from her hands into one of the jars from the truck. Adding a sprinkle of salt and shaking, they took them to Rakur to see if they hit the spot.

Rakur’s eyes widened on seeing the fruits of their labour, and a greedy hand shot out to sample the wares. A handful of nuts were thrust into the mouth, and the jaw started to work. Another hand pushed some more nuts in, and now he looked more like a squirrel or chipmunk, bulging cheeks distended by the food and a look of bliss on his face. Negotiations resumed….

After a little while, and some more adroit negotiations from Kai, it was agreed that two doses of Rock Lizard Blood and one batch of Deepweed would be exchanged for a large container holding several kilos of herbal radicals and a few jars of peanuts…

Just after lunchtime, the truck was working again, the supplies were loaded, and they set out across the dunes and scrubland, back towards the main road where they could turn north towards Turkmenabat. Thirty minutes of careful driving get them back onto the blacktop, then they turned and accelerated north, slowly picking up speed.

About five kilometres short of Turkmenabat, there was a loud bang from the front of the truck, and a small amount of bluish grey smoke started to funnel out of the vents – and then every electrical system in the vehicle went down again. Marius disengaged and the truck drifted to a halt on the fortunately straight section of road. Popping the covers, a loose wire was quickly found and identified as the reason for the short – shaken loose from the off-road drive over the desert and then the acceleration to top speed on the highway. Unfortunately, it looked to have brushed against the ECM module mounted in the equipment bay, and looked to have burnt out the input power supply. If it had fried the module, they were looking at upwards of sixty thousand for a replacement… The scoring on the terminals didn’t look too bad, but until Marius could get to a proper test facility, he wouldn’t know. For now, they taped up the loose connecter and checked over the rest to make sure nothing else would go bad, then lowered the armoured covers and got back under way.

Hunter pulled up the maps, and checked distances between them and their objective, working out where to stop for fuel and rest. As they entered Turkmenabat, he pointed out that there was an airport here – not international, it only handled local traffic – but where there was an airport, there were support vehicles. And support vehicles needed maintenance, which needed a facility of some sort. The team discussed quickly and agreed it was worth a stop to check.

Closing on the airport approach road, they turned off to the cargo terminal, and approached the single guard on the gate, who was relaxing in his little guard hut. Kai explained what they were after, and the man in very broken English directed them to a garage on the other side of town, run by his brother. He drew out a map for them, and as the team got back on the road to follow his directions they saw him get on the phone.

Wondering if they were due to be ambushed, the team got weapons ready – just in case – and started to watch the road carefully. Tadibya asked Marius to drive slowly on the corners and then relaxed into her seat, her astral form leaping from the body and flitting ahead. As she closed on the location, a black void of awful death and emotion pulled at her, distracting her. She shied away from it, and looked down at the run-down area of industrial units, with their toxic pollution and air of poverty. It wasn’t pleasant, but neither could she see any sign of ambush. She sped back to the road and looked for the truck, waiting at a corner for the truck to slow so she could leap back into her body more easily. When she stirred, she gave the team the all clear, but also warned them about the horrible location she had seen.

Hunter barely had time to check the map and announce the location as being an amusement park before they were upon it – an abandoned and sad-looking place, chained up and rusty with signs over the games that had the look of “closed – forever” in the local language. It was a desolate-looking place physically, and Tadibya looked away, not wanting to see the evil and pervasive atmosphere present in astral space.

They skirted the amusement park, and found a man waiting for them outside a pipe manufacturers in the industrial area. Wearing a red tracksuit with white detail, he waved when he saw the truck, walking towards where they pulled up. He too spoke only broken English, but looked at the fuses required with Marius, then worked out some figures in his head, before spouting a price that made the team go quiet for a moment – fifteen hundred Nuyen. He obviously realised they didn’t have any local knowledge, and had gone for the ‘full gouge with no lube’ option… Kai took a step forward and smiled at him… and concentrated on his body language and demeanour. Somatic control made his mimicry of the man easier, and his eyes flitted over him, picking up on tiny cues and tells in his features. The negotiations were short, and remarkably one sided – and a scant two minutes later the man – Gretya – had agreed that five hundred was a much more reasonable price, and he would fetch them immediately. And he’d throw in some of the Christmas tree air fresheners too…

Somewhat bemused by this apparent generosity, he got in a battered Lada and trundled off. Tadibya winked at the team, jumped back in the truck and got comfy – and a second later started to trail him astrally. A few minutes later she saw him pull into an auto-dealers located in a winding back street area and make the necessary purchases and spent the time making sure she could recreate the route. He came back directly, not trying anything funny, and the team paid him for the fuses and began to fit them to the truck, prying out the bits of nail and makeshift breakers.

Whilst they were working, they asked Gretya about the amusement park. He told them it had broken a little while back, killing a large number of children and had been closed since then. He didn’t appear to be particularly sad about it, but didn’t have any more information, so the team let it be. 

An hour later all the fuses were swapped and replaced with the proper components. The ECM module still reported as dead, and a number of the electronic systems still needed to be calibrated – but they were good to go.

Hunter suggested that they stop over here for today, in one of the hostels or hotels. By his calculations, they should be able to make Tashkent the following day. He’d already plotted several places to stay, and after a bit of driving, they found a suitable hostel. Paying the thirty Nuyen for the rooms, it took only a minute for Tadibya to forcibly stun the lice population to inactivity. The team rested overnight, and got back on the road in the morning. 

The journey to Bakura went without a hitch, and they pushed on though the ancient city, ignoring the monuments and statues to a five millennia history with barely a glance. By lunchtime they had reached Samarkand – or at least the main road running around the densely packed city. Again, they ignored the ancient city, pushing the truck onwards along the roads that grew quiet after thirty kilometres from a major town or city. Mid-afternoon saw them on a long sweeping curve, cut into high flanking hills as the road wound up some ancient fault line to a higher plateau. Lulled into boredom by hundreds of uneventful kilometres of driving, they didn’t notice as the first bandit rose from behind a rock, raising the tube to his shoulder….


	25. 025 - Arrival in Tashkent

Date 22/12/2059, Location 40.08930, 67.73912 

The bandit gave a little lead to the truck and then clutched at the trigger. With a gout of flame, the rocket-propelled grenade leapt from the front of the tube, speeding across the intervening distance. The truck was travelling faster than it looked, however, the smooth drive of a vehicle being handled by a rigger giving a deceptive appearance. The reactions and control of a rigged driver was not something the bandit had experience with, and his round impacted behind the truck, exploding in a mass of flame. Small fragments peppered the back of the truck, sounding like a thousand bells all being rung as they spattered off the armour. 

On the other side of the road, other crouching bandits got ready to leap to their feet, their AK-47s clutched tightly in their hands – still covered by the boulders, but casting shadows from the low-hanging winter sun that betrayed their positions.

The team sprang into action immediately. Aswon thrust the barrel of his hunting rifle out of the firing port, aiming at the man cursing his aim and reaching for another grenade. He accounted for the vehicle’s movement, angle, estimated wind speed. For a moment he was still, then he gently squeezed the trigger. The rifle thudded back into his shoulder, but he was braced for the recoil. Watching, he saw the round hit, square between the eyes, and a moment later the back of the man’s head just disintegrated as the hollow point round expanded and tore apart. The case leapt out of the receiver, bouncing off the reinforced window before rolling around on the floor. Hunter thrust the barrel of his assault rifle out of the window on his side and let off a burst, stitching three rounds into the padded jacket worn by a bandit as he stood from behind a large boulder, driving him backwards and spinning him like a top. Three more rounds ejected, striking the back of Shimazu’s seat before they came to rest on the floor.

Marius reacted by gunning the engine and dropping a gear, simultaneously throwing the truck into a series of sharp ‘s’ curves designed to throw off the attackers’ aims. His mind fused with the truck’s systems, the wheels hitting the white lines at the side of the road and then pulling back with precision. Shimazu thrust the barrel of his pistol out of his firing port and fanned the trigger, a 10mm round rumbling across the gap between him and a bandit. The round struck the ribs, breaking three and throwing the man back into the scree slope behind him, blood spurting from the wound.

Shimazu waited for a fraction of a second, until another bandit stood, but just as he fired, Marius jinked the truck. The round impacted in the fleshy part of the upper arm, instead of the region around his heart, but still staggered the man and threw off his aim. The loud retort of the revolver added to the din in the cab. Shimazu grabbed the massive hammer, pulling it back into firing position for a second shot.

Another RPG came lancing down from the boulders, and Marius threw the truck to the side, drifting with the six wheel vehicle and getting perilously close to the edge of the road. Turning as he did so, though, presented the flat face of the truck to the blast, and the armour soaked the explosive force and shrapnel with no apparent damage.

Kai turned back in his seat and shouted at Tadibya, “Invisible. Truck. Now!” Tadibya nodded and reached out with her mind, perceiving the astral form of the vehicle and starting to weave the mana into a protective barrier, guiding light around it. A surge of power, a moment when her eyes grew large and nose extended, taking on the visage of her totem… and the truck vanished. Not a shimmer, not a motion blur, not a clue as to where it was. The bandits stared in shock, and then sprayed automatic fire wildly in the general direction of where they thought the truck was.

Marius, meanwhile, was earning his keep and cementing his reputation, as he slammed the truck to one side, the back end flipping around and the last set of wheels scraping down the edge of the road as he performed a J-turn. All the shots from the AK-47s went harmlessly past, into the space he would have been in.

As the back end of the truck swung around, Aswon spied one of the bandits, AK-47 jammed into his hip, spraying fire with wild abandon. The barrel climb was clearly visible, and by this point was more of a danger to birds and passing aircraft than the truck – but still, the intent was there. He lined up on the target, took a breath, and squeezed the trigger.

The back end of the truck struck a rock, and jumped, just a little.

The bullet sped past the bandit, missing him by perhaps a centimetre, before disintegrating as it hit the rock behind him.

Hunter looked over at Aswon. “You missed? You missed a shot?”

Aswon turned his head like a striking snake and glared over at him, lips pulled back and huge teeth exposed in an angry grimace. For a moment he looked enraged, but then he got himself back under control.

Hunter made a quick decision then. “Missed… mind you, we hit that rock, that’s probably what did it. Bad timing. Unlucky.” He watched out of the corner of his eye, but Aswon didn’t push the issue any further. The truck was moving forward at just above walking pace, and closing on the position of one set of bandits. Shimazu dropped his pistol and then with a swift and fluid motion threw the door open, rolled out of the truck and landed lightly on his feet, springing into a run and drawing his sword with an economical movement. Hunter dropped his assault rifle and bailed out after him, SMG on a friction sling and knife in the scabbard at his hip.

Aswon bent over the rifle again, sighting on a fresh target and fired a round – this one striking true. Entering through the left eye, this one penetrated easily and the entire back of the bandit’s head blew out, decorating a large patch of rock behind him.

The bandits up the slope turned, and saw the strange portal in the clear air. Where the door was opened, there was a break in the invisibility spell, and the interior could be clearly seen. The two men on this side of the road turned and started to track round on the strange sight, lowering their AKs into firing position.

On the far side of the road, the last surviving bandit stood from behind the rock he had been using as cover, and lowered the tubular launcher, scanning across the road. He was on the far side of the vehicle though, and could not see the open door – in fact with the force of the invisibility spell, and how much power Tadibya had pumped into it, he could see nothing but rocks, his two comrades – and two men sprinting towards them! He took a deep breath to shout a warning to them.

The open mouth lined up neatly in Aswon’s sights, and again he pulled the trigger as the moment felt right. The heavyweight round rumbled across the distance between them, and the hollow point struck the back of his mouth and caused devastating damage. The bandit dropped without a sound to the side, falling behind the rock. In the truck, Kai and Tadibya leant over, grasping at the open door and pulling it shut. Instantly both remaining bandits lost their sight of the interior, and there was now armoured plating in-between any stray rounds they might fire, and the unmoving and defenceless body of the rigger.

The bandits took a fateful moment trying to spot the truck – a task that was doomed to failure. In that moment Shimazu cleared the slope, sword held back behind him, legs pumping hard and propelling him forwards at great speed. The first bandit tried to lower his rifle to guard, but he was no match for Shimazu’s reactions. The sword whipped round at a ferocious speed, blade glinting in the pale sunlight and struck with all the power that his body could muster. The steel sang through the air, and cut through the neck with one clean blow, sending the head spinning into the rubble. Shimazu let the swing carry him through, pivoting and swinging his body to the side, pirouetting like a shot putter approaching his mark. The remaining bandit swung his weapon round, trying to track onto the rapidly spinning adept.

It was a race he was destined to lose. Already injured from the earlier shot that had caught his arm, his reactions were slowed to the point where Shimazu was moving twice as fast as he was. It was like watching a novice martial artist set against a black belt with years of practice. That was, in fact, the situation – and the events unfolded predictably. Not even bothering to stop his twisting motion, Shimazu lashed out, and the metre long blade thrust straight through the bandit, emerging out of his back. The twisting motion of his body pulled the blade sideways, opening the wound further. The bandit let out a short scream, his rifle dropping from suddenly numb fingers.

Shimazu pushed the corpse off the blade, and flicked the sword to get rid of most of the blood, then stooped and tore off a strip of clothing from the man, using it to wipe the blade clean, almost tenderly.

Marius stopped the truck and extended his sensors out to maximum, looking for any remaining bandits, or any other signs of life. The mountainside settled into silence, the team watching for further signs of trouble. It was all quiet.

Most of the team descended from the truck, leaving Marius to keep an eye on the sensors and get the vehicle turned around and pulled off the side of the road so no passing vehicle would hit them – it was still invisible after all. Examining the bodies they found almost nothing – some water, the ancient assault rifles, spare ammunition. No cred sticks. No wallets. No shiny loot. 

Checking the bodies on the other side of the road revealed much the same, but here Shimazu spotted what appeared to be the entrance to a cave. Cautiously he edged inside, and found a small cache. Whilst he investigated the cave, the others grabbed the guns and ammo, collected the RPG launchers and several of the strangely shaped grenades that fitted them and stashed them in the truck.

The cave proved to be more of a shallow dent in the mountain, being only a couple of meters deep. Inside was some battered-looking water containers and a small pile of loot – and very little else. There was a low-quality backpack, fraying at the edges and with faded colours, from which poked the edge of a battered-looking laptop computer. Inside was a set of poor-quality clothing, to fit a large man – certainly larger than any of the bandits that had attacked them, though the height would have been right. At the bottom of the bag was a small folding penknife, a toothbrush and a piece of chalk. Next to it was a modern looking suitcase, laid on its side. It had been popped open, and inside were two sets of reasonable-quality clothes – a suit, and a more casual set of slacks and top. Nestled at one end were some smart shoes and a wash-kit.

In a small leather satchel were three IDs, and a pair of certified credsticks. The certified sticks held just over fifteen hundred Nuyen between them, and the three IDs were fed into the computer and checked, one after the other. The first was for Dilshod Atoev, a male of 32 years, apparently an insurance salesman for Tashkent Insurance and Risk Management Co. The persona seemed to match up with the suitcase. The second stick was for Laziza Haydarov, a female aged 64 with a listed profession of “farmworker”. The final stick belonged to Sardor Yusupov, a 25 year old male who was shown as a sales clerk for a supermarket chain called “Hyperfood”. The menial blue collar job would seem to tie in with the backpack and battered 2nd hand computer. As Shimazu left the cave with his finds, he spotted down the chasm to one side and three burnt-out vehicles, about a hundred feet below.

Marius and Aswon set up a rope and headed down to the wrecks, but soon returned with the news that they were total write-offs, with no salvageable parts – but that they had found one mid-range saloon, a small farm truck and a battered Traban – which seemed to match the IDs they’d found. From their vantage point though, they could see a trail that led to a village a mile or two further up the valley, with tracks that indicated recent use – presumably where the bandits had come from.

The laptop was handed to Marius, who opened it up to run diagnostics on it – but he soon found himself hampered by some tough encryption applied at a very low level. Even the basic systems were heavily encrypted. After much poking around, he determined that the only way he was going to crack this was with a brute force approach and he needed convertor cables and some parts to attach the laptop to their wrist coms to do that. The team started the truck and continued on their way.

They drove down into Jizzakh and found the fuel station and refilled the truck to the brim – making a very happy fuel station attendant as they forked over about three thousand Nuyen for the fill up. They drove around the small town for a while, before finding an electronics and tools shop, the supplies in the window faded and at least three generations behind the current curve. No matter though – the cables and adapters they sold would work just fine, and soon they had a lashed up convertor that allowed the decryption utility on the wrist-comp to run against the laptop input port.

Marius seemed happy with the lash up, so he set a utility running, and monitored for a minute or two, to be sure it was working. When asked how long it would take, he checked against the speed of the utility and gave a grunt, then turned to the team. “Anywhere from a minute to a couple of days – it’s just brute-forcing the combination at the minute. We could be lucky, we could not. Worst case I’d say about a hundred hours, based on how fast it’s trying new codes.” Marius left the utility running on the wrist com, connected to the port on the laptop, and then connected both to the electronics port on the truck to ensure the batteries stayed charged.

Tadibya, meanwhile, had gone to the market stall nearby and had purchased a single item of half a dozen different fruits and vegetables. Slowly she worked through them, feeling them, smelling them, examining them carefully from all angles. She carefully cut them, examining the skin and how thin it was, the seeds and stalks, the pith and internal structure. After each one, she concentrated, gathering mana around her and tried to duplicate the food, using raw mana to fashion a simulation of what she had seen and tasted. Some worked better than others – but at least now it wasn’t just a diet of oats, oats and more oats.

Aswon emerged out of a general supplies store, holding a wide roll of chicken wire. Climbing into the back of the truck, and with deft and sure movements, he fashioned a cube of chicken wire from several layers, pinching together corners and folding the thin mesh until it made a self-supporting structure. He placed the cage over the laptop and wrist-comp and looked up at the others. “See, safer now. A Farah Day cage. Makes it harder to track.” Hunter and Marius shook their heads a little and smiled, then reassured Aswon that no, it was a good idea and it certainly wouldn’t do any harm.

They pulled out of Jizzakh after a thirty minute stop, and got back onto the road, having a clear run to Tashkent through the windswept and desolate landscape, watching the mountains loom up to the east as they got ever closer. As they reached the abandoned and ruined outer suburbs, Shimazu called his contact and got some details – they were to meet his agent Maaraei Odemyod on the northern side of the city in a bar called “The Shepherd’s Rest” at 19:00. That gave them about two hours to find the place and get settled in the city before show time…

They drove into the city, seeing the same ravaged houses being consumed by the desert that they had encountered previously. As they drove closer to the city centre, they encountered a wall – two to three metres high and made from old cars, corrugated sheet metal, skips, every imaginable item – piled up and wedged together in an ad-hoc fashion. Inside the barrier the streets were cleaner to be sure, but the houses were still run down and depressed – clearly the homes of the blue collar workers of the city. Great factories dominated sections of the city, belching toxic smoke into the air and spewing forth vile chemicals into the drainage ditches surrounding them.

As they drove around, they spied the central area – surrounded by a five metre wall, just like the first town they had encountered. The smooth surface and angled reflector at the top glimmered in the last rays of sunlight. Beyond it would be the corporate housing and arcologies, the high tech buildings and civil infrastructure of the elite, they guessed.

Hunter was having problems with the navigation – it seemed that his map of the city was woefully out of date. Neither of the two walls were marked on it, and huge areas of several districts had been flattened to make room for the heavy industry that had sprung up. He directed as best he could, frequently checking and cross-referencing the map and their position. As they all looked about to confirm their position and look for landmarks to help guide them, they became aware of a battered and ancient-looking car tailing them as they drove semi-randomly through the streets. The brown rust-bucket trailed them, about three hundred metres back, through the light traffic.

“Let’s lose our new friends, Marius,” said Kai, “We haven’t got time for this.”

Marius trundled around a corner, as if nothing had happened, and then the truck accelerated hard, swinging into an alley with sharply executed power-slide. Thirty seconds of hard evasive driving later, and they were half a mile away, heading in a different direction and without the tail, who was probably scratching his head somewhere, wondering where they had gone.

They moved around to the north side of the city, watching the area get more impoverished and desperate around them, the houses becoming more decrepit and run down. People moving around kept their heads down, moving swiftly from work to home, trying to avoid the attention of the prostitutes, drug pushers and gangs that were now found on most street corners.

As they proceeded along a road, the truck suddenly pitched its nose down, as Marius slammed the brakes on hard. Everyone inside was thrown forwards into their seat-belts, wondering what was going on – and a moment later another rust-bucket jalopy came rocketing out of a side street, driving straight through the space in front of the truck. It sailed across the road and drove headlong into a thick telephone pole with a sickening crunch, then stopped. Steam erupted from the front of the car, and grinding noise echoed around the street.

Convinced they were under attack, the team piled out of the truck – Aswon had his rifle raised and ready, Shimazu with his sword, Tadibya standing ready to launch mana at any attacker. Shimazu sprinted across the road to check out the car, finding the front window smashed and shards of glass everywhere. The driver was dead or seriously wounded, obviously not wearing his seat belt. Empty bottles of vodka could be seen rolling around on the floor of the car, and Shimazu started to relax. Heading back to the truck he called out, "Drunk driver, it seems.” The others relaxed slightly, and Aswon stared at the people in the street who were watching him fearfully, from cover. He climbed back into the truck without a word or sign, and after a quick check around, they proceeded onwards, looking for the bar.

Not long afterwards, they found the bar – in a seedy-looking side street. The map showed this as a through route, but it was clearly a dead end road now. The inner wall around the central area ran straight across the road, stopping any traffic from proceeding. The bar they were after was in a building on the east side of the street, appearing to be down in the basement level. A human and ork bouncer stood outside the half flight of stairs leading down into the building, wearing loose-fitting trench coats. Marius drove around the corner and parked up, and the team broke out the comms and spent a few moments setting up the frequencies and jamming ear buds into place.

Hunter exited the vehicle first to go and scope out the place. Armed only with a knife, he received a quick pat down from the bouncers – noting that the human had a set of discreet brass knuckles on - and then was waved into the bar. Entering the low-ceilinged room, his eyes switched automatically to low-light mode, with an overlaid ultra-sound mapping. His spatial recogniser mapped out the dimensions of the room, and orientated the map with true north using his built in compass. As he walked across to the bar, conscious of the sticky sensation as his feet moved over the floor and last night’s vomit and blood, his enhanced nose sampled the air – reporting back a mix of cheap ethanol derivatives, poor quality perfume, sweat, trace remains of several toxic compounds impregnating the clothes of some of the workers – but no sedatives or gas. A battered jukebox played some synth-pop trash from the 20s over an awful sound system.

He ordered a vodka at the bar, being charged an outrageous ten Nuyen for it, and then found a seat in the corner that he could observe the bar from.

After a minute, a haggard and tired-looking harridan approached him, makeup plastered on a wrinkled face that would charitably be called “well lived in”. She propositioned him, promising a night of pleasure for very reasonable prices. Apparently she catered for “all tastes”. Hunter firmly declined and sent her away, making it clear that he didn’t want any company. With a scowl, she tottered off to the other end of the bar on her high heels, trying her luck with some of the factory workers. As she did, Hunter sent the all clear over the comms to the rest of the team.

Shimazu, Kai and Tadibya got out of the truck and headed to the bar, the bouncers watching them with bored expressions as they closed on their positions. As they headed for the entrance and the steps down, the ork raised a swarthy hand and stopped them, subjecting them to a casual search for weapons. He pointed at Tads, demanding that she hand over her staff.

“It’s a walking aid,” she tried in English.

“Stick”. Beckoning gesture.

“But I’ll fall over!”

“Stick!” Again he gestured, this time with impatience.

“But I’ll not be able to sta…” The ork reached forward and snatched the staff from her grasp. Tads promptly collapsed to the floor – but neither of the bouncers seemed to care one jot. The ork checked both ends and twisted the staff in several place – then satisfied that there was nothing concealed inside it, offered it back.

Tads grasped the staff, and used it to lever herself back upright, fixing the ork with a glower. He returned the look with disinterest, and waved them inside. The three runners descended down into the bar, pushing open the door and entering the gloomy room. Approaching the bar, they were hailed by the barman, asking what they wanted to drink. He wasn’t ready for the response…

Shimazu asked for water, Kai for a Coke and Tads wanted a coffee. The barman blinked at them, then asked “Vodka?” With a sigh Kai nodded – at least the spirit would probably kill any bacteria in the glass, but Shimazu leant forward again and repeated his request – “water”. The barman shrugged and got three filthy glasses, adding a shot of Vodka to two, and filling the third with water from his sink. “Thirty,” he said, and Kai slid over a credstick, wincing slightly as the Nuyen was deducted. Shimazu peered at the glass, which would have been cleaner if he’d dipped it into the average pond, watching the sediment swirl and bits of… something… floating on the surface. He stared at the barman for a moment, but there was no reaction forthcoming.

Kai lowered his voice and pitched his voice for just the barman’s ears. “We’re looking for Maaraei Odemyod.” The barman grabbed the credstick and ran another ten Nuyen off, then leaned over and subjected Kai to a blast of halitosis, “Go, sit, I arrange for him to come – ten minutes.”

Kai and the team retreated and waited, enduring the bad music, sticky floor and stares from the locals. They occasionally looked down at their drinks, moved them a little on the table, and decided collectively that they had enough medical knowledge to say, “Hell no!” to the concept of drinking in this flea pit.

Ten minutes later, the door opened and a man entered – about 1.8m tall, and physically unremarkable. Medium brown eyes, brown closely-cropped hair starting to silver at the temples. He wore casual clothes, not anything flashy, and had a short-brimmed hat on. Above his right eye was a mark – a crescent or some something like it, apparently tattooed there. He approached the table and sat, nodding at the three team members. A few moments later one of the prostitutes tottered over from the bar, delivering a double vodka to Maaraei.

“You have the goods?” Maaraei asked in heavily accented English. 

Kai nodded agreement, and asked “You have the payment?” 

Maaraei nodded in return. “Ok, we make trade here. Bring goods, I pay now.” Kai’s eyes flitted up to Hunter, and saw the almost imperceptible nod – all clear. 

Then he called out over the open mic comms, “Bring in the goods, please.” Outside, Aswon climbed down from the truck and carried the box down the street to the bouncers. They waved for him to open the box, and he lifted the lid, angling the box towards them so they could see the scrolls inside. One of the bouncers started to reach in, but Aswon moved back an inch and said “I don’t think Mr. Odymod wants his goods damaged, do you?” The two bouncers exchanged a glance, and then waved him down the stairs. As he opened the door, Hunter came and took possession of the box, and Aswon returned to the vehicle, recovering his rifle and waiting with Marius in case things went south.

Hunter walked the box over to the table, nodded at the fixer and then passed the box to Kai, before returning to his seat in the corner. Kai, in turn, swung the box around and showed the case to Maaraei. Maaraei glanced in the box, and then reached into his inside pocket, withdrawing a pair of white cotton gloves. He carefully pulled them on, and then delicately lifted out the scroll. After thirty seconds of careful examination, he rolled up the scroll delicately and laid it back into the box, and took off the gloves.

“Is good. Nice. I pay you one hundred.” With that he pulled out a pair of credsticks, unlocked one with his thumbprint and inserted it into a small cred-reader. The second stick went to the transfer port and he keyed in the amount – transferring one hundred thousand Nuyen onto the certified stick. He spun the reader around so they could all see the display, hit the green “transfer” button, and then slid the stick out and over to Kai.

Kai took the stick casually, nodded to Maaraei. “Thanks, nice to work with a professional.”

Odymod looked at the box and pointed at them. “Other scrolls, you have buyer?” Kai shook his head, no. Odymod pulled on the gloves again, and reached into the box, examining the other scrolls for a few seconds each. “Hmm, they, they ok. I can sell.” He looked over at Kai, still holding a scroll in one hand. Their eyes met, locked for a second as each regarded the other, fixer and smuggler. “I give you five for rest.” Kai searched the expression, looking for ticks in the corner of his eyes, micro movements or tells that would betray his thoughts. The seconds stretched out, then he nodded. “Ok, another five grand for the rest. Deal.” Maaraei took the credstick back and went through the ritual again, spinning the reader to the team so they could see the balance transfer over.

“Good, all done now. Ready for work?” Kai glanced at Shimazu and Tadibya, then returned his gaze to Maaraei. “Sure, what do you have on offer?”

Maaraei said he had two jobs at the moment – a delivery of equipment, to take to Kabul. Kai heard the hisses over his commlink as people realised what that meant – crossing the border into Afghanistan, back into another fundamentalist country, but this one torn by war and strife. Kai asked what the other was.

“There is old temple, very old - ancient - east Angren, up past lake. Strangers come explore, set up tents, stay there. Go, discover what find, report. Pay is two each, and bonus if you have good story.” Kai glanced at Tadibya and Shimazu to get a read on their thoughts, and listened in as the rest of the team spoke quietly over the comms.

“Can you help us out with a safe house for a night, Mr Odymod, somewhere to rest from our journey?” Maaraei nodded yes, and then smiled as Kai extended a hand across the table.

“Deal.”

Maaraei jotted down an address and beamed it over to their commlink. “You go here, is safe place, my friends look after you. Then go find story at temple, yes?”

Kai nodded, then stood up, a small grimace crossing his face as he felt his trousers peel off the chair reluctantly. Assembling the team, they headed out of the bar and back to the truck, then headed to the safe house for a night of rest before the next job.


	26. 026 - Shopping in Tashkent

Date 23/12/2059, Location 40.08930, 67.73912 

Once they were all assembled back into the truck, they set off for the address indicated. It wasn’t a long drive, perhaps only four kilometres, but driving through the streets after nightfall was enough to show them a different world. There were no pedestrians traveling the streets, and any groups they saw on street corners or outside buildings numbered at least a dozen. Several of them had clubs or knives clearly visible, and a few with guns. The streets were unlit, with only the intermittent moonlight from the heavily clouded sky illuminating the roads – not that this bothered Marius, of course.

Twenty minutes later they pulled into the southern part of Tashkent University and were waved at by a young man wearing a bandana over his lower face. As the truck pulled up, he confirmed that Odemyod had sent them, and then directed them to a large structure to the side of a residential block. Maybe in the past it had housed the tractor or facility vehicles for keeping the grounds in order – but now, it made a decent place to keep the truck out of sight. The young man pulled the large doors closed, then beckoned them to follow him. Leaving behind the weapons in the locked vehicle, they took only sidearms with them and followed him into the squalid student residence.

No students were to be seen, but the place was teeming – with refugees by the looks of things. Families of four or five were crammed into one-bed rooms, children ran up and down the corridors even this late at night, and the stench of hundreds of unwashed bodies filled the air. As they followed their guide they saw families cooking on bare patches of concrete in the rooms, using a small space where they’d cut up the lino to expose the construction slabs as a cooking mat. All of the cauldrons and pans appeared to be cooking watery looking soups and stews, or thin and straggly looking noodles.

Before long a small troop of children were following the team, curious about the strangers who had come to their world. They chattered away in variety of languages, pointing at the various team members as they did so. After a few minutes, they made it to the fifth floor, and to a set of three rooms that were empty of other people. The guide waved them into the rooms, two into each. Personal effects littered the walls and shelves, and it looked like they had been hastily evicted from their residence. Where were they? Nobody in the block seemed to care, and their guide didn’t appear to, either. After exploring a little, and ensuring they were safe, Kai, Aswon and Shimazu bedded down in the rooms, and Marius, Hunter and Tadibya returned to the truck. 

Once back safely in the vehicle, Tadibya flew out of her body, her astral form darting like quicksilver across the land towards the location of the temple. The earth glowed beneath her, teeming with life and mana, and after a half hour of searching the mountains she realised that without better information, and a tighter fix, it would take her hours of searching to find the place – and that would weaken her link between astral and physical form so much that even the simplest of spells would be impossible to cast. On her way back, she did spy the mine, a vast gash on the landscape that made a taint in astral space. It was guarded by a number of elementals who patrolled the facility, looking for intruders. She veered to one side, and saw more elementals guarding the large hydro-electric facility further across the hillside from the mine.

Hunter meanwhile was plugged into his computer, making use of the sat uplink and conducting a number of searches on the temple and the area. His searches took several hours and it was past 2am by the time he’d finished – but he’d found a probable location of the target building – it was the only “9th century Transoxania period” building referenced in old texts in university archives that had made it through the crash of ’29. He’d also pulled up maps of the area, and had merged the information together and found some topographical information that should help them. Eventually, he, too, settled down to sleep.

In the morning, they reconvened and shared information and began to plan. Marius called his friend Georgi, a smuggler and provider of telesma and magical materials based in Tbilisi, the former capital of Georgia and now one of the largest cities in the Trans Caucasus League. Georgi expressed some surprise, having heard on the grapevine that Marius was dead in a helicopter crash – at which point Marius asked him to keep this as the official version, and not let others know he was still alive.

Marius asked Georgi if they might find some interesting samples in the mountains, giving the general location they were heading to. After putting him on speaker phone, and having Georgi describe the techniques a little, Tadibya piped up, and spoke with him at length, and it soon became clear that she was well versed with gathering of arcane materials in various forms. She and Georgi spoke for some time, identifying a number of crystalline geodes and metallic salts that were potentially findable in the mountains, and of use to him – if the team could get him a reasonable supply.

Next up, they did a quick search for some shops they could get some outdoor gear in, and then scrappers and vehicle facilities in Tashkent, quickly identifying three places that did repair work on all manner of vehicles. ‘Gertaf Fural-Harak’ had a facility on the south east side of the city near the airport, ‘Asir Mohammad Al Jafir’ was based in the north east of the city, and ‘Kiril Petronovich’ was in the south west, near the Silk Road. After much discussion, they decided to go to the Petronovich facility. The last thing they did before leaving was to get Tadibya to create several bowls of fresh fruit and food, which they gave to the people they’d displaced the night before – though it was hard to get them to accept the gift. They pulled out of the university grounds just before lunchtime and headed towards the Silk Road.

The truck carried them down to the scrap facility, a site of several acres just off the glistening highway of the New Silk Road. The corporate-built blacktop highway was three lanes to either side of the robust concrete barriers here, and heavy transport trucks and convoys belted down the road at speed in both directions, carrying corporate goods from east to west under heavy guard. The facility lay to the side of the highway, accessible from a major intersection and short side road, and had a high fence topped with barbed wire. The massive gates at the front were swung wide open into a rough, potholed and muddy car park which was home to a number of transport vehicles and pickup trucks, and they could see sparks from cut metal lighting up the insides of the workshops.

As they got out of the truck, the noise and the smell hit them – industrial pollutants, battery acid, oil, hot metal, burning clutches. The pounding of the frag machines reverberated across the site as massive machinery rendered metal down into tiny pieces ready to be taken to the smelters. Stacks of cars were piled six high in places, and large mobile cranes trundled around piling up new deliveries and feeding the hopper of the fraggers with scrap metal. A machine over to one side compressed material down into cubes of tightly woven metal – as Tadibya’s gaze flickered over it, she shuddered and her face paled slightly. She could feel the aura of fear and despair around the machine. Bad things had happened to people there, over a period of time.

They spotted a converted shipping container, and Kai headed over that way with Marius, the rest of the team waiting at the truck. Inside was a mass of papers, overflowing ashtrays, office-wheeled chairs with the stuffing leaking out of holes, fading yellow calendars and battered filing cabinets holding ancient records. Everything looked old, cheap and well past its best. Behind the desk was a man in his 40s, broad shouldered and solidly built. His hands were rough and calloused, and there were signs of faded tattoos on his arms, hidden under the thick and coarse black hair.

As they approached the desk, the man waved for them to pull over some chairs, and took a moment to examine them. His eyes narrowed slightly as he caught sight of the jacks in the back of Marius’s neck, and he sat back in his seat, gesturing to them to begin.

Kai introduced himself, but quickly realised that his Russian wasn’t up to the job, and after a nod, swapped to English, and explained to him that they were new in town, and had a vehicle that had been through a few scrapes and tight corners, and would greatly benefit from a bit of tender loving care from a skilled craftsman. He gave Marius a wink, signalling him to take over the conversation. Marius explained that they were after three key systems – a fix to their electronic counter measures module, damaged by the short circuit after the zapper attack, some extra armour added to the vehicle, and last of all – a nitrous oxide system to be added for that extra burst of speed when required.

Kiril responded in broken English, asking to see the truck so he could work out a cost. The three of them came back to the truck, and first of all Kiril asked to see inside the truck, at the damaged ECM module. Kai repeated his request back to him – making Kiril look at him a little oddly. But, by the time the truck door was opened, the rest of the team had hidden the guns and other hardware, having heard Kai speak over the open commlink. Kiril squirreled himself down into the electronics bay, his feet facing up the backrest of the seat and pointing at the roof and with a grunt pulled out the module. Giving it a quick sniff, he smiled and then leant out of the truck door. Placing two fingers in the corner of his mouth, he let out a piercing whistle, attracting the attention of the employees scattered around the near part of the yard. He waved one over, and passed him the part, telling him to get the power rectifiers checked out and replaced, along with the power input module.

Next, he padded around the vehicle, examining the bodywork, suspension and thickness of the existing armour. From a pocket he pulled out a set of digital callipers and started to take measurements of various places. “Hmm, 20mm, general purpose. Russian manufacture. Rolled chromium steel, Krupp process. Good condition. You need more than this?” He cocked an eyebrow at Marius.

“Yes, we’re looking to get another 30mm on top, general coverage, all sides. The shocks have plenty of travel left, and we generally travel light, but with high value cargo – so we need the extra security. We could probably add as much as another 100mm on top and the engine would still be fine – but it’d handle like a tractor. So, 30mm seems reasonable. Can you get stock and fit it?”

Kiril nodded quickly, and told them he had various vehicles with such systems that he could remove the armour from and add to theirs – but it would take some time to cut and remove… it was after all, solid stuff. They wandered back to the office, and Kiril worked out some costs for the hardware. After punching numbers into the ancient calculator, he told them he would want around eight and a half thousand for the armour plates, and around ten and a half thousand for the nitrous oxide system. But, because they were not known in town, and had no rep – he needed the money upfront, and would only hold the stock for two weeks.

Kai broadened his smile, interlaced his hands and began his negotiations – and soon they had settled on sixty percent up front and a fourteen day return time. Marius headed back to the truck to let the others know, and found them in a discussion about their journey up into the mountains.

It turned out that both Tadibya and Hunter were reasonably proficient with riding motorbikes, and they were wondering if they could get a couple of cheap bikes here to give them extra mobility up in the highlands. The tactical utility was immediately obvious, so they all headed over to meet Kai, who was just coming out from Kiril’s office, shaking the scrapper’s hand.

They explained their thoughts and Kai agreed, and asked Kiril if he had any bikes to sell? Kiril nodded his head after examining the whole team, and led them round the back of the office, behind a large stack of cars and showed them a rack of half a dozen scrambler type bikes. Each was obviously the same initial model, yet no two looked alike – they’d all been repaired with whatever parts came to hand, and custom fittings were everywhere.

Kiril opened the bidding at twenty thousand per bike, which made the team wince a little. Conversation went back and forth a little, then Kai quietly asked Aswon to go grab a bottle of Armenian Vodka from the truck. Kiril examined the bottle and nipped back to the office for some shot glasses. On his return he pulled out a lighter, and after setting up the shots, set them on fire, slamming his on the bonnet of a car before throwing the burning liquid into his mouth. The team couldn’t help but notice the purple tinge to the flame from the top of the burning vodka, but followed suit. Moments later several of them were gasping for breath as the industrial strength paint stripper went to work on their throats and digestive systems.

Kiril smacked his lips together though, and pronounced it “Smooth! Very good!” and proceeded to set up another set of drinks. Kai and Kiril continued to throw back shots, and negotiations took place in between each round. Kai was starting to look a little red-eyed by the fourth shot, but at least had gotten the price down to twelve and a half thousand each for two bikes with full tanks, and an extra thousand to cover the cost of an external rack for them to be mounted along with the armour. Amongst the negotiations and the chatting back and forth, Kai had also learned that Tashkent was split into large blocks. The Russian Vory held dominion over the North West part of town, Maaraei being part of this faction. The Red Lantern Triad controlled operations in the North East part of the city – where one of the other scrappers worked. And the Afghan-based Kabul Maffiya controlled the south east of town, in the area around the airport. The south west, and a few other areas were independent or disputed, which made life interesting sometimes. Kai marked the general positions on his map of the city, continuing his negotiations with Kiril, who did not seem to be affected by the vodka at all.

A firm handshake and the deal was done, and the team ushered a slightly wobbly Kai back to the truck. Two of the Hyundai off-road scramblers were wheeled over and lifted into the back of the truck, almost completely filling the floor space in the living compartment. Once settled in, they headed in to town for the next items on their shopping list.

They stopped at a large department store near the main road, and purchased tents, sleeping bags, stoves and a host of other camping gear – all useful stuff in of itself – to facilitate their disguise as “mountain hikers”. Nothing on their shopping list was restricted, so they had no issues here, and their fake identities held up to the scrutiny of the checkout systems, letting them pay for their goods like regular people. The equipment was expensive – more expensive than they were expecting – but not grossly so. Probably a factor of location and specialist interest leading to a very small market share… Further down the road, they found a motorbike showroom, and were able to get a set of armoured riding overalls for Tadibya and Hunter. 

They continued their search for another hour as they checked the centre of Tashkent for some kind of long-duration surveillance drone. Here they rapidly found themselves out of luck. Not a single drone specialist was to be found in Tashkent, and no drones were for sale inside the corporate centre, or without. They asked around, and determined that whilst they were not illegal, the corps purchased their drones through their own channels – and discouraged others from stocking them. After a few stores had trouble renewing their leases, the message had gotten out – and there just weren’t drones to be found here. There would of course be someone, somewhere in the city that sold them – there was no way the corps would have that much control – but without being clued in on the local shadow scene, they had no way of knowing who or were.

Shimazu placed a called to Saito, advising him of their issue, and wondering if he could help. Saito messaged back asking Shimazu to sit tight for a bit, and he would see about setting up a meeting. Sure enough, a short while later, Saito returned the call and gave Shimazu an address in the south west portion of town

The team made their way down, back past Kiril’s yard and into a maze of light industrial units and warehouses. Smog filled the air and the streets were packed with honking vans and small goods vehicles scurrying about with their wares. After a short hunt they found the warehouse of Sogdian Siu. After verifying their identities, they were welcomed into his warehouse. The darkened interior was full of gloomy shadows, with the limited lighting showing scores of industrial pallet racking from floor to ceiling, with all manner of drones and devices, spare parts and burnt out wrecks.

Marius laid out their requirements, and Sogdian had a check over his inventory, before bringing over two drones that looked to be in good repair. The first drone was a Cyberspace Designs “Dalmatian”, a fairly stock security type. It was a vector thrust design with limited hover capability – somewhat stealthy in operation, but not hugely fast. It handled well though, and had an average set of sensors and was normally quite cheap, but noted for having a pretty good pilot interface that made operations nice and easy. The second drone was a Renraku “Elemental” rotor-drone, a large metallic sphere suspended underneath duel four bladed rotor assemblies. No faster than the Dalmation, and with only half the fuel capacity, it none the less had double the endurance due to the design. It had the stock sensors and robotic pilot straight from the catalogue, with no modifications. Sogdian wanted thirty thousand for both drones, but would supply both with full tanks. After a quick discussion, the team ponied up the Nuyen, and crammed the drones into the back of the truck, on the larger bunk. It was a fight to get them in and over the motorbikes that filled the small living area, but after a couple of minutes of grunt work, they managed. Just as they were about to leave, Marius asked Sogdian if he had any signal amplifiers for rigger control systems. Seeing him shake his head, he asked him to keep an eye out for one, saying he had cash waiting if he got one…

Now having burnt through a good proportion of their pay from the last job, they headed south out of town on the Silk Road, heading up into the mountains. They trundled south for a good few kilometres, before turning off the major highway and leaving the corporate transports and multi-lane highway with a smooth surface behind. The transition was startling – inside a few minutes they had dropped onto a single lane road, badly potted and cracked. People were travelling barefoot on the road, weighed down with huge loads of wheat and vegetables. Donkeys and horses pulled wooden wagons up the road, yet the drovers chattering away on modern looking wrist-comms, and sometimes working on heat exchanger units for the insulated greenhouses that the crops were growing in. As they got further into the agricultural area, they noticed more and more of the farm workers were Chinese or Chinese-descended – reminding them how close they were to the western end of China.

They followed the road up to Angren, discovering a weird ghost town. The city that could easily house over a hundred and twenty thousand had a population that was less than a quarter of that. Vast blocks were empty and boarded up, covered in graffiti. Other parts were sparsely occupied, tiny enclaves of humanity in a concrete wilderness. They pulled into an abandoned area and set up the Dalmatian drone, then Marius took control and sent the drone spiralling up into the sky, examining the feed from the sensor platform. He headed north, keeping clear of the mine workings, but examining it from a side angle. The place seemed busy, with trucks and people everywhere, conveyor belts bringing up a constant stream of rocks from down below and sending them into covered processing buildings. A zoom in showed a label over one of the warehouses which read “No. 2 Bentonite store”. Hunter had a quick think, and then advised them that it was a chemical that had very good water absorption properties. It was used to make mundane things like kitty litter and was very useful in making wines, but also was a key substance for most mining operations to deal with ground water and to control seepage in deep shafts. Given the amount of oil and gas drilling in the area, it probably helped to have a local source, and the mine was certainly looking busy.

As they flew around and Marius got used to the handling characteristics of the drone, he spotted extensive security scanners and cameras in the air, both on the mine which was operated by Eastern Tiger Corporation, and the Dam, operated by Shiawaise Environmental. Shiawaise was a AAA company, granting them extra-territorial status, whilst ETC was a large A rated corp, and bound by national laws. Not that it really mattered out here of course – the local police force was probably corrupt and in one or the other companies’ pockets, and would ignore anything they did short of bombing the town. Maybe not even that…

They bypassed the mine and the dam, travelling on the road up into the mountains. Closing in on the site, and with better information now on the exact location, Tadibya went for another astral scout. She soon found the temple, half buried in the mountain side, but with a large section of the slope having recently been shaken loose by an earthquake, it seems, and exposing part of the structure. Of more immediate concern were two large marquee tents pitched on the valley floor below it, each of which could hold perhaps a dozen people at most. There were a couple of open sided shelters that looked to have scientific equipment laid out on them, and alongside was a heavy transport and powerful looking cab, all of which had chunky off-road tyres. It must have still been an arse getting the vehicle up this narrow road and turned around, but that almost certainly meant that the other team had a rigger, just like Marius.

The team pulled the truck off into the next valley, driving up so they were parallel to the temple team, got out their tents and set up, and even did a little spot of hiking around the place that evening, to establish their credentials – and getting to scope out the mountain ridges and likely surveillance points of course.

As night settled, they started to work on their plans for how they were going to carry out the job.


	27. 027 - The Stakeout

Date 24/12/2059, Location 40.98449, 70.3379

The team bedded down for the night, sticking to their usual watch schedule. It was quiet up in the mountains, only the sound of the wind moving the trees. Even the noise of the mining operations to the west were cut off by the ridges and cliffs between them. The minutes ticked by, with nothing to see and nothing to hear.

Marius dreamt.

The chopper banked in a smooth flowing motion, the heavy load slung beneath it arcing out in a controlled swing, remaining dead centre under his fuselage. Slowly he lowered the collective, and the chopper dropped closer to the valley bottom, whipping past at a steady hundred knots. There, the pad was in sight. Carefully pulling back on the stick, he raised the nose and reduced air speed. More by feel than sight, he felt the load swing forward slightly. At just the right moment, he dropped the collective a little more, the chopper sank the last few feet, and the load touched down, gently, to the ground. A signal from the landing officer, and he hit the cable release command, and another load of high-tech drilling gear was delivered to this remote isthmus ready for use. As he banked away, he checked the sensors – yes, the load was absolute dead centre on the pad. A slight smile tugged at his flaccid lips, satisfaction at a job done perfectly. He pulled the collective back, increasing power and the chopper reacted like a race horse, freed of its heavy load. The six-bladed rotor thudded with a distinctive harmony above him.

No, wait, that wasn’t right.

Marius woke with a start, then called out in a croaky voice, “Der Hubschrauber!” A moment later his mind cleared a little, and he tried again, “Helicopter, HELICOPTER!”

Hunter turned to look at him, his face just a mass of shadows in the darkened cab.

“Now is not the time to be complaining again. We know you want a chopper…”

“Nein! No, there is a chopper out there. Six blades! SIX! Almost certainly military!”

Hunter jumped through into the back, rousing the others fully awake from their slumber – though Marius’ cries had already started that process. Kai asked Marius what was wrong, and Marius quickly explained – he could hear, faintly, a six-bladed chopper… great performance, but fuel hungry. That almost certainly made it a security or military variant. Kai turned to Tadibya and made a circling motion to the truck around them, nodding as she started her spellcasting. She concentrated her power and spun a web around the vehicle, and within a few seconds it vanished from view, blending into the scree slope behind them and the tree they were parked under.

They all crammed into the front of the truck, looking up into the sky and watching for signs of activity, listening as best they could. Marius jacked in, and watched his passive sensors, looking for more information. After a minute of scrutiny they saw it – or rather, they didn’t see it. What they saw was a path of occluded stars, as a black, light-absorbing shape floated up the ridge. It was quiet, and the skin seemed to just drink in the light. They watched as carefully as they could, trying to determine details about it from the occasional glint as they caught a reflection not fully damped.

Marius studied his sensors, reaching out with his passive instruments to avoid giving away their position with betraying signals. As more details were sketched in, he realised he was looking at a Yamatetsu Elemental PRX – an attack chopper with a crew of two or three, and up to five combat troops in the rear compartment. Or, and possibly worse news, instead of the troop bay, it could carry a nose-mounted minigun, along with a selection of rockets and missiles in the wing pods, controlled and steered by powerful sensors. That they could not see it clearly, or hold it on sensors indicated that someone had gone to significant effort on the stealth front, and that indicated the crew would be well trained.

They watched the chopper climb over the ridge into another valley, dropping down out of line of sight. A few minutes later it appeared again, climbing over the ridge and dropping into the next valley along. They watched it for a while, as it combed the mountain – looking for something in particular, just doing a patrol, or practicing their night flight skills – the team could not determine.

When it appeared in their valley, they shut down all of their electronic gear, powering down any device they could see and extinguishing anything that made noise. They watched the chopper nose up the valley, flying at a steady pace perhaps fifty metres below the ridge line. Holding their breath unconsciously, they watched as it overflew them without giving any indication of detecting either them or the truck. It patrolled for a while longer, gradually fading away to the south and out of sight.

Yamatetsu was another of the ten triple-A megacorporations that ruled the sixth world – a vast sprawling enterprise that had divergent interests in every conceivable business. But, they were not related to the operation of the dam, nor the mine as far as the team could work out – so why they were in the area, was anyone’s guess. Unless it was just a Yamatetsu-manufactured chopper, being used by another company – but even then the stealth of the craft argued against it being a run of the mill security vehicle. The team waited until it had been gone for twenty minutes before starting to unwind and make their next moves.

Aswon and Hunter climbed up the ridge in the darkness, trying to get to a vantage point where they could spot the temple and the large transport vehicle. The climb was treacherous in the dark even for those with augmented vision – some of the finest Swiss optics for Hunter, and a magically enhanced ability to gather light in the case of Aswon, but despite them both being able to see as well as each other, Aswon seemed to have no real difficulty with the climb. In places, he dropped to all fours, and padded across the surfaces or up steep cliffs with surety and speed. One part of the climb seemed particularly tough, but after crossing the scree and shale slope, he fixed a rope to drop back to Hunter to help him navigate around it. When Hunter reached his position, Aswon clapped him on the shoulder, his lips pulled back and the stars showed his teeth clearly against his black skin as he gave a broad grin.

“When you live in harmony, and respect the land, occasionally you may receive a blessing in return.”

He pulled his shirt up for a moment, the faint Gecko tattoo almost invisible against his dark skin, were it not for the incredibly faint glow from the magical ink that bound a spell to his spirit.

“I prefer a more high-tech approach personally, a nice bit of tungsten carbide,” said Hunter after a moment. With a ‘snick’ noise, retractable climbing claws sprung out from his palms and each of his fingers, tiny little serrated barbs that would grip and dig into most surfaces. They didn’t even glint in the starlight, having been treated with some chemical process that dulled and blackened the surface. Hunter reached up and dug the claws into the bark of a tree, and used that as leverage to swarm further up the slope, Aswon in hot pursuit.

They reached the top of the ridge after about three quarters of an hour of climbing, and looked over and into the next valley – and saw nothing. Just an empty valley. After careful observation, they made their way back to the truck, and reported in. A moment later, Tadibya left her body, her astral form zooming up the cliff with ease, making short work of the journey. Her astral form poked through a set of bushes at the top, using their living aura for cover and she looked down into the valley, blinking in surprise. A few seconds of careful observation, and she flew back the way she came, reuniting with her physical form.

“There’s a spell over the whole valley floor, a powerful one. I sense a powerful shield of illusion, of great intensity. Like I can do – but far larger, and slightly more powerful. They have capable mages over there, it seems.” As she finished speaking, they saw her gesture again, calling forth mana. Before them appeared a ghostly outline of a small pile of slab rock, forming a crude humanoid shape. Tadibya stared at it intently for a few moments, then it floated out through the roof and out of view.

“A simple watcher spirit. I told it to go up to the ridge and hide in a bush, and watch the valley – if it sees any change in the spell, or spots any people, it will come and tell me at once.”

The team looked at each other and sighed. Well, that explained why neither they nor the temple crew had been spotted, it seems. They settled back down to rest, resuming their watches and waited for dawn.

Rousing proved to be hard, with a mountain directly to the east of them – there would be no direct sunlight into the valley bottom at all in the middle of winter, and the sun was going to take a while to climb over the ridge to the east to illuminate any of the land. After a quick breakfast, Aswon and Hunter grabbed more ropes, and spent the next hour putting in aides past all of the tricky sections up the ridge – now, everyone would be able to get up the hill in safety and with relative ease, probably in as little as thirty minutes.

Once the route was laid in, Marius grabbed some equipment and hauled it to the top of the ridge. He set up in a gorse bush on the lee side of a spur of rock, and got some long aerial cables run around the edge of the rock and aiming down into the valley. Working with his communications gear, he slowly scanned all the frequency bands, listening in for chatter and carrier waves. Eventually he picked up a very faint signal – the sort of thing a hand-held set might put out at minimum levels. It was a challenge to get the signal cleanly – it had very little strength, and was obviously designed not to escape the valley.

Hunter and Shimazu meanwhile had worked out some rudimentary hand signals, and started to work their way down the mountain side into the valley. It was slow going as they crawled and slid down the slopes, trying to remain under the cover of bushes, bracken and gorse, or using rocks as cover as best they could. Knowing there were potentially hostile forces in the valley they moved slowly, and it took them an hour to crawl less than two hundred metres. Their patience was rewarded though with a lack of alarm from the camp, as they patiently made their way down the side of the slope.

Eventually they made it down the hundred metres and slid below the spell threshold. Instantly, they could see the van and tents as they had spotted before, along with some people moving around. Turning and looking up the hill, they could clearly see the bush that Marius and Aswon were hidden in – so the phantasm was clearly one-way. 

After a moment, they both realised that their rudimentary hand signals were useless – the people up the top could not see them, and could not receive any messages. After a moment to castigate themselves for not thinking of this, they pulled out a pistol and used the laser sight to send a quick message, hoping the red dot of light would be visible to them in their concealment.

They settled down to watch for an hour, seeing various people moving around the camp. Shimazu pulled out a small pad and tucked it under him, starting to make notes, as he and Hunter watched, gathering as much information as they could from their observation point.

First seen was a human male, in his twenties or thirties. Wearing khaki cargo pants and a warm-looking casual shirt, he carried some kind of huge pistol at his hip and a long tube weapon slung over his back. His face was barely visible beneath the bush hat, but he appeared to be a blond, with a small beard.

The next spotted caused a small wince from Hunter, as he saw her. Emerging from one of the tents was a small but broad female, a dwarf by the looks of things. She was wearing a loose fitting poncho that looked like an explosion of paint had happened next to her. Bright, garish and clashing colours blended into one, with lines and ellipses of pastels overlaid over the neon colours. She carried no obvious weapons, but could be carrying an assault rifle under her poncho quite easily, it was that baggy – and the colour scheme made it almost impossible to spot shapes and shadows. Plastic flowers were woven into her hair, and he caught the glint of metal from her hands – probably some kind of jewellery. 

A female ork was next to be seen, climbing down from the cab of the transport. They caught a flash of silver from the back of her neck as she swung down and her hair blew in the wind – either data jacks or rigger jacks, it was impossible to tell at this distance – but that meant she probably wasn’t magically active, but was likely to have control over some kind of machinery. She was wearing work-like blue denim overalls, covered in pockets, and had a heavy looking pistol in a gunslinger holster on her right side.

Emerging from the back of the truck, with a large crate slung casually under one arm was a brutish-looking troll. Wearing black cargo pants and a huge jacket, he carried a club or bat of some kind hung from his waist. His size made it hard to tell, as it looked more like a cosh set against his three metre height, but the bat looked to be about as long as Shimazu’s sword, and would make a fearsome weapon in the hands of someone that strong.

Wearing blue jeans and a suede jacket, the next target they saw looked to be a middle-aged male dwarf. He walked out of the tent and stretched, looking around for a moment, and then grabbed some kind of mini-computer from the tent and started to check off the crates as the troll offloaded them from the truck and carried them to the awning.

Another oddity appeared next – an almost naked female burst out of the tent, ran across to the gazebo and disappeared. A minute later, she ran back into the tent, then out and to the truck. Her skin was almost as dark as Aswon’s, and the clothing had an odd look about it – but even with binoculars it was hard to work out what was wrong as she flitted from place to place.

It wasn’t hard to spot the next inhabitant – the large-framed orc was only made bigger by the gyromount harness he was strapped into. A long-barrelled machine gun was attached – safely stowed at the moment over his shoulder, but it would take only a quick reach to deploy, and the harness would allow him to run and fire with almost no difficulty. He looked to be wearing a one-piece green jumpsuit under the harness, and spotted a short, military-style crew cut. He looked middle-aged – which for an ork meant that he probably wasn’t more than 20 at the most.

A human woman, perhaps mid to late twenties appeared from the temple opening, carefully rolling out a spool of cable. Dressed in jeans and a fleece, with her hair tucked up under a baseball cap, she appeared completely engrossed in her work, and soon had a cable running from inside the ruins back to the gazebo, carefully run around various obstructions and under rocks.

Last of all, they finally saw the person who had been offloading the crates from the truck into the troll’s waiting arms – another human male, in his twenties. He looked to be wearing a track suit and trainers, his long brown hair pulled back into a tight ponytail.

After a while, Shimazu and Hunter realized they could not see under the gazebo at all from their vantage point – but if they worked their way around the head of the valley and dropped a little, they should get a better angle on it and might gather some more information. Slowly they crawled around the slope, sticking to dead ground and making use of the foliage and cover as best they could. Eventually they reached a reasonable observation point and settled in again. No sign of alarm was raised, so they appeared to have made it to this position undetected.

The crew down in the valley floor continued to unload material into the tents and and large gazebo – most of it still in sturdy packing crates and military-style plastic shipping containers. Eventually though, some signal caused them to congregate in the central gazebo area.

Hunter made himself comfortable, wedging his back against a rock and peering through some leaves down at the camp. With a twitch of his cheek muscle, his left eyelid retracted, pulling back and exposing more of the cybereye than was normally visible. A small section opened up and the front of the eye extended forwards, tiny fans along the side suddenly kicking into gear and drawing cool air into the internals. Shimazu gave a wince, and stared with fascination at the tiny device – wondering what would possess a person to replace their eye with some crazy machine like this.

Hunter ignored his companion, though, and carefully sighted down at the camp, looking around for something… there! That was ideal. It looked like the door of a scientific piece of equipment, maybe a chemical analyser - but the door was glass, or something like it anyway. He locked on to that, and a beam of ultra violet laser radiation lanced out of his eye onto the glass. The fans kicked up a gear, keeping the lasing chamber cool and the beam steady. A few seconds later, the laser microphone was finished with its calibration, and started to pick up information. As the sound waves from the people speaking radiated out, the pressure hit the surface of the glass, causing it to resonate slightly – the laser microphone picked up those miniscule vibrations, and reverse-engineered it back into speech. The quality wasn’t great in this situation, but it was enough to pick out what they were saying.

Hunter started to mutter a low commentary, buffering the information to his radio for later transmission and sharing it with Shimazu.

“Ok, the guy with the rocket looks to be the leader, he’s called the team in for some announcement. He knows they don’t all believe any more, but it’s important to him. Oh, Happy Christmas. He’s opening a crate, and there are some people excited by the sounds… right, he’s calling a few names out, passing out gifts. Ok, the Ork with the jacks is called Mamma Bear. She sounds happy with her gift, whatever it is. Hmm, the tie-dye monster – no name, also happy. Black naked chick… sounds tribal. Big troll, called Spotlight. Wait, he’s asking around. Sounds a little unhappy.”

The radio hissed slightly next to them, listening in on the frequencies locked down by Marius earlier.

“Topshot, I know you can hear me. Don’t think you’re getting out of this. Come on, get your ass down here, pronto.”

Shimazu peered in amazement as a bush on the far side of the valley unfolded, and stood. The bush was smaller than he thought – because half of it turned out to be a sniper in a ghillie suit. Carrying a big ass rifle, the figure strode down the hill, and even from here the body language didn’t look particularly warm. A single word came back over the radio.

“Oui.”

The figure made quick progress down the hill, and Hunter resumed the commentary as more of the gifts were given out. When the figure entered the tent, he heard the sounds of chatting and final gifts being given away, and what sounded like the pop of a champagne bottle. They listened for another twenty minutes whilst the other crew apparently had Christmas breakfast and some bubbly, compared gifts and chatted. The big ork spoke, clueing them in on the leader’s handle.

“Rocket, we pushing into the temple today then, or do you want more setup time?”

“Nah, I think we’re good to go, Blaster. The overflight didn’t spot a thing thanks to our friend here, so I think we’re good. Spotlight, set up the gear regardless, but I can’t see there being any problems.”

Moments later, the figure in a ghillie suit exited the gazebo, heading up the valley side. Both Shimazu and Hunter watched carefully as the figure climbed the slope with sure movements. It disappeared behind an outcropping, and didn’t emerge again. No matter how carefully they scanned the area, through binoculars or cybernetically enhanced vision – there was no sign of the sniper. That was worrying…

Hunter and Shimazu worked their way back, carefully. It took them even longer than the approach, knowing that they had a potentially expert sniper out on the far slope, and that forced a change of route to ensure they stayed in cover from the possible observation points. Eventually they got back, and made their report to Kai back at the truck. 

The team sat down to work out their strategy for the mission…


	28. 028 - Observation - 1

Date 25/12/2059, Location 40.98449, 70.3379

After the debrief, Hunter made his way back to his position, crawling through the brush and trying to slide noiselessly and without sign back into his observation position. Despite being only a few hundred metres away, it was a long, slow and arduous manoeuvre, but eventually he was back with eyes on the target.

Meanwhile, back at the truck, Aswon came up with a plan first – how about he and Kai just wandered into their camp, as if they were genuine explorers – Kai the corporate exec, with a wanderlust, Aswon as his guide. Maybe if they found some game first, they could turn up with a boar over the shoulder, and see if they could talk their way into camp. Well, they could see if Kai could talk his way in, whilst Aswon gave moral support, at least.

Whilst they were weighing up the options, Marius was disturbed by an electronic signal – then suddenly dived into the front of the truck, jacking in rapidly and shutting down the remote platform still monitoring the next valley over. The team looked to his sprawled body laid over the seat, waiting for some idea of what was wrong.

His voice came over the speakers, filling the cabin with his clipped and precise English. “EM surge, a big one. At least a few kilometre range, broad spectrum sensor sweep. Then the platform reported that it was being locked up by some kind of weapons system, maybe something like a HARM.”

A few of the team looked blank, but Marius must have anticipated this. “High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile – it homes in on sensors. So we, need to be careful about using active sensors, or giving away our position with electronic noise.”

Over in the valley, Hunter watched as some of the other team busied themselves with their work. They moved a couple of large crates around, then opened up a selection of them, removing some kind of machinery. The troll and the orc spent about twenty minutes assembling and checking over the large drone. It was the size of a one-man ATV when complete and looked somewhat similar – large balloon tyres at each corner and large coil springs would give this drone good mobility. Hunter sketched down some details, making a note of the large Ares logo on the front armour plate, and the word “Arbiter” stencilled down the side. Where a person might normally sit in an off-road vehicle, there was a squat turret with a fixed gun of some kind - perhaps a light machine gun, though it was hard to tell from this range and angle. After it was assembled, they two technicians stood back, and the drone slowly crawled in a full circle around them, then headed down valley at a faster rate, and started to patrol back and forth in an arc.

Back in the truck, a lively discussion was in process – what to do about the sensor array at the top of the crest. Should they try and recover it, and risk being spotted? Were they laying a trap? If they removed it, would the other team get more suspicious because there was nothing there that could have given off a signal earlier?

After some time though, they agreed upon a plan. First of all Aswon and Shimazu got together a “care package” of materials – blanket, warm fleece layer, food, toilet roll, water bottle. When this was ready, they climbed the hill and as they approached the top, crawled the last fifty metres, taking care not to skyline themselves as they crossed the ridge. Working slowly and keeping low, they recovered the sensor pod, dragging it back down off the ridge, and then once clear, swiftly moved a hundred metres to the south, before slowly working their way back up and over, positioning the pod in the best cover they could find. At a signal, Tadibya called her spirit to her and gave it one of the metallic survival blanket, and instructed it to go to the ridge as subtly as it could, and then let the blanket get caught in a bush. The flapping material would create a visual and sensor target, and would explain what might have been seen to anyone who came to investigate.

Hunter watched as a second Arbiter series drone was assembled and tested, and then sent into the valley near the first. As it came on station, the first drone moved its patrol path slightly, until both were sweeping large arcs including sections of the hillside.

On completion of the drones, the two opened up further crates, and began to assemble what could only be heavy machine guns on sturdy tripods, with battery packs, actuators and sensor pods attached. These were laboriously carried down to the area by the patrolling drones, and then firmly wedged into position. Once the sentry guns were emplaced and some self-tests were completed, the troll hefted on a large backpack with a cylinder of some kind of hose attached. Approaching the sentry guns, he sprayed rapidly setting foam all over the gun, encasing it in material. As he moved on to the second, the orc tested the first, and then started to spray it with grey paint, flicking up moss and leaves and bits of dirt to weather the surface. About an hour later, the two sentry guns were fully disguised and very hard to spot.

Once the sentry guns were complete, the riggers must have taken control of the mobile units, as they were called back to the main camp. One rolled onto an induction charging pad, topping up its batteries. The other patrolled around the opposite side of the camp to the sentry guns – the side nearest Hunter’s position. It shortened the path considerably, and would make sneaking up the camp very difficult indeed.

Meanwhile the ork and the troll had set up a series of trestle frames with a track running along the top. Opening yet another crate, they assembled some spotter drones, and fired them off into the air from the track, where they quickly rose to just under the level of the illusion spell. One headed north west, the other south east, and they took up station keeping positions, their hydrogen balloons keeping them floating against the grey overcast sky.

Hunter’s attention was drawn to the temple entrance then, as six of the other team emerged. They headed back to the large central gazebo, and Hunter quickly trained his laser microphone on them, searching out a surface that would resonate and pick up their speech. He listened carefully whilst they discussed what they had found in the first level of the temple, the obstructions and cave-ins, the amount of loose debris and choked passages, the first trap they had found, a stone slab that when moved had trigged a fusillade of darts fired from a concealed opening – and perhaps most importantly, the fact that there was a magical ward across a corridor, that had not been defeated yet.

Whilst he was writing up his notes, Shimazu slid down into his position, having spent the last hour crawling down the hillside, trying to remain as covert as possible. The care package was slid over to Hunter, and the notes taken were passed back in return. Shimazu waited a while, as Hunter finished annotating the conversation that had just taken place, and took another look over the camp, trying to make sure that all of the details he could see were written down to pass back to the team. Shimazu grabbed the paperwork, checked over his gear to make sure everything was strapped down, and then started the slow and tedious crawl back up the mountain ridge to break line of sight to the valley.

Eventually he made it back to the truck, and met up with the rest of the team, who spent a while pouring over the notes that Hunter had made. It soon became clear to them that Hunter had some considerable talent in this area – the notes included all kinds of strange details and descriptions that might at first glance appear superfluous. Yet when combined with Marius’ sat phone and a computer search, the detailed definition of the type of muzzle break and layout of the equipment provisions soon revealed that those sentry guns were in fact Ares Firelance area denial systems – a defence system that included very competent sensor packages and an expert marksman system that could fire the guns fully automatic with a high degree of accuracy – providing the tripod system was properly configured and the recoil was absorbed.

They worked through the list and a pattern soon emerged. Ares Arbiter drones, with Ares light machine guns. Ares EIS-200 surveillance drones. Ares guns. Ares sensor packages. Ares brand tents and induction charging pads. Sure, Ares was one of the ten largest mega-corporations in the world, with fingers in every imaginable pie and a list of businesses and divisions longer than any one person could remember… but this felt like an Ares-sponsored mission, rather than a team that had brand loyalty.

The team paid particular attention to the discussion about the temple, rewriting Hunter’s recollection of the conversation into a report for their employer, and adding in all of their other observations to date. As they did so, the mood fell. The more they learnt, the more they realised just how much this team outclassed them. Their vehicles were top of the line, the drones were numerous and heavily armed and armoured. Spells were of a powerful nature and cast so well that even the most perceptive of them could not penetrate the illusion. And the sniper, seen just the once, was still out there. Despite hours of observations, Hunter and Shimazu had seen no further sign of them at all. On top of that, they were outnumbered ten to six.

They discussed the mission parameters again, reminding themselves that they were here to observe only – they did not have to engage, or capture, or steal anything. It was just an information gathering exercise. Even so, the pay which had seemed quite generous before, suddenly felt not so good… if this team spotted them, they figured it wouldn’t be much of a fight.

As night fell, the weather grew colder and colder, and just before midnight, the first flakes of snow started to fall. The wind had dropped, and the air took on a stillness, sound deadened by the fall. Within an hour, the snowfall increased, the snow forming large flakes that quickly settled on the cold earth and built up into large banks. Nothing moved that night, and those on watch in the truck spared a thought for Hunter, making do on the mountain side, exposed to the cold and wet.

When morning broke, the snowstorm was just petering out, having dropped a good hundred and fifty millimetres overnight. The team checked around them, seeing nothing but a white blanket dropped over the entire mountainside and valley floor – crisp, fresh and undisturbed. Shimazu quickly realised that it would make his sneak up and over the ridge line a whole lot more difficult, as the tracks he was bound to leave would be visible to anyone observing from the right angle. They quickly worked on stripping some branches from an evergreen and making a brush that he could drag behind him to try and smooth out the snow. It looked like the crawl to the observation point would take even longer this morning.

On the slope overlooking the temple, Hunter roused, and worked slowly to unwrap himself from the blanket which he was cocooned in. He took a handful of the fresh snow and shoved it into his mouth, letting his body heat melt it and getting a trickle of icy cold fresh water to slake his thirst. He was a little tired, having been up most of the night, but he wasn’t that cold – the amount of work he’d done had kept him more than warm enough – so warm in fact that he’d had to open a few layers to ensure he didn’t sweat and then freeze later.

He sat in a little bowl that was remarkably free of snow. Primitive wood spades and makeshift tools were pushed to one side, and the snow was banked and compacted around his boulders very carefully. From the outside, it looked like a large mound of snow collecting around a few rocks. From inside it was a 70% complete igloo, blocking lines of sight to his side and rear quarters, with a curving approach tunnel. He still had a gap between the rocks that opened up a vista of the valley below him, but he was now exceptionally well concealed to the sides. That worked both ways of course – he could now be approached much more easily than before… but there were no free lunches in recon work. The snow arced over his head, cutting down on the wind and providing some insulation, keeping the temperature hovering around zero in his nest.

He saw the first of the team stir, the Aboriginal female tagged as “Wee Woo”. As she came to the entrance to the tent, she stopped and stared at the blanket of white spread about the valley floor. She stood perfectly still for nearly thirty seconds and then disappeared back into the tent, out of sight. Barely a minute passed, and then the brightly-dressed figure appeared in her tie-dye robes. She, too, stopped at the tent entrance and looked around, then gave an obvious whoop, and raised her hands in the air and started to run through the snow, kicking up big clomps of powdery snow into the air. Wee Woo stood in the entranceway and stared at her, as she cavorted around the camp.

The brightly-dressed figure tripped on something hidden under the snow, and was sent sprawling. As she fell, the bracer she wore on her left arm sprang free, falling by her side.

Aswon stared down into the valley from his observation point on the ridge with surprise, as the illusion spell suddenly dropped. He scanned over, spotting the tents, truck, drones and the lone brightly-dressed figure. She scrambled in the snow and grabbed the bracer, then hurriedly fitted it around her arm again. Equally as fast, the spell flicked back into existence, replacing the actual valley floor with the image of an empty valley, bereft of snow, just like it was the day before. Then, it slowly changed, layers of snow building up over the landscape as the illusion was manipulated to match the physical surroundings.

Once again, Aswon, and all the team above the illusion spell could see nothing but what the other runners wanted them to see.

Hunter, of course, was below the spell barrier, and could see everything as it truly was. He saw Wee Woo hesitantly come out of the tent and encounter snow – apparently for the first time in her life. Along with her skin colouration and dress sense, it made it very likely that she was from some interior part of Australia. That might affect her outlook and abilities somewhat… he made some more notes and continued watching.

The camp below roused and get into their morning routine. Several of them cleared snow from items like the induction pad and launch track, and made sure the drones were charging and checked over the sentry gun positions. They apparently had breakfast stood around under the gazebo, whilst their leader, Rocket, detailed assignments for the day. Hunter listened carefully, confirming names and details and finding out more about their skills from the tasks assigned to them. After perhaps a half hour, they split into two groups.

Rocket, Digger, Wee-woo, Blaster, Slapdash and Geo headed into the temple with spades, picks, ropes and a bunch of other equipment.

Mamma Bear, Spotlight and Spangles – and presumably Topshot, stayed in camp.

Over the next few hours, Spotlight and Mamma Bear assembled two more drones – Ares R series utility units. Equipped with a load storage area and two powerful arms ending with claws, drills and other equipment, they were sent trundling into the temple after the dig team. Not long after that, the drones started to appear at irregular intervals and dump loads of stone and broken masonry to the side of the temple entrance.

In the early afternoon, the dig team resurfaced, and headed back to camp, accompanied by both drones which spent a while recharging on the pad. Over lunch they discussed what they had found – centring on a number of arches and vaulted ceilings in poor repair that were at great risk of collapse. Digger appeared to be the acknowledged expert on the process and briefed them on how they were going to shore up the areas and make them safe for further exploration.

After lunch, the drones continued their excavations, though after a while they changed their actions – and started taking selected stones and rocks back in. It appeared that they were now making repairs to the sections at most risk, using the materials at hand.

The explorers returned to the surface at tea time, as the light was fading away. Hunter heard an annoyed set of questions from Rocket, questioning Spangles on how busy she’d been sorting out their magical defences that day. Spangles assured him that she’d been hard at work, and they were on track. The reason for the question became clear shortly afterwards, when chuckles turned into belly laughs from several of the team. Apparently, there was now a large snowman on the far side of the gazebo, staring down the valley. It had a large stick over its shoulder, smaller ones at the waist, and from the conversation bore some passing resemblance to Rocket in physical appearance.

They ate, chatting about various odd things. Hunter made notes where he could, but much of the conversation was difficult to decipher. They were clearly talking about previous jobs and tasks, but doing so with a common frame of reference – so much of the detail was left out, or glossed over.

After they had eaten though, they changed routine. A call from Rocket, and conversation stopped, as they listened to him calling out positions around the site. The team focussed in, and moved swiftly to their position. Hunter noted that they were nearly all armed now. Rocket had his launcher hefted in his hands, Blaster had a full gyro-mount harness on with a machine gun floating on the recoil arm, moving with strange grace as he strode across the undulating surface. The others held rifles or sub-machine guns mainly, weapons with some reach at least. The only ones not armed with firearms were Spangles and Wee-woo – but presumably they had more than enough firepower in their fingers.

They fanned out around the site, roughly-spaced but covering all angles of approach. They crouched or lay in the snow, rested against boulders or tree stumps or in Blaster’s case, just stood with his legs widely braced and the heavy machine gun held tightly.

With a low rumble, the generator built into the truck started up, the reverberations carrying through the still mountain air. It was quiet – in the city it would probably not have been heard over the noise of traffic – but out here it seemed very obvious after the stillness of the day. Lights brightened in the tents as the generator provided a surge of current to wherever the batteries were stored, and various lights and devices could be seen by the reflections they cast on the snow as they powered up and recharged. All told, they ran the generator for about fifteen minutes, with the team holding a quiet overwatch in case the noise attracted any attention. After it powered down, they stayed in position for another five minutes, watching the valley carefully, before they relaxed and stood down. Returning to the gazebo, they slung weapons and pottered about a little, tending to the equipment and ensuring all the charging was complete.

As night fell, Hunter heard Shimazu approaching, dragging a fibre optic cable with him and some lashed together electronics in a plastic bag. Marius and the team had come up with a plan to try and make the information gathering easier. The interface would mate up a small pocket secretary with the fibre optic cable, transmitting the data a hundred metres up the ridge. There, another converter would link together the fibre cable with a transmitter, with the power turned down to the absolute lowest level. They had calculated that this would reach – just – the top of the ridge, where Shimazu could then wait and receive a data dump from Hunter electronically, without having to risk the daily climbs up and down the ridge in view of the dig team. By moving the transmitter up the ridge, the signal should not reach back down into the valley far enough to be detected by the dig team either. It wasn’t perfect – ideally they needed another couple of hundred meters of cable to get clear up and over the ridge – but they didn’t have that. Apparently it had been added to the shopping list for when they got back to town.

Hunter settled in for another night on the mountain on watch, whilst Shimazu returned to the truck with the latest information to transcribe into their report for their employer.

Night fell in the valley, with nothing visible moving.


	29. 029 - Observation - 2

Date 27/12/2059, Location 40.98449, 70.3379

Hunter sat in his hide, watching down into the valley below. His eyes were unfocussed, almost glazed over, taking in the whole scene. A small flicker of movement somewhere would see him focus in, examining a waving leaf, or a falling rock, determining why it was moving, then allowing his gaze to wander again, his mind tracking patterns and shapes, not objects, looking for things out of place.

As he saw people congregate under the gazebo though, he flicked on the laser microphone, listening in on their conversations and catching tidbits of information about the team, slowly building up a profile on them.

Back at the truck, a discussion was underway about the geology of the valley and the likely history. Tadibya was racking her brain, remembering half-learnt lessons and facts read in books during her long trek south. The mountains were granite-based, often trapping large pockets of gas and petrochemicals far beneath the surface. As they discussed fault lines, chimneys, tectonic shifts and subduction zones in imperfect terms, they realised that if there had been an event that had exposed the temple, it was also possible that another route into the temple may exist – either a man-made back door or alternate entrance located on the far side of the ridge, or perhaps cracks and fissures that lead down from a cave through the mountain ridge itself.

Marius bought up his map of the area, and they plotted sensor information from the drones onto it, marking down caves that had been spotted. A short while later, the team watched as Tadibya made herself comfortable in a seat and her body went floppy, her astral form rising from her physical. Her consciousness darted through the mountain passes, circling the target valley and through into the next, examining the caves. She rapidly searched through them all, following up on caves and tunnels, faults and fissures – but could find no way down into the mountain from here. In fact, the most interesting thing she found was a tumbledown shepherd’s hut, with a collection of sheep bones in one corner.

Whilst they were waiting for her to return, the rest of the team busied themselves with maintenance tasks or practiced their skills – Shimazu in particular was spending a lot of time with his sword, performing complex drills and routines with it. Marius checked up on the laptop they had appropriated on the approach to Tashkent – the decryption routine was still running, but getting closer to completion.

There was a minor bit of excitement later in the evening, as a couple of shepherds drove their herd of goats down the hill at the end of the valley, straight towards the truck. A quick command to the spirit summoned by Tadibya though, and they walked straight past the concealed vehicle – their minds clouded and distracted by the spirit’s subtle manipulations.

In the next valley, Hunter continued to watch the miners as they continued their work. Cartloads of dirt and stone came out of the temple, and occasionally material went in to shore up the roof or reinforce a section.

The miners came out late in the afternoon and looked pretty tired – indeed there was not much chatter under the gazebo that night at all, and very little to observe.

The next morning, Shimazu approached the mountain ridge again and picked up the data dump from Hunter, returning it to the truck for analysis. Hunter had more snippets of conversation and observation on their activity – but it looked like they had settled down into a fairly standard routine now. The drones up high gave a look-down sensor capability over the valley, backed up by the concealed sentry guns. Mobile drones were kept at the camp, ready to respond to alarms. Somewhere, there was a sniper hidden out in the snowy scrub, watching over everything. All of this was hidden under a powerful magical illusion that made the valley appear empty. And finally, they had a light strike vehicle ready to deploy from the truck, and from the quiet competence of the group, enough nous to use it well.

Their night time routine appeared to be a weak point – no guard was ever spotted, and it looked like they relied on technological sensors for their defences entirely.

As the team at the truck discussed the intelligence, and organised their report, they once more heard the sounds of bells ringing in the still night air. Checking again, Tadibya got the truck concealed before the shepherds and their goats got close – but unlike before, they chose tonight to bed down in the valley – right in front of the truck.

Tadibya set her alarm early to deal with this, knowing that when her spirit disappeared at dawn, there would be a moment where they were not concealed. No matter where she was in the world, no matter what the weather, or how far underground or concealed from the sky – her spirits vanished at dawn and dusk. To cover for this, she just had to get up a few minutes earlier, and cast her invisibility spell on the truck first. When the spirit vanished, they would still not be visible. As long as she held the spell up, and the shepherds moved off before she had to do something else – she was ok. Once they were out of sight, she could drop the spell, and concentrate on summoning a new spirit, and once more get it to conceal the vehicle. Simple!

Once the herd was gone though, Marius and Kai made plans to move out. They drove quietly and carefully out of the valley, down the mountain road and back towards the mine and the dam. As they dropped down out of the mountains, they started to pick up a signal on their normal phones again. As soon as they hit a reasonable signal strength, they stopped and called their employer, and made their report.

Odymoyd seemed happy with their results, and not dismayed that they had not gained any information from the temple or what was happening inside, and indicated that they should continue. With that, they turned the truck around and headed back into their valley, meeting up with the rest of the team and informing them they were staying longer.

The next day, the other team once more entered the temple, spending most of the morning hard at work, with the drones bringing out loads of spoil, and occasionally taking in stones or rock to shore up sections. Mid-afternoon though, they emerged, looking pretty excited. Hunter trained the microphone on them, and listened in on their conversation, trying to piece together what had happened. It appeared that not only had they found a staircase down to a lower level in the temple, but they’d also found their first items of worth. They had recovered four large ingots from a room, bars of pure metal. There was a bar of silver, formed into a bar roughly ten centimetres to one side and five centimetres to the other, being a few centimetres thick, easily weighing a kilo – but it was also magically active, attuned to the local mana field and ready to work into a magical form. They also had two more cubes of metal, slightly larger and with a patina of verdigris. After cleaning and examination, they revealed that these were blocks of pure copper, again magically active and ready for working. Last of all, there was an amphora, finely worked and glazed, still sealed. This took longer to examine, with them running a battery of tests before they opened the seal and discovered just over seventy-four cubic centimeters of mercury, pure as the others, and likewise being magically prepared.

When the information got back to the truck via Shimazu, it caused a stir. The magically-aware members studied the notes, and then sat back, with confused looks on their faces. Those less well versed in the arcane arts looked at them, waiting for an explanation.

“Magic comes and goes in cycles, like a giant wave. We are in an upswing right now, where magic has returned, and is still getting stronger.” Tadibya said, leaning back against the wall of the truck, her eyes unfocussed as she recounted what she had been taught by her mentor. “When the wave passes, the magic falls away, and the world falls into a trough. There is no magic, just ignorance, there is no wonder, just despair. The creatures we know fade away, the spirits become distant memories, and the wondrous becomes tales of legend. We remember and we honour them, and wait for their return.” Her voice had become almost musical, recounting a story that was almost song, giving the impression of something handed down from master to student for generations. “If these things are a thousand years old, they come from the trough time. They come from a time where there was no magic. They should not be.”

The team studied the notes again, trying to glean more information from Hunter’s copious notes about the origins of the magical supplies, but they had nothing further after an hour of study.

Later that evening, Marius was disturbed be the sound of something with claws on the bonnet of his truck. He looked up through the windscreen, into the eyes of an enormous wolf-like creature. It was several metres long, with coal-black fur and almost luminous eyes a pale blue. And it was looking at him, the head fixed upon his position, as it slowly walked up the hood of the truck, the claws scraping along the paintwork. It was looking straight at him, the eyes peering into his soul. Marius stared into the pale blue eyes, his vision becoming blurry and out of focus. The two eyes merged together into one burning blue orb. A tiny part of his mind wondered how it could see him. How was it looking “through” the polarised window. But the rest of his mind seemed entranced with the beast staring at him. He gave a start when his right hand brushed against the cold metal of the door handle, and realised that almost unconsciously he was apparently trying to open the cab. The cold and texture seemed to shock him slightly, and focussed his thoughts for a moment. He felt like he wanted to open the door. He needed to open the door. He desired to…. No! No! He didn’t desire that at all! He didn’t want to bare his neck and let this creature tear out his delicious succulent flesh…

“ACHTUNG! AAAAAAALARM!”

People stirred in the back, grabbing guns and kit, rousing themselves from their positions. Staring at Shimazu, who was just in the process of opening the back door, a slightly dreamy look on his face. As the cries from Marius seemed to penetrate his thoughts, a look of horror came over his face, which turned to alarm as a large black paw landed in the gap in the opening doorway as something large reared up and prepared to enter the truck. With a mighty heave, he yanked on the handle, slamming the door shut on the paw, slicing off claws as the heavy armour swung ponderously back into the frame.

The one on the bonnet gave a chilling howl, the unearthly sound penetrating the vehicle and filling the team with unease. Tadibya extended her hand towards it, moving slightly in the rear of the truck until a solid bulkhead was between her and Marius, and then uttered the words of her spell, her hand flexing and fingers opening as she cast the ball of magical power at her target. With a sigh the large wolf creature collapsed onto the bonnet, unconscious. A tiny trickle of blood emerged from her left nostril, and she staggered to the side, the mental effort of channelling the power and overcoming the will of her foe leaving her drained and slightly stunned.

The other team members listened as they heard claws track back and forth on the roof, as a second creature padded back and forth up there. They looked around at each other, wondering who was going to do what. Certainly it seemed that no one wanted to be the first to go out there…

Tadibya moved to the hatch in the cab, and crouched on the seat, ready to fling the door open and pop out, and waved for someone to go to the rear of the truck. Shimazu and Kai waited by the back door, guns at the ready, and on the signal, opened the door again, drawing the creature to turn and face the rear of the truck, attracted by the metallic noise. Tadibya pushed the heavy cover open and saw the second dire wolf turning away from her and again drew magical power towards her, channelling it through her outstretched hand to the foe. Her earlier efforts had sapped her will it appeared, as it was harder to concentrate and though the creature was struck, it did not collapse into unconsciousness like the first, but staggered to the side of the truck, falling down the three metres to the ground. 

With a roar, the engine throbbed into life, and lurched into reverse, the large wheels throwing up globs of mud as Marius applied power. Both Shimazu and Tadibya screamed at him to stop, but it was too late – or he just ignored them. The heavy truck drove backwards over the stuporous creature, the huge off-road tires crushing the mid-section and trapping it under the truck as Marius reversed over him – and then forwards again. The creature was almost cut in half. The front of the body and the back legs were intact, but the waist section was a thin paste, crushed flat and torn and twisted by the roughly knobbled tyres.

Shimazu jumped out of the back door and cautiously approached the creatures, slitting their throats with his knife to be sure, but concentrating on making a clean cut that wouldn’t damage the pelts. Tadibya looked over to Kai, informing him that the bodies were likely to have significant value to someone who could use magical materials – they were a rare species of awakened wolf, and their fur, teeth, eyes, blood – all manner of parts – could be harvested for use by a skilled enchanter. Marius had jacked out of the vehicle by now and looked completely unrepentant over the damage caused to the second wolf.

After checking the area carefully, they hung the two wolves from a tree, using a large container to catch the blood draining from the bodies, as they worked out how they could preserve them until they could reach a facility that could process them properly. Fortunately the outside temperature was still hovering just below freezing, so once they were drained, they could bag them up and leave them outside and they should be fine.

The rest of the evening passed without event, the team keeping a watchful eye out for more creatures and strange occurrences. Just as they were eating breakfast the next morning, the pocket computer attached to the laptop made a tinny little fanfare, announcing that it had finished decrypting the storage volume. Marius and Aswon crouched over the display, looking to see what was on there. Unfortunately, whilst it was now decrypted into plain text, the text appeared to be in a language neither of them knew. Looking at the structure, Aswon guessed that it was one of the local languages – something from the ‘stans, by the look of things. But, whatever it was, they’d need a little help translating it, so it was something that could wait until later.

In the adjacent valley, Hunter watched the team descend into the temple once more after their communal breakfast and chat, noting down more information from their chatter. The day proceeded much as the others had – the drones carrying waste out from the mining efforts, and supplies in to shore things up. They broke for lunch, and chatted more – revealing odd facts and recounting tales that sometimes were illuminating, and sometimes just confusing, references to jobs without context or in-jokes with no punchline. Regardless, Hunter continued to note it all down, idly chewing on some moss peeled from the rocks of his hide. 

Mid-afternoon though – the camp suddenly burst into action. All of the enemy team that were in camp, except the still hidden sniper, ran from their tents into the gazebo, grabbing equipment and boxes, making a mess of carefully stacked supplies in their rush. A minute later, the mining team burst out through the entrance of the temple, half-carrying and half-dragging Blaster with them. Steam or smoke rose from him, and his cries of anguish were clearly heard. As carefully as possible they set him down, and started to cut away clothing and equipment. The gyromount harness and gun came off first, the quick release clips making this a simple task. As Hunter looked though, straining the limits of his zoom, he was sure he could see the barrel of the gun drooping slightly, as though it was soft and pliant. Next they cut away clothes, stopping to reglove several times, and throwing the clothing in a pile where it continued to emit smoke in a lazy writhing fashion. 

Rocket, Digger and Geo all crowded around the body of Blaster, doing things. From the angle and range it wasn’t possible for Hunter to make out exactly what they were up to, but they were obviously administering medical care. At some point they gave him a hefty dose of painkillers, his cries of pain fading away and the body going limp. Some minutes later, they had finished and stepped back, clearing the way for Spangles to approach. 

She smeared something onto his face and hands, and then stood over the body, hands moving in patterns up and down his form, as if she was folding something or throwing something small from hand to hand. Golden light started to form around him, becoming brighter and brighter, until it was painful to look at. This lasted for another minute, after which Blaster stirred. He was helped to his feet, where he looked wobbly, but unharmed, and was quickly ushered to one of the tents, presumably to get some fresh clothes.

Hunter finished making his notes, and then grabbed his small bags of waste, notes and other essential gear and slid out of the quasi-igloo, and crawled to the top of the ridge, heading back to the truck. He didn’t notice his foot catching the edge of a rock, which tumbled in the snow behind him, causing a minor snow slide. 

Down in the valley, Mamma Bear and Spotlight opened up another crate, and spent a few minutes bolting together another drone. Once they had assembled the Ares Sergeant II drone, and mounted weapons, it was attached to the metal track and then launched into the air, its vector thrust jets quickly vaulting it up to operating height. It headed down the valley, away from the temple, and disappeared from view…


	30. 030 - Rumbled

Date 30/12/2059, Location 40.98449, 70.3379

As Hunter headed back over the ridge, Aswon’s attention was drawn further down the valley as he spotted the drone rising above the layer of the illusion, like a shark fin rising above the water. The drone was sleek and angular, with a rectangular body that did not look in any way aerodynamic or streamlined. Four small thruster jets, one in each corner propelled it through the air using brute force, though it was not particularly noisy. A large machine gun of some kind was fixed into the weapon bay, the heavy muzzle break and perforated barrel thrusting from the midline of the drone.

Aswon quickly thought about the situation, and reasoned that if they were launching additional drones, they’d either seen something or thought they had seen something… in either case it made sense to show them something obvious. He grabbed his pack, slung it over his shoulders and then walked down the spur of the mountain towards the road to the north, acting like a mountain hiker out for a stroll. He waited until the drone was close enough to him to be so obvious anyone could have heard it, and then made a show of obviously spotting the drone, examining it for a few seconds, shrugging, and then resuming his progress northwards, leading it away from both the truck and Hunter’s position.

Marius and the rest of the team scrambled to get the truck packed and ready to move, jamming bikes, drones and bits of Dire Wolf packed in zip-lock bags into the back of the truck, scouring the site for evidence they had been there, and then rolling down the hill, trying to keep the noise to a minimum and the truck obscured by ridges, boulders and scrub from the drone. Tadibya relaxed and flew out of her body, heading up to look at Aswon and examine him for magical tails. She had a good look around, and headed back to her body, content that he was in the clear…. unfortunately she didn’t spot the ethereal form of a watcher spirit, bouncing along the ridge after Aswon in the form of a rabbit. Once she was back in the cab and had synced her astral and physical form she reported back that Aswon was ok, not being pursued and would be down to the road in a while, but would appear east of their position. Kai called for extra protection on the vehicle to help out, and Tadibya asked her spirit to conceal them. The spirit of the mountain muted the sound of their passing, and their trail faded away behind them, leaving no sign of them ever having been here.

They got onto the road at the end of the valley, turning west, and rolling down the hill slowly, putting distance between them and the other team, but trying to limit the speed and not get too far away from Aswon. Shimazu subtly adjusted the air conditioning, blowing cool air past him, trying to keep the smell of Hunter’s unwashed body away from him whilst Marius had his attention glued to the sensors, monitoring audio and visual spectrums and radar, looking for trouble.

The sound of a high revving engine alerted both Aswon and Marius, and a moment later the light strike buggy power slid around the ridge into view, before accelerating hard down the road. There were four occupants in the vehicle – Mamma Bear was driving, with Rocket in the front seat, holding his launcher across his chest. Blaster and Slapdash were in the rear, both stood up and braced against the structure. Marius alerted the rest of the occupants, and Tadibya quickly adjusted her vision, looking into astral space. The mountain was bright in astral, relatively clean and pure, and full of life sources. She could see the grey blob of the strike buggy, with the four life forms glowing brightly. Hovering over their heads though, was the astral form of Wee-Woo, accompanied by a swirling vortex of mist that writhed and pulsated at her side. She studied it for a moment, discerning the power of the sky spirit as she assensed its nature. She spoke as she studied, putting out a warning over the radio link that they had astral backup. She gave a cry of alarm as a watcher spirit suddenly appeared in the windscreen, having been over the truck somewhere. It manifested – the astral form solidifying and becoming visible to people on the mundane plane – and then started to shriek at the top of its voice.

“They’re here! They’re under me! Aim here! Well, not right at me! But under me! They’re HEEEEREEEE!!!!”

Kai glanced at Tadibya with a frown, and was answered with a shrug, before she explained.

“Magical concealment and invisibility works fine against those in the real world, normal people and cameras and things. But it makes you glow like the Northern Lights in the other world. No way to hide a spell there…”

The light strike vehicle slewed around Aswon, and then cut him off, sliding to a halt in front of him. Momma-Bear and Blaster faced down the hill towards the watcher spirit and the still-concealed truck, keeping their eyes open. Rocket and Slapdash faced Aswon, who had pulled up by the side of the road and was standing ready and alert, but trying to not to stand in an aggressive manner.

Rocket spoke first, looking Aswon up and down as he did so. He was calm, and not aggressive, but he spoke with a certain amount of self-confidence.

“Hoi Chummer. You wanna do this the easy way, or the hard way? I’d much rather do the easy way, if it’s null sheen with you, but I’ll go for whatever I need to.”

Kai on hearing this, called for the truck to stop, told Tadibya to drop the concealment and then climbed out of the truck as it rolled to a halt. He started to walk back up the rough track, heading towards the strike vehicle and Aswon, his hands swinging loosely by his side, obviously not carrying any weapons. As he walked up, he spoke quietly, calling for Aswon to head back to the truck, and for the team to keep an eye out, and look for others trying to outflank them – they had no idea where Spangles, Digger, Spotlight, Geo and Topshot were, with the latter being a particular worry.

“Boss is coming, probably better that you talk to him, to be honest,” said Aswon as he gestured towards Kai. Rocket nodded, and Aswon skirted the buggy, and headed down the slope to the truck, passing Kai a few yards away.

Kai approached the strike vehicle, looking at the chunky tyres, massive springs, open frame and equipment, then giving each of the occupants a quick glance and a once-over, before turning his attention to Rocket.

“Good afternoon. What can I do for you?” he asked in a relaxed English drawl.

“Well, you can tell me how long you and your team have been observing us, what you’ve learnt, and who you’re reporting it to. That’s the easy way. The hard way probably involves my mage ripping the memories out of your heard or dosing you with truth serum. Personally, I’d prefer to use the easy way, leaves less hard feelings. But it’s up to you, the clock’s ticking, and I’m not messing about.” Rocket spoke in a calm tone of voice, but his eyes stared at Kai, examining him carefully. He appeared to have absolute focus on him, and nothing else – trusting the rest of his team to keep him safe.

“Would you like a nice cup of tea? I’m sure we can get the kettle on and discuss this like civilised people.”

Back in the truck, Tadibya peered into the back at the little kitchenette in the corner, wedged in behind the scrambler bikes, bits of wolf, herbs, loose-packed kit and partially assembled drones.

“Kai – you do remember the back of the truck is full of stuff right? Do you want us to start unloading?”

“Ahh, just been told, no tea. Sorry, not off to a great start. Hardly surprising though, we’ve not long been here you see. We’ve only just started really, so we haven’t see very muc….”

“That’s your first and only warning,” Rocket interjected, watching the eyes and seeing some faint micro-expression that made him doubt Kai’s words, “I suggest you try that again.”

Kai stalled, repeating his innocence, his hands spread wide, trying to convey with his body language and stance his open and honest nature. Rocket just stared at him, and then depressed the transmit button his radio mike.

“Plan Alpha.”

With lightning fast speed, Blaster bought up a pistol sized weapon in his hand, aiming at Kai from the hip and firing. Instead of the sharp retort of a pistol though, there was a “zing” as the two prongs trailing the capacitance wire were fired across the distance by the compressor. Kai let one of his knees buckle, throwing himself frantically to the side in a wild lurch, watching the two darts slide past the side of his chest as if in slow motion. Blaster adjusted aim, following the movement of his body, and the next two rounds hit Kai’s chest with a solid thunk. A microsecond later Kai gave a spasmodic jump as thousands of volts arced across his chest from the two probes. Darkness pushed his vision into two tiny tunnels as he fought to remain conscious from the massive blast of power. 

Marius slammed the truck into reverse and twitched a mental muscle. With a roar, the truck leapt backwards, accelerating at a frightening and unsafe rate, heading straight towards the strike vehicle on a collision course. Shimazu and Hunter hung on as hard as they could and tried to retain their positions and keep a bead on Kai’s position, readying weapons. Aswon burst into a sprint up the side of the mountain, trying for high ground where his rifle and scope could come into play.

A moment later a shimmer in the air and then an image of an empty road snapped into place between the truck and the strike vehicle. Spangles was obviously concealed somewhere in sight of the road, and had re-modulated her spell, now using it as a vertical wall rather than a horizontal cover. The team squinted and strained, but they still couldn’t penetrate the spell– it just looked real, with no fuzziness or inconsistencies to clue them in to what was on the other side of the illusion.

Marius continued to roar up the hill, straining the engine and sending gravel and rocks flying down the valley at high speed as the massive engine thrashed and drove the wheels across the loose surface. The truck accelerated past forty miles per hour, transmission whining in protest at the demands made on it. Mentally Marius though about the position of the strike vehicle, thinking about the turning radius and where it would be if they had pulled forward and turned as tightly as they could, and then adjusted the truck slightly onto a new course.

A loud bang reverberated through the vehicle, and a shudder as one of the tyres exploded violently as the wheel hub disintegrated under the impact of a perfectly placed sniper round. The axle started to deform and tear itself apart, but Marius used the active suspension to raise the remains of the damaged wheel from the road and cut power to it, and then slewed the truck back onto course.

In the strike vehicle, Kai lay across the back seat, head shoved to the side with aftershocks still making his limbs tremble. After Blaster had shot him, Slapdash had reached out to him quickly, grabbing him firmly and pulling him onto the vehicle and then kneeling on his backside, holding him in place as the buggy shot backwards up the road. Mamma-bear rocked from side to side in her harness as her consciousness fused with the machine in the same way that Marius merged with the truck. They actually had exactly the same riggerware control system – a Rheinmetall Präzisionssteuerung 2b, giving them the same integration with their vehicles. But the two vehicles were very different. The power to weight ratio for the Ares strike vehicle was nearly six times higher than the truck, and the top speed was higher. The buggy leapt up the mountain road, accelerating and weaving hard and throwing up two large rooster tails of dirt and stone behind it.

They made it into the temple valley, wheels spinning as they whipped around the ridgeline. Through dim vision, Kai saw the camp and the truck ahead, and realised that if they got much closer, he was in real trouble. He gathered his breath, fighting against the twitches and then exhaled a command, putting everything into it he could.

“Mamma-Bear, STOP!” His words carried the unmistakable echo of command, but there was a strange and deep harmonic to it too. The sound was almost primal, a rolling resonance that seemed to claw at the driver’s consciousness. The acceleration stopped, and a look of confusion crossed her face. A tentative noise escaped her lips as she seemed to seek clarification…

A hand descended onto Kai’s forehead, slapping it firmly. The round disc adhered to his forehead and the drug infused glue leeched into his skin, finishing what the taser had started. This time the shock engulfed his vision, the light receding further and further, until all that was left was blackness.

In the truck, Marius realised that he had missed where he thought the other vehicle was, and snarled over the intercom, his voice taking on a guttural clipped tone as he concentrated on the speeding vehicle and trying desperately not to lose control on the rough road, driving with reversed controls. Aswon meanwhile had reached a vantage point and was now scanning the opposite ridge, looking for the concealed sniper. He was half-torn – if she fired again, he might spot the muzzle flash – but then it was almost certainly going to mess the truck up or take off the head of anyone stupid enough to be outside.

Tadibya threw herself out of her body, and vaulted into the air, looking down at the mountain side studded and speckled with life forms. She plummeted through the air with a thought, closing on the mountainside and scanned it carefully – ah! There… a patch of life with a strange slit underneath… like someone hiding under a blanket made of moss and lichen. She wasn’t certain, but it was more than likely that was the sniper. She looked up and saw Wee-Woo and the spirit closing on her, and her elation turned to fear as she accelerated back towards her meat body and her teammates – narrowly making it to the truck before she was engaged in combat.

Marius had turned on the radio, and was using it to try and triangulate to Kai’s earbud, using that to guide him through the illusion. He got the system tuned, just in time to detect the slowing arcing movement as they entered the valley, right in front of the machine gun nests. The truck brakes bit hard, and the vehicle slid to a halt, leaving long bare furrows on the road. There was no way the truck would stand up to continuous fire from a heavy calibre weapon – he’d just get the rest of the team killed.

Tadibya was about to speak and reveal the location of the sniper, when Marius relayed his tactical assessment to the team. Instead, she called on the mountain spirit again, and sent it forth, with a mental picture of it stopping the air intake on the buggy. It flew south east, over the mountain ridge, with Wee-Woo and her spirit in pursuit, but it had the initiative and knew where it was going – reaching the buggy, it extended its powers and made the engine splutter and die, before flooding the engine. It continued to arc around the valley at speed, evading capture from the pursuing mages. Aswon, realising the truck was getting further away and out of his engagement envelope, grabbed his rifle and started to run down the slope, his spell keeping his feet sure and safe on the loose surface. He was in full view of the enemy sniper, but everything he’d seen said that these people were not the type to kill for fun. He made it to the bottom safely and ran to the truck.

The team paused as Aswon covered the distance to them, and looked at each other, wondering what to do. They’d only known each other a few weeks, but there was still a feeling of dismay at losing one of “their” team. They had no idea what he was going through, or even if he was still alive.

There was a ripple in the air uphill, and suddenly twelve of the sand buggies appeared. In each, Mamma-Bear drove, and Rocket held on to Kai in the front seat – Slapdash and Blaster were absent. The buggies drove out from the valley a little, then stopped, and all twelve Rockets pulled out the unconscious body of Kai and laid it on the floor, before remounting. Carefully, they all backed up and started to drive up the way they had come, turning into the mountain pass and vanishing around the corner. Then the illusion snapped down again, revealing a single body, off to one side – probably about where the third “virtual” buggy had been.

Marius backed up carefully, watching the angle on the valley and trying not to get close to where the concealed machine guns would have a line to him. When they got to the last few yards, a few of the team jumped down to grab Kai’s body – and realised there was a cheap data-slate laid over his chest. 

They picked him up and got back in the truck, and Marius started to head back to town, this time at a more sedate pace, leaving the other team and their temple behind them. Hunter keyed on the data-slate and snorted, then turned the screen so that everyone else could read the single message displayed in a large bright font on the middle of the screen.

“Next time, choose the easy way.”

The team continued down the hill, and finally pulled off the road when they were in sight of both the mine and the dam, and got to work changing the wheel. It was difficult work, and took the best part of an hour with the damage to the axle – but at least that also gave Kai a chance to come around. Both the mine and the dam security drones headed over and kept them under surveillance (and probably each other too) – but that suited them just fine and gave them an illusion of safety.

With the truck roadworthy again, they continued to drop down the mountain road and back to the valley and Tashkent. As they drove, Aswon called his friend Spook from Hong Kong, describing to her the nature of the beasts they had encountered, and asked her if she had any contacts who could assist them. She advised that should would look into things and be back to them shortly.

Spook did call back, just as they were approaching Tashkent, and started to fill Aswon in on a talislegger she had knowledge of, when Aswon mentioned in passing that they had to make a report to Odeymoyd first, then they would go and follow up. Spook interrupted him, and confirmed the name, before letting out a sigh.

“Good job you mentioned the name. Next time, mention you’re working for the Mafia, before I send you to a Triad Talislegger. That would….not have been a good thing. I will make further enquiries, but it will take time.”

The team thought about heading to the university again, but the cramped conditions and the knowledge that they would be displacing two entire families made them reconsider. Instead they found a low quality motel on the edge of the Silk Road and booked in for the night. 

Once in the room, by almost unanimous decision, Hunter was sent to the bathroom with a change of clothes and told he wasn’t to come out until he was clean, even if it did use up all of their hot water…

They settled down for the night to give Kai a chance to fully recover before they called their contact and handed in the final intel gathered during the last day or so.


	31. 031 - Back in Tashkent

Date 31/12/2059, Location 41.29995, 69.17399

In the morning they breakfasted and discussed the plans for the day, working out what order to do everything in. First of all, Marius placed a call to his talislegger Georgi Kolarov, asking if he knew anyone local that might be interested in some dire wolf parts. They chatted for a few minutes, and Georgi promised to call him back shortly, once he’d checked with some people. Sure enough, he rang back quickly, advising Marius to go to the Borgein restaurant, on a road that ran parallel to the Silk Road. When he ordered, he was to make sure that the number 3092323 was visible on the table in some form, and he’d then be contacted.

The team saddled up and headed for the restaurant, not that far away from the motel. It was set on a largish plot, a squat flat-roof building that fronted onto a broad and straight road – by the looks of things what used to be the main road through this part of the city. With the coming of the Silk Road and its displacement of traffic a hundred yards away, it made for a great impromptu truck stop with plenty of parking and easy access. The team entered cautiously, but found the inside to be entirely as they expected – a low class restaurant with fading décor, cheap seats, but the smell of “honest” food, that would be favoured by truckers and manual workers.

A bored-looking waitress got them seated and showed them the menu – which was all written in the local script. She saw them struggling, and started to translate into rough and ready English, and Aswon followed carefully, studying the words and concentrating on what she was saying as he followed the printed word, increasing his understanding of the language as he did so. They ordered food, and when the waitress looked to Marius, he gave his order in English, and as he did so uncovered the data-slate, which displayed the number given to them in large clear text. The waitress paused for a moment, then nodded in understanding, took the rest of their orders and then headed to the kitchens. A minute later the chef appeared, wearing a set of stained and dirty whites, his huge belly peering out from under the tight top. He looked over at the team, and gave a somewhat obvious wink, then returned to the kitchens.

When the food arrived, the waitress handed them out across the table, muttering as she did so.

“And here is yours, and yours, and this is the special, and the side door in twenty minutes, and yours, and here is some complimentary wine for the table.” The team nodded and thanked her, tucking into the food. It was hot, and appeared fresh, lightly spiced and entirely unidentifiable. The 'wine' was nothing more than red paint stripper though, setting off multiple alarms in Hunter's chemical analyser when he sniffed it. It was rough, but it wasn’t adulterated – mostly they tried a sip, pulled a face and then pushed it to one side.

They ate rapidly, paid and then moved back to the truck, pulling to the side of the restaurant. As they approached, a set of double doors opened showing them a courtyard and the back door leading into the kitchens. The chef was there with two assistants, both of whom were smoking tight rollups. Marius and Tadibya took the lead, guiding them to the rear of the truck, and showing the trio the collection of chilled parts they had. The chef examined them closely, and after a nod from Marius, pulled one of the bags of body parts out of the fridge, turning it over in his hands and checking them out. He stared intently for a moment at the bag, then leaned out of the truck and glanced at the back wheel, then gave a snort of amusement.

“Hmm, not bad. Fresh enough to use, just. For these I give you five thousand, cash.”

Marius glanced at Tadibya from the corner of his eye, but she just shrugged a little. Prices were volatile, and rare goods also had rare customers. She took a deep breath, and then spoke, describing how expertly they had been prepared, killed with a single blow in hand to hand combat, and other than a little cosmetic damage, were in excellent condition. Surely they were worth more than five? They haggled a little, with Tadibya supplying expert details that seemed to influence him.

“Ok, six, I give you six for them now.” The deal was done, and the parts transferred over in exchange for credit onto their stick. With a handshake, they mounted up and headed north into the Vory controlled portion of the city.

Once their business was complete, they mounted up again, and placed a call to Odemoyd. He answered in a few rings, and sounded reasonably happy to hear from them. They arranged to meet in thirty minutes, in the same bar as last time. The roads were reasonably quiet as they headed through town – no drunk driver tried to kill them this morning, at least. On the way, they placed another call, this time to Kiril in the scrapyard. They advised him that they were back from their job, and just had to meet someone to get paid, and were wondering if they could bring in the truck to get started on the work? Kiril agreed, and told them to come over when they were ready.

They arrived in plenty of time, and parked the truck up in the street. Only one bouncer was present, the human male. Kai, Tadibya and Hunter got out of the truck, with Hunter heading in first to check the place out again. Once more, he insisted on checking out Tadibya’s stick, and again she made a show of leaning on someone to support herself when her walking stick was checked. Otherwise, entry to the club was uneventful. This morning though, only three people were inside – the barman, busy moving dirt around in the glasses behind the bar, Odemoyd at his table, and one of the middle-aged prostitutes, who was sitting behind him and idly stroking his arm whilst she talked with him.

When they entered, Odemoyd said something to her, and she finished the shot in her glass, and headed over to the bar. Odemoyd looked over to Kai and beckoned him over to the table, and bade them to sit. The prostitute came back, carrying a bunch of shot glasses and a half bottle of Vodka. They exchanged glances as he poured for them, but accepted the drinks with thanks, and had at least a sip with him, recognising the protocol for doing business here.

Kai slid over the data chips, describing that they had continued surveillance on the target, as discussed, for seven days. That was a complete record of all observed data on the other team, their equipment, events in the valley, interested third parties, and the random events that had taken place. Odemoyd had pulled out a small pocket computer and was randomly scrolling through the data, and seemed to be impressed with the quality, quantity and presentation, nodding appreciatively.

“This is good. Strong data. Very good. Ok, I pay now. Six watchers, seven days… hmmm… I pay you seventy-four.”

Kai froze, commanding his face to remain still and not show any emotion. Tadibya was less ready, and her expression was one of shock. She thought they were being paid about two thousand each for the week… this was closer to two thousand a day! Fortunately, Odemoyd was studying Kai intently, and not paying much attention to her.

Kai nodded in agreement, and passed over their credstick to Odemoyd, who transferred the credit over to them, gave a nod of thanks and finished his shot. Kai had another sip of vodka, barely a millilitre getting past his lips, but smacking his lips appreciatively as he put down the glass. They left the bar, keeping their eyes and ears open, and ready for trouble. Nothing stirred through, and nothing triggered an alarm, and their return to the truck was without incident.

They drove back round the outer ring road of the city, heading back towards the Silk Road and Kiril's place. Along the way they decided to head back to the motel they had stayed in the night before, and extend their rooms. If they stopped there, and Hunter and Tadibya transferred to the motorbikes, they could follow Kai and Marius as they drove to the yard – leaving Aswon and Shimazu to look after the room and their gear. They could get the truck sorted, and then give Marius and Kai a pillion ride back to the motel, until the truck was repaired. Simple.

The motel clerk seemed happy to have some people back again, charging them the same pittance as the previous night for the room, and then piling extras on top for things like hot water and electricity after 9pm… but it was still very little compared to a hotel in a more civilised place.

Kiril met them at the yard, and told them to just park up the truck by a large shed – the ramp was not clear of the last customer yet, but would be soon. He walked around with Marius to examine the fresh damage to the truck, whistling as he saw the state of the old wheel, and then tutting under his breath as he crouched under the truck and examined the axle and prop shaft. He frowned a little, and said that he would check things out, then pulled out his notebook, consulting some scrawled text there.

“Right, we fit Nitrous system, inline to main plant, plus expansion vessel and convertor kit. We add 30mm Krupp armour, on top of existing. Repair damage to axle and replace wheel. Fit rack to rear of truck for motorbikes.”

“How about fitting a drone rack as well, maybe somewhere on the roof, if you have one”, asked Marius. “Oh, and you mentioned that you had vehicles a little similar to this? Can you get a trailer to go with it?”

Kiril pulled out a pencil, and made some notes, conferring with Marius as to the size of the drones and the number to fit in the rack. He squinted a little, staring off into the distance at nothing particular as he ran through his mental inventory of gear, then nodded.

“Add to the bill, yes, just go ahead and install?”

Kai sighed a little, and nodded, then winked at Kiril, out of sight of Marius.

“Ok, will start this afternoon. Take three days. No, wait…. Four days, of course.”

Marius, Kai, Tadibya and Hunter exchanged a glance, and looked confused. 

“Well, no one work tomorrow, of course. No one would want them to work tomorrow either… no good for doing good work.” Kiril looked at them, seeing their confusion grow. “Tonight is drinking party, see in new year. Tomorrow is promising never to drink again. Not for working.”

A quick check of their phone confirmed the date – yes, it was New Year's Eve.

“You not celebrating? No party to go to?” asked Kiril. On seeing the shake of their head, he thought for a moment. “For customers paying cash, I like. You come to party tonight. There is cooked food, and much drink.”

They exchanged glances, and nodded… it wasn’t like they had any better plans really. Kai then asked Kiril if he had any cheap cars to rent, explaining that they didn’t want them to do any “work” in, it was just for commuting around town whilst the truck was repaired and upgraded. They were shown a battered Traban, similar to many of the vehicles found in town, and told it was two hundred and fifty for a week, or the cost to replace if it was damaged for some reason. They agreed and took the keys, then headed back to the motel with the car, to wait until later on.

Once back at the motel, Tads said she wanted to go out into the countryside to do some rituals, and look for materials. It was agreed that Shimazu would go with her to keep an eye out, and provide protection – not because she was weak, but as a general matter of principle – anyone going out alone was not a good idea, particularly if they were going to go and concentrate on something intently.

As they headed off, the remaining four chatted about the data they had found on the laptop. A translation program was found on the matrix and downloaded, then transferred to the laptop which was being kept isolated from any external network – just in case. They read through the pages as they were translated, realising they had real pay-data here. Along with that came real risk though – if they tried to fence this to the wrong person, they could end up being hunted down by some very angry people. There was hundreds of pages of data, in a variety of formats, and it quickly became clear that it was a ledger of some kind, showing the proceeds from drug deals, protection rackets, smuggling runs, prostitution… an entire crime network for a city.

Just as they were about to head out, Tadibya looked over and said “We can probably work out what crime network it was, right? I mean, we have the ID for the courier. If we find his address, we can see what sector of the city he lived in, and whose control it comes under.”

Marius started to tap away on the computer as Tadibya and Shimazu left the motel room, and started his search. Soon enough they had located the street address, which placed the courier in the south east part of town – an area controlled by the Kabul Maffiya. The question still remained though – who to try and sell the data to? They’d had dealings with Odemoyd, and that could mark them as being Vory in the eyes of many in Tashkent, it seemed. They could sell to him, but that would put them further in his corner, and mean that the Triads and Maffiya would definitely not want to do business with them. If they handed it over to the Maffiya, they would want to know what happened to their courier – and may not see why they should pay for the data at all. The Triads would no doubt be interested too, and could use the data to expand their influence – but if they team were known to have done this, it would poison their relationship with Odemoyd and might prevent further work from him. They could hand over to the authorities – if they could find any that were not bribed or in the pocket of a crime syndicate, that was. Or they could cast their net further afield. Whatever they chose, they were going to have to tread carefully, as they were going to make some powerful enemies one way or another.

Marius mentioned that he had a contact with someone who worked for Mossad… might they be far enough removed from their present situation to keep them relatively safe, but also powerful enough to make use of the information – and as important, had pockets deep enough to make it worthwhile – or at least worth the risk.

They agreed it was worth a try, and Marius pulled out his sat-phone, ensuring the encryption was operational. He placed the call, and was connected after a few rings. His contact was an officer in the hygiene standards department of the Turkish government, which allowed him to take all manner of strange phone calls and make visits to a variety of restaurants and cafes.

Marius started by talking about Kabul, and was advised that he had dialled the wrong number, indeed, the wrong country, and that they couldn’t help him. He persisted for a few minutes, then realised that his contact either didn’t recognise his voice – or didn’t believe it was him and was refusing to be drawn in.

“Let me try this again. I’m calling about Kabul Kebabs. I had an awful meal. I think some of it was “Sauer Kraut”. I paid a lot for the meal, thinking it was worth it.”

There was silence from the other end of the line for a moment, then the voice asked if it could call him back in a moment. Marius passed over his number, and then hung up. Less than two minutes later, the phone rang, and his contact spoke tentatively.

“Marius?”

The background noise had changed significantly – it sounded like he was now in a café or a public place somewhere. Marius confirmed that no, he wasn’t dead, just in hiding form his former employer, and yes, he’d prefer to keep it like that. Michael agreed, and then asked about the information that Marius had.

Marius sketched in the detail, providing some context and background to the information, and agreeing to send over a one page extract of the file for confirmation of quality and content. He waited whilst Michael read it through, and confirmed that yes – they had lots more of the same. His contact said that he would take a few hours, but he would do his best to get this handled straight away – but it was going to be tough, on the run up to New Year’s Eve, as so many people were just not working…

Marius assured Michael that he understood, and thanked him for trying, confirming that they wanted a hundred thousand for the information in its entirety. After clearing the line, he briefed the others, and they waited for the others to return, just chilling in the motel room for a few hours.

Tadibya and Shimazu rode out of the city on the main highway, turning onto a small trail a few miles out. The bumpy trail was ill-maintained, but easy going for the scrambler, and it didn’t take more than fifteen minutes to get to a natural outcropping of rock, overgrown with vegetation. Shimazu cleared a path through to the summit, and watched as Tadibya sat cross-legged, facing the setting sun and closed her eyes. Her breathing slowed and her body stilled as she meditated, seeking a state of peaceful stillness with her body and mind calm and at rest. Behind her Shimazu stood watch, facing out into the wilderness. Every few seconds, he practiced drawing his sword, the blade striking out like a flash, before it was returned to a guard position, then neatly re-sheathed. They stayed for a few hours, then mounted their bikes and returned to the motel, meeting up with the other four and getting ready to go to the party to see in the New Year.


	32. 032 - New Years eve

Date 31/12/2059, Location 41.2936, 69.2118

Aswon grabbed a shower, and then surveyed his clothing. His base layers were ok, having been hand washed in the shower when he could get one and left to dry, but his top layers were…. well worn. He got dressed and headed in towards the centre of Tashkent, looking for somewhere open where he could purchase some new armoured clothes that didn’t look quite so stained and battered. His journey was without success, though – it appeared that western culture had reached deep into Asia on this occasion, and nearly every shop and building was closed early for the New Year celebrations. Aswon returned to the motel and sprayed the armour jacket liberally with deodorant and scrubbed some of the stains with a cloth to try and smarten them up. Whilst he was working, he chatted with Hunter about weapons, expressing his desire for a telescoping spear. Hunter, waiting for people to be ready, started a search on the matrix for such items – quickly finding that the vast majority of telescoping weapons were “novelty” items and were not really that good. Hidden amongst the dross though were a few manufacturers that did specialise in such items, using high-tech methods and advanced materials. He identified one dealer in England that seemed to specialise in such weapons – they were highly restrictive in who they dealt with it seemed, but offered a wide variety of concealable and multi-purpose weapons. 

Eventually everyone was ready, and they headed to Kiril’s yard, Tadibya and Hunter on the bikes and everyone else crammed into the jalopy that Kiril had rented to them. The roads were pretty quiet, many of the people having left work at lunchtime it seemed, and they arrived at the yard quite quickly. The double gates were swung open, and the team could see a large mob of people in front of the office, milling around. There were at least thirty people there, nearly all of them male. A few dwarves and orcs were present, but they couldn’t see any elves or trolls. All of the people there had that “manual worker” look about them, even the scattering of females through the crowd. 

A crane on one side and a digger on the other side of the hut were positioned at an angle, their work lights aimed down in front of the hut, bathing the area in a bright light. Two large stacks of speakers on either side blared out some fairly hard Russian death-metal at sound levels bordering on painful, and nearly everyone had a plastic beaker in hand with some kind of beverage. A makeshift table was next to the office with the sound system and a large selection of bottles, mostly unlabelled, from which people were helping themselves. A bunch of cars were parked to one side, and it was apparent that most people intended to drive home later – something that made Marius wonder about their drive home, as he remembered his near miss in the north of Tashkent. 

Kiril waved them to a parking spot when they arrived and then welcomed them to the party, ensuring that they all had a drink and offering a toast to something – the words mostly drowned out by the blaring sounds. The team relaxed, sampling various drinks and stripping the lining from their throats with a variety of moonshines and third-rate spirits. The team dispersed and started to chat or mingle with the crowd, finding out who was who. 

Hunter soon found himself confronted by a large slab of a guy who seemed interested in the bike that he'd turned up on. His English skills were almost non-existent though, so communication was stilted – and it took Hunter a few minutes to realise that he was being challenged to a special race around the front section of the junkyard. It appeared that the objective was to race down to a turn, spin a quick donut, take a gulp from a hip flask, then move onto to the next object – first back over the finish line was the winner. Reading the mood of the crowd, Hunter agreed, and went to wheel his bike over. It was roughly similar to the opponent’s bike – a decent-looking scrambler. He handled the bike well, but was also heavier than Hunter, so it was likely to be a close run thing. 

They soon found themselves surrounded by a small group of others, and inevitably someone pulled out a pad and started taking bets on the winner. Hunter and the opponent set off, roaring down the first leg. The other guy was marginally faster, and spun his donut first, then had a large gulp from his flask, dropped the clutch and roared off. Hunter sent a mental command and engaged his nephritic screen, and the filters strained to remove the toxins and impurities from the spirit he consumed – which was by definition, most of it... 

The race continued, with Hunter slowly gaining ground on each leg, as the other rider started to suffer more and more from the alcohol consumed. On the very last leg, Hunter was closing hard on his position, when the opponent hit a rock sticking out of the dirt at just the wrong angle. He lost the back end, over-corrected, and slewed the bike around hard, tilting too far and being catapulted off to slide into the bank of cars with a loud "oof". The bike he was riding flipped around, directly into the path of Hunter, who T-boned it at close to forty kilometres per hour, sending him shooting over the handlebars. He flexed in mid-air, spinning his body round and calculating the angles as he flew through the air. If he got it right, he’d be able to slide to a halt and look cool as frak. It was going to take all his control and a little bit of luck, but he knew he could do this. His body arced through the air and he braced for impact – which never came. 

Tadibya had been watching them since they entered the back straight, and saw the carnage unfold. She stretched out her hand, muttered and concentrated. A bead of sweat popped out of her temple from the intense mental effort, but the mana was shaped by her will and invisible hands grasped at Hunter, suspending his plunge to the floor and bringing him down gently, at a pace that let him slowly walk into a landing. She released Hunter from her grasp, and then saw that everyone had taken a step back away from her. With a wince, she prepared to turn and run, expecting a negative reaction and cries of "Witchcraft". What she wasn't prepared for was a rush of drunken volunteers shouting at her demanding to be next to "fly like hero, yes?" 

Kai headed over to the fallen biker with his first aid kit and examined him, discovering his broken ribs and bruised collarbone. A firm tone of voice and gentle pushes kept him from rising, whilst Kai applied some strapping and support bandages and then gave him a hefty dose of muscle relaxant and pain killers, before carefully helping him up from the floor to go and examine the bikes. Both were bent and broken, a mass of broken forks and ripped control wires, bent rims and ripped tyres. It seemed it wasn't just the truck that would need to be in for repair. 

By the time he'd done checking and looked up, Tadibya had a selection of people floating around the front of the yard – not going that fast relatively speaking. None the less, they were whooping and screaming as she gave them gentle barrel rolls, loops, banked turns and flew them across the ground with scant centimetres of clearance. The crowd seemed entranced with her magical abilities, and kept trying to ply her with drinks to thank her for her "ride", but Tadibya had to refuse them – without Hunter’s advantage, she'd have been smashed in short order, and would probably have flown someone into a car at high speed. The bruised biker, Erik, headed over to Hunter and agreed that perhaps the race was a draw, this time – to which Hunter agreed.

Marius had been over at the other side of the office, standing behind a speaker where the volume was not quite so deafening. He'd been introduced to a few of Kiril’s guests, and was chatting away with them sociably, trying to find out what they did and what they liked. Jamshid was a tool merchant in the town, selling various bits of hardware to a variety of trades and businesses. He was a medium-built guy, with long brown hair pulled back into a pony tail and a face pock-marked with acne scars. He stood next to a very slender black-haired young man, with short cropped spiky hair and dark skin who introduced himself as Naufal, a parts distributor for the area. He had an office here, but spent much of the time travelling around the country dealing with his various businesses. Last in the group was a fiery red-headed guy with piercing blue eyes and a broad barrel-chest. Obviously not a local, Marius pegged him as a Russian immigrant in moments from his accent. Vlad ran one of the local metal recycling factories, and bought much of his stock from guys like Kiril. 

All three were useful people to know, so Marius spent some time talking to them and ensuring their cups were never empty, entertaining them with some humorous flying anecdotes and stories of some of the people they had met on their journey. 

Shimazu spent his time standing on the edge of the crowd, smiling and nodding at people, but not really getting involved. He sipped at his drink carefully, making it last and trying hard to limit his consumption. With no language skills here, and with the others off doing their various activities, he felt slightly out of place and uncomfortable. 

Aswon had consumed a "social drink", but was also trying to limit his consumption. For some reason he felt a faint unease, and kept wandering the perimeter. He found the youngest of Kiril’s employees, a youth named Walid, standing on the gate on "guard duty", though he mostly seemed to be keeping an eye out for latecomers to the party. With his limited linguistic understanding, he engaged him in conversation in-between bouts of wandering. He grabbed one of the cheap shotguns they had taken in Iran, and showed the lad how to use it, reasoning that if he was on guard, he might as well have something better than a spanner to use as a weapon. 

Just before midnight, as the party was winding up towards the celebrations and fireworks, Aswon heard a couple of revving engines just outside and the vague unease solidified into outright paranoia. He broke into a jog, and then a run, heading to the gates with hands on his weapons as he rushed to check out the noise.

A moment later the gates exploded inwards as three large cars burst through them, one slightly ahead of the others with a makeshift dozer blade welded to the front. Aswon tackled Walid and threw him out of the way, rolling to clear the path of the southernmost vehicle, then running for the side of the workshop to seek cover. Over the other side of the yard, Hunter’s reactions had driven him to a sprint as soon as the gates were hit, and he was more than halfway towards the car and his assault rifle. Shimazu was a few paces behind him, also heading for the cover of the cars. Tadibya was with the group of people still investigating her magical powers, close to the edge of the scrap yard. Kai and Marius were near Kiril, chatting – at least until the gates flew open. Kai started to move towards the workshop, but Marius drew his heavy pistol from inside his jacket and moved northwards a little, trying to get a clear shot.

As the cars crossed the space in front of the office, heading towards the crowd, Tadibya dispatched her spirit of the city to intercede. As it reached out with its powers, the three cars nudged into each other, amidst a screeching of metal. The northernmost car peeled off to the side, the driver overcompensating and spinning the wheel too hard, heading towards a stack of cars six high on the northern side of the yard. The back wheels locked up as he jammed the brakes on hard. The centre vehicle slewed around, and started to slide diagonally towards the office, slipping across the loose dust on the yard as the spirit influenced fate to cause an accident. The southernmost car had been nudged on the back quarter, and also slid diagonally, but facing north not south, lighting up the centre car with its headlights.

As midnight struck and fireworks and explosions started to ring throughout the city, shotguns were thrust out of the darkened interiors of the cars and joined the celebrations. Gouts of flame from the propellant illuminated the front of the barrels for moments, and shrieks of agony masked the screech of fireworks as the twelve gauge rounds packed full of razor sharp flechettes scythed across the yard and into the party goers. Several went down, hard, a pool of blood rapidly spreading underneath them as the metal needles sliced through flesh like a hot knife through butter.

Boom! A shot from Shimazu’s hand cannon smashed the back window of the centre car, but it wasn’t possible to see clearly inside the vehicle and determine if he had hit anyone. He struggled to cock the massive revolver and bring the cylinder round to a firing position again. Aswon pushed Walid around the back of the building, and then leapt up the side of the workshop, letting his tattooed spell secure him to the wall and climbing rapidly. Moments later a splatter of fragments peppered his side as a lucky shot from the rear window of the southern car caught him on the side – but his armour jacket easily deflected the shot. Marius tracked on the muzzle flash of the centre vehicle that had shot at the crowd and raised his pistol in a two-handed grip, aimed carefully just to the side and then gently squeezed the trigger. He couldn’t see – but the ten milimetre round punched through the mouth of the assailant and blew out the back of his head. More shotgun blasts erupted from the cars as they continued to slide across the loose surface, hitting several of the team but bouncing off their armour. The tiny flechettes were lethal against bare skin, but even moderate armour stopped them in their tracks.

Aswon made it to the roof and ran down the back of the sloped roof, then spotted the colour change between two panels and worked his way to the front, trying to get into position to look down on the attackers. Marius took another careful shot – this time taking out the front tyre of the leading vehicle, causing the car to drop onto the rim, dig in and accelerating the turn it was in. Hunter popped up from behind the Traban, and aimed at the northern vehicle, stitching a long burst of well-aimed fire into the doors and hopefully the occupants too. Shimazu fired at the centre car, but saw his round ricocheted wildly off the armoured windscreen as the round impacted at a shallow angle.

Tadibya raised her arms in front of her, concentrating and drawing in mana from the air around her. The normal nastiness of the junk yard had been temporarily neutered by the party and the happiness of the people there, and pure mana flowed into her, making the spell easier to cast than it would normally have been. She muttered under her breath as the spell let rip.

“Etogo dostatochno!”

The stunball went off, centred on the vehicle to her front. All of the visible guns dropped out of sight as the owners were blasted unconscious from the force of the spell. About a dozen of the party goers who were in her line of sight and the blast area also dropped like rag dolls as the spell overwhelmed their mental defences and shut down their higher functions.

Shimazu and Hunter, also in front of her, leaning over their car and blasting away, also collapsed to the floor in a messy heap, as the spell ripped their defences apart, too.

“Vot der’mo!” The sound escaped from her lips as she examined the scene before her.

Kiril pushed past Marius meanwhile, heading towards the large digger that was currently illuminating the front of the office, climbing rapidly into the cab and starting the engine up. Marius swapped to the southernmost vehicle and another carefully aimed shot took out the tyre, causing this car to slew around further, then crash into the centre car. Aswon threw himself flat onto the edge of the workshop, quickly shouldered his rifle and aimed down through the windscreen at the driver’s position – firing a shot that punched straight through the windshield and hopefully the body beyond. The driver of the centre vehicle tried to throw their car in reverse, but struggling with the flat tyre and the impact of the southern car, didn’t make much headway. Walid appeared around the corner of the warehouse and waved the shotgun at the vehicle as he clutched at the trigger. More by luck than anything else, he blew out another window, showing the frantic driver and passenger trying to escape from the situation.

Spotting his moment of opportunity, Kai jumped out of the shadows. Raising his hands to either side of his mouth, he modulated his voice, shouting at the driver in English and hoping they understood.

“STOP! GET OUT!”

Twitching as their subconscious followed the command bellowed at them, they were halfway out of the vehicles before their conscious minds told them it was potentially a very dumb thing to do – but by that time they could see unwavering gun barrels focussed on them from Marius and Aswon. Fortunately they couldn’t see the sprawled forms of Hunter and Shimazu behind the car…

With a mighty roar from the diesel engine, the digger shot forwards and slammed into the car, the bucket shearing off a chunk of the roof and pinning the wrecked vehicle in place as Kiril hit the lever and the powerful hydraulics smashed the reinforced steel teeth down into the frame of the car.

All of the attackers were dead, or under the unwavering guns of the team members. As the sounds of gunfire faded away, the sobbing and wailing of the injured could be clearly heard over the distant thunder of fireworks. Kai and Tadibya ran over, and started to triage. The two people closest to the assault had taken terrible damage, and were rapidly bleeding out from the massive lacerations taken from the sliver shots. Kai did his best, slapping on bandages and squeezing a bag of blood expanders into one person and stopping the blood loss – he was still in critical condition but wasn’t going to fade out. By the time he’d got to the second person though, he was out of expanders and the bandages he slapped on barely covered half the wounds. He frantically rooted through the kit, looking for supplies, but was relieved when Tads crouched down and placed her hands over the body. Moments later a strong golden glow suffused her hands, and the blood loss stopped, and the wounds started to close. Colour returned to the skin, and the pulse steadied along with the other vital signs according to the monitoring program in the med-kit. Tadibya moved onto the other casualties, working her way through methodically and repairing the damage done.

Kiril had climbed down from his digger and had kicked the driver of the central vehicle to the floor, and now stood over him, legs on either side of his body, holding the man’s hair in one hand whilst he held a gun to his cheek with the other, shouting at him and demanding information. The man retorted that the Red Lantern Triad was done with diplomacy, and that Kiril and his enterprise must bow to the inevitable.

Kiril squeezed the trigger and obliterated his face, dumping the body on the floor. He turned to the next captive and was raising his gun, when Aswon slithered down the front of the workshop, calling for him to stop. He advised Kiril to think for a moment – did he want war with the Triad, or just to be left alone. Better to send the attackers back in humiliation, rather than kill them all. Surely that would send a clearer message to the Triad who controlled the North-East portion of the city?

Kiril grunted, his anger cooling as he saw some sense in this, and a quick glance to his rear showed that nobody from his party had died. He lowered the hammer on his gun, and spat out agreement, before calling forward a number of his workers and telling them to get everyone out of the vehicles and stripped naked.

The men busied themselves carrying out his orders, collecting guns and stashing them safely to one side, and using cable ties to secure the prisoners once they were stripped naked. The prisoners curled up into balls, trying to hide themselves and protect their vitals. Aswon thought about the journey back to the Triad sector, based on the map that Kiril had shown them – the centre of Tashkent would be sealed up tight, leaving either the west or east circular routes – going through either the Vory zone or the Kabul Maffiyya zone. Either way, they wouldn’t survive. He suggested a compromise to Kiril…

Over the next ten minutes, the seven remaining prisoners were hauled over to the vehicle pit and thrown down into it – none too gently. A few of Kiril’s workers took the time to urinate on them whilst they were in place, further humiliating them. Then the heavy wooden planks were dropped over the pit, sealing them in place and the digger was driven over the top – trapping them into a damp, cold and uncomfortable prison for the night. In the morning, they could take their chances with the west or east route, or go through the middle of town where they were sure to attract attention. Either way, it would be a humiliating and punishing loss of face for the Triad.

Hunter and Shimazu were starting to come around by now, groggily rising to their feet. Hunter in particular seemed more than a little displeased by his state, and shot Tadibya a few dirty looks.

Kiril had checked everyone over and approached Kai, smothering him in a bear hug and a kiss on each cheek. 

“I must thank you, my friend. Things would have gone very badly if you and your friends were not here. I must pay you… I offer you choice – goods or services?”

Kai considered for a moment, then said that they would be happy to accept goods in exchange for their help, but making it clear that he didn’t feel they were owed anything, they were just helping out their friend – making sure to downplay their help and give Kiril a socially acceptable ‘out’.

The party resumed, but in a much more restrained fashion, until about 03:00, when people started to leave and head home, their cars weaving all over the road from their drunken efforts. The team decided to stay, crashing out in the Traban and their truck. They arose late the next morning, as did most of the others, and spent the day helping to tidy up and secure the yard. They made themselves scarce when the prisoners were released from the pit and pushed out of the gate and sent on their way, deciding that they didn’t need to be seen clearly by what was probably going to be their mortal enemies. Aswon spent time with Walid, showing him how to shoot safely, and trained him to stop looking down the barrel of the shotgun to see why it wasn’t firing. During the afternoon, Kiril towed out a trailer from somewhere deep in the yard. It looked very similar in construction to their truck. Marius and Kai examined it – a Ural 57-10 trailer, it was indeed part of the same family of vehicles, and designed to mate up with their tow hitch and electrics. It was armoured to the same state as their truck had originally been, and provided a good chunk of extra space and cargo capacity for them to use. The only downside would be the slight degradation in the handling of their truck – the extra weight and the reduced off-road capability in some circumstances such as cresting a hill, where they now had to consider if they would “beach” on sharp changes in angles.

The rest of the day passed without notable events – they certainly kept their eyes open for the Red Lanterns, but there was no sign of them. On the morning of the 2nd of January, Marius received a call from his contact at Mossad. They wanted the data, and they agreed to pay the hundred thousand asking price. The data was set to transfer, and on completion and verification from their end, the money was transferred over into Aswon’s bank account that he had set up in Azerbaijan. Within minutes, his phone started to bleep as he received spam mail offering him various upgraded accounts, insurance, special features, reduced price holidays and the like. As soon as Marius was certain the data was over there, the computer and both optical chips they had burnt went into a large bath of acid, never to be seen again.

Aswon sent a message to his contact in Hong Kong, asking her to start assembling the information required to set up a new fake ID – but this time for a company. She was to set up a medical charity, with the directors being Aswon, Kai and Tadibya, that they could use as a shell company to channel funds through. 

Kiril and his workers laboured on the truck, attaching the thick armour appliques onto the truck and upgrading the armour in the doors and applying thicker sheets of armour-glass to the cab. Another pair of engineers worked to install the nitrous oxide system and tank, and all the compressor stages and convertors needed to make it work with a diesel engine.

By mid-day on the 3rd of January, the truck was repaired and fully upgraded. The trailer was hitched, and had been supplemented by internal personal armour – thin layers of Kevlar weave screwed to the walls. It was nearly time to get on the road again.


	33. 033 - Heading back to the tribe

Date 03/01/2060, Location 39.67442, 62.56576

On the morning of the third, the team arose early and split up into two groups, leaving their cheap fleapit of a motel after a brief breakfast.

Tads and Shimazu took the bikes, and headed south, out of town and to the farmland out on the plain. Finding a side trail from the main road, they rode out for a while, until they were surrounded by farmland. Hundreds of workers would tend the fields for most of the year, but the hard and barren winter soil needed no work yet, and the area was deserted. Tads settled down on her haunches, and let her hands spread in front of her, examining them minutely. Her eyes dilated slightly as she perceived astrally and examined her aura closely, watching the subtle flickers of astral energy from her sense of self curiosity and examination. 

Shimazu stood to the side, quietly, eyes unfocussed as he stood still and let his mind wander. The fields, mountains and sky all blurred into shapeless colours as he relaxed; his breathing slowed along with his heart rate. Then, with a sudden spring of motion, his arm crossed his body and his hand unerringly found the grip of his sword. He grasped it firmly, drew and his arm straightened driving the tip of the sword through the air like the tip of a whip. The motion stopped as abruptly, the sword extended from his body in a straight line, angled slightly upwards and held at shoulder height. If an opponent had been in front of him, the wound would have run from right hip up to the left shoulder. Carefully, he moved nothing but his head, checking his foot position, the rotation of his arm, the position of his grip on the sword. The arm bent and sheathed the weapon, he returned to a casual stance, and let his eyes defocus and his breathing slow again….

Tads ignored the sound of the drawing steel, minute grunt of approval and swish as it was sheathed over and over again. Her senses were concentrating on the field, reaching down into the living manasphere of the earth, her mind questing underground and searching for life. Worms, ants, grubs… she felt them moving under the surface, going about their business. She examined them, studying the interplay of energy present in their living forms. Her mind brushed over the roots of some hardy perennial plant, and she compared the aura of the plant to the animals. For hours, she ignored the demands of her body for movement and relaxation, instead forcing her mind to focus on the flow of mana through the world.

She felt the arrival of the two workmen from their auras, feeling the a mix of curiosity and alarm as they moved from the tedious task of checking the fences for damage from winter storms to wondering what the two strangers were doing. The wash of sudden terror they felt as the sword appeared to materialise in Shimazu’s hand as he turned to face them. A vague sense of his raised eyebrow and silent question of “do you want to go about your business?” She ignored the mundane though, trusting Shimazu to deal with their inquiry and any issues with their presence.

Aswon, Marius, Kai and Hunter piled into the Traban, and drove across town a little, heading for the auto-dealers. They spent the next few hours working through the list of supplies required by the tribe, slowly amassing a small trove of cam shafts, timing belts, spark plugs and a myriad of other things required to keep a clan on the move in the wild lands. At times communications were hard when they found dealers with no English skills, but between Hunter and Aswon they solved most of those, and where they couldn’t they found that Marius could show technical specifications and slowly work through to what they wanted. Kai moved in for the negotiations over price, and between them they managed to secure everything on the list – taking the small stuff with them and arranging for the big stuff to be dropped off at the yard.

On the way back from the last dealership, Aswon asked them to take a slightly different route, directing them past Almoni Ko’Chasi Mosque and down a side street, until they pulled up outside a large and shabby looking warehouse. Outside, hanging from the roof overhang were some battered and aged mannequins dressed in outdoor clothes. Skeptically, the team pulled up and followed Aswon in, discovering inside a large warehouse of outdoor and survival clothing, accessories and utility equipment. 

They spent a while shopping, picking up some more armoured jumpsuits and secure clothing, waterproofs and other items that would be useful such as a set of fishing rods, reels, tackle boxes and suchlike. As they browsed, they were under the watchful eye of two staff members, who after a curt welcome, didn’t speak to them again. 

With a small pile of stuff to purchase, Aswon approached one of the staff. After a quick look around, he asked tentatively if he could get any ammunition here. The man examined him for a moment, looked at the others, then nodded – and guided him down to the back of the warehouse and through a semi-concealed door into the next unit over. Here the walls held a variety of pistols, rifles and a few other weapon types. The others followed him in, and soon they were examining the hardware, comparing it to what they knew.

Kai spotted a hunting bow, made of advanced composites with multiple pulleys and an integral laser sight, and headed over to that, and was soon pointing at boxes of shafts and set of interchangeable screw in hunting tips whilst the unsmiling staff member assembled a new pile. Hunter was pointing at pistols and using a combination of gestures, Uzbeki and English had acquired a large calibre European model called a “Grafsvarta”, which was added to the pile. Several boxes of hollow point and explosive ammo were requested, and the staff raised an eyebrow.

“Going hunting. Very dangerous wildlife”, said Kai. “Um… wild…. Badgers. Yeah, very large, very dangerous.”

The man stared back at him, unblinking, then after a moment said “Albatta”.

Aswon leant in and whispered into Kai’s ear “he said ‘sure’. I’m not convinced, but he doesn’t seem to care.” Kai shrugged and shared a look with Aswon, and the team started adding gear to the pile.

Hunter looked thoughtful for a moment, then also came over, and tried to explain what he wanted. Between pictures shown on phones and some discussion back and forth they determined that yes, what he was asking for was indeed a rail mounted grenade launcher to fit to his assault rifle.

“Badger?” said the clerk, moving his hands quite wide apart. Hunter and Kai nodded in agreement whilst Aswon stood shaking his head in amazement. The clerk however went into a back room and then came out with a large plastic box, with the familiar Ares logo on each face. Opening it up, he pulled the foam and packing materials out of the way and then hefted the Ares Antioch grenade launcher, showing it to Hunter – who nodded emphatically. It was repackaged and added to the pile.

The two men added up the combined totals, and showed Kai the total who just nodded and waved for Hunter to pay the man. Hunter checked the amount, just over twenty thousand, pulled out the credstick and then keyed in a generous tip – a very generous tip as it happened. The clerk saw the amount paid, and called over his co-worker and they engaged in a rapid discussion – far too rapid and full of slang for Aswon to follow. A moment later, the clerk reached over and gently grasped Hunter by the forearm, waving him forward and into the room behind the counter. He pulled aside a curtain, and there lying on the floor was a large plastic crate in a dull green. Heavy duty clasps were flicked open and the top lifted up, revealing a set of four, disposable light warhead launchers. 

“Badger” said the man, quite emphatically. Hunter smiled, and then rubbed finger and thumb together, saw the price, and then nodded. They grabbed their purchases, and with a great deal of effort managed to cram them all into the car and headed back to Kirils.

When they got back to the yard, they met up with Tads and Shimazu, who had not long returned from their day in the countryside Tads had an idea which she shared with the rest of the group… why not take the tribe a present? They could purchase a cow, from a slaughterhouse here in Tashkent and take it back to them, and present it to the whole tribe. Initially they were unsure – but after discussion came to the conclusion that this was not a bad plan, and set out to find and purchase a dressed carcass. They figured that it was only a few hours south on the highway, and given the lack of heating in the new trailer and the ambient temperature – and that it would be consumed almost immediately – the lack of refrigeration shouldn’t be an issue either.

With all of the car parts, supplies, new guns, ammunition and fresh sets of armour and armoured clothing, and with nearly 700kg of carcass swinging in the rear trailer, the team were finally ready and bade farewell to Kiril, and to Tashkent. They pulled out and headed south, taking the main route towards Samarkand.

As they left the city, they became aware of a large truck on the road, travelling at speed and closing quickly. Aware of the recent activity with the Triad, amongst other things, the team prepared weapons and started to pay close attention to the pursuing vehicle. Tads summoned a spirit of the plains, but her attention was not focussed on the summoning as much as it should have, and it seemed to be quite draining – she certainly spent the next few minutes rubbing at her temples anyway. They watched as the truck got closer and closer, settling in behind them. After a brief discussion, Marius looked around carefully, and spotted a sharp turning off the highway onto a dirt track leading to fields, waited until the last moment and then violently swung the truck to the side, barrelling down the turning at a dangerous speed. His skills, and cyberware, were more than up to the task though, and even with the weight of the trailer, he pulled the manoeuvre off with ease. They saw the other truck brake, but then continue, and as it passed they saw the ID tags and vehicle livery – it looked French? Confused, they pulled over and watched it disappear up the road and out of sight. Marius activated one of his new drones, and sent the Dalmation heading up the road in pursuit at high altitude, to keep an eye on the truck and see if it stopped to lay in an ambush.

Kai asked Tads to do a quick magical check around the area, which she promptly did, and reported back a few moments later that it appeared clear, with no sign of astral over-watch or spirits present.

After ten minutes Marius got the truck turned around, and then headed down the road. Using the telemetry from the observing drone, he could tell that the French truck was now doing about 65kph – so he slowed to the same speed, to keep a reasonable distance between them.

Tads checked the speed of their vehicle and decided to take a chance, and projected her form out of the truck, surveying the area with her astral senses. As she did so, she almost immediately spotted a spirit watching the truck, pursuing them from high above. She could feel the alarm radiating from it, and it turned to “run”, fleeing at speed back towards Tashkent. It was a watcher spirit, a short formed gathering of Mana that would last no more than half a day – so it had been summoned by someone in the last few hours, that was for sure. She flew in front of the truck and then with a lurch of effort rejoined her body as it drove through her astral form, and quickly advised the others of what she had seen, and asked if they wanted her to follow it. When they agreed, she threw herself out of her body again, and up into the growing darkness. Looking around though, she saw nothing – the vital few seconds taken to talk with the rest of the team had given the spirit enough time to break clear at the phenomenal speeds possible in astral space. She returned to her body again and informed the team that she was unable to pursue.

Now even more paranoid, the team followed the French truck, still under surveillance, watching as it stuck to a steady 65kph all the way past Jizzakh, and the site of the previous ambush, and then on to Samarkand, five hours later. 

The paranoia slowly drained away as they continued to travel along the road, following the French truck that didn’t do anything suspicious. After a while, Kai used the satellite phone to contact the Tribe, advising them that they were heading their way, and that they would arrive in a few hours – and that they had planned to be earlier, but were behind a single vehicle that was travelling suspiciously slowly. A poke from Aswon and a point to the rear trailer, and he also remember the carcass in the back, and advised the tribe to make sure they had the fire pit laid out, as they were bringing them something nice.

They drove around the edge of the city, then pushed on into the dark countryside and continued along the main road, Marius keeping a careful eye on the fuel reserves on the drone. Past Kattakurgan, Naoi and then turning south west to Bukhara and Turkmenabat, they retraced their steps. Finally after ten hours of driving, they got close to the nature reserve where they had been ambushed previously, and arrived just in time to see the tribe swarming over the French lorry, its driver already in captivity and engineers working to repair the electrical systems from their zapper strip attack.

As they drove along the highway, they saw the tribal vehicles lurch around and redeploy, as they raised weapons and made ready to attack – and the sat-phone rang. Confirming that they were the vehicle, they saw the ambushers relax, and go back to securing the French truck, making it ready to travel overland into the desert.

It was about 05:00 by the time they reached the camp, which had relocated to the north of their previous location. As they drove over a sand dune and spied the vehicles and tents concealed in a natural depression, Tads suddenly looked up and exclaimed “oh no!”

The others looked at her, wondering what had suddenly occurred.

“We told them we were coming, and that we were behind a single truck… we told them speed and timings, and let them know when to ambush him.”

The others nodded. Yes, of course. They knew that – what was the point?

“But we also told them to get the fire pit going… but Kai didn’t mention the cow at all, now I come to think about it. They don’t know we’ve bought them meat! We told them to get the fire lit, and set them up to ambush the vehicle. Remember they were going to kill us all, when they’d captured us? What if they think we’re going to eat him?”

The mood in the truck turned sombre, as they worked through the chain of logic, and wondered what they were going to do about this one…


	34. 034 - Back in the wastelands

Date 04/01/2060, Location 39.67442, 62.56576

The team pulled up in the camp, looking around the depression at the vehicles arranged in a loose circle. It appeared that this was a temporary stop – no tents were out and pitched, and everyone looked to be crammed into the vehicles. At a guess, this was just an overnight stop before they moved on elsewhere. There was however a large fire pit laid out, with lots of kindling and desiccated vegetation piled up ready…

Kai and Aswon went to find the chief, and were directed to his truck by one of the returning ambushers. Knocking on the door, they waited a few seconds before the window was wound down, and a naked-looking chief appeared out of the darkness. Before he had chance to speak, Aswon told them that they had returned with the parts, as arranged, but had also bought them a gift – an entire cow, with enough meat to hopefully feed the entire tribe a good meal! Oh, and by the way, they would like to interrogate the prisoner and if possible determine what to do with him. Oh, and hey, good to see you again.

The chief blinked as the rapid fire delivery washed over him, and then asked, “No eating the prisoner?” When Aswon and Kai both shook their heads he shrugged a little, and then waved to them in the general direction of the arriving French lorry, escorted by the repair vehicle and the outriders. “Sure, do what you want with him then.” A female arm appeared from the side of the window, and fingers played across his chest, and the chief turned to the side and smiled. Without turning, he shouted at a couple of the guards to come help with the meat, and then moved away from the doorway. The window smoothly rode up and Kai and Aswon walked away before they heard something they didn’t want to think about.

A couple of the guards came over, and then rustled up some extra bodies, and came to the trailer, manhandling the huge carcass towards the fire pit. As word of their arrival spread, more people were roused from their sleep, and soon a horde of children were gathering around the fire pit examining the slab of meat with awe.

The team ignored the activity behind them though – their mind was on the prisoner and just what they were going to do with him. Much of it of course depended on why he had been following them and what their intent was. However, several of them were aware that if there was an innocent reason, then morally they were responsible for his capture and the loss of his truck…

The problem of course was that a perfectly innocent activity like drafting also looked just like setting up for an attack or surveillance – and that given their recent activities with what they suspected was a major Triad presence in Tashkent, they hadn’t wanted to take any chances. Marius thought back to the journey, his photographic memory recalling the details clearly as if he was right there – reliving the moment as he saw the truck in his sensors, felt the pings from his traffic approach LIDAR bouncing off the other vehicle… but he couldn’t see what he hadn’t sensed at the time, and the results were… ambiguous, at best.

They found the prisoner bound in the back of one of the flatbed trucks, cable ties clamping his hands together tightly, the flesh a deep mottled purple as the blood pooled in them. His feet were also restrained, but there the tops of his boots and jeans had stopped the plastic from cutting into the blood flow. The team found a strip of material and approached the man, placing the makeshift blindfold over his eyes and tying it behind his head. They felt him flinch as they did so, expecting violence or some other indignity to be visited upon him.

Several of the team pointed to the colour of his hands and winced, and made a cutting motion – recognising that if was not cut free sometime soon, it was likely that he would suffer some serious permanent damage. In gruff tones, he was told not to try any funny business, and that he was to behave – or face the consequences. A combat knife sawed at the sturdy plastic wraps for a moment, and then they sprang free, causing a wince of pain, but then a sigh of relief from the man. He massaged his wrists together for a minute, then slowly sat himself up, moving slowly and carefully and obviously being aware that he was still in a precarious situation.

“Le cigarette?” he asked hopefully… the team were firm in denying him this, and his shoulders slumped slightly.

They talked with him – discovering his name was Pierre – figures – but that he was an independent haulier, working solo across multiple countries, delivering cargo, fast and cheap. As they examined him, they could see the tell-tale interface of a vehicle control rig in the nape of his neck, the interface cruder-looking and older than the one Marius had, but still an order of magnitude better than driving with a datajack or manual controls. He’d been in the game for many years – in fact he’d not long finished paying off his rig, and before tonight had been looking forward to increasing his profit margins, now he wasn’t paying off a high-interest loan anymore. Tadibya, Aswon and Kai shared a glance, obviously feeling some remorse over the situation, but Marius, Hunter and Shimazu seemed unmoved.

Marius went to examine the truck, discovering it was a decent-enough Renault long-haul diesel, with a comfortable cab and some nice modern conveniences. Well maintained and put together, it should bring the tribe some good Nuyen if they could fence it on. The trailer was interesting – on very close examination, it could be seen to be a fuel transporter. Its nature had been disguised by additional plating and plastic extruded panels, turning the tell-tale shape of the oval cylinder into a more regular box shape. Marius came back to the group and asked Pierre about this.

Pierre seemed surprised by the question, and then suspicious – before explaining the value of “black gold” out here, to anyone who trekked the desert. The team considered – it was easy to see why it had the name, and getting rid of it on the second-hand or black market was massively easier than most other goods – no, it made sense to hide the nature of the cargo. They questioned a little more, finding out that he was carrying his cargo of fuel on a contract from Esso, taking up the slack their regular fleet couldn’t handle. As the team questioned him, Kai and Aswon detected a subtle shift in his body language. Pierre seemed to grow a little distant and disconnected – answering the questions but with a slight delay and absentmindedness. 

They signalled to Tadibya, and pointed at him, and then their eyes. She nodded, and then extended her senses, looking at him from the astral, and sensing his life force and interaction with the magical world. As she scanned over him, she saw his essence was weak and faint, suppressed by the massive amount of cyberware he had implanted, rather than any systemic weakness. She shuddered as she traced the fine black trails of high technology that invaded his spine and wrapped their way around the column of nerves leading towards his spine. His head however was a nearly solid black mass of technology, with just the odd glimmer of luminous white showing between the tendrils of deadness. There was something odd about his aura though, but it wasn’t anything she’d encountered before. She didn’t sense any hostility from him, or a palpable sense of evil – he was just… detached. Given how dead he felt, that didn’t seem too surprising to Tadibya. As she returned to the mundane plane she gave a little shake of disgust, but then shrugged her shoulders at the others.

They left Hunter and Shimazu keeping an eye on him, and wandered away. Aswon and Kai tried to see the chief, but he was still “busy” – and they decided they definitely didn’t need to interrupt. Tadibya got a fresh container and created another kilo of peanuts and then added some salt, and went in search of Rakur, the apprentice shaman. He greeted her warmly when he saw the gift, exchanging it for the nearly empty container from the last visit.

A short while later the chieftain approached them, looking quite chipper. Before the team had the opportunity to speak, though, he asked them if they could help him out with a little job. He explained that two groups of people were meeting, and he really would rather they didn’t get to come to some arrangement. If only there was someone who was… formidable… with a rifle, who could cast doubts onto the wiseness of their conversation. In exchange a number of magical compounds made and gathered by the tribe would be made available.

Seeing the abrupt change in Aswon’s body language at effectively being asked to become an assassin, Kai expressed his immediate regrets that they wouldn’t be able to take this job, due to a prior commitment to another employer. He quickly explained that they would love to help the tribe out, but they couldn’t – because it would mean going back on their word to someone else, and they couldn’t do that – just like they couldn’t let the chief down when they had promised to get him the car parts. 

His speech seemed to be accepted with good grace, and the issue wasn’t pushed. They started to negotiate over the prisoner, with the Chief clarifying that they really didn’t want him eaten, smiling at Kai’s emphatic response. In the end a price was offered for the prisoner… one cow. The tribe of course, got to keep the truck and the cargo. 

They headed back, and collected Pierre, transferring him into their truck. He was stashed into one of the bunks after ensuring his blindfold was still secure, and with hurried goodbyes, they set off across the desert back to the road, turning south towards the town of Mary. On the way, they called Kiril, but had to leave a message with one of the workers as he was out at a sales meeting somewhere. The journey to Mary was uneventful – Pierre was quiet in the back, seeming resigned to his fate – perhaps sensing that he was being carefully observed by strangers with guns. Marius kicked in the speakers, and started to talk to him about truck maintenance and his rig, finding out just how much he knew, and how much was talk. Just as they were passing through Mary and heading towards Ashgabat, Kiril called back, and Kai grabbed the phone and moved into the cab, closing the door behind him.

After pleasantries were exchanged, Kai put an offer to Kiril. He gave a little detail, but not the whole story, explaining how they’d found a guy who seemed handy with his toolkit, but had lost his rig and was now looking for work – might Kiril have use for an extra set of hands who knew how to handle a welding torch? Kiril asked some questions, and Marius vouched for his technical knowledge, and after a few minutes it was agreed – they would pack him onto the train at Ashgabat and send him to Tashkent, and Kiril would try him for a week, and take it from there.

When Pierre was informed of the deal, he seemed unimpressed and gave another shrug, apparently ambivalent to the chance to restart his life and begin to earn some cash somewhere. A bit pissed off by his attitude, they ignored his request for a smoke and kept him squished into the bunk. They rolled on towards Ashgabat, meeting very little traffic this early in the morning. 

Just as they were hitting the outer suburbs of the city, still choked with sand and debris, Aswon got a call from Sing Wan. She and her associates had set up a new charitable organisation, listing Aswon, Kai and “Olga Dimitry” as directors. They’d started to build some details into the fake identity of Olga for Tadibya to use, but it was still a little shaky so far. However, it would at least allow them to start to funnel some funds through the charity, which in turn would help generate some credit history and make things hang together. Aswon fired over the ten grand Sing requested for her work so far with thanks, and started to study the details of the organisation.

They dropped Pierre off at the station, Kai walking into the ticket office and getting a ticket for him using their certified credstick, and then coming back to collect him from the truck. He was walked around a corner before the blindfold was removed, and then told to head for the station, and not look back, and then the ticket and a pack of Camels were thrust into his hand. Pierre headed to the train, obeying the instructions, and was watched until he was on-board, and safely out of their hair.

With no unexpected passengers, no cargo left and all systems repaired, they hit a filling station and splashed a couple of thousand on topping off the fuel tanks and getting some fresh water and food, and transited through the city centre, looking at the corporate buildings in the centre with cynical and predatory eyes. Exiting to the west, they pulled up at the motel they had used before on their first visit, as the sun slowly sank towards the horizon. The same youth was on the desk, and clearly remembered them – or their generous tip – and fell over himself to get them rooms and arrange for food, drink and whatever else they wanted. The offer of girls, boys, drink and drugs were considered and then politely turned down, and after Tadibya had entered each of their rooms and stunned the bedbugs into submission for a day, they settled in for the night, planning an early start for tomorrow as they headed back to Kum Dag to follow up on the offer of work there.


	35. 035 - Interview in Kum Dag

Date 05/01/2060, Location 39.28462, 54.89387

In the morning, the team awoke, and called for breakfast. The motel clerk delivered the same locally baked soda bread they had the last time, along with some soy-meat flavoured to taste like… well, they weren’t sure what it tasted like, but it had a meaty texture. They got their gear together, and headed out to the truck, spotting the cleaned windows and wipe-marks over the sensor bays.

After paying the pittance for their rooms, and tipping the clerk fifty Nuyen, they left him and his beaming smile behind, and headed west on the road towards Kum Dag. Kai pulled out the phone as they drove, and made a call to the number given to him by the Maersk security troops.

Johanna answered after two rings, and Kai greeted her in English.

“Good morning. The name’s Kai… I believe we spoke with some of your employees a little while back, about a job offer. Just calling to let you know that we are back on the road, and could be with you later on today, if you wish?”

“I see. And if I was to ask for a code word?”

“Katana.”

“Then in that case, it would be great to meet you. Tell me, do you have decent GPS system on your vehicle?”

“Yes, of course, and a good navigator and driver, too.”

“Even better. In that case, please enter these co-ordinates. Three nine decimal two eight four, by five four decimal eight nine three. I’ll be there at about sixteen hundred, and we can talk more face to face if that’s acceptable?

“I look forward to meeting you. Until then.”

Hunter checked the co-ordinates and found them to be in a rocky escarpment or hill range to the east of Kum Dag, about thirty kilometres away from the town. There were no roads in the area visible on the maps, but given the off road capabilities they had, and Marius’ abilities as a driver, that wasn’t too concerning.

They’d travelled about two hundred and fifty of the three hundred and fifty kilometres back to Kum Dag, passing through the small village of Serdar and were barrelling along the road at a decent pace when it happened. Aswon and Shimazu were sitting up front, on either side of Marius, and they each spied a glimpse of movement out in the desert to the north and south of the highway, but after several hours of watching monotonous sandscapes, their reactions were dulled.

On either side of the road, ambushers threw back the covers of their pits, and raised weapons as they saw the truck approach, the only thing moving for twenty kilometres either way. Three shallow scrapes on either side of the road, about half a meter deep and a meter long were revealed as the men concealed within them rose to their knees, raising assault rifles and RPGs. Aswon and Shimazu barely had time to shout “incoming!” before they opened fire.

The rocket propelled grenades flew straight and true, impacting on the side of the cab, one from the left and two from the right. Massive blasts shook the truck, and a roiling mass of flames and black cloud mixed with paint chips and dirt exploded out from the sides of the vehicle. Three streams of bullets rattled into the cab doors, shedding their kinetic energy as the bullets struck home in long lines of death. Against a more lightly-armoured vehicle, it would likely have devastated the cab and killed or incapacitated the crew, while splitting open the cargo area and exposing the cargo area to attack – yet leaving the unpowered trailer intact and ripe for looting.

The truck, however, emerged from the roiling cloud, accelerating hard as Marius pumped the virtual throttle. Paint stripped and scarred, and the windows covered in soot, the impact marks could be clearly seen. The additional armour plating had held, the thick rolled steel homogenised armour shedding the destructive blast with only minor surface pitting. None of the blast wave made it through the fifty millimetres of plating, and no spalling occurred, the doors held firm and nobody inside was injured. A quick check of the vehicle sensors showed no damage at all, despite the hits being on target.

“Haben sie gerade meinen Truck geschossen?” burst from the speakers, and the front of the truck dipped hard as the brakes were applied. They didn’t know what Marius had said, but predictably the German sounded pissed, and a quick thought crossed the mind of everyone in the vehicle of their heavily armoured truck driving over the scrapes, wheels turning the bandits to mush underneath them. The truck slowed quickly, but then Marius released the front left wheel brake, and turned hard to the right. Momentum swung the truck and trailer round in a modified J turn, the trailer swinging in an arc behind them, as Marius performed the risky manoeuvre to shield the more lightly armoured section behind them. Wheels shrieked and skidded across the tarmac, sliding on the fine desert dust but still leaving hundreds of miles worth of rubber streaked across the black-top.

Inside, the team were swinging into action. Kai called, and Tadibya nodded, the syllables of the Invisibility spell already forming on her lips. With a flourish, the truck disappeared from sight – leaving a bizarre lone trailer skidding sideways through the clear desert air… Tadibya didn’t realise for a moment that the power of her spell wasn’t quite enough to fully conceal both parts, and only saw the problem when the swinging trailer could be seen wobbling back and forth in the mirrors.

Shimazu and Aswon had their guns into the firing ports and blasted away at the attackers, Shimazu clipping one with an AK, and Aswon getting a decent hit on an RPG going for a reload. Hunter had his assault rifle lined up, and fired a burst at another, stitching three rounds into him and watching him drop into the pit.

The remaining ambushers either reloaded their RPGs, or took aim with their AKs, and fired long streams of bullets at the truck, leading the giveaway trailer to approximate its position. One over-compensated and missed cleanly, and the other was rewarded with a shower of sparks for his troubles, as rounds spanged off the thick armour.

Aswon saw that Kai had reached into the box of smoke grenades and popped the top hatch for him, the wild motion of the sliding truck having taken all of the attackers out of his line of fire. His height gave him plenty of leverage, and he was able to quickly flip open the top hatch of the cab to enable Kai to concentrate on what he was doing. Marius gave a snarl as he detected the side doors on the left opening through his rigger interface, and flicked a glance via the sensors, spotting Hunter and Shimazu throwing themselves from the truck to the ground and coming up in a roll, ready to engage the enemy to the front.

Calculations danced through his cyberware implants as he evaluated drift speed, angles, friction coefficients and momentum in the blink of an eye. The brakes suddenly released on the truck and Marius engaged reverse, the wheels spinning suddenly trying to get some purchase. If he didn’t, the arc of the trucks skid would carry several tons of truck straight into Hunter and Shimazu, potentially killing them instantly.

Tuning out the sounds of Germanic cursing from the speakers, Tadibya spoke another invisibility spell, her head pinned to the window so she could see her target. With concentrated effort, the trailer disappeared from the eyes of the attackers, too. Kai pulled the pin and his arm snapped forward, aiming to throw the smoke grenade out of the hatch and onto the road, just in front of the truck to further hide their location. Just as he was mid-way through the snap, the truck lurched into reverse, throwing him slightly off balance. The grenade arced forward, striking the lip of the hatch, and for a moment rolled around the rim, the momentum perfectly redirected laterally. Time seemed to slow for a moment, and Kai watched the grenade, seeing it start to wobble. Then it fell, down, into the truck, bouncing off the seat recently vacated by Shimazu. Aswon reached for it, fingers questing to try and bat it back up and out, but the truck’s motion had thrown him off balance, too. Instead his grasping fingertips just managed to redirect it downwards into the foot well.

With a crack, the smoke grenade exploded. Within a heartbeat, the truck was filled with thick, white, acrid smoke. It boiled up out of the foot well, filling the cab almost instantly, Aswon instinctively exhaled as he clawed backwards and for doors and windows, trying not to inhale any of the burning white smog. Marius was not so lucky – his conscious mind was meshed with the vehicle via his control rig, only his autonomous functions controlling his body. Unable to control himself quickly enough, his meat body breathed in a big lungful of the polluted air, and then began to spasm and cough as his lungs were filled with the hot smoke particles. He wasn’t alone though, and the sounds of Tadibya coughing as acrid smoke was forced into her lungs echoed through the cab – then oddly faded away. Aswon was torn, unable to see either Marius or Tadibya, and knowing that both needed assistance – but equally aware that he wouldn’t be able to help either of them if he was a casualty himself.

Outside the truck, the attacking enemies saw the plume of smoke erupt in mid-air, and assumed that someone had hit the truck badly enough to stop it. Instead they turned their attention to the two figures that had thrown themselves out of the cover of the invisibility spell, and were kneeling in the scrub at the side of the road. Two RPGs lanced through the air towards them, one at each. Both Hunter and Shimazu threw themselves into action, diving through the air and tucking into a ball, wrapping an arm over their head to protect exposed flesh. Barely a second later, the grenades exploded, the blast picking them both up and pushing them through the air. Their armour soaked the explosive blast wave and they rode the front, flipping through the air. Hunter managed a slightly better landing, rolling and running to shed velocity and managed to regain his feet. Shimazu struggled with the conflicting blast waves from his position, and only managed to come to a knee. But, both of them had their weapons in hand, and targets to service. Bullets cracked downrange, striking the ambushers who had just fired at them.

Tadibya lost concentration on her spells as she bolted from the smoke-filled vehicle, and it popped back into reality, smoke belching from the doors and hatch. She hit the ground hard, but didn’t seem to notice, and ran blindly into the desert – some terror gripping her, unseen by anyone in the team.

Aswon jumped out the other side, and ran to clear the area, spotting the last gunman on his side of the road. He fired from the hip, missing, but forcing the bandit to snap his shot, the return fire stitching the ground behind him. He continued to run away from the truck, tracking across the attacker’s vision and making him turn to keep him engaged.

On the other side of the road, Shimazu and Hunter moved forward quickly, attacking the remaining enemies in the pits. Hunter fired a burst into one enemy, his burst of three rounds ripping out the throat of the unarmoured target, snapping his head back at an impossible angle. Shimazu dodged and weaved as he ran forwards, his attacker’s first burst missing to the left, but his second burst just caught him as he jinked. The bullets impacted onto Shimazu’s chest, but his armour held and the rounds bruised and battered him but didn’t stop him. With a grunt, he jumped through the air, landing almost on top of the enemy in the pit. His hand cannon made contact with his opponent’s skull, and he pulled the trigger, with predictable results.

Hunter spied a bit of fabric moving, and took careful aim – and waited. He was rewarded a few seconds later as the last RPG wielding enemy arose after reloading, and drilled him with a burst, all three rounds striking his chest and killing him instantly.

Marius threw on the brakes and skidded to a halt as his concentration wavered, then jacked out and resumed conscious control of his body, doubling over in pain and discomfort as his meat flesh complained. His hands clawed at the released on his safety harness, and he crawled towards the door, following the air currents through the vehicle to try and reach fresh air. The enemy shot, but missed again, this time forward of him, thrown off by the sudden halt.

Aswon peered through the scope, waited a split second to gently stroke the trigger in-between rapid heartbeats and then watched as the bullet impacted the man’s right hand, destroying it and the trigger of the AK before spinning off into the desert. The shriek of pain did not abate as the man slumped back into the pit, out of sight.

Shimazu climbed out of his blood-stained scrape and ran across the road, keeping low and weaving from side to side, closing on the man he had seen Aswon shoot – the last surviving bandit that he could see. As he reached him, he veered off suddenly, diving to the side. The man lay in the bottom of the scrape, soaked in blood, and clutching a grenade to his chest with his good hand. A box of open grenades lay to his side, next to the ruined and mangled stump of his right arm. Shimazu scuttled away to report in to Kai, who approached cautiously, calling out to the man.

Aswon meanwhile looked around, and after checking on Marius discovered that there was no sign of Tadibya. He started to check around the area, expanding his search until he found her just over the first dune, curled up in a ball and shaking like a leaf. Carefully he approached her, calling out to her, trying to establish if she was hurt. She didn’t seem to respond at first, but as he closed the distance, he could hear her muttering under her breath, “Fire, fire, fire,” over and over again. He called again, but she didn’t respond, and as he closed he could see her entire body trembling in terror.

Tadibya was generally the most good-natured of the team, and also the one least likely to want to cause harm to others in Aswon’s opinion. He respected her as a shaman, but also as a person – but he hesitated for a moment. Clearly she was suffering from some great trauma, but his mind flashed back to the day of their escape from the Chechens, with her illusion that had moved the bridge across the gorge, sending a car full of people plummeting to their death. She often made the choice not to kill, but that wasn’t because she couldn’t – and when she was of a mind to, she had great potential for violent and destructive action – possibly more so than anyone else on the team. Who knew what spell she might still have in her arsenal that she hadn’t revealed to them yet?

Cautiously he crept forwards towards her, moving slowly and pitched his voice low.

“Tads, it’s Aswon. I’m coming. Be calm. I’m here.” He laid a reassuring hand on her, and started to speak to her, slowly and calmly, telling her that there was just smoke, no fire. Over and over he repeated the statement, his hand gently rubbing her shoulder, maintaining a human contact with her and reassuring her that she wasn’t alone. Gradually, she responded, and after a short time, her head came out from under her arms and looked around.

“No fire?”

“No, no fire. Just smoke. Lots and lots of smoke, but no fire. Come on, I think you’ll be needed.” Aswon helped her up, and then led her back to the truck, his arm held around her as much for mental support as physical.

Marius had all the doors and windows open, and the air conditioning running full blast to try and clear the smoke out of the truck. His face looked like he was sucking on a lemon, and they steered clear of him at the moment, heading back to where Kai and Shimazu had the last guy covered in the pit. Hunter was off to the side, pulling out weapons and equipment and assembling a pile.

Kai had been negotiating with the wounded man, and had persuaded the bandit that he wanted to live, it seemed, and had gotten him to throw the grenade into the desert where it had exploded harmlessly. A bandage was over the stump of his arm, but the blood was still flowing freely. Tadibya moved in and soon the golden glow of a healing spell stemmed the blood loss, making the bandit quake in fear as the sorceress used her magic upon him.

Kai took the bandit’s phone from him, along with the handful of other personal items.

“We’re going to leave you alive, and take these – but we’re going to stop about a mile down the road and put these on a rock. You can have them back if you want them, then you might want to take up a less exciting profession – maybe goat herding. But banditry is not such a good idea. Is it.” The words came out slowly and clearly, less a question and more a statement. The bandit nodded miserably, clutching the stump of his arm to his chest.

They assembled by the truck, and examined the haul that Hunter had assembled. There were three AK-97 assault rifles, one with a broken trigger and sixteen magazines for the guns. Three of the generic-looking rocket propelled grenade launcher tubes, with rudimentary ladder sights along with fifteen RPG-XI warheads. A bunch of knives, water skins, and some spicy jerky in muslin wraps, but an absence of cred-sticks or money. They smashed up the broken AK until no part of it was usable, and flung a water skin to the survivor, loading up the rest of the stuff into the trailer and making sure they left the man with no useful means of attack.

Marius still looked pissed off, so Kai wisely left him to himself for a bit, but when they were ready, they loaded up, leaving the wounded man by the side of the road. A mile down the road, they paused, and Kai set out the bandit’s mobile phone and trinkets in a conspicuous place, as promised, then they headed on down the road towards their meeting point. 

A couple of hours later, they pulled off the main highway onto a dirt track, and bounced their way along it for a mile or so, the road climbing sharply into an escarpment. As they wound their way into a defile, Marius warned the team to be ready – the area was a sensor dead-spot, with overhanging rocks, winding paths and riddled with tunnels.

With growing suspicion, they followed the trail, until they emerged into a small bowl-like clearing, surrounded on all sides by jagged rock formations. A Maersk strike vehicle waited for them, and they recognised the team they’d run into when they first came to Kum Dag – along with a long-haired blonde lady dressed in camouflage fatigues holding a battle rifle in her arms. She smiled as she saw them arrived, and climbed down from the vehicle to come and meet them.


	36. 036 - The Dekita Deal

Date 05/01/2060, Location 39.28462, 54.89387

Johanna climbed down from the chassis of the light strike vehicle, leaving the rest of the occupants where they were, and sauntered across the gap between them. She appeared to be in her mid-thirties, her hair a blonde/brown colour. Two streaks of coloured sun block covered her cheeks, shielding her pale flesh from the rays of the sun. In her arms she carried a G36 rifle, with the tell-tale smooth pad of an induction smart-link on the grip. The rifle looked used – not the tarnish of a weapon not cared for or looked after, but an aged and worn-in look. Chips of paint and the odd glint of bare metal where parts had been cleaned and polished for quite some time. She wore a set of cammo fatigues that again looked comfy and old. The pattern was for a temperate zone, and the greens and browns hindered rather than helped disguise her – but for all that she looked comfortable in it, and she made no noise as she crossed the sandy space between the two vehicles – no betraying rattle of equipment, or loose straps flapping around. She looked quietly confident and competent. As the team climbed down out of the truck to greet her, she grinned. The corners of her mouth pulled up, forming little dimples, and her blue eyes seemed to glitter in the bright sunshine.

“Miss. Johanna?” said Kai, as he extended a hand to shake in welcome.

“And you must be Katana. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.” She looked at each one of the team for a moment, giving a little nod of greeting before her gaze moved on to the next in line. “I understand your previous business is concluded, and you’re now available for work?”

Kai nodded, and then clarified the situation – they had completed their last job, and were away clean, with no baggage or complications that would interfere with their ability to take her contract. As he described the situation, Johanna nodded, appearing pleased with circumstances.

“Excellent news. Well, as you know, I work for Maersk in the area, looking after our operations here. We are not alone in Kum Dag of course. Dekita and Espirit also have their offices here, and have extensive operations nearby. There’s also the local independents, who have a number of drills and prospects around the place. However, at the moment, I’m more concerned with Dekita. Their position is not strong, and it would be good if we can weaken it further. I am looking for a team that can interrupt part of their operations, and prevent export of product. A week would be good, but the longer the better, really. Do you think you can perform this type of task?”

Kai looked up and down the line at his team. Some looked less than happy, or at least uncertain – but nobody voiced anything specific.

“Yes, we can do this for you, as long as the recompense is appropriate of course.”

Johanna swung around a little, and made a tapping motion with one hand, and one of the security team grabbed a tablet screen and headed over to her. She accepted it without a word, slinging her rifle over her shoulder, and holding the tablet with one hand and operating it with finger swipes from the other.

“Ok, we are here, in the hills about fifteen klicks east of Kum Dag. As I said, each of us have our headquarters there.” She zoomed in on the map, the overhead view of the town filling the screen, and three areas were highlighted. “This is us. Over here is Dekita with their compound, and across here is Espirit, with their compound. This area to the north is the job market, where the independents hire crews for their rigs. Okay….” She pinched the display, zooming out until the map showed several hundred square kilometres of the countryside.

“Now, this area to the north of town, this is all licenced to Dekita. Their terminal is over in this bay, and all the pipelines meet up there, and a whole bunch of storage tanks. The crude product is shipped over the water to Azerbaijan and refined there. Swing the map south to here, and you can see our territory. We, too, have a terminal on the coast line. And further south, and all the way over to the mountains here is Espirit. Yes, yes, lots of territory. Espirit is huge… Dekita is hmmm, manageable, yes?”

Kai studied the map, with the rest of the team looking over his and Johanna’s shoulders, getting the lie of the land. Maersk had the area to the west of Kum Dag, about six and a half thousand square kilometres of land, including a headland and a sheltered bay. Though Johanna had not identified the location of the terminal, it was good money it would be in that sheltered location. The Dekita fields were to the north, and covered over fifteen thousand square kilometres, with their terminal in a natural cover on the south coast. It also included several large hill ranges, and several small villages. The Espirit fields were to the south of Kum Dag, and were even larger, taking up nearly twenty five thousand square kilometres of land.

“Now, with us all being in town, it makes spying and counter spying a fun and interesting game, yes? We all watch each other, we all know what security and drilling crews we have, we all use drones and sat images to track things yes? But, no one in Kum Dag knows about you. I would like to keep it this way, is why we meet out here, ok? If they don’t know who you are, they can’t watch you. No one must know you work for Maersk. No papers, no contracts, no trail.” She looked at Kai, and her piercing blue eyes fixed him with a hawk-like stare, until he nodded understanding and agreement.

“Good. So, you take your truck, you go north, to Dekita fields. You mess things up, stop the flow of oil. You break things, so bad they take a week to recover. I pay your team thirty thousand. You break things better, they take longer to fix, I pay more. You manage to steal Espirit equipment and frame them for the job, I pay you more. You steal Espirit and frak them up really bad, I pay you lots more.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Kai. “Yep, we can get right onto that… do you have any intel about where their gear is in the fields?” Hunter and Marius stared at Kai for a moment, before their gazes met each other, and they shook their heads very subtly, before returning to stare at the map again.

“This place here, Oglanly, I have rumours they have hit a new deposit. Lots of crews working in the hills there, lots of equipment. Lots of security, too, of course. So, if rumours are true, is a good place to hurt them. On other side of coin, maybe less security elsewhere, and can do more damage to more places. That I leave to you to find out. Oh, but if you do go up that way, mind the Cannons.”

Several of the team looked at each other again, wondering what kind of cannon were involved – did Dekita have artillery support? Mortars? What exactly did she mean? Johanna didn’t elaborate though, instead punching in a radio frequency and series of cipher keys into the terminal.

“Use this to contact us – not directly with me, but via a handler now. Make sure to give code phrases and get recognition. We can arrange for some explosives to be left at a place if you need them – generic stuff, not tied to us. But better if you don’t need and use your own. Good luck.”

She handed over the tablet to Kai, smiled, shook his hand again, and headed back to the strike vehicle, climbing up in the passenger seat. With a wave, the Maersk detail pulled out, threading their way through the defile to the north, and disappearing from view.

As soon as the Maersk contingent were gone, Hunter and Marius started to grumble a little at Kai, asking him why he hadn’t even negotiated with her over the price. 

“Look guys – it’s our first job for her, we need to get our foot in the door. Yes, it’s not a huge amount of money, not for the possible risks – but the pay was open-ended if we do well, and we need to establish our rep with the lady. Once we’ve got a good job under our belt, then we can ask for more pay.” Hunter and Marius shared a look again and shrugged. They might not be happy, but they at least accepted the logic.

They gathered around the map again, zooming around the Dekita area and looking at the terrain.

Nobody had a deep knowledge of the oil industry. Marius seemed to be most familiar with the general concepts, having flown many delivery missions over or too refineries and drilling rigs. They shared their thoughts on how things worked, and how likely it was to be able to strike at the various locations.

The drill heads were fixed targets, but likely to have fences, cameras, quite possibly drones or active security troops. They were the first stage of the export process, and knocking out a drill head or setting a fire here could be difficult to recover from, with the pressure of the oil coming up from the reserve hampering efforts to enact repairs. The pipelines were the next stage, and were an obvious weak point, stretching for hundreds of miles overall, in a network across the area. They might have sensors and drones, but the coverage would be much sparser just by the very size of the area that needed to be defended. It would also be impossible to have any meaningful level of active personnel guarding the pipeline. Taking out a section would probably cause some kind of oil spill, but it was thought that flow sensors and systems in the pipeline would detect a leak and they must have some kind of valves or shutoff system in place, surely? A broken section of pipe would be easy enough to fix, if so, but would need a team to locate and travel to the break and replace a damaged section. If they were able to take out several such sections in quick succession, they could cause a backlog or severe interruption.

Next down the list were the pumping stations that must be dotted around the pipeline network at some intervals, ensuring the oil was pushed through to the coast. These had many of the same issues as the well heads – fixed buildings, so likely to have fences, cameras, sensors and possibly covered by drones. They were harder targets, but any damage to the machinery inside was likely to be much harder to repair or replace than simple sections of pipeline. This was especially true the closer they got to the coast, where the facilities would be larger and handle more product.

Last of all was the harbour facility and tank farm. Several of the team just shook their heads when this was bought up, clearly having reservations about attacking such a facility. With the massive storage tanks holding tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of litres of explosive gas and flammable oil products, it was naturally going to be heavily protected and under constant surveillance.

As they had been panning around the overhead footage, another thing occurred to them – the almost complete lack of traffic. Several villages were inside the Dekita area, but they spotted only a few farm vehicles, and almost no private vehicles showing up. Clearly the tech level of the local population was heavily skewed towards subsistence farming, but that meant that their truck was going to be noticed if they went driving around the area. Unless of course, they looked like a Dekita vehicle.

Eyes turned to Tadibya, and she nodded. Yes, of course she could make the vehicle look like something else – though that was now much harder for her to do because of the added bulk of the trailer. But if she was busy holding up an illusion spell over both parts of the vehicle, she was unlikely to be able to contribute much else during the run, and it could tie her up for hours at a time. At a pinch, it was a way to try and escape a situation – but she urged the others to come up with a better plan for her talents.

Whilst she had the conversational bull by the horns though, Tadibya did express some misgivings about any plan that would cause a huge oil spill. Aswon nodded in agreement – some spill was going to be unavoidable to perform their mission no doubt – but causing an environmental catastrophe was not something he wished to plan for.

Marius checked the specifications on his drone, and started to sketch out some plans for deployment, working out the maximum operational radius for a combat strike. If they got close to the edge of their area, and they knew exactly where they were going, they could probably cover nearly a hundred kilometres of the fields – but it would not include much loiter time, or much of an allowance for combat operations.

Kai appeared to reach a decision, and got everyone back into the truck, and asked Marius to head back to Ashgabat – it wasn’t too far away, but was a reasonably major town, and likely had the supplies they needed. Kum Dag was clearly not an option for resupply. As they got back on the road and cleared the rocks, he asked Hunter to fire up the sat link, get on the matrix and do some research. First of all, he needed somewhere in Ashgabat where they could purchase a large compressor, some paint, and a spray painting system. Once he had that locked down – and preferably each part from a separate supplier, if possible – he was to get onto the corporate websites and get some images of Espirit and Dekita vehicles, and find out what their livery and logos looked like. Hunter nodded, and started to bash at keys furiously, then waiting for the limited bandwidth satellite connection to fetch him the data requested.

They were a third of the way back when Marius activated the speakers, and spoke to the rest of the team.

“Look ahead, probably about thirty degrees to the right of the road, just heading up that trail. Look familiar?”

The team peered in the direction described, and saw a man stumbling through the desert, his shoulders slumped, and one arm protectively tucked under his robes. A mobile phone was clutched in one hand, but obviously not in use. He didn’t pay much attention to what was going on around him, and was trudging away from the road, up towards the foothills. 

Hunter grabbed his rifle, checking the magazine and the safety, the sat connection shoved to one side.

“Are we leaving him be, or taking him out?”

It was quiet for a moment in the truck, as people heard the coldness of his tone. Hunter, quite clearly was prepared to shoot him in the back of the head as they passed.

“No, he’s no threat. At least not anymore. He seemed to learn his lesson,” Kai offered. Hunter shrugged and flipped the safety back on, and stowed his rifle in the straps overhead, grabbed his computer and returned to his search.

The truck sped past, and the man stumbled on, back towards his village, not realising that he’d had a second brush with death.

The rest of their journey to Ashgabat was uneventful, and they drove back past the motel and into the southern part of the city, near the station. Most of the light industry was concentrated around here, including the auto-workshops and manufacturing. Hunter directed Marius to a tool shop, and they picked up a large compressor with a seventy-five litre air tank, and a paint spraying kit, along with a bunch of spares and supplies for it. Kai did the talking, and Hunter and Aswon did the carrying, loading the boxes into the trailer with a minimum of fuss and interaction. They headed to another general suppliers and purchased a large white tent, barely big enough for the truck to fit into – but something they could use to try and create a painting area to stop the fine desert sand ruining their efforts. A third stop saw then picking up a large variety of paint in basic colours, some masking tape and card stock along with craft knives – so they could try and make stencils for the logos and text. A couple of thousand Nuyen later, and with their supplies purchased from multiple locations to try and hide the nature of their plan, they had all they needed to repaint the truck in either Espirit or Dekita colours.

Tadibya ensured they stopped off at the local market, and picked up fresh supplies and topped off their water tank, and shortly afterwards they were back on the road heading west, all of their new purchases stowed in the trailer.

Their journey was uneventful, barely passing any other traffic on the road, and not spying much in the way of movement – just miles and miles of rolling desert to the horizon. They followed the track again, and headed back into the defiles and chasms, until they arrived back at the overhung area and nestled the truck into the side of the clearing.

Aswon looked around as they climbed out.

“You know… this might make an ideal place to stash the trailer – if we wanted to leave it behind anywhere. It’s not secure, sure… but it’s hidden and somewhat remote. And we might be able to disguise it. And then we’re not dragging something unarmoured into combat again.”

The others considered this, looking around the area. It had a couple of ways in and out, but was off the beaten track, and other than the Maersk team, seemed to have no traces of activity or visitors. They busied themselves with the kit, unboxing and checking their new supplies, and working out how to get the compressor running, and continued to discuss their plans for the assault on Dekita’s oil production.


	37. 037 - Targetting Dekita

Date 05/01/2060, Location 39.28462, 54.89387

As the team examined the compressor and worked out how to put up the tent, they chatted about the mission, continuing to examine ideas for their strike – what would stand the best chance of success, but with the least risk for them?

Kai and Marius assembled the compressor, stirred the paint cans and hung their tablets from the sides of the tent as a reference and got to spraying the truck. Marius made slow, methodical progress, covering the truck in the default dove grey paint used by Dekita, painting in short precise bursts. When he was about a third of the way through, Kai popped round to see how he was doing – apparently having finished his entire side already, in a neat, even coat of paint. He pulled his spray can round and started to spray from the back, aiming to meet Marius in the middle, their styles a contrast as Kai seemed to spray almost at random in huge sweeping motions.

Tadibya meanwhile spent several hours in the trailer with her stick of chalk, inscribing runes and symbols in neat and tiny script around the walls, slowly gathering mana and forming a magical ward around the perimeter. She finished about the same time as Kai and Marius, straightening out the kinks from her back with a grimace. The ward was of reasonable strength, though, and should last for about a month, if she’d done her job right – and should keep most prying eyes out of the trailer.

Hunter spent the early evening glued to his computer, researching various sites checking about the oil industry – it was slow going, as he redirected his search through various portals and virtual tunnels on the Matrix, trying to disguise his enquiries and cover his tracks. After all, the last thing they needed was a bunch of sabotaged oil wells, and a computer search tied back to his pocket secretary on techniques to achieve this… if logs were checked and the data turned up, it would be all the justification needed to send a hit squad after them.

His research turned up all manner of data interesting in a purely academic basis, but he had trouble finding much in the way of detail about eco-terrorist groups and strikes against oil fields that were more than sensationalist headlines and actually contained details. The best he found was an article on the contamination of oil with sulphur – in fact the amount of sulphur in oil changed its grade and suitability for cracking and refining, and massively changed the processes required and the net worth. However, when he looked at the volume of oil they were talking about, and the amount of sulphur required to hit the 0.5% by volume required to “ruin” it commercially, he realised that was an amount that was not feasible to deal with…

Aswon called Sing, his ID fixer in Hong Kong. After exchanging pleasantries, he asked her if he could get some kind of ID to allow him and his team into an area owned by a company…. for reasons. Sing understood of course, and was just about to speak, when Aswon dropped the bomb shell – and it needed to be cheap. Really cheap – because they were not getting much for the job.

Aswon could almost hear the frown from the other end of the circuit. Fake IDs were not of course simple things – the interconnected matrix and massive computational power now available meant that ciphers and encryption were stronger than ever before, and generally relied on a whole web of trust and de-centralised storage of information on multiple systems, that all needed to agree and corroborate each other. And penetrating and changing this data took time, and a delicate touch of someone skilled – who naturally didn’t want to work for free – especially as the risks they took generally included things like corporate extermination squads kicking down their doors and hosing them with automatic gunfire for crimes against megacorporate assets backed up by the might of the Corporate Council.

“Tell me about the corp, and some context, and I’ll see what I can do,” Sing said in a flat voice… the sort of voice that indicated that she wasn’t that hopeful, but would do it for Aswon, based on their history.

“It’s Dekita Oil, in Turkestan. They’ve got a massive amount of land under their control, and we need to get in there, and work on some asset management. We’re not sure what they have in the way of checkpoints and monitoring, but there’s frak all other traffic out here, so it’s going to be a bit obvious. We need something to give us some cover. But the job we’re doing is an intro run, it’s on the cheap, and we’ve not got much ready capital. Let me send you a grand to cover some expenses and research time, and see what you can do.”

“Let me dig around some and I’ll get back to you.”

A short while later, Aswon’s phone buzzed as he received a data packet from Sing. In clipped terms it described Dekita Oil and Exploration (Turkestan), a subsidiary of Dekita Oil and Exploration LLC. In turn this company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Fuchi. Aswon frowned, as he thought through this information.

Fuchi were one of the big mega-corps. One of the AAA rated behemoths with world spanning reach and powers, but more importantly, with extra-territorial status. The land enclosed by their fences, as long as it was clearly marked, counted as their own territorial assets. Corporate law functioned here – not the laws of the nation. If they were caught on their land doing something, then the security forces could shoot first, not ask questions and laugh at the idea of “due process”. It certainly made the risk higher… but it also meant that only Fuchi, or rather Dekita, were the enemy. There was no police force that would chase them, and they had only their own corporate assets to draw on. Only the assets of one of the eight largest corporations in the world….

Dekita shipped about a quarter billion barrels of crude oil per year, worldwide according to the figures in the dossier, with sites scattered across the gulf all the way up to the Russian steppes, some ocean floor extraction and some stuff down at the poles – this put them at about number 34 worldwide – certainly not the biggest by a long shot, but not insubstantial either. They had around fifteen thousand employees worldwide – mostly in the extraction side of things. However, they also owned several refineries, had their own flagged carriers of crude and several large tankers. It was estimated that they turned over around five-hundred million Nuyen last year – though of course as a subsidiary of a Mega-Corp their accounting was byzantine, not fully disclosed and subject to interpretation. There was a bunch more detail giving some historical facts and disclosing details from various trade publications and PR releases for other areas in the world that gave a feel for their corporate spin and some images, but nothing particularly germane for their task now.

At the end of the document was a smaller section that changed tone – it was obviously written by someone as a result of some search operations, and was not as polished as the previous text, and contained more in the way of personal opinion and bias – not necessarily wrong, but assembled by hand. It detailed the area around Kum Dag, and showed the 24.6 Hectares of corporate compound and marshalling yards owned by the company. Notes suggested that a number of Shadowruns against them recently were as a result of a general upswing of activity against Fuchi assets worldwide, perceived to be a general weakening of corporate assets and control as part of the ongoing changes to the corporate environment. Recent advances in the area had left Fuchi in a position where they were struggling to protect their assets in some areas, but were responding with an increased level of brutality and knee-jerk reactions in response. The manager of the local subsidiary was Torinawa Furitaka, a graduate from the university of North Tokyo, with a degree in Resource Exploitation and Management. A potted history showed nothing remarkable about him – just a history of working in various extraction industries for Dekita, gradually working up from a shift manager at a Bauxite mine, to his current position of local CEO over a 22 year career.

Aswon shared the information around with the others, and warned them that fake IDs might not be on the menu given their cost. Hunter grabbed the phone next, and after checking the time, made a call to his friend Julius Jones in Copenhagen. The phone answered quickly enough, and Hunter could hear the sound of background traffic – he’d caught him during his commute. Probably a good thing. After an exchange of greetings, Hunter indicated that he could do with a few maps that were more up to date than he could get from a public search. Julius obliquely asked him some details about roadmaps and service stations in the area, and managed to get over the message without stating it directly. Hunter pulled up the co-ordinates required, and sent them over to his contact, indicating the area they were interested in.

The team unhitched the trailer from the truck, and pushed it as far under the overhang as they could, and spent a short amount of time piling dried brush up against it, covering up the parts most likely to reflect light. It wouldn’t stand up to anything but the most cursory of examinations, but the area was pretty remote anyway, so the chances of someone stumbling on the trailer were negligible. They headed out of the defile, picking a route to the north, and covering the tracks and obscuring their transit as they neared the road. Heading north, they saw no other vehicles or activity – the night was still and clear, and despite keeping a good lookout, they saw no other meta-humans anywhere around them.

Sing called back a short while later, and advised Aswon that she had something – but it wasn’t what she would call “solid”. It was an ID for a journalist, left over from a previous job some time ago, someone that covered corporate stories for NewsNet. However, the background detail was particularly thin, and it would not stand up to in-depth checking. It might get them past a reader from a border guard on a mobile scanner, but a proper installation would probably flag it up as corrupt, or definitely fake if they were unlucky. She could let them have it for a grand, but she wouldn’t want to trust it, and warned them away from any situation where it could be subject to anything beyond the most basic scrutiny.

As they headed north, they spotted some traffic finally – several sets of anti-collision lights, in an extended line to the west. Their position would put them firmly in the Maersk operating area, so presumably it was their traffic. They were obviously aircraft of some kind – and from the relatively slow speed of advance, presumably helicopters rather than fixed wing. They watched for a minute, making sure they were not closing on the truck’s position, but the three aircraft continued to advance to the north at a steady speed.

Soon they came upon Balkanabat – or what was left of it. The map showed a reasonable sized town, much bigger than Kum Dag, with an airport to the south west, and a fairly regular grid-iron pattern of housing, shops, malls, stadiums, parks and other buildings, mostly concentrated to the east of the main road. What they saw as they rolled along the highway was a war-torn and devastated ghost town. Most of the buildings were rubble, burnt out or destroyed by impact, with jagged structural material twisted and bent as it pointed to the sky. The main road was clear, but the banks of debris to the side showed that the destruction had once covered the road with bits of houses and factories. There were lights at the airport to the west, and it appeared that some of the town had been rebuilt that way – but this section showed nothing moving, just a war ravaged landscape. It struck a nerve with the team, possibly because they were not expecting it, and was a poignant reminder that in places like this, their maps could not be trusted 100%. Tadibya had a quick look in astral space as they drove through and shuddered. Lingering darkness betrayed a past that indicated that war crimes of some kind had been perpetrated here. It might make a good place to hide – certainly magic would have a hard time finding them in that morass of hatred and despair – but she wouldn’t want to do any magic herself there either.

They drove north another twenty minutes, leaving the ruins behind them and found the small village of Jebel – about the last place they would go through before they hit the Dekita territory.

They pulled up at the end of the village, amongst the quiet and silent single-storey buildings. They couldn’t spot any lights – in fact, they weren’t even sure if the village had electricity at all – but nobody opened a door or window at their passing or as they parked up. Aswon got out of the truck and had a wander around, listening carefully in the still night air for any signs of disturbance. In the distance he could make out the dull thud of chopper blades, but other than that the night was still, the air clear, and the view of the stars was spectacular. Tadibya called upon a desert spirit, asking it to guard and protect the truck from harm, and then settled down to meditate. Marius extended the launch ramp, ran a quick diagnostic check on the drone, and prepared it for launch, calibrating the sensors and checking the charge on the batteries. Around him he could hear the rest of the team settling down in their bunks and chairs to get some rest, but he ignored them and concentrated on the drone as it ran through the final checks, before he tapped in the commands on his remote control deck and then launched the drone into the air. With a quiet whirring, the drone’s electric motors propelled it up to altitude, and he oriented it to the North West, and had a look around.

Marius physically flinched as his sensors were lashed with lobes of jamming, sweeps of high power energy and received a complicated and rapidly changing picture of multiple targets engaged in air to air manoeuvres. He dived the drone into a tight spiral, pulling it back a little, and then worked to refine the data.

There were point sources to the south, heading in a somewhat northerly direction – though they tacked back and forth, darting from side to side. There were multiple sources, all deploying their electronic warfare suites to create multiple signals, with varied transponders, overlapping sensor images and pulsing with power. There were a number of point sources to the north as well, heading in a southerly direction, also tacking from side to side. They had different EW signatures, using different radar frequencies and systems. Slowly Marius sorted through the picture, making a few guesses along the way, and starting to detect patterns. It looked like the three choppers from the south, that they had seen over Maersk lands, had approached the border and then flipped on all of their radar and sensor platforms, and were lashing the north with sensor probes. Their own electronic deception platforms were fired up as well, indicating that these were top end security choppers, or possible even actual military birds. In response, Dekita – presumably – had sent out a number of their own craft, who were shadowing the aggressors. Their own electronics were not as competent as the southern force, but they made up for it in brute power, blanketing the area in sensor sweeps. They also had some ground-based sensors adding to the mix, by the looks of things some mobile sets based on an off road vehicle of some kind.

From time to time, one side or the other would dart in, changing their jamming settings, as if going for an attack. The other side would respond, and the first would withdraw or evade, trying to avoid a sensor lock. It was a high-tech game of chicken, played over several cubic miles of airspace. No weapons were fired, but that could change in a heartbeat, Marius was sure. In the meantime, he had ample opportunity to record sensor frequencies and get a feel for EW patterns and operational modes, which he took advantage of. After gathering information for a few minutes, he realised he was going to have to move, and pushed the drone on a large dog-leg around the confrontation, sending it on the pre-programmed journey to the oil terminal. It disappeared out of range, fading from his sensors and deck’s subscribed drone list as the signal faded away. He settled down to wait, trying not to betray his anxiety, and instead concentrated on picking up more of the EW signals from the choppers just to the west, and running analysis on their signals.

Nearly six hours later, the drone returned, the batteries running well into the red, and with all manner of alarms sounding as it re-entered coverage from his deck and reappeared on his subscriber list, the automatic protocols handshaking and negotiating complex passwords and cypher information to ensure that neither side was compromised. Marius coaxed it back into the cradle and linked it to the truck’s power systems, and started to review the data.

Most of the journey just showed featureless sand and rocks, desert and outcroppings with nothing of interest. It crossed a few roads, and they did see a pipeline emerge from the ground and rise up into the air, cross the road and then sink back down into the ground again. However, as the drone approached the terminal, it saw lots to interest the team – both optically and electronically. Sensors and drones were up all over the place, broadcasting signals across the entire EM spectrum. Systems were hammering away at maximum power, creating a bubble several kilometres across, surrounding the oil terminal. Marius plotted power curves and reflected signal paths and muttered under his breath – double checking his figures. By his best guess, if they were inside three kilometres of the terminal whilst they were radiating like that – they were going to be picked up for a certainty. If they pulled out all the stops, with spirit concealment and using ravines for cover and such like, they might get to move around the four to eight kilometre zone without being picked up. Outside that, area, up to twelve kilometres away, they had to watch their electronic footprint. But that still gave them all manner of problems trying to get close to the terminal to strike there.

The optical feed showed all manner of storage tanks, pipework, pumping stations, dorms, security shacks, fences…. and most importantly a whole bunch of pipelines cross the rocks and desert from the northern and eastern approaches, entering the terminal area. The channel out to the sea was also captured, showing it to be fairly narrow and winding – certainly not the easiest thing to navigate. Marius started the truck up, so the engine would provide enough current to recharge the drone for later use, and then sat back and studied the data he had captured, further refining it.

A few minutes later Aswon noticed a few people starting to stir, and the odd head poking out of windows and doors. He climbed back up in the truck and told Marius that they either needed to head out of the village, or shut the engine down. The lack of vehicle traffic around here made them stand out. Driving through the village was fine – but staying in one spot, and letting the engine idle – not so much. Marius pulled out, heading north on the road leading to the edge of Dekita territory, and had to put a good few kilometres distance between them before he could be sure the sound wouldn’t carry. At least the engine had more than enough power to spare, and the batteries on the drone rapidly charged from the electronics port in the rear of the truck, replenishing the supply.

As he was driving, he discussed what he had seen with Aswon, describing the bubble of electronic sensor coverage. Whilst he was explaining, he realised that this could not be normal operating procedure – to ramp up their flux so high had to kill their onboard batteries, and operating at night there was no way they would have any reasonable endurance. The active sensors must have been in response to the air activity they had seen, to cover them against any distractions or feints. Which meant, that there was a chance they could get in close, if they could avoid raising suspicions….

By about 3am, the batteries were recharged and Marius again raised the ramp to launch position, and fired up his remote control deck. Launching the drone again, he jumped “into” the captain’s chair mode, focussing on the drone and its activity without actually letting his consciousness fully enter its mechanical systems and become his surrogate body. He couldn’t react as quickly this way, but any damage to the drone also wouldn’t feedback potentially lethal energies into his body.

He flew north for a few minutes, crossing into Dekita territory, and then started to bend to the west, following the road from a height of two hundred metres, scanning for metallic objects to see if he could pick up any more pipelines. He picked up a metallic mass and zoomed in for a close look – perhaps getting a little too close. Alarms suddenly erupted from his deck as Juliet band radar emissions spiked, hitting his drone square on. By instinct, he threw the drone into a series of spirals, ramping the power up to 100% and clawing for altitude. Moments later a long string of machine gun fire arced up from the APC which had been lurking by the rocks. His optical sensors recorded the tracer fire, looping through the air trying to home in on the drone as it spiralled and slewed in three dimensions. Realising that he wasn’t going to get high enough quickly enough, he reversed his climb into a dive, trying instead to throw terrain into the mix and trying to break line of sight between the gunner and his drone. The fire got closer and closer, but he managed to bottom out from the steep dive and scorch across the desert at maximum speed without taking a hit, so low that he ran the risk of clipping the top of dunes. He swung around back towards the terminal, scanning his sensors carefully, and picked up a chopper approaching fast from the direction of the terminal, its own radar starting to light up and search for him. There was no way he could avoid both ground and aerial radar, not with a drone like this, so he broke away and circled around, keeping low and returning to the vehicle.

Marius reviewed the footage once he was out of the combat area, and traced the path of the bullets, and realised that the gun was almost certainly under computer control – the arcs of fire were too smooth and consistent to be manually operated. Once the drone was safely recovered and back on charge, they moved the truck again to a new position and tried to conceal it as best they could.

As dawn broke, and the rest of the team started to stir, Marius and Aswon filled them in on the events of the night, and showed them the footage and discussed their thoughts, before they relaxed and tried to get some shuteye. The others got weapons ready, and prepared to cover Tadibya, whilst she went for an astral flyby.

First of all though, she summoned a fresh spirit, welcoming the new day with a prayer to Elk. After asking the spirit to guard her friends and keep them safe, she flew upwards from her body, leaving the meat behind and shot west – in a matter of seconds she was over the terminal, looking down from a height of a few miles and looking at the massive ecological blot on the landscape, and the taint in astral space that it caused. She watched for a few moments, but didn’t see anything that alarmed her, so with a thought she flit down a mile and then paused again, manifesting for another look. If someone had been looking up at the sky through old fashioned optical binoculars, in just the right direction they would have seen her ghostly form appear, hovering in the dawn haze. To the average security guard though, looking through an electronic system – there was nothing. 

She watched for another minute, then flew around the compound, moving at a speed unmatchable to anything physical, spending only fractions of a second moving, and still sometimes overshooting where she wanted to be. Slowly she worked her way around the entire compound, viewing it from all angles and checking for para-critters, wards, alarms, spirits, elementals – everything. But, she didn’t spot anything magically active down there at all. To a certain extent, she couldn’t blame them – she wouldn’t want to have to work down there amidst all that pollution. But of course, it might be a hermetic mage, rather than a Shaman. All that talk of angles, and maths, and internalised power constructs tapping into subthaumic energy. She shuddered a little, wondering how they could be so wrong, and why they couldn’t just open their hearts to the aspects of nature as was obviously the best way.

She patrolled for a little while longer, estimating how long she’d been away from her body and counterbalancing that against the chance to learn something more. When she figured she’d been out for about forty minutes, she accelerated back to the east, looking for the truck. Even if they’d been forced to move, she should have enough time to find them and recover her flesh form before the link between the two weakened and gave her a headache. She saw the truck though, exactly where it should be and flowed down into the vehicle, sliding through the ward around it and feeling the welcoming touch of her own magical power, then took control of her resting body.

With a yawn and a stretch she got used to having physical form again and then looked up at them.

“Didn’t see any magical defences at all. Nothing around the terminal, nothing in the water, no spirits, no wards. All the defences must be on the inside, out of sight. No idea how tough or strong they might be – but didn’t want to risk triggering anything after they’d already been poked by the helicopters and the drone last night.

She stretched and went to get a drink and something to eat, whilst the dawn started to fill the cab of the truck with pale winter light, and waited for Kai to come up with a plan.


	38. 038 - Infiltrating Dekita

Date 07/01/2060, Location 39.70348, 54.32464

Kai took a deep breath, and then spread his hands before him, palms down. The gesture drew the team’s attention and the chatter died away.

“Right then. Everything we’ve seen and discussed says that we really should avoid going anywhere near the terminal if we can help it. Looks like they have too much there in the way of both firepower and sensor coverage, which means we’ll be struggling to get through as smoothly as we want, which means we have to over-compensate with firepower and snap decisions. Both of which are more likely to trigger some damage we don’t want and cause a massive environmental problem. Anyone disagree?”

He looked from one to another, but nobody voiced an argument.

“So, that leaves targeting the crews, the oil wells, or the pipeline. I don’t think anyone here wants to take out the people as a first choice, or even a second – so we’ve got to look at the well heads and the delivery network. The well heads are the source, but also a small number of locations, and likely guarded as well. The pipeline is spread out all over the place, and seems the most vulnerable, so let’s have a look at that as our primary option. Aswon – what can you do in the way of explosives to target the pipe?”

Aswon shrugged a little, and mentally filed through the list of grenades and explosives available to them.

“Not ideal. We haven’t really got any good plastic explosives or det cord – both of which would make this job pretty simple. We have got a whole bunch of grenades and RPGs though. I could have a look at using those and seeing if I can make some kind of improvised device? It’d help a lot to know how tough the pipe is though, will make the calculations much more precise.”

Kai nodded and turned to Hunter.

“Sounds like another job for you, then. Can you fire up the link again, do your PVN thing and get us some data?”

Hunter winced slightly.

“Yeah. I’ll use a VPN though, to hide my trail, more likely to be effective than whatever a PVN is. It’s going to take a while though, trying to find out what they use, and then get the specs on it.”

Kai smiled at Hunter, and watched as he pulled over the sat link and connected it up to his datajack, and then into the truck’s power systems and took on the glassy-eyed look of someone staring at data with his mind, not his eyes. He glanced over at Marius, snoring gently on the front seat, then turned to Tadibya. 

“Right, when you’ve rested enough, can you go have a quick look for the closest pipeline, have a look around, make sure it’s clear then come back with directions? Then we can go examine some, if Hunter doesn’t come up with the info.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get you the info you want,” said the slumped form of Hunter. “These students have no idea about account security. Like lambs to the slaughter….”

Tadibya however nodded her head in understanding, relaxed back in her seat and then her body went floppy as her spirit leapt once more into the ether. Aswon climbed into the back and grabbed one of the RPG-7 warheads, and examined it closely, turning it over in his hands. After a few minutes of careful examination, he looked up and spoke to Kai and Shimazu.

“I’m going to go about twenty meters that a way”, as he gestured to the broken ground to the east. “I’m going to take a toolkit and see if I can get one of these open and work out if we can get the actual explosives out and shape them to something we can use to crack the pipeline open.”

Kai and Shimazu moved to opposite seats, so they could each keep watch over one side of the vehicle, and near-silence descended over the truck as they all got on with their tasks. Only the gentle, rhythmic snores of Marius could be heard as the sun climbed higher for another clear desert morning.

Hunter logged into a university in Denmark first of all, using an old student account he had a username and password for. From there, he fired up a virtual machine, and used that to connect to another machine, this time in the CAS city of Houston. He bounced around through two more shells, before he fired up a search bot, and started to feed in the parameters of his requirements. Slowly he worked his way through the mass of information in the matrix, filtering it down from the marketing dross and adverts, to scientific journals, known distributors, safety surveys and import orders. If he had his hands on a proper cyberdeck, he might have chanced doing a run on customs accounts or maybe even a corporate host – but without the highly illegal deck to help mask his trail and to let him sleaze his way past security, he was likely to trip alarms all over the place. He spent the next two and a half hours compiling information, comparing and cross checking it until he was reasonably certain that it was correct and relevant, before he started to back out from his search operations, closing down virtual machines and links behind him and clearing his data trail, wiping out temporary files or running spurious commands to disguise his activity in a mass of other data.

Tadibya flew out over the desert, flitting around quickly, her astral form travelling at thousands of miles per hour. Accelerate, stop, check around. Accelerate, stop, look. She repeated the pattern over and over, quartering the terrain as she checked for her targets. The earth was a softly glowing white mass, the biosphere of Gaia showing up as natural living material. Occasionally a black line crossed it – man made roads, or something else. She checked on anything man-made, finding a web of pipelines leading to well heads – which she stayed clear of to start with, not wanting to trip any astral alarms. As she was scouting around, she also noticed a squat black vehicle, a mass of highly processed material. She cautiously approached it, checking it out carefully for any betraying astral presence or barriers.

It seemed clear, though, so she inched closed and watched for a short while. Nothing. She flew up into the air, and manifested – her presence solidifying and becoming visible, but allowing her to see with her normal eyes, not just astral senses – and in turn be seen of course. But now with her “normal” eyes, she could see the long four-wheeled APC sitting in the defile. Most of the vehicle was screened by rocks on either side, with just the top of the vehicle – the turret and sensor pod, showing above the terrain. This seemed to match what Marius reported from the night before, so she allowed herself to fade back into the astral, and then flew down, sliding underneath the vehicle, and manifesting again. The underside of the vehicle was smooth, armoured or covered in a plate of some sort, and scuffed and marked by travel through the desert. But, there was no spigot or waste nozzle – so no onboard toilet that just dumped out.

She took a mental breath, and slowly started to press through the underside of the vehicle, trying to detect a magical ward – but there didn’t seem to be one. Her head rose up through the floor, in the corner of the rearmost footwell. She manifested, her eyes quickly scanning around and then faded again, quickly, lest she be spotted. In the scant seconds she had been detectable, she had seen what looked like six people, lightly armoured and with weapons to hand. They looked distressingly normal – not bored, not asleep, not irritated with being stuck out here. Neither were they excited or alarmed – so they had not seen her, which was something. Deciding not to chance her luck, she headed back to the truck.

Aswon took the RPG warhead and his toolkit and went to find a rock that he could rest on. He found a smooth topped boulder about twenty-five metres from the truck, and set up there – far enough away that a mistake would only have fatal consequences for him, and not for anyone else. He turned over the warhead in his hands again, looking at the design and construction and commanded his hands to stop their minute tremors.

The design was typically Soviet – simple, crude, but effective. Someone with a genius flair for design had come up with a very simple, almost fool-proof tool that even the most stupid of conscripts could get their head around, yet that was simple enough to manufacture that even a low-tech plant could churn them out. He started to unscrew and jimmy open the warheads, struggling against the crude steel casing and rough workmanship. The top half was supposed to unscrew from the bottom, but the poor workmanship meant that it was just as likely to cross-thread when installed, and jam. It took him an hour of painstaking work, to try and work the head free from the main assembly, without subjecting it to sharp knocks or any other movements likely to upset the explosive. Eventually though, he got the device open and could peer into the internals. It was immediately obvious that this was a non-starter. The explosive content was probably poured into the bottom half in a liquid state, and they would have to heat the mixture gently – to just the right temperature – to get it out. Not something he was comfortable with out in the field, they were more likely to cook off the warhead inside the truck.

He carefully assembled the warhead again, more comfortable with the design now, and noting the internal measurements and thickness of the casing compared to the explosive charge. He pondered as he sat there… it might not be possible to take the explosive out – but he might be able to position the warhead specifically to reflect part of the blast wave against supports or rocks to increase the yield against the target. He sketched some ideas in the sand, trying to work out how the blast wave would propagate on detonation. If he used the spare “burner” mobile phones, he might be able to set them up for remote detonation even… then he checked his phone and found that there was a complete lack of signal out here. Meh.

Tadibya and Aswon returned and gave their reports, filling in details of what they had seen and discovered. Then they turned to Hunter to see what his matrix search had revealed.

“Right then,” said Hunter, as he scrolled through the text he’d assembled, “it seems the oil industry in general uses a number of common bore pipes. They’re all made out of R250 stainless steel, and come in 3.04m lengths. The pipes tend to have a screw thread on one end, and a flared coupler on the other end, allowing for changes in direction of a few degrees when attaching them together, without needing a special fitting.” He stopped talking as Tadibya looked confused and waited to speak.

“Why 3.04? Why not three?” 

Before Hunter could speak, the reclining form of Marius fidgeted and then spoke, his eyes still closed.

“Stupid Americans with their illogical Imperial system. They are relics of the past, hanging onto a crazy system of numbers. It is exactly ten feet.”

“Oh, right. Ok then. Sorry, Hunter, carry on.”

“Right – so yes, the pipe can flex and move around a little, but not too much. The steel is made with a high Chromium / Molybdenum mix, and is resistant to chemical erosion, for obvious reasons, but is also quite tough. They use something called NPS 10 pipe for small runs, which is about 3-4mm thick wall, and about 100-150mm diameter. It’s going to be quite tough, but I think we can breach it with a charge, if Aswon can lay it just right. Once you move up to a large pipe, either for larger flows, or after several pipes consolidate, they use NPS 12 pipes. They have an outer wall between 4 and 5mm thick on a diameter of 200-250mm, but from a quick calculation between us, think we might need two charges to reliably breach them. The really big pipes, the stuff you normally see on the Trid is NPS 14, and has a thickness of 8-10mm, and diameters of 500 to 1500mm. I’m not sure that we can count on breaching that stuff at all, not with these grenades. We’d probably need dedicated plastic explosives.”

Hunter sat back after he spoke, with a strangely smug look on his face, watching as the rest of the team digested his information.

They had a quick count up of the warheads and planned their strategy. They could count on taking out a good half a dozen of the small pipes, and possibly one or two of the bigger runs – more than that and they had no margin of error with their explosives. They could maybe, with some effort, rig up a phone with a basic countdown timer and try to use that as a detonator timer. They could get any devices that failed or were unusable and plant them on other pipelines – when discovered, the Dekita forces would have to take them as a viable risk, especially if they had bombs already going off elsewhere. Certainly they could take out production for a week or so, starving the terminal of oil and causing some reasonably major disruption.

Tadibya raised an idea of a seabourne assault on the harbour, saying that she could summon a spirit of the waves and ask it to physically carry an explosive device into the pier and attach it to the foundations or pumping mechanism. It was very unlikely to be detected, being a natural force – the only thing their sensors might pick up was the device itself. But the spirit could carry the device in, to the target and then fade into the astral plane itself – it didn’t have to get out. What might be a suicide mission for a normal person could be a simple one way journey for a spirit. The only thing that could really stop it in time was an enemy mage or conjurer.

Kai considered this, but decided to keep this as a backup plan for the moment. He announced that he wanted Marius to spend a little time late in the afternoon with the drone, sending it north and covering the eastern end of the Dekita zone, looking for targets, starting from the village of Oglalnly and the new strike. Aswon could check and prepare the rest of the warheads, and make them ready for use as demo charges. The rest of the team, once their equipment was cleaned and sorted would relax for the rest of the day. At nightfall, with fresh intel from the drone, they would head north and close on the oil wells and do some recon. 

Aswon had been looking at the peak to the east, and suggested they do a climb to the top of that, to get some visual info. The peak was mostly bare rock, and climbed incredibly sharply from the sloping land leading to the sea – in some cases rising at sixty to seventy degree angles. The peak rose to over 1400m in very little horizontal travel. Climbing it might be challenging – but it would give them a view over the massive Dekita area. The only downside was that it would also put them nearly 14km away from the Dekita land, and they might have problems getting usable image data at that range.

After studying the maps a little more closely, they discovered there was a great ridge, a fold in the land that rose to nearly six hundred metres before falling away sharply and then starting to rise inland again. It was just inside the Dekita border, so they would have to be careful – but if they could find a good vantage point, it would put them only a couple of kilometres away from the well, and they would be much more likely to get a decent result. They all agreed on this, and busied themselves with tasks for the rest of the afternoon, getting ready to move out at sunset.

When the drone was fully charged, it was sent north on a search pattern, flying high enough in the sky to be nigh invisible, and getting a map of the area. The sensors were pushed to pick up the pipes from height, but the wells and the pumping stations were obvious, and it was easy enough for the computer to sketch in the pipes between them from the partial data gathered. It also appeared that all of the pumping stations were identical, as were the drill rigs. Dekita obviously believed in pre-fabrication and modular assemblies.

Marius pulled out as the sun started to sink towards the western horizon, driving cross country at about ten miles an hour, keeping the speed and the revs down and not kicking up any kind of trail. Making use of the terrain, they slowly plodded north, keeping a watch out for any vehicles or drones in the air – but their journey was uneventful. An hour after dusk, Marius followed the example set by the Dekita APC earlier in the day, and snugged the truck in between two spurs of rock, rendering it invisible unless viewed from above or directly ahead.

Tadibya, Hunter and Aswon got out, and started the climb up the escarpment. The rock was fractured and jagged, with plenty of handholds – but it was also sandstone, liable to crumble and break when under load. The going was difficult, and soon Aswon was relying on his Gecko magic to keep him firmly anchored to the wall, and Hunter had popped his climbing claws again. Tadibya slipped once or twice, and then saw Aswon preparing a rope, so they could secure her and help her up the face. She shook her head at him, wedged her knees into a shallow chimney and leaned in, using her core muscles to keep her in place whilst she hurriedly worked through the spell. She muttered the last syllable just as a gust of wind blew at her hair, trying to push her away from the rock face, and ethereal force surrounded her. Relaxing her knees, she slowly let go of the rock face, bobbing up and down slightly, and then with a mental flick, she started to rise silently through the air after the other two. They reached the top safely, and Tadibya stopped concentrating on the spell, letting the magical energies drop from her mind as she ceased concentrating.

After moving to a series of sharp rocks, they pulled up their binoculars, and worked them through the trio, each taking a good luck at the scene before them. After they had each had a look, they cycled through again, this time making notes after their turn on the optical binoculars. 

They could see down into the village, which looked like a typical cluster of third world buildings, single story for the main part, narrow and cramped, no gardens and opening into narrow and twisting streets. There was no sign of electrical lighting, and as the last rays of the sun fell below the horizon, the village quickly started to disappear into the darkness. There were no signs of vehicles or any advanced technology – it looked like subsistence farming was the main employer in the area. Certainly, they might have the skills and the technology to make things like the piers for a pipeline – but they certainly weren’t providing any high tech assistance to Dekita. That meant that any crews they could either make busy, or take out of action represented a significant drain on a finite resource.

They also spotted a number of creatures moving around in the hills above the village. Tadibya also realised that they had especially bright auras, when she gazed at them astrally – they were critters of some kind. Watching with concern, they saw the goats perform similar acts of acrobatic madness, climbing near vertical rock faces, and wedging themselves into chimneys whilst their teeth pulled at the odd bits of moss growing in the wind and moisture traps. One almost looked to be running down what appeared to be a sheer surface, its hooves sticking to the wall like glue. Happy that they knew what was going on there, they swapped their attention to the oil well.

The well was a kilometre or two further on from the village, nestled on a small plateau on the rocky ground. As they examined it, they realised it was larger than the ones that Marius had reported from his drone flight earlier – in fact it was double the size. They had crammed two of the pre-fab bases onto the plateau, side by side. Maybe one was drilling, maybe they both were… but that possibly meant twice as much oil, and twice as many crew. And possibly, twice as many guards…

The derrick was about forty metres tall, indicating that they could stack multiple drill shafts at once, and drill rapidly. Multiple arc lights illuminated the compound, shining brightly down from the derrick and painting the ground with harsh white light. The occasional figure could be seen walking around – but at this range, there was no way to tell what they were doing. Hunter could also just – only just – see the fence around the compound, the chainlink fence about four metres high, with the faintest sliver of reflection from the uprights that held the fence upright, about five metres high. Nothing showed between the posts. 

Hunter quickly explained that it was likely that this meant they were kitted out with monowire. It wasn’t actually wire one molecule thick of course – that would make it far too flimsy to use. But it was a small number of molecules thick – enough to get long string carbon chains forming that gave it a strength equivalent to spider silk, weight for weight. Strung between two posts it relied on someone climbing the fence and putting their weight upon it – at which point it would slice through them like cheese wire and invariably end up with a trespasser lying half inside your fence and half outside – and no argument about who was climbing the fence. Tadibya and Aswon exchanged a look – Hunter sounded like he had some personal experience with this stuff, and there was an edge of bitterness to his voice.

As night fell and they lost all of the light except that from the arc lights, they climbed (or floated) back down the escarpment and to the truck, and then filled in the rest of the team with what they had seen. Aswon also raised an idea that had come to him during the climb – could Tadibya do not just one trid-phantasm spell over the vehicle, but two? A very convincing one to make them look like an Espirit vehicle, and a really bad one – likely to be penetrated – of them as a Maersk vehicle. Tadibya nodded – it was certainly possible, though she did not look sure.

Tadibya however did then make herself comfy and told the rest she would be back soon, and leapt out of her body, flying swiftly towards the oil well. She probed around the buildings, not spying anything other than the odd worker, and then slowly and carefully started to investigate the building. She pressed through the outside of the building, and detected a ward on the inside a split second before she would hit it. It was of a moderate force – she could batter her way through, she was sure –but it would definitely alert the mage who had built it, and sound the alarm.

Not wanting to risk setting of the alarm at this stage, she flew up, and then headed over to the main terminal. Again, the journey lasted only a second or two, as she crossed the landscape at thousands of kilometres per hour. She flew over the compound, and then spiralled down, examining the oil terminal closely. Fortunately, she was looking in just the right direction when the enemy mage erupted through the ceiling of one of the buildings, two large fire elementals in tow. She turned to flee at once, not wanting to engage at three to one odds. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him gathering magical power into his hands, forming it into a bolt of killing power. He shaped and compressed it, and then flung it at her – much to her surprise.

Casting spells on the physical world was taxing, and could over stretch the mental faculties of any mage if they threw too much into it. But, overdoing it normally led to a monstrous headache, nosebleeds and possibly passing out. Casting in astral space was a whole different thing. It required far more power to shape the energy and channel it, and the effect on the astral form was to tear it apart. Unless you were prepared for the backlash of power, and had your faculties ready to drain the effort, it would open physical wounds, rend flesh and could kill.

The mage was casting a bolt of mana at her, strong enough to kill her – but in doing so, was running the risk of killing himself as well. In the split second she had before the bolt hit, she dived to one side and then down into the water – risking whatever critters might be in there, but safe in the knowledge that those fire elementals would NOT follow her there, and hoping the mage would not risk a pursuit without his guards. She felt the bolt scorch into her astral form, and channelled all of her own power into defending against it. With a rush of adrenaline, she deflected and absorbed the power, disrupting the bolt of mana and sending shards of ethereal lightning in all directions.

She skimmed down to sea level and accelerated hard. Her astral form rocketed across the surface at maximum speed, heading arrow straight towards her destination. Somewhere she knew the exact location of, and somewhere with strong significance to her. Moments later she over-flew the Chechen camp, flying through the area next to her former prison, not caring if she set off any wards or was seen… mostly hoping that if anyone was following her they would draw exactly the wrong conclusion about where she was from.

She continued forward and around in a massive loop, stopping several times to check for pursuit, before arriving back at the truck about fifteen minutes later.

Tadibya explained why she’d been gone so long, drawing a few glances as she explained that she’d been to the terminal and been spotted. They were most interested in her description of the Chechen camp though – a burnt out ruined set of huts, with wooden gallows erected in the middle of the former clearing, on which hung over two dozen bodies. A number of ravens had been chattering, watching from the mountain side, obviously attracted by the smell of the flesh, but daring not approach.

And the huge white tiger sitting nonchalantly on the base of the gallows, gnawing on a body part. The tiger that had immediately looked up as her astral form approached and flew through the camp, and had watched her with emerald green eyes.


	39. 039 - A helping hand

Date 07/01/2060, Location 39.79745, 54.50386

Aswon raised a query, looking at Tadibya through his dreadlocks.

“This Tiger. It saw you, in astral space? It had the sight? You are certain?”

“Yes. It definitely looked at me, tracked me as I passed. I’m certain it was watching me. I didn’t pick up any hostility from it, but it was definitely watching me.”

“I do not like this. I feel… I feel like it is judging us. And I do not know why.” He shrugged, and then shook his head, the thick mass of dreadlocks flowing around his head like a miniature maelstrom.

The sat phone rang, before anyone else could speak. Marius checked the code, and tossed the handset to Hunter.

“Your friend in Denmark.” Hunter caught the phone deftly, and squeezed through into the back of the truck, thumbing the answer button as he did so.

Whilst they waited, the rest of the team queried Tadibya on what she had seen – was it the same Tiger that Aswon had seen just before the assault that lead to their breakout? Tadibya said no – this one was far larger, like a full grown adult – perhaps three metres long from nose to tail, with an off-white fur and black stripes – and most definitely not like a zebra. Luminous emerald green eyes, and fangs a good fifteen centimetres long.

They chatted for a few minutes, then Hunter reappeared from the back.

“Ok boys and girls, I have good news, and I have bad news… hope you’re sitting comfortably, as this news may change things a little.”

“As we know, Dekita Oil is owned by Fuchi, a triple-A megacorporation. All is not well with Fuchi though. Started some eight months ago or so, when some security manager at Fuchi got hold of four million shares of Renraku series-A shares, and jumped ship. Renraku in a few weeks started pumping out some nova-hot software. But slot this – in nearly every case, they stole the thunder from an upcoming Fuchi release, pipping them to the post, and costing them Billions of Nuyen. BILLIONS. A month later, they start doing the same with hardware. Fuchi went ballistic, accusing Renraku of corporate espionage in the courts, saying that this dude Lanier was responsible. All kinds of political shit throwing going on, and in the end Lanier was forced to sell his shares and quit from Renraku to avoid the issues. In the meantime though, Fuchi had lost a massive amount of their market share, and the rest of the megas had stepped up their efforts to poach from them. They’ve lost something like fifty percent of their corporate assets over the last six months to black ops and runs.”

The rest of the team listened carefully, their eyes getting wider as they listened to the account of the corporate raiding going on, and the amounts involved. This wasn’t so much a Corporate war as the circling of the weak by predatory animals.

“Now bear in mind, they’re still a mega-corp. Fingers in every pie, massive assets. A cash flow that can buy small countries if they need to. They’re suffering, but they’re still in the fight, still dangerous. Desperate sometimes, but still with a nasty punch. Anyway, after this dude Lanier got sorted, Richard Villiers who was one of the head honchos, in charge of all the American assets, made an announcement a while back, saying he was resigning. Turns out he was one of the three big wigs with most of the prime stock – the other two being two Japanese guys. They fell over themselves to try and buy out the assets from Villiers, but there’s some crazy levels of inside trading going on. Dust is still settling from this one, but it seems that Villiers has managed to keep most of the plum assets himself via some shell corporations and ventures, and has set himself up some new company called “Novatech” and is busy working on some new high tech gear – with the best facilities that Fuchi used to own in the UCAS and CAS. So following that, they’ve lost about twenty-five percent of their company to this guy. Oh yeah, and he’s got himself a new security director…. Goes by the name of Lanier. Yup, the dude with the Renraku deal. The whole thing smells like Billingsgate on a sunny morning.”

Several of the team looked confused at the reference.

“Take me word for it, it smells bad, ok? Right, so all this has been going on, and now the blood is really in the water. According to Julius, black ops against Fuchi’s remaining assets are at an all time high, and they’re really suffering. And they’re being hit everywhere. Globally. So that’s going to have some serious implications for us. Whatever we do, they’re going to respond very violently, and harshly, as soon as we kick off – they have to. But, balanced against that, they’ve got the local assets, and that’s it. There is no reserve, no one they can call for help. Everything Fuchi has, is out in the field, trying desperately to hang on to what they have. So, any assets we can take out of action, is effectively irreplaceable.”

Hunter glanced around the group, seeing nods and agreement on their faces, and paused for a moment to take a drink. Nobody asked any questions, so he resumed his briefing.

“And now the bad news. You know Espirit? The third company down here? I’ve just done a little digging into them, to find out what they’re up to. Turns out they’re a subsidiary, too – of Saeder Krupp.”

Marius fixed Hunter with a stare, his lips pursed thin.

“Yep, your friends from Germany. I’ve picked up a little scuttlebutt about them – for one thing, they provide the security force for Kum Dag as part of their corporate police business. Explains why Johanna doesn’t want us anywhere near town. But the forces around their business assets are also equipped pretty well, and work on an armoured cavalry model – very fast, hard-hitting and precise strikes. They don’t have the armour or defences for a stand up fight, but if they get the drop on you, or are the aggressors, they’ll hit you like a hammer. I scanned a couple of documents, and their strike vehicles are more like the Maersk one we saw – very fast and manoeuvrable but lightly armoured, but equipped with top end electronics and weaponry. Small teams, responding fast and patrolling aggressively. I don’t think we want to go near these guys personally. On the other hand, if we can get in and launch a hard strike against Dekita, and then pull a fade, it will be EXACTLY the kind of operation that Espirit would do, which makes it a much better cover. Anyway, I transferred over a grand to Julius for the information, as he’s also sent over some high resolution maps of the area for me. They don’t show the pipelines – they’re just too small to show up on the sat scans he has access to, but the pumping stations and well heads do. And they match with the information Marius got from his flight.”

Hunter sat back, taking another slurp of his tea and relaxed as the team digested this information. 

Shimazu looked like he was just about to speak when Tadibya sat bolt upright in her seat and gave a cry of alarm. Eyes snapped to her, and several of the team snatched at guns when they saw the expression on her face.

“Something’s attacking the wards! Astral intruder, on the truck, NOW!”

She scanned the inside of the truck, and then bolted for the door, clambering over Hunter who was reaching to the weapons rack on the ceiling to recover his assault rifle – for all the good it might do.

Aswon followed suit, calling for Shimazu to follow him, jumping down to the sandy floor below. Tadibya spun around and glanced up at the truck, and saw the large spirit on the roof, clawing at her ward and battering it down out of the way. It was quite large – as powerful as her, she estimated. It was also not a spirit she recognised. It definitely wasn’t an elemental – they were easy to spot and quite similar. But this didn’t fit in as a spirit of the land, or of the air – it seemed like a strange mix of the two. It glanced over at her as she probed at it astrally, but didn’t seem to react to her presence or take any action – and as she assensed it, she detected no hostile intent from it. Despite which, it finally ripped a hole in the ward big enough to fit through, and vanished into the cab. She grabbed the ladder and climbed up quickly, pulling the door open and climbing back into the cab as fast as she could, leaving a startled Aswon and Shimazu outside, both of them looking at the hazy air that showed where the powerful spirit had been.

Inside the cab, the spirit pointed at Hunter.

“Ahah! Found you! I succeed!” And with that, it started to claw at the ward which had sprung back into position behind it. Tadibya tried to engage it with conversation again, but it ignored her, forcing itself through the ward and then once outside throwing itself into the air and disappearing at high speed.

Thoroughly confused, the team were all trying to talk to Tadibya at once, trying to work out what was going on. The babble of voices rose as they talked over one another in the confusion, until she shouted at them to be quiet. She held her arm out, as accurately as she could in the direction the spirit had departed, and asked Hunter to work out a bearing. He busied himself, taking a reading from his internal GPS system and trying to work out where it was going. It certainly wasn’t towards Dekita or Iran, his two biggest worries at first.

The noise subsided, and Tadibya recounted what she had seen, describing the spirit and its appearance, and saying that no, she didn’t recognise the spirit or the signature of the spirit or its owner. Hunter pulled up a map on the screen, indicating possible locations, assuming the spirit was going straight and not flying a deception pattern – and straight in the middle of that bearing was Tashkent.

Ideas were thrown out – the Chinese Triads? The Mafia? The strange Frenchman? Almost certainly not the weird mountain spirit from Iran. Before they could get much further with the discussion, the spirit appeared again at the front of the truck, decelerating from its top speed with a suddenness that was only possible in the magical realm. A split second later another form arrived, obviously tailing the first – and this one Tadibya did recognise – it was Spangles, the brightly-dressed mage from the team they had been observing at the temple dig site. A moment later she was joined by another astral form as Wee-Woo joined them. They hovered in front of the truck, facing towards it and waited with an expectant look on their faces, and then one after another they manifested, their astral forms appearing on the physical plane, visible to the mundane members of the team.

“Helllllooooo? You in the truck? Where’s your captain? We need to talk, it’s urgent!” said Spangles.

Hunter pushed open the top hatch and turned to Kai with a big grin on his face.

“I think it’s you they mean. Time to do the diplomacy thing, boss!” With that, he grabbed Kai around the waist, and with a heave from his arms, propelled him up out of his seat and out of the hatch. 

Kai flung his hands onto the hatch sides to steady himself, and looked down at the trio of visitors.

“Hi there. So, um… how can I help you? Excuse me one moment,” with a look down into the cab, “can you get your hand out of the crack of my ass, thank you,” then back at the trio, “sorry about that. You need some help, you say?”

“Yes. There’s been, well, um…. there’s been an incident back at the dig site. We need some help. And seeing as you already know about it… it seems like you’re the best option. Can you come back to help us out? We’ll pay… well!”

Aswon and Marius stared at Kai, waiting for him to turn down their visitor, informing them that they were in the middle of a job, and not available. Their faces turned to one of horror as that refusal didn’t come.

“What sort of help do you need?”

“We need you back at the dig site. There’s been developments, and some of the team are trapped. Please, we need help as soon as you can. Will you come?”

Kai looked down into the cab, then back at the visitors.

“Just give me a minute.” He ducked back inside the vehicle. Marius and Aswon were already shaking their heads, but Hunter, Tadibya and Shimazu were just watching him.

“We know these guys were better equipped than us. Sure that means whatever they need help from might be above our weight. But if we can help them out, they’ll owe us a massive favour. If we can get their problem fixed, and they come to give us a hand with this, we can mess Dekita up like you would not believe…”

The team looked at him, Marius and Aswon aghast at what he was proposing. They looks turned even sourer when they saw the others nodding in agreement with Kai and his “logic”. Kai popped his head back up and turned to face the three astral images.

“Ok, we’ll come. But we’re going to need some assistance afterwards.”

Spangles nodded in agreement.

“Hurry though, please. As fast as you can. We’ll be waiting for you.”

One after another the three astral forms departed in the blink of an eye, speeding to the east.

Hunter and Marius were plotting a route, though Marius looked again like he was sucking a lemon, obviously not enthralled at the idea. Soon enough though, the reverse route was plotted, and they were on the way, heading down the main road at their best speed. They hadn’t gotten far when the astral form of Wee-woo appeared on the road before them. Marius swore and slowed, pulling over to the side of the road in response to her frantic waving.

“Is this as fast as your vehicle goes?”

“Ja. Is there a problem?”

“I will help you travel faster. Be ready to accelerate.” With that, she was gone.

Marius pulled out again, a definite look of displeasure on his face now, and pushed the accelerator to the floor, working up through the gearbox as the truck lumbered up to its top speed. Just as he hit third gear, the engine noise changed, and the truck lurched forward as some force started to push on it. His readouts started to flash red as the engine reported data out of normal bounds. Somehow the engine was sucking in twice as much air as before, the high pressure ramming through the engine and increasing the power available. 

“Tads? Is this you? Or that Wee-woo messing with my truck?” Tadibya looked in astral space, and saw the powerful spirit behind the truck, pushing it along, its legs a blur of motion. As she extended her senses she detected the spirit at work all over the vehicle, lending its aid to improve the movement of the truck. It deflected the air ahead and reduced the drag felt by the flat face of the truck, and rammed more air into the engine intake, providing plenty of oxygen for combustion, as well as working to reduce friction against the road.

“Err.. thank you. Did Wee-woo tell you to do this?”

“QUIET! BUSY. PUSHING.”

Tadibya let Marius know that yes, it was Wee-woo messing with his truck. He was probably going to go pretty quickly, and there wasn’t really much she – or he – could do about it. Quickly the speed shot up, far quicker than normal. The truck accelerated past 70kph, 80, 90, 100. By now it should normally be at top speed, struggling to accelerate the mass of the vehicle at all. The readout continued to climb, up past 130, topping out there for a second before displaying “Err”. They continued to accelerate for another minute, until the night desert was whipping past them at a ferocious rate. Hunter checked his GPS, watching the numbers update, and tapped some figures into his Pocket-Secretary.

“I reckon about 160kph. Ish. Bends are going to get interesting.” He reached round for the seatbelt and buckled in, cinching it nice and tight. The rest of the team followed suit silently. “Still, we’ve got about sixteen hundred klicks to go, so about ten hours, if we keep this pace up. Should be interesting. And we should get there about dawn tomorrow, I reckon.”

Tadibya nodded. “Good. The spirit will almost certainly disappear at dawn, so we’ll lose any aid it’s giving us. Unless she summons another to send as a replacement. In the meantime…let me see if I can help conceal us to give us a smooth passage.” She concentrated, summoning a spirit of her own, and asked it to conceal the truck from outside view. It was not as powerful as the one pushing the truck, but every little helped she reasoned – and she did not think that suffering an ambush at this speed would go well.

The night was still, the desert calm. A few creatures were startled from their night time scavenging as the five tonne truck hurtled past at an insane rate. They passed little traffic, the few vehicles they did mostly crapping their pants as their sensors reported the truck advancing at an improbable rate when they finally detected their passage past the spirits concealing magic. Marius’ physical body flopped in the seatbelt, the slackness of his body belying the concentration as he kept the vehicle on the road as it twisted through the desert. Thankfully it was mostly straight or smooth sweeping bends. There were some tense moments as they passed through the occasional town, and Marius had to back off the truck’s power almost entirely to bring them down to a manageable speed.

As the sky turned to a slightly lighter grey, the “nautical twilight” where you could just start to tell the difference between colours, the truck took the hard right turn from the main road onto the route up into the mountains. The rest of the team which had been dozing were jolted awake as Marius fought against the laws of physics, taking the corner on three wheels and trying to stop them from tipping over. As they wound their way up into the mountains, they flashed past the mine and the dam, alerting sensors on both sides and drawing the attention of watcher spirits as they flew past at twice the speed limit. They were gone before they saw any response though, leaving scrambling security teams on both sides to stare at each other across the no-man’s-land between them. Shortly before eight, they arrived at the valley again, and the engine pitch of the truck sank several octaves as the spirit withdrew its power before vanishing entirely. Up ahead, they saw the dune buggy driving towards them, driven by Mamma-Bear, with Spotlight, Spangles, Wee-woo and Topshot riding along. They pulled up sharply, waiting for the truck to approach. Marius drifted to a halt, checking over his systems and watching as temperature and pressure gauges slowly started to return to normal. Nothing seemed to have broken, but some of the readings reported on the diagnostics seemed a little off. He could probably do with getting the truck up on a ramp somewhere to check everything out and make sure he hadn’t over stressed the chassis. For the moment though, everything seemed more or less ok – but it was not something he cared to repeat in a hurry.

The other team waited for them to climb down out of their truck, then greeted them. Aswon stood back a little, giving himself some space just in case something kicked off.

Spangles took the lead, and started to explain what was going on.

“We’ve got half the team down there, trapped, and we can’t get them out. There’s something down there, something tough – and we can’t get to them to rescue them. We need some help, and we need it fast. And you guys already know what we were doing, so you’re the best option at the moment.”

Kai nodded at her. “What are you facing? And whereabouts are they?”

Spangles started to talk, then waved to the camp. “Come on up to the base, it’s easier to show you.”

They climbed back aboard their respective vehicles and headed up to the tents, Aswon riding the outside of the vehicle and looking around the valley with interest as they drove the short distance to the camp.

As they moved under cover of the tents, they spotted the large tripod-mounted autonomous gun systems had been moved, and were now facing the temple entrance, rather than guarding the valley. They exchanged glances, whilst Spangles bought up a trid-display, showing a computer-generated sensor map.

“As you know, we were excavating down into the temple complex. We’d cleared the first sub level out almost completely, and made that safe.” As she talked them through the activity they had watched, they saw the computer-generated map build up as more sensor data was fed into it, with a time stamp rapidly advancing and showing their progress over a few days.

“We’d cleared around here, and got to the spiral staircase here, and had cleared down that. That’s where we found the first barrier and the trap – released a jet of caustic acid that snarled up Blaster pretty good…” she glanced up and saw the team nodding, “… ahh, I guess you were watching our response on that bit. Anyway, we were done with that and were down on the second level here, and had found a strong ward across here. Wee-woo and I had dealt with that, and we’d found some more artefacts and information here, and here.” The team peered at the map, noting the spots she described, and the twisting subterranean tunnels of the complex.

“We found another barrier, just across the entrance to this room. We’d just taken that down, when it attacked. 

Aswon spoke up first. “When what attacked?”

“It might be easiest to try and show you, rather than describe it.”

She concentrated hard, and the air above her shimmered as she gathered the energies of the massive trid-phantasm that shielded the valley, and reshaped it. Across the side of the valley, a shape erupted from the scree slope. It was vaguely bipedal, with long spindly arms ending in vicious looking three-clawedhands. The legs had multiple joints, and bent in disturbing ways, as it bounded across the rough ground between them. The faint morning light reflected off the green carapace and the spiny protuberances, and a spray of black ichor erupted from the slavering mouth. It accelerated hard, and figures appeared between it and the team, spraying fire from rifles and machine guns. Rounds could be seen impacting on the carapace and ricocheting wildly off, the carapace apparently being incredibly tough and resistant to damage. A figure burst into the scene, bearing a resemblance to Slapdash. It flipped and spun past the arms, delivering a mighty strike to the thorax of the creature, but the blow seemed to have no effect. The creature swiped at him, catching him across the chest and spinning him like a limp rag doll to the side, where the body slid into a wall and fell in a crumpled heap. It continued to bound in great leaps towards the team, and just before it reached them it exploded into a million tiny pieces, which floated up and into the air, before they once again formed the magical phantasm above them.

“That’s… that’s pretty much what it looked like. And that’s how much effect our guns seemed to have on it. It drove us back, separated us. And it’s got half the team down there. We think they’re still alive, down in that chamber. But every time we try to get back in there to get them out, it drives us back.”

“Who’s trapped down there then?” asked Kai. “Everyone not here?”

Spangles nodded. “Yes – Rocket, Digger, Blaster, Slapdash and Geo.”

They talked some more, the team trying to find out what was in the temple, where exactly they were, and how long ago this happened. Spotlight, Spangles and Mamma-Bear seemed pretty despondent, obviously distressed about their missing party members. Wee-woo seemed strangely immune, but also had a very odd outlook on life – seeing things in very black and white terms. They were not dead, so they were alive. Alive was good, so there was nothing to be upset about. 

Topshot, too, seemed distant… or possibly emotionless. She wandered over to Aswon, and pointed at Aswon’s rifle, slung over his shoulder.

“Your rifle. Show it to me”. Her French accent lessened the abruptness of her words, making them sound less harsh. Aswon unslung the rifle, and with a small hesitation, handed it over, keeping a careful watch on her. She grasped it carefully, checking the safety was on, but still keeping her hands away from the trigger. Her hands brushed over the embossing gently, and she caressed the walnut stock, fingers gliding over the aged wood in a sensual manner. She turned away from the group, and bought the weapon to her shoulder, letting it naturally fall into place, and sighting down the barrel, held the pose for a moment, and then relaxed, and turned back to face him. “It is beautiful.”

“Yes it is, and I’d like it back, please.” Topshot gave a tiny little smile, and handed the rifle back to Aswon. With a shrug, she loosened the sling on her own rifle, and then swung it around, reaching with her arms to grasp the body and lifting it over her head and round to her front. She grabbed the monster rifle in both hands, and held it in front of her.

“MacMillan, TAC-Cent. Rotary bolt action, custom fitted. Thermo zoom scope. Smartlink-2. Extended magazine. Class 3 muzzle break. 1.5m, under 13kg loaded, guaranteed under 0.4 MOA with approved ammunition. Plasti-compound stock and body, immune to thermal creep. Accurate, and efficient. But sometimes, I wish to have some soul, too.”

Aswon nodded, and tried not to stare hungrily at the beast of a rifle held just before him.

Hunter meanwhile was being much more mercenary. He’d spoken with Mamma-Bear, and was checking the other team’s ammunition stocks out. All of their heavy weapons had a copious amount of anti-vehicle ammo it seemed – Teflon-coated tungsten penetrator cores in lightweight aluminium/magnesium cases. Unfortunately, the team didn’t really have any weapons they would fit in. He did find some anti-personal rounds, and without asking, grabbed two full magazines worth, one for him, one for Aswon. He and Marius did a quick check of the drones, establishing their capabilities, and checked out the remote gun turrets as well.

Marius tried to remain impassive, but couldn’t help but be a little impressed. Each of the tripod turrets was a fully autonomous robot system, with a highly advanced “smart-frame” piloting system. Designed to operate on their own, they could be programmed with multiple mission parameters and could make complex decisions about when and how to engage. The picture fed from the gun cameras back to the central station were sharp, clear and very detailed, and the sensor data was top notch – these were clearly top of the line units, lifted from some military catalogue.

Over the course of an hour they thrashed out a plan. Spangles was a powerful mage, it seemed, but not skilled with combat spells – her talents lay more in hiding and obscurement, and making magical defences. Wee-Woo was much less powerful, except when it came to her spirits – some kind of Aboriginal ancestor spirit that seemed to capture the essence of old miserable people perfectly. 

The temple crew had powerful fixed defences, miles of fibre optic cable – but not enough warm bodies now. Under cover of a horde of spirits and summoned magical wisps, they would try to get one or two of the gun turrets down into the second temple level, and set them up to cover the corridor, then slowly push down to try and engage the enemy – whatever it was. If they couldn’t kill it, they would try to supress it long enough to dash in and grab the rest of the team, and do a fighting retreat back outside. Spangles had indicated a large quantity of explosives on a pallet, and signified her willingness to blow the entire place and seal whatever it was underground – once she had her friends back.

Nobody seemed too happy, but it was the best they had.

As they were preparing to go inside, Topshot tapped Aswon on the shoulder.

“You are going in there? Your rifle, it will not ‘elp you much.”

“Yeah, I’m going in there. And no, I’m not happy about it. But I’m going anyway.”

She studied him for a moment, and then began to undo her clothing. Aswon stared at her for a moment, completely befuddled.

“Is this really the time for…” he started, but was silenced with a stern look. Topshot wriggled out of her ghillie suit and held it in her arms, pulling out the control box to show Aswon.

“Here. Controls for the imagers. Push ‘ere…” she pushed, and the scanners on one side of the suit gathered the picture, and relayed it to the ruthenium polymers laced into the other side. A split second later, the suit vanished, as if invisible – perfectly recreating the scene on the “other” side of the fabric. She pushed the other button, and it reappeared. “You can give it back to me when you return.”

Aswon took the proffered suit in silence, his mouth agape. Their eyes made contact, and Topshot nodded, as she saw the gratitude in his face.

They started to make preparations for the descent into the temple.


	40. 040 - Into the depths

Date 08/01/2060, Location 39.79745, 54.50386

Mamma-bear distributed screamer tags – small plastic bracelets with a coded signal generator in them that constantly broadcast an identifying signal. The sensors on the guns would… or at least should pick up on those and not allow the sentry guns to fire at them.

Wee-woo and Tadibya moved to one side and called to the spirits, summoning a number of watcher spirits. Once they had half a dozen of the wisps summoned, they each summoned a spirit of the land, using their magic to bargain for its service.

When the shamans had completed their summoning, they gathered for a last-minute briefing, studying the map one last time. Spangles described on the map where they had been, showing the position of the ward they had defeated on the second level down of the temple. She recounted the blur of events, the shapes in the darkness, the movement, the panic and running as they were driven back by an assault from some creature barely seen. It was obviously hard for her – and for the rest of the dig team – bringing back memories of unpleasant times.

Kai’s team exchanged looks, all thinking along the same lines. This team were too well-equipped, too smooth, too experienced to just fall apart in the way that Spangles was describing. That meant that some creature was almost certainly using magical means to cause fear, panic and terror in their heads. Something powerful enough to overcome their magical defences and strength of will. It did not bode well…

The team grabbed the long spool of fibre optic control cable, and one of the sentry guns, and moved in to the first level, entering the dark doorway exposed in the rent of the mountainside. As they passed into darkness, they could feel the change in atmosphere. The stonework was ancient, dry fitted with no mortar and was of fine workmanship. The stone was a light grey, worn smooth with the passage of time, dry and cold as the bones of the mountain surrounding it. Once past the entry chamber, they moved down passages that stretched nearly four metres high, lending a cathedral like echo to their footsteps. The walls were covered with ancient mosaics and friezes, depicting scenes of battle, pastoral scenes, and abstract works of art. Many of them were faded and damaged in some way, tiles missing or with cracks running across them from the shifting mountain.

As they passed side rooms, their lights illuminated for a moment the contents – burial jars, carvings, frames, and bowls – made of wood, metal and clay, they all seemed as ancient as the temple itself. Footsteps and track marks in the dust showed where the dig team and their drones had moved around them, but mostly they lay undisturbed.

As they passed through the passages they saw a series of holes in the floor. Fearful at first, several of the team approached cautiously, and shone lights down into them. They were perhaps twenty-five millimetres in diameter, and about a hundred millimetres deep, smooth and obviously worked. Most rooms and passages had at least two, sometimes more of these holes, but they couldn’t fathom their purpose – but they did not conceal anything, or lead to anywhere. Whilst they were examining these, Tadibya wandered over to a wall and spotted a torch bracket, and let her hands drift over the stonework, comparing it to that of the wall. It was old – still hundreds of years old – but it didn’t look as old as the temple itself. Odd. She shrugged, and sensing the others moving further in to the temple, followed them.

They reached the wide pit of the stairwell, and glanced over, staring down into the depths. Their lights illuminated the large angular slabs of stone descending in a spiral along the outer wall, a meter wide. A stone column, intricately carved ran down the centre of the six meter wide space, and stone arches flared out from this to support the inner edge of the stair well in a loose spiral pattern. There was no inside handrail, and the beam from the lights was swallowed by the darkness as they shone their torches down. The team started to spread out, moving down the stairs cautiously with weapons ready for action. Wee-woo asked her spirit to materialise in the physical world, and to carry the sentry gun down to the bottom level. It appeared in the form of an ancient Aboriginal elder, wrinkled skin stained with long life, and with most of its teeth missing, but it grasped the gun easily despite the considerable weight, and then just stepped out into the void, slowly floating downwards. Mamma-Bear and Spotlight played out the cable behind it, ensuring that it didn’t kink or catch. The rest of the team moved down, sticking to the outer wall, and moving quietly.

Back on the surface, Marius sat in a comfortable chair, his remote deck connected to the other end of the fibre cable. He was jacked in, his body slack and unmoving as his conscious mind was projected through his rigger interface into the construct of the weapon. He wasn’t controlling the gun – he *was* the gun. And right now, it felt odd. His “feet” reported that they were out of contact with the ground, and his view swung wildly from side to side as the spirit carried the weapons platform down. It induced mild motion sickness, but there was nothing he could do about it. A warning window appeared in the top of his view, and with a mental command he accessed the subsystem and examined the data. A moment later he bought up his comm utility, and sent a general broadcast to the team.

“Achtung. Be aware, that I’m starting to lose solid lock on your comm signals. Indications are that it’s not anything hostile, just the depth of rock you are travelling through. Expect intermittent comms signals from here on, depending on position.” He listened, and caught a number of responses back, some clear, some badly garbled – but enough got through that he was happy his message had been understood.

The spirit reached the bottom of the shaft, and started to move the gun forwards. He saw the team flatten themselves to the walls and then move around the corner into the passage, bounding forward in pairs to cover each other. His sensors reached out and mapped the temple in the IR and UV spectrum, and radar, lidar and ultrasound created a complex and precise 3d map around him that he compared to the visualisation and map provided. He saw one of the team guiding the cable around the corner of a dog-leg in the passage, feeding the cable carefully to allow the spirit to continue its forward motion. He reached a larger chamber, and felt the spirit lower his three legs to the ground, feeling his foot spikes bedding into the stonework, questing for grip. The stonework was a little smooth, not allowing much purchase, so he manually set an upper limit on his rate of fire, bringing down the cyclic rate of the heavy machine gun to ensure that recoil wouldn’t send him skittering across the ground and ruin his shooting. There… perhaps six to seven round bursts, with a two second delay – that should do it. He ran a full sensor scan, and picked up the faint return of more tags, bouncing off the walls and passages, indicating they were somewhere ahead. He busied himself with signal path analysis, trying to pin down the exact locations, and calling the team with a sub-window to advise them of his progress.

The team meanwhile had followed the gun down the passage, and started to bunch up. The walls here were darker, made of a different material, or coated in some way. There was a dampness to the air, and a slick film of water clung to the stonework. The temperature had dropped noticeably as they descended the stairs, and the water made the stonework slippery in places, slowing them as they continued their advance. The air was more oppressive down here, and there seemed to be an aura of menace to the place. As they moved into the large chamber and fanned out around the sentry gun, their lights played over the walls, circles of yellow illumination highlighting geometric designs with complex patterns made out of thousands upon thousands of tiles. They quickly scanned around, finding this repeated on all of the walls – no murals down here, no pictures. Just row after row of patterns on the walls. 

Aswon keyed on the ghillie suit, and moved past the sentry gun, slowly gliding into position in the long corridor leading towards the target location. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, as he slid around a corner, his mind horribly aware of the blackness behind him, the passages that could contain anything, just behind his back. He stared forward though, reaching with his senses, trying to see or hear anything he could. And just on the edge of his hearing, he made out a noise, quiet sobbing. He activated his comm, advising the rest of the team of what he had heard.

Tadibya and Wee-woo nodded, and called their spirits, sending them forward as a pack to find the rest of the dig team, and then come back to them. The two larger spirits nodded and moved swiftly into the darkness, surrounded by the less substantial and smaller forms of the watcher spirits. Each of them were less powerful, less robust and less intelligent – but there were many of them, forming a mass of bobbing targets that would need to be dealt with individually.

And they were.

Moments later, Wee-woo and Tadibya winced, feeling their spirits being attacked and destroyed, one after another. Whatever was ahead of them was definitely able to access the astral plane, and was powerful. It dealt with the spirits one after another, without encountering too much resistance it seemed.

Only a few spirits made it back, from the pack they had sent – but it was enough. They described what they had found. One of the team was in the chamber they had previously seen, on a stone table at the edge of the water in a large room – just inside where the ward had been. The other four were located in the next chamber over – reached by a pair of small passageways from the first. The information was distributed around the team, and they did a last check of their equipment. Squaring shoulders, they headed for the passageway leading to the room.

Aswon waited for them to reach the corner and take up a covering position, then jogged forwards, trying to remain quiet, but moving as fast as he dared over the moist stones, heading for the next corner. He threw a quick glance into the room, and then turned to cover the corridor. Moments later, Hunter came barrelling past, into the room to cover his back, followed by Shimazu. Spotlight eased up the wall on the other side, on the blind side of the corner, standing with his light machine gun held in two massive hands, with Tadibya, Wee-woo and Spangles behind him. Aswon heard people examining the room behind him, describing some kind of well and plinth, but no threat. Kai bought up the rear, checked around him and then waved to Aswon.

He bounded forward again, feeling the stares of the rest of the team on his back as he made for the next corner, this one leading into a larger split level chamber. Taking a chance he moved at speed around the corner, hoping there was nothing in his way, and ran for the small flight of stairs up to the second level. Climbing the metre or so up to the raised level, he turned and sighted down the passage, calling to the rest that he was in position. He saw Hunter, Shimazu and Spotlight moving up to support him, their lights casting reflections of the dark stone wall.

Something flashed in the rubbish and detritus to his side, a glimmer of something metallic, caught in the reflected light of Spotlight’s gun. He spared a quick glance and confirmed – something was buried in the mass of pots, rubble and old clay things, something made of metal. Cautiously he swept the area clear with his foot, whilst trying to maintain his cover on the corridor. Another glance down, and he spotted a long, bronzed spear, now exposed in the junk on the floor. He activated his comms.

“Tads, Aswon. Found a weapon in the room. Long spear. Might be magically trapped or something. Can you come check it?” He waited for an acknowledgement, and then moved forward slightly, getting a better line of sight. He could see the last dogleg twist in the corridor now, and spot the place where the ward had been. The chamber, and the first rescue target was just out of sight.

Shimazu moved forward on the left, with Spotlight on the right, Hunter just behind Shimazu, and the mages still following Spotlight. They moved forward cautiously, but deliberately – aware that the longer they waited the worse it would be for the people they were rescuing, and the longer they gave their foe – whatever it was – to prepare.

Shimazu was advancing with his katana held in a ready position in front of him, his stance wide. Every step was a shuffle recognisable to any martial artist – designed to move quickly, but without crossing the feet and losing his centre. He suddenly stopped though, standing stock still – right in the centre of Aswon’s sight picture. Aswon waited for a moment, then hissed at Shimazu to move. His prompt went unanswered.

Slowly though, the sword tip descended, moving in an arc through the air with a slow, deliberate finality, until it hit the floor with a tiny metallic sound. Shimazu’s head dropped, until he was staring down at his feet, and his shoulders slumped. Somehow, he looked frail and weak to the others, and a pall of failure and despair enveloped him. There was a moment of silence as the others stopped moving, watching Shimazu to see what would happen. A jarring noise was heard, as the tip of the sword scratched across the surface of the stonework as Shimazu’s hands began to tremble with emotion.

Tadibya was the first to respond, suddenly starting to slap her thigh rhythmically. Once she had a beat going, she started to chant, at first in Nenet, but then swapping to English. She called out words of encouragement, to him, then repeating a mantra over and over, “You can do this.” The trembles lessened, but did not stop entirely. Kai moved up slightly, and spoke, his voice echoing off the walls and resonating in their ears. His adept powers shaped his voice, the low tones pitched so they were as much felt as heard. His voice carried a great timbre and power.

“Shimazu. Move up.” The words seemed to linger in the air, winding themselves around him like the smoke from a fire. Echoes lasted a second longer than they should have.

With a deep ragged breath, Shimazu’s head came up, and he stared down the passageway into the darkness. The sword tip raised, returning to the guard position, and he resumed his shuffle forwards. There was a hesitation to his movement still – he quite obviously still feared something – but he pushed forwards regardless. At the back of the group, Spangles started to gesture and weave a spell, pulling mana to her and throwing out a phantasm. Suddenly the walls rippled and changed, Instead of the moist and dull grey stone, there were now bookshelves. Aged, warm oak shelves, illuminated by bright yellow lamps. The books were leather bound, and dusty, but inscribed with titles in gold and silver, glinting in the yellow light. The scene became less oppressive and dismal, seeming just a little more cozy and unthreatening. Kai nodded to her and smiled, and Spangles returned the gesture sharply, concentrating on holding the spell in position. Spotlight even found enough reassurance to crack a joke.

“At least this one looks convincing, Spangles!”

The walls rippled for a moment, and suddenly every book changed. Instead of dusty leatherbound tomes, there were sex toys, of every colours, size, shape and material imaginable. Some of them wobbled on suction cup bases, some of them vibrated and buzzed across their shelves.

“You make one little mistake, just once and they never let you hear the last of it,” sighed Spangles theatrically. Spotlight and Wee-woo chuckled, obviously getting the “in-joke” whatever it was. A wave of the hand, and the books returned, and the mood sobered.

Shimazu moved forward again, and Hunter followed him for a step or two, then froze himself. The big orc stood stock still, and his jaw muscles could be seen flexing as he ground his teeth together. The colour drained from his face, leaving him pallid and corpse-like, and his hands gripped his assault rifle tightly. He, too, trembled, and then between gritted teeth he managed to speak.

“Can’t you mages do something?” This seemed to drain him of energy, and he started to shake more violently. Tadibya and Spangles peered into the darkness and concentrated, taking on the glassy-eyed looks of people peering into astral space.

“No, it’s not a spell. It’s some kind of natural power, there’s nothing we can do directly to stop it – whatever it is!”

Kai took a deep breath again, and commanded Hunter to advance, twisting his words to sink deep into his subconscious. Between this, the illusion on the walls and Tadibya’s chanting, he seemed to gain some measure of control again, and he resumed his tactical advance.

Spotlight was affected next – shuddering and trembling as he entered the range or vision of whatever their assailant was. Kai’s reassuring words were more general, lacking any real knowledge of him as an individual, and were less effective. He pushed through, but looked badly rattled. Wee-woo was not so lucky – her bottom lip trembled, and tears ran down her face as sobs of guilt and disgust shook her, and then she let loose a shrill scream, turned on her heel and ran. Kai shouted at her, but his words had no visible effect, and she ran down the corridor back the way they had came.

Kai realised that this was also likely to affect the rest of the team, and they needed to push the pace, so he strode forwards. As he too crossed a threshold, he too felt fear and panic trying to enter his mind. Warned by the activities of the others, and given chance to mentally prepare himself, he concentrated hard and pushed through. Maybe their assailant had reached the limit of the number of people they could affect. Maybe he was just lucky. Maybe he had a will of steel under the smiling and irreverent façade. Whatever, he pushed through, brushing away the panic trying to burrow into his brain, as if he was brushing away toast crumbs.

“Let’s get in there, shall we?”

They pushed forward again. Tadibya headed into the side room to meet with Aswon, and he gestured towards the spear. She examined it carefully, peering at it and extending her astral senses to assense it. It was certainly magical – the whole spear formed a foci for astral power, and she could only guess what powers it contained or how it had been made. It seemed dormant at the moment, and she could not sense any powers or spells on it – no traps or triggers waiting to go off. She said as much to Aswon, but he still looked dubious. With a deep breath, he reached down, paused, closed his eyes for a heartbeat, and then grasped the spear. Nothing happened. Hefting it, he adjusted his grip to the centre of balance, and then hustled out of the room, following the others.

The rest of the team had moved forward a few more steps, and then abruptly they all paused simultaneously – the feelings of dread fear vanished from their minds, as if a switch had been thrown. A moment’s respite, and then they burst into action, throwing themselves sideways or ducking, as an incredible deluge of missiles erupted out of the darkness and flew towards them. Pots, tablets, bowls, cups, stray bits of rock – whatever loose material was lying the room was thrown with force across the room to them. Shimazu, Hunter and Spotlight took the brunt of it, raising arms to shield their faces, with debris shattering on their armour and coating them with dust and fragments.

They pushed further into the room, looking for a mage with a levitate spell or some other creature of that nature in the darkness, trying to localise their enemy so they could deal with it. The barrage continued for a few more moments, but when it was clear that it was having little effect against the heavily armed runners, it stopped as suddenly as it had started.

Hunter had spied the form of Blaster, face down on the stone tablet, laid spread-eagled. Rivulets of blood ran down the stone and poured into the water below, and his sobs were faint and barely audible. He charged forward at breakneck speed, taking his chances with the slick flooring. Kai and Tadibya charged after him, Shimazu moved to secure his flank, and Spotlight and Aswon moved around the other side of the large pond to cover the other side of the room. Just as Hunter reached the body and started to lift him, the surface of the water bubbled and roiled, then exploded into a shower of frothing pink foam.

The thing that erupted from the dark liquid was a horror from man’s darkest fears. Easily two or three metres long, the part they could see anyway, it was a sickly greenish-blue, covered in chitinous plates, with sharp spines bristling in all directions. Multiple groups of long tendrils were spaced around the creature, flowing out towards the team members with fluid speed. Each of the tendrils were easily three metres long, ending in a series of rasped and sharp looking barbed claws, coloured a milky white. In between each of the tendril pods were clusters of eyes arranged in a hexagonal pattern, large black orbs staring at them with alien menace, each independently moving to look at the intruders to its lair.

Spotlight skidded to a halt, and his massively hewn arms held the Ares Valiant machine gun rock steady. His smartlink sent the firing command, and bullets spat out of the gun in a long steady burst, flying across the room and striking the creature, whatever it was, in a tight group. The creature was made of something unearthly though – not skin, it was incredibly resilient – the rounds impacted but then bounced off at an acute angle, making a high pitched “spang”, striking the ceiling and walls and dislodging shards of rock. 

Shimazu grasped his sword in two hands, and moved in to engage the creature, covering Hunter from the questing tendrils. On the other side of the room, Aswon quickly slung his rifle and grabbed the bronzed spear, having seen how little damage Spotlight’s concentrated burst had done. He moved opposite to Shimazu, and attempted to flank the creature. The room descended in chaos, with people sliding over damp stones as they raced around the room to engage or to avoid the tendrils that whipped and flailed around the dank air. Both Shimazu and Aswon flinched and weaved, desperately trying to get into attack range past the long slender fronds, trying to hack at the beast. Towards the entrance, Tadibya raised her hands, channelling mana through them and trying to levitate the creature out of the water. She grunted with the effort, the creature far heavier and denser than she was expecting, but it started to rise up slowly from the water. Several of the tendrils lashed out on the stonework, adhering somehow to the damp surface, holding it down in position – but this created a small opening through which the others could strike.

Aswon evaded, then skidded forwards and jabbed with a spear, sliding the blade into an eyestalk and triggering a rasping guttural scream. In return a wild swipe from the tendrils took his legs out from under him, dropping him heavily to the floor. He was unhurt, but slightly winded, and had to roll back to avoid a follow up attack whilst he climbed to his feet. Shimazu likewise strode in and smote at the creature, his sword flashing through the air and into the tendrils near the base of the cluster. The blade sawed through three or four tendrils most of the way, causing a frenzied response of thrashing. Hunter got to within a few feet of Kai and almost threw the Orc to him, sliding on his heel and then pushing on his powerful legs to explosively drive himself towards the back room and the rest of the prisoners.

Up on the surface, Marius twitched as his sensor feed picked up Wee-woo, closing on the tripod. What was she doing? She ran towards the turret, grasped the barrel with both hands, and then started to heave, dragging it across the stonework with a shrill screech.

“Nein, nein!” he muttered, and then paused – thinking he could see what she was trying to do. She grabbed the gun and laboriously repositioned it directly in the corridor, aiming down at the cross passage they rest of the team were fighting in. As she did so, he got a better signal on his sensors, and saw the frantic motions of the screamer bands, indicating a chaotic melee taking place. He wavered for a moment, then threw the gun onto automatic, and disconnected from it, pulling his consciousness back up the cable to his deck. After a moment sitting in the overview mode – what most people thought of as the “captain’s chair”, he connected to his VTOL drone and threw it into start-up mode. The readouts fluctuated wildly as he applied power, barely waiting for the thrusters to hit minimum power before he accelerated into the temple. With a flick of a mental hand, he ramped up the flux, raising his amplifier to high power and blasting the temple with signal. The last thing he wanted was to have a network dropout and take a massive backlash of dump shock as his mind was dropped from the network. 

The drone was nose-down, accelerating quickly. Marius focussed hard, reading the data from the sensors and lamenting the lack of fidelity he now had – the difference between his drone and the other teams were marked – along with the lack of range and additional sensing mediums. The drone reached the stairwell, and banked on one side before the nose dropped and he shot down into the darkness, throwing the drone into a tight spiral pattern to navigate around the arches that connected the steps to the central column. There were a few close shaves, but seconds later the drone bottomed out, the VTOL thrusters blasting a sooty patch onto the stonework as he almost belly-flopped into the floor. He picked up speed again, banking hard to get around the sharp turns in the passage and to dodge around Mamma Bear, who was fiddling with equipment, before entering the room with the sentry gun – which Wee-Woo had just about finished moving. She flinched as he entered, then turn and ran back past him, towards Mamma Bear and out of sight. He ignored her and banked into the passage, and was most of the way along before Kai appeared with Blaster in his arms.

Marius throttled back the thrust and went into a hover, and then keyed his intercom.

“Kai, put the body on the drone. It should be able to handle the load if I max out the thrusters, and I can stretcher him out.”

He saw Kai nod, and carefully position the body over the drone, gradually letting more of the weight settle over a few seconds. As he did so, Marius increased the thrusters, ramping up the power settings to keep the drone hovering level. He was right at the redline on some of the power systems, and wouldn’t be able to do this for long – but hopefully long enough. Kai grabbed a bag of O neg blood from his first aid kit, jabbing the cannula into a handy vein, and then pushed the bag under the body. The weight of the body should continue to push blood into him and keep him stable until they could treat him properly. Two rapid wound packs were applied over the slits in his body to stop the blood flow and then Kai stepped back, clearing the thrust zone. Marius slowly turned the drone, and then with careful precision started the journey back to the surface, considerably slower than the descent. Behind him he sensed Kai turning and running back into the melee…

Back in the room, the chaos continued – Spotlight continuing to try and find a weak spot on the creature with his machine gun, so far without effect, whilst Shimazu and Aswon engaged in melee. Several more glancing wounds had been struck against the creature, and it appeared to be struggling somewhat now – but was still holding its own against them with the advantage of the enormously long and vicious tentacles. Hunter was returning from the back room with a soporific-looking prisoner trailing mutely behind him – neither helping nor hindering.

Aswon gave a great cry of triumph as he managed finally to evade the tendrils with a feint, and then thrust the spear deep into the soft tissue surrounding one of the eye stalks, driving the blade into the flesh and opening up a large gash. His cry of triumph abruptly changed to one of alarm, and then pain though as viscous orange fluid sprayed from the wound in an arc. He instinctively raised his arm to shield his face, and when the blood hit his armour, a loud hiss could be heard, even over the sound of combat. The armour disintegrated in seconds, dropping in globules to the stonework below and continuing to dissolve. Aswon shook frantically, trying to dislodge the armour from him before the vile blood reached his flesh, but the look of pain on his face showed that he wasn’t completely successful. 

Shimazu saw the beast shudder in pain, and likewise drove in to add his own damage. He too stabbed and slashed at the creature, but forewarned by Aswon’s experience he was ready for the explosion of acidic orange blood from the creature when he managed to rupture some organ, and dodged out of the way fluidly. Hunter and Kai ran past him again, going for the last three prisoners, whilst Tadibya continued to struggle with her spell and Spangles appeared to be locked in some effort. She gestured at the people surrounding the creature, and they suddenly sprang into two, then each of those into two more. The mirror images danced back and forth, also attacking the creature. The eye stalks tracked back and forth, trying to keep track of the extra apparitions. Forced to split its attention, Aswon and Shimazu managed to get a few more attacks in, dodging the tendrils and opening up cut after cut in the creature. Orange ichor now dribbled from numerous wounds, and it started to visibly slow in its responses. 

A few more haphazard strikes back from the creature and with a great cry of anguish, it suddenly thrashed and sunk into the pool, disappearing out of sight. Tadibya broke out into a sweat, pain creasing her forehead as she tried to prevent it fleeing with her spell, but it was too powerful and too heavy for her to hold. Aswon and Shimazu stood ready, spear and sword held at a guard position in case it returned. Spotlight continued to pump bursts of fire into the water, for whatever effect it might have. The others returned with the remaining prisoners, leading them like docile sheep towards the entrance, their hands still bound in ancient chains of tarnished metal.

As the prisoners reached the threshold of the room, the water started to roil and bubble again, waves driving the water over the edge of the pool and soaking the room to all four walls. With a roar the creature surged up out of the water again, tendrils scything through the air in an arc that threatened to dismember anything close by, forcing the team members back before its fury. The wounds it had taken were gone, the damage repaired somehow, and it moved with lightning speed again. Aswon and Shimazu fell back, shouting at the team to move, to run, and then concentrated all of their focus on the beast.

Something was different this time though… the back carapace of the creature split open, the large plates of thick armour sliding apart and a huge prehensile tail unfolded from within. It arched up and over the creature’s back, like a scorpion’s stinger. The barb at the end was easily a third of a meter in length, a deep purple in colour with a small globule of bright orange fluid leaking from the end. The tendrils thrashed around, trying to entangle Aswon and Shimazu, to pin them in place and allow the stinger to strike.

“Faster! Go, GO, GO!!!” they both cried, forcing the team to pick up the pace and frantically fighting to prevent the tendrils from lashing around their limbs. There was no thought of attack now, they were fighting purely defensively, desperate to avoid becoming entangled in the creature’s grasp. The thing heaved after them, more of it protruding from the water until they could see hairy legs, too many to count, grasping for purchase on the lip of the trough, ready to propel the creature after them.

The team backed away quickly, pushing the prisoners and remaining just out of reach of the tendrils, running as fast as they could for the corner and the support of the heavy sentry gun…


	41. 041 - Escape from the depths

Date 08/01/2060, Location 39.79745, 54.50386

The team ran past the sentry gun, flinching as they did so despite their presence of their screamer tags. All it took was one little mistake in the program, one error in the sensor suite…. But no. Their tags were interrogated, and they were found to be “friendly”, and the robotic brain held fire. Not so a scant moment after Shimazu, last in the line, cleared the line of fire. With barely a warning whine from the motors, the gun suddenly kicked in with a long burst of fully automatic fire. A stream of bullets spat through the air and pummelled the creature that was rounding the corner behind them, propelled on a host of spiny legs covered in barbs, propelling the nebulous bulk of the creature forward like a millipede. The heavy 12.7 mm rounds punched into the carapace, their heavy weight and massive kinetic power defeating even the thick chitin and otherworldly defences of the creature, and it began to ooze acidic orange blood that marred and dissolved the stonework around it. More importantly perhaps, the force of the rounds impacting on it drove it back against the far wall, impeding its progress towards the team. Alien screams echoed off the damp walls, sending the team scurrying for the stairs.

As Shimazu ran through the archway, he almost bumped into Mamma-Bear, who was carefully counting people out onto the stone steps. Her large hand physically clapped him on the shoulder.

“Twelve, I make you last one out, that right?” she demanded of him

“Yeah, no one behind me, from either team,” replied Shimazu. Mamma Bear pushed him round her with a heave, onto the stairway, then turned back to the archway. Shimazu was about to complain at being manhandled, but then he focussed on what she was doing, watching her for a second as she pushed a series of igniters into the large square blocks of plastic taped all around the archway. There were at least thirty of them, about twenty centimetres long and at least ten centimetres deep and high, all the same slightly sweaty-looking blocks, with wires trailing from igniters pushed into the ends of each block. All the cables trailed back to a digital readout showing a glowing red “30”. Mamma Bear pushed the last pin in, and her hand started to move to the single button next to the readout.

Shimazu saved his breath for running, and bounded up the stairs, not taking long to get caught up with the back of the main group, about three-quarters of a turn up the stairwell.

“MOVE IT! FIRE IN THE HOLE!” he bellowed, gratified to see everyone immediately pick up the pace. He pushed and cajoled them forwards, helping to support the weight of Geo and trying to propel her faster. He heard loud footsteps behind him, as Mamma Bear pounded up the stairs behind him. She caught up, just as they exited the stair well into the main corridor and started to run to the exit, the team trying to hold weapons and kit, and propel the rescue victims as well. They were almost to the door when a thunderclap echoed through the temple, and the ground heaved explosively. They staggered, hitting the walls and flinching as dust flew past them, propelled up and out of the passageway by the enormous blast wave rippling up the stairs. One side of the corridor split, the rock shearing from floor to ceiling and revealing the fractured bedrock behind it. As the aftershocks died away, they all continued to move towards the entrance, trying to avoid any small falling rocks, and casting fearful glances at the walls of the temple.

Nothing further happened though, and they burst out into the valley and the cold morning light. Shambling forwards, they half dragged, half pushed the rescued team with them, away from the entrance, until they were past the waiting sentry guns, still tirelessly watching the entrance.

Aswon passed over his charge, and then dropped to a knee, laying the bronze spear beside him and grabbing his rifle, which he trained on the entranceway. He looked like he meant to stay on over-watch, presumably to try careful aimed fire at particularly vulnerable spots of the creature, whilst the heavy guns kept it busy. The rest of the team pushed on, moving towards the gazebo and getting the former prisoners sat down in chairs, ready to be examined.

Tadibya moved over to Blaster first of all and examined him closely. The emergency blood transfusion had done its job, propping up his failing cardio-vascular system and keeping him alive until now. She didn’t think there was much more that the medics could do for him, his body being as weak as it was, and he still looked touch and go. Taking a deep breath, she started to gather the mana from the valley around her, glad that it wasn’t some toxic zone or barren land with tainted mana. As she gathered her power, she glanced at his body on the astral plane, noting the dark and sinister looking patches of cyberware in his head and chest, some in his arms. The ‘ware was unnatural and lowered his wholeness, making it harder for her to channel the healing energies through him to where they were needed, much like a plastic case covering a copper wire prevented electricity from flowing through it.

Golden energy flowed out of the palms of her hand, floating across the short gap between them as a series of coloured streamers that ebbed, flowed and twisted as if being blown by the wind. They sank into his flesh, making it fluoresce briefly as the energy vitalised and renewed his body. Skin glowed more brightly and the shallow breathing became deeper, steadier and more wholesome. His lips, which had taken on a distinctly blue tinge, became ruddy again and filled out slightly. Tadibya staggered back a little, breaking contact, and a bemused look crossed her face, swiftly followed by a frown and a wince. She shaded her eyes, and sat down with a heavy thump, graceless and with little comprehension of the situation around her. Spangles came over with some painkillers and a small bottle of water, handing them over to her. She looked at them confusedly for a moment, then her mental faculties caught up, and she downed one, then the other, with a murmur of thanks. Spangles gave her a look of sympathy, and then moved back to examine Blaster, who was now merely asleep with exhaustion, but looking more wholesome and normal than when they had found his form.

The rest of the team were gathered around the rescued dig team, along with Spangles, Wee-woo, Mamma-Bear and Spotlight, examining the soporific forms of Rocket, Digger, Slapdash and Geo. Kai asked who their medic was, and snorted when several of them pointed at Digger and Geo, before he and Shimazu started to examine the four runners. They quickly realised that all four of them had an identical wound, just above the breastbone – a puncture wound, about three millimetres across. It was located in an identical spot on all four of them, and was the only visible sign of injury other than a few scrapes and bruises that from the colour and character had clearly been caused by the flight from the temple.

They examined the puncture would carefully, feeling a little on edge and uncertain. It appeared to go right through the outer dermis and tissue, and was starting to scab. A little clear fluid seeped from each one as they were examined, but there was no bleeding. The wound looked quite deep, but there was tissue at the bottom of the wound.

“Have you checked over the team before, magically I mean,” asked Tadibya, as she turned to face Spangles. “Would you recognise something wrong with their aura if you saw it?” Spangles considered for a moment, and then nodded, then turned to face Rocket and peered at him. She stared for a few seconds, her eyes taking on that familiar glassy look of someone staring at something not quite normal – then abruptly gave a shriek and jumped back a pace. Her hands were raised towards him, and she almost gibbered.

“There’s another thing in there with him. Something else alive. All coiled up inside him, wrapped around him. Touching him… his shakra I mean. Merging with him.” She shuddered and paled, looking as if she was going to be sick for a moment as her gorge rose in her throat. “I’ve not seen anything like that before, but that’s definitely not what he should be like. She examined the others, and confirmed that they all appeared to be the same – some kind of parasite had entered through the puncture wound and was now wound around their organs.

Kai put his head on one side as he considered the situation.

“Well, we can’t leave them in them, and we can’t magic them out, can we?” He glanced over at the mages, who all shook their heads at him. “We could try and get them to a hospital down in Tashkent, but I’m not sure how good it would be, and if they can be trusted to keep their mouths shut.”

Mamma-Bear raised herself up to full height, and started to stride towards the truck, glancing back over her shoulder as she did.

“Give me five minutes… we might have something that will do the job, quite nicely.”

Sure enough, she returned a few minutes later, and beckoned for everyone to follow her, including bringing the four unresponsive team members. They were guided or carried over to the back of the truck, and Mamma-Bear climbed into the load area, which was still fairly full of boxes, all of which carried an Ares logo somewhere. Sitting about half way down the trailer was a large and complicated-looking device, with a host of display modules, servos, readouts, keypads and jacks festooned all over the outside. Marius looked over and whistled – recognising the Valkyrie module immediately. He turned to the others and explained about the tele-surgery module, the robotic controls and expert system that was capable of performing minor surgery on its own, or acting as an assistant whilst a remote surgeon controlled the mechanism via an implant – able to perform surgery from a continent away.

Digger was loaded into the module, and the machine entered the diagnostic cycle. A few minutes later it spat out the output, much of it flashing in amber or red, indicating severe or life threatening issues to do with blood chemistry, brain wave activity and respiratory distress. They tried selecting from the menu options to get the expert system to deal with the parasite, but the inbuilt limitations prevented the pod from working solo due to the nature of the injuries and potentially lethal nature of the surgery. Kai and Shimazu exchanged looks, and realised they were going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. They’d delivered a baby, and that went ok, how hard could it be to remove some alien parasitical creature that had infested a body anyway?

The answer was “quite hard, thank you very much”. It took nearly an hour for Kai and Shimazu to control the robotic module and drive the device in through the wound to slowly cut away and pull out the strange worm-like creature. Several of the legs or cilia were tightly wound around nerve endings, parts of the lungs, or were inserted into the spinal column, and it was painstaking work to remove it cleanly with no residue left behind or damage caused to the host.

Whilst they had worked, Hunter had asked Mamma-Bear to get them some kind of sealable container to put the creatures in. She returned a short while later with a resilient looking plastic box, treated with some kind of coating, and a large carboy of liquid.

“Nitric acid. Should do a number on’em.”

Hunter raised an eyebrow, then remembered that she’d not seen the creature down in the temple, spraying the concentrated acid it used as blood. He shrugged. It would either work, or it wouldn’t – and if it didn’t, he had a blade with a good edge on it…

Finally Kai and Shimazu were done, and extracted their tools and probes from the body, dragging out the half metre long worm from the body, and transferring it to a set of tongs. Mamma-Bear carried it over to the acid in the container.

“Maybe we should keep it, whatever it is. Might be worth something. Pay for a lot of lost gear and injuries I suspect… “ People turned to look at Shimazu with a look of horror on their face. “Hey, it was just a suggestion!” 

Tadibya peered at it astrally, trying to determine what it was – and regretted it almost immediately. The thing was alive, alien, and felt voracious. She felt it questing towards her, tendrils of something evil trying to latch on to her mind. A nameless fear paralysed her, and she could not bring herself to break the link between them. She felt it touching her head, the cilia stroking and soothing her, trying to find a way inside.

Hunter had his hand on his blade, and a handspan of steel showing, when Mamma-Bear snorted and opened the tongs, dropping the creature into the nitric acid. It frothed and started to dissolve almost immediately, thrashing back and forth as the fluid attacked it.

Tadibya slumped, a trickle of blood seeping from her left nostril. The efforts of healing Blaster must have drained her resolve more than she had thought, and this mental attack left her feeling weak and even further drained. She stumbled away to sit down, furiously rubbing at her temples. The others checked on her, and she described the feeling of malevolence given off by the thing, and how it had tried to reach into her mind. Her words put paid to any notion of keeping the creatures alive.

Over the next four hours, the remaining team members were operated on, one after another. Each followed the same pattern, finding the creature infested into the person and wound around their lungs and spinal column, requiring a delicate touch to remove. As they were working, the level of drugs in the module dropped rapidly, and by the time they got to the last patient, Slapdash, it was out of several key substances, making the surgery even harder. Kai and Shimazu persevered through, and eventually it was done, and they watched the last of the beasts dissolve into the acid bath, joining its fellows. 

Tadibya had recovered her senses after a couple of hours rest, and the painkillers had done their job. She moved from one of the patients to the next, and the golden light of her healing spell reached out to each in turn. Digger and his ‘ware were somewhat difficult to heal, but the worst of the damage knitted together under her hands and the ministration of her magic, leaving him sleeping naturally with only minor internal bleeding. Rocket and Geo were slightly easier to treat, and her healing left them only lightly wounded, the puncture wound nothing more than a fading patch of new pink flesh. Slapdash was the easiest – the adept having no foreign substances in his body and nothing to impede the flow of magic. The golden energy engulfed his whole body and all of his wounds were healed, leaving him whole and untouched.

When the healing was complete, she summoned a watcher spirit and asked it to try and go down to the temple and check on the sentry gun. The small spirit pranced towards the dark opening, its simple mind too fearless to realise the danger of what had been asked of it, and she watched it disappear into the depths. With that job done, she moved away and found a patch of earth and sat for a while, trying to regain her centre and contemplated what she had seen.

Topshot had appeared during this process, and had recovered her ghillie suit from Aswon – not without some longing looks from him. They had chatted for a few minutes, before she had come back to the truck to check on her boss. Rocket was sat up in a chair, still looking a little pale, but with much of his character back. He made a rolling motion with his hands as he looked at the rest of his team, and then said “One hour.” Seeing some of them moving stiffly, either with pain from the recent surgery, or fatigue from the rescue mission, he changed his mind it seemed, “Best make it two, and let’s go steady”. He watched for a moment to make sure that everyone was ok, and then turned his attention to Kai and the team.

“So, you came back. Guess that’s a good thing for us… but why?”

Kai recounted the arrival of Spangles and Wee-woo, after their spirit had found them, and their impassioned plea to come and assist. As he spoke Rocket cast a look over at Spangles and a warmth touched his features. The warmth faded as Kai described their exploits into the temple and the horror of the creature they faced. Hunter slipped forwards and played some of the footage captured during the rescue. It was jerky, and of poor quality – given enough time it could easily have been faked up by any halfway competent graphics team. But Rocket knew they had not had the time for this kind of thing – and the footage also had a raw and visceral quality to it. Unless they were all fiendishly good actors as well, the screams of combat and the yells of fear were too real to be a fabrication. Rocket let his glance flit from one member of the team to another, regarding them steadily for a moment, committing faces to memory – and high density optical storage - before turning back to Kai.

“I guess thanks are in order. And some kind of reward probably wouldn’t go amiss either, I think.”

The rest of the team stepped back discreetly, giving Kai and Rocket some room to negotiate. They spoke for about ten minutes, ending their conversation with a handshake. Rocket rose, a little stiffly, then moved to help his team pack up their base, whilst Kai returned to the team. They looked at him expectantly, waiting to hear what he had negotiated.

“Seems these folks work directly for Ares – sort of a given based on the amount of their stuff they have. One of the Ares mapping sats noticed the earthquake and the temple, and asked them to come in and take a look around, on the quiet side. Rocket works with most of them directly, but Digger and Geo were sort of retired, and Wee-woo and Blaster are new it seems. Anyway, they thought they had enough for a simple recon mission, but got a little caught up in the investigation. Either way, they’ve probably got enough footage and stuff from the first level of the temple to get paid, but that’s not going to help us.”

Kai held up a hand as he finished speaking, watching as several of the team went to speak.

“However, after a little chat, Rocket seems to think they’re going to be in such a rush to pack up their gear, they may get a little clumsy and accidently leave some behind. They’ll probably be able to expense it back in, but he thinks it might be useful stuff. Practically kicking himself he was, about how clumsy they can get.”

The conversation was interrupted as Tadibya zoned out, listening to something that no one else could see. They watched for a moment, to see what was going on, and then her eyes refocussed.

“Good news, I think. My watcher spirit can’t find a way down to the bottom level – too much earth and rock in the way. That means that whatever is down there probably can’t get out either – not without astrally pressing through tens of metres of rock and such like, which could take most of a day. So, I think it’s trapped in there.” Kai nodded in thanks to Tadibya.

Rocket’s team moved efficiently and quickly, even with their injuries, and had the camp broken down, their gear loaded and their supplies back into the back of their cavernous truck in just over two hours – but there was a noticeable number of crates and boxes left in a small mound in the centre of the valley. They climbed aboard their truck, and the engine started, but a moment later, Rocket climbed back down, and approached the team with a large plastic case. Walking up to Hunter, he lifted the case up in both hands, and extended it out to him.

“Want you to look after this for me. Treat her right, though.”

Hunter took the case with a neutral expression. It weighed a good few kilos, and looked like a transit case for a gun. The Ares Macrotechnology logo was imprinted in the plastic on both sides, so it seemed like a good bet anyway.

Rocket walked up to Marius next, and then reached into his inside pocket, pulling out a small plastic card, like a playing card, sealed in a clear bag.

“This is for the team, but I think you’ll figure out what to do with it. Hope it covers things.”

Marius took the proffered card, turning it over in his hands to examine it. It had a bright blue border, and a picture of some kind of jet fighter plane, along with various technical details – and on the back it proclaimed it was a “top trump card” – whatever that was.

Rocket shook Kai’s hand, bade the team farewell, then returned to the truck and climbed into the passenger side. Without any more fuss, the truck pulled out smoothly, trundling down the valley bottom and towards the road at the bottom. The team waited and watched until they were out of sight, and then turned to examine the pile of loot left behind. The first thing they did was to check over it with a bug scanner – just to be sure. They didn’t find anything, so they worked on cataloguing the goodies.

First up was one of the R series utility drones. This medium sized crawler had a pair of strong hydraulic arms and a small load bay at the rear, capable of carrying a reasonable weight of equipment. It would be useful for carrying gear to support the team, or to be used as a general utility bot – much like the other team had used it – for construction and excavation and the like. Unarmed and unarmoured, it was a fairly simple drone chassis, but looked like it had been upgraded somewhat to have a larger carrying capacity, and was probably worth about twenty thousand Nuyen.

In the next box was an EIS-200 drone, a small surveillance package attached to a set of thrusters and a large but currently deflated blimp. It looked like the equivalent of the popular “Condor” series of surveillance blimps, and the top spec one at that. If so, this little electric drone was probably worth just over thirty grand, and would provide long-term and subtle surveillance options to the team.

Next up was an Arbiter drone – looking like a smaller version of the more widely known Ares “Guardian” drone, this was an unarmoured vector thrust jet fuelled drone – perhaps the Ares version of a Cyberspace Dalmatian. Faster and better handling than its bigger brother, this drone could handle more weight or a larger weapon – but lacked any kind of resilience. It had a bracket already mounted on it that would accept an assault rifle it seemed, and Marius thought it was worth another twenty thousand.

The fourth box had a warning label on it, and proved to be good news – inside was fifty bars of explosives – one kilo each, of C12 plastic compound with a slightly greasy look to them. Also included were a dozen simple timers with a mechanical twist mechanism and four remote radio detonators. With the right permits, this stuff wasn’t expensive – but it would help immeasurably with their strike against Dekita. Stashed down the side of the box was ten metres of det-cord – incredibly fast burning rope made with the same materials as the explosives that could be used to link together several charges to detonate all at once.

A small plastic bag contained nearly a dozen carved pieces of sandstone, etched into weird little faces. They were given to Tadibya to investigate, and she announced that they were expendable foci, tied to illusion magic. If she used one when casting one of her spells, she could add the extra power contained within to her spellcasting to give her an influx of extra mana to shape, greatly increasing the chance of the spell being successful. She examined them further, and told the team that using one of these would probably add between twenty five to fifty percent more to the chance of a spell working. Tads muttered a quiet thank you under her breath to Spangles, who she was sure was the donator of this little treasure.

Hunter opened his case next, discovering it was a large gun case, with laser-cut foam padding an assault rifle carefully inside. It was of course an Ares rifle, and appeared to be an Alpha Combat Gun. Favoured by Special Forces in the UCAS, it was a sturdy, well-built, reliable and high performance rifle, with an underslung mini-grenade launcher that added a lot of flexibility. This one though looked different in a couple of ways. First up, rather than being a semi-matt black slick finish normally used on top line combat weapons, this was a dull grey plastic finish, rough and quite strongly textured. It felt strong, and seemed to be sturdy and well crafted – just in a very unusual finish. The other glaring difference was a complex looking piece of electronics mounted on the top of the rifle, in the position normally taken up by the top rail and sight.

Carefully checking the weapon out, Hunter gave a broad grin – the top unit was a rangefinder unit that would integrate with the SmartLink-2 system built into the main weapon. With it, he could select a range with a mere thought, and have the grenades launched by the weapon explode mid-air, rather than on impact. It meant he could fire a grenade through a window, for instance, and have it explode just as it passed the window to catch someone sheltering in cover, rather than hoping the grenade hit the far wall of a room and bounced back. The rifle also felt quite heavy in his hands, as if there was a certain degree of internal bracing and reinforcement going on – maybe enough to use it as a club in combat? He certainly didn’t want to think about that much through – this was far too nice a weapon to be wasting as a cricket bat!

The last item as the “top trump” card, given to Marius. It seemed to be some kind of military jet, from a pre-crash era. The picture showed a sleek jet craft banking hard through the air, and it was labelled as a “SU 35 Flanker”. There were several rows of data printed underneath, showing the speed, take-off weight, cost, maximum ceiling etc. As Marius studied the card, his brow furrowed, and he read through the details again, out loud.

• Max speed 2,780  
•   
• Range 3,600  
•   
• Max takeoff weight Kg 51,237  
•   
• Max altitude 57,579  
•   
• First flight 28/06/88  
•   
• Cost 43,5000,000  
•   
Maximum take-off weight fifty-one thousand kilos or near enough? That didn’t seem right… He explained to the others, who seemed equally confused. Tadibya came up with a suggestion – maybe the card was a miss-print of some kind? Some printing error that made the card rare or valuable to a collector? It might be a way that Rocket could pay them in funds that were not electronically traceable?

They considered this, and it seemed to make a certain amount of sense, so the card was returned to the plastic packet and stashed away safely, for future research. With a great deal of effort they managed to stash the three new drones, large box of explosives and their other gear into the back of the truck, and got their own equipment stashed away and got ready to move out.

As they rolled down the mountain back towards the main road, Shimazu got on the phone and called up Odemoyd. He told him that they had new information on the Temple, and that it was important. Odemoyd arranged to meet them at the t-junction where the mountain road they were on met the main road south of Tashkent – obviously not trusting the security of the cell phone that much.

They wound their way down the road, past the mine and the dam with no more than glares and watchful eyes from the two security forces, and were soon rolling through the lower farmlands. When they reached the main road, they saw Odemoyd leaning against the front of a battered car, smoking a cigarette and with a pair of shot glasses and a bottle resting on the bonnet. He greeted Shimazu and Kai, and poured a welcome drink for them.

Back in the truck, Tadibya checked Odemoyd out, letting her astral senses wash over him and looking for signs of deceit or excitement that could be the warnings of a setup. She felt his aura, probing at it gently and found the subtle data jacks attached to his nervous system, a small compartment in his side… and a black malignant cancer in the middle of his chest. She pulled back suddenly, and pondered what to do. The only way she could warn him was to let him know she’d been prying – which was generally considered to be an unfriendly act. She called over comms to Shimazu, and tried to get him to ask Odemoyd about being willing to submit to a scan – for some made up reason.

Shimazu had been speaking to Odemoyd, and had filled him in on the general state of the temple and the nature of the magical threat, trying to keep a fine line between revealing information to their employer who had treated them pretty well and not betraying the other team and the confidences they had shown. At the end of his description, he told Odemoyd that he recommended that he get magically checked out – just to be sure,

Odemoyd, who was adamant at first that he was fine, and didn’t want to be hurt, thank you, refused the offer at first. Reassured repeatedly that the process was not painful, and with it explained that they were worried about what they had found in the temple and this would show if he was in danger, he grudgingly agreed to the process. Tadibya climbed down and made a big show of performing the “magic”, before him, and then told him that he was fine as far as the magic from the temple – but did he know that he had cancer?

Odemoyd took a deep drag on his cigarette, and blew out smoke from his nose. Was she sure? Yes? Oh. What could he do? Kai advised him that nanites could be programmed to go in after cancerous cells, target the disease and eradicate it – but they were fairly expensive. Odemoyd considered for a moment, and then brightened. It was ok… all he had to do was find someone with the right tissue type, in good health – and he would send some boys round. A few shots to the kneecaps wouldn’t hurt or stress the lungs any, then he could just get a straight swap done. 

Tadibya returned to the truck, feeling a little sick that she may have just triggered a hunt for and death of someone, for no other reason than he was unfortunate enough to share a tissue type match with Odemoyd…

Once their business was concluded, they got back in the truck, and set off back towards Ashgabat – again. Their journey was slower than last time, but filled with less white-knuckle cornering and strained sounds. Hunter and Marius split the driving, and the kilometres passed uneventfully. By lunchtime the next day they had made their way back to the city, and found a fuel station to top up at. Their truck guzzled hundreds of litres of fuel into the cavernous tank, costing them over three and a half thousand Nuyen to replenish – but with that done, they were good to go for another long journey. They turned their sights once again towards the oil fields of Dekita.


	42. 042 - Back to the pipeline

Date 09/01/2060, Location 37.97343, 58.39241

The team sat in the cab of the truck, Kai still pulling a pained expression at the damage to the cred-stick from topping off the fuel tanks. Consoling himself with a pack of biscuits purchased from the shop, he got the team back in the truck, and they headed west, covering the last three hundred kilometres back to their previous camp. 

Along the way Tadibya and Aswon chatted about the spear found in the temple. After further study, Tadibya had come to the conclusion that the spear may well be a relic from the 4th age – the previous “up” cycle of mana, and the last time that Dragons were seen, along with Atlantis, Immortal Elves and all the other features that were once more a feature of the 6th world. It was also possible that this was from the 5th world – the “down” cycle, based on the age, which would make it even more notable as it would have required some truly great act to create it. Either way the thing was potentially remarkably valuable.

Aswon by this point was shaking his head emphatically, and had crossed his arms with a sense of utter finality. He informed Tadibya in no uncertain terms – and the rest of the occupants of the truck – that this spear was NOT for sale. Not now, not later, not ever. No. From his point of view, this fitted all of the key criteria from the stories recounted by the tribal elders. It was a sign. It was fate, and that’s all there was to it. The spear had been Found. Capital F. It had been discovered whilst the team were on a rescue mission, and about to fight a great evil. It was a weapon of destiny, and was created for reasons just such as this. It had come to them, and that was Fate. It was not to be disposed of like some trinket to cover their living costs or to buy some new fancy bit of high tech gear. 

As he talked, his hands punctuated each point, his long mane of hair whipped around his face, and his eyes were fixed upon Tadibya like a predator stalking prey. He was focussed and incredibly animated – and certainly most emphatic. It looked like no one really disagreed with him as a general point, but it was also interesting to see him so firm on a matter. He seemed quite happy to not have the spear personally – he was quite clear that if Tadibya wanted it, she had absolute priority. She was the spirit talker, after all. But if she didn’t want it, then he was going to have it, and use it for the purpose it was so clearly designed for. He was handy with a spear, they had found a spear, and they had defeated evil. Fate.

Nobody else had any real opinion on this, so it seemed the default was that Aswon would keep the spear, and no – nobody was going to sell it. The roads were quiet, and without bandits or other interruptions, and just as the light was fading, they navigated back through the defiles and canyons and found the trailer, exactly where they had left it – untouched. The team moved the R series drone and the Arbiter into the trailer, having considered if they were going to need them for the job itself. With the two largest drones moved out of the back of the main truck body, and the EIS surveillance drone loaded into the drone rack next to the Doberman, there was a bit more room to move around again.

Aswon and Hunter checked out the radio detonators left for them by Rocket, and after a quick search on the matrix worked out that they probably had about a ten kilometre range. Not awesome, but not bad – it gave them some flexibility for deployment and sabotage of the pipeline. Hunter also pulled up the larger map sent to him by his friend in Copenhagen, and transferred that to the rollout screen. The team gathered around the map, labelled it up with a scale and started to work out the logistics of their attack with proper explosives rather than jury rigged RPG heads.

After a discussion about how more effective the new explosives would actually be, and determining that for any actual detonation Aswon would need to be the one placing the charges for them to be actually effective, they came up with a plan, and set about it.

First of all, Tadibya would summon a spirit of the land, and ask it to manifest for her to carry out her bidding. Spirits didn’t generally like to manifest – they became wholly present in the “real” world, and as such were much easier to damage and possibly even destroy, than if they remained present in astral space only. With the spirit manifested though, it could physically interact with the world around it – including carrying prepared charges. The plan was to send the spirit over the course of the night to one of the pipelines furthest into the Dekita territory, and to lay the charge over the joint in a pipe and make it appear to be a viable bomb. The spirit would travel without rest, without pause, without fatigue, and would be nigh on invisible to electronic scanners and surveillance. It would be hard to spot, and knew the land and terrain intimately. They would repeat this process a second night, to get another pipeline marked up. When they actually launched their attacks, and blew up a few pipelines on the eastern edge of the territory, Dekita would have to scout them all out – and discover more devices on other pipe and have to treat them as live devices. It should seriously harm, possibly even cripple their operations for some time.

After summoning the spirit, Tadibya and it departed astrally, flying over the desert in a matter of seconds, and Tadibya showed it the first two places to plant explosives, then flitting back. It was ironic in some ways – the journey there and back astrally took only a few seconds, but for the spirit to make the journey in the physical world would take it all night – but it was the only way that it could get there with the explosives in hand…

Once the spirit was en-route, the team planned out their route to the pipeline west of Oglanly. They had identified a small mesa that the truck should be able to reach, which bought them within hiking distance of the pipeline. Hunter, Aswon and Shimazu would make the climb, and then Hunter would take up an overwatch position to cover them, whilst Aswon and Shimazu made the approach run. Once they had reached the pipeline they would set the demo charge, then retire, setting off the charge here via the radio detonator when they attacked the actual oil head the following night. That way there would be more than one place hit, and a very visible and obvious attack between most of the reinforcement troops and them.

The journey to the mesa was uneventful, Marius picking out a safe path through the rocky terrain and climbing the rough trails and wadis carefully, keeping the truck hidden from view as much as possible. He reached position after a few hours, and tucked in the truck to a concealed position. He relaxed and laid back in a comfy position, then launched the mini-blimp, and jumped into the control module. He floated up into the air, and watched the terrain under him as he slowly headed east, searching the terrain for Dekita security teams, looking for routes and planning their assault – and more importantly escape plans for the following day. Kai sat in the back with Tadibya, monitoring the sensor feed and the maps, and the other three grabbed the climbing gear and set off for the escarpment.

The climb was relatively short here, the climb up to the mesa having cut the vertical distance by fifty meters or so. Aswon swarmed up the cliff first, with a lead rope trailing behind him. The spell quickened to his tattoo focus made him stick to the cliff and his movements were sure and certain. He had no real issue reaching the top, even past the soft and crumbly sandstone. At the top he found a large boulder to tie the line around, and then gave the line a couple of tugs to signal to the others – trying not to use the comms if he could help it, just in case.

Shimazu and Hunter swarmed up the rope after Aswon, easily managing the climb with the rope to assist them. At the top, they crouched amongst the boulders and scrubby bushes clinging to the rocks, and waited until Hunter had identified and moved into a good cover position. He checked his assault rifle, then gave a quick thumbs up. Aswon pulled up the rope behind them, leaving it in a neat coil at the top of the pitch, ready to throw over the edge and allow them to quickly descend. 

Hunter scanned through the scope on the rifle as he slowly traversed left to right, looking down the boulder field to the desert, and the pipeline beyond. He had the boost engaged on the low-light function built into his eyes, and was still hard-pressed to make out much detail. The new moon gave almost no light and the limited features of the desert made depth perception a problem. As Aswon and Shimazu started to make their way through the boulders and towards the sandy area, he saw a number of heads pop up, though – goats. A fair number of goats. He triggered the radio and kept the transmission short.

“Watch the goats in the boulders.”

He saw Aswon and Shimazu pause for a moment and peer around them, then slowly start to move again, carefully placing their feet and moving skilfully. They weren’t that far away from him, but even knowing where they were, he was having a hard time spotting them, and couldn’t hear them as they worked their way through the jagged rocks.

Aswon and Shimazu picked their way forward amongst the rough terrain. Aswon would move to a position a few metres ahead of his current location, then pause. Shimazu would then move up to near him, concentrating on remaining stealthy, whilst Aswon watched the area. Once he had stopped moving, Aswon would then move forward again, whilst Shimazu kept watch. It was slow work, but allowed them to move quietly and carefully. 

There was a flaw in the plan though. Shimazu was reasonably perceptive and intelligent, and well-schooled in observation from his training as a bodyguard. He was magically adept, able to control his body well, and having some abilities that bordered on supernatural. What he didn’t have was any form of cyberware or vision modifications that let him see in the dark. Or any broad spectrum or sound filtering abilities to augment his hearing. In those respects he was a Mark 1 human being, that despite being an apex predator honed by thousands of years of evolution and incredibly adaptable – still was poorly equipped for things like hunting at night. That probably explained why he didn’t see the kid, curled up in the lee of a rock, hidden in the deep shadow. And it also explained why he gave a start of surprise when he almost trod on it, and it gave a bleat of alarm as it suddenly detected what appeared to be a huge predator looming out of the darkness over it.

A few feet away, the kid’s mother lifted her head and saw Shimazu standing over her offspring. Following maternal instincts deeply imprinted in her psyche, she lowered her head and charged.

Shimazu saw the movement and had barely started to react when the world just went crazy. Suddenly adrenaline dumped into his system, his combat senses went active and his reactions spiked as he detected a threat. Even his highly-tuned combat reflexes were not equipped to deal with what happened though. Humanity was not the only race to have gone through tumultuous changes during the awakening. Millions of species of animals had also changed during the return of magic, gaining powers and abilities that made ancient stories make a lot more sense. And this particular breed of goat was one of those species. 

Enhanced muscles drove the goat forward at a rate that would give a cheetah wet dreams. It blurred in Shimazu’s vision as it accelerated, his eyes completely unsuited to trying to track a creature that went from a standing start to a hundred and forty kilometres per hour in just a step or two. It couldn’t keep that kind of speed up for long of course – barely a few moments in fact. But that didn’t matter – it still reached the sort of speed normally associated with race cars. It also had a large and heavily reinforced bony plate over its skull, the tissue there thick and adapted to receiving incredible impacts.

The goat struck Shimazu in the midriff, driving the air from him as it hit him like a cannon-ball. The incredible speed imparted significant kinetic energy to him. His armour stiffened as if he’d been shot, and absorbed some of the impact – but there was no way it was going to absorb it all. Neither could he remain standing with that kind of impact. So brutal was the strike, and so unanticipated, that he had no chance to brace himself at all. The jarring hit sent him flying through the air, his cry of alarm piercing the night. His body described a parabola, arcing up to over his own head height, before descending and skidding through the rocks until he impacted onto a large boulder nearly eighteen metres away. He lay there stunned for a moment, before gingerly moving hands to his chest and feeling the large dent in his armour vest and the sore patch that indicated badly-bruised ribs. At least the armour had attenuated the hit enough that nothing was broken. As he got up, he looked around and realised how lucky he’d been in hitting the boulder – another metre or two of sliding and he’d have pitched over the edge of the cliff, and would be looking at a fifty metre fall. He wasn’t sure that even Tadibya’s magic could do anything about that. 

Aswon ghosted back to check up on him and help him back to his feet, and they decided to skirt around the goats, trying to avoid any more mishaps. It took them a while longer to skirt the patch of ground the creatures were grazing on, but it seemed far safer. The last thing they needed was for a number of those creatures to take exception to their presence and kick off.

Aswon and Shimazu worked around the area, and thirty minutes later had reached the sandy area and started to move towards the pipeline in the distance. Now they were in the sandy area they moved faster, trading stealth for speed. With no cover to make use of in the rolling dunes, there was little point in trying to hide, and it made more sense to limit their exposure time. 

Suddenly Aswon froze, and a half second later, Shimazu stopped too. Right on the edge of his hearing, Aswon heard something… the rumbling of engines perhaps? The faint sound of footsteps? He frowned as he concentrated, trying to work out what he’d heard – and wondering if he’d actually heard anything at all. He waited, and then picked it up again – not so much a sound, but now a feeling. There was definitely some kind of vibration….

The ground suddenly erupted, sand sliding down in a cone as something large burrowed up through the sand. Aswon and Shimazu leapt back, sprawling onto the cold desert sand as the creatures pushed themselves up out of the tunnel with multiple legs, large pincers snapping and ripping at them. Grasping for his spear, Aswon fought frantically to keep them at range, trying to evade their clutches. They were perhaps three metres long and a metre high and wide, black chitin reflecting the minimal moonlight from their smooth surfaces. Their large pincers, each a half metre long clacked together and snapped at him, trying to quest around his spear as he jabbed and thrust at them – not so much trying to damage them as to keep them at bay. His attention was drawn to motion, and he swung at the second scorpion as it lunged at him, evading the powerful pincers and the spear scraped down the flank of the creature holding it at bay for a moment. Shimazu had taken a moment and drawn his sword, and now swept in on the flank, and swung down with a mighty two-handed blow that cut through the carapace with a sharp crack, splitting it in half. His sword penetrated, cutting deeply into the flesh and doing tremendous damage. The creature went into a frenzied set of death throes, legs and pincers flailing around through the cold night air. It also distracted Aswon for a vital moment, as he backed away from the flailing. The other scorpion latched onto him for a brief moment with its pincers, holding him in place. The tail stinger arced over its back and the barb penetrated his cheek.

Aswon struggled and flexed, breaking free of the pincers again, and lunged with his spear, spiting the creature from the front. Again, he held it in place, and Shimazu approached from the side and dispatched it quickly with his sword. Gasping for breath, they both stood on the blood-stained sand, with the huge scorpions laying to either side of them still twitching in the cold night air. Aswon raised a hand to his cheek, gently exploring the wound there and wincing at the obvious heat and tenderness. Already his cheek had swollen noticeably, and he thought he detected part of the stinger still in the wound.

He pulled out a lighter and his combat knife, and played the flame over the surface for about thirty seconds, trying to ensure that it was at least sterile, even if it wasn’t heated up much. He sliced open the wound and dug around with the point, trying to lever out the stinger blindly. He felt blood trickling down his face, but it felt odd, like someone was pouring hot water over him. Pressing the flat of the blade onto the raw wound, he hoped it was doing some good, then applied a large pressure bandage to his face and tied it off with sharp movements. His hands trembled with the aftermath of combat, and he turned to see what Shimazu was doing.

Shimazu had sawn through the tail of the beasts, taking their pincers and had placed them in a large plastic bag he’d had stashed in his belt, along with a few more choice bits of eye stalks and mandibles. He saw Aswon’s expression and shrugged.

“Tads likes stuff like this. She can use it for… stuff.”

Hunter meanwhile had adjusted his radio and gave a terse report back to the truck, advising them of the situation. Tadibya lifted from her body a moment later and flitted up to the area, and watched Aswon and Shimazu from astral space, keeping an eye on the area and looking for any more critters.

They headed over to the pipeline, and after checking for sensors and alarms and finding none, Aswon attached the explosive charges on the joint between two sections of pipe, hiding the trigger mechanism in the support pylon. He worked swiftly and quietly, and seemed focussed on his job – which seemed reasonable with two kilos of high quality plastic explosives in his hands. Shimazu watched him carefully, noticing that his hands were now trembling even more, and he seemed to be blinking a lot and sweating profusely despite the cold wind blowing over the desert.

“You ok, Aswon? You’re shaking, and sweating.”

“My heart is racing, and I feel all warm down the right hand side of my body, and my head is throbbing where that thing stung me. I think I need to sit down and stop moving.”

“Give me the explosives, I’ll go set the second charge, you rest. Just try not to move and attract any more of those things…”

Aswon handed over the prepared charges and slumped down to the ground, leaning against the support for the pipeline, whilst Shimazu trotted off into the darkness to find another join in the pipe that coincided with a support pillar. Tadibya flitted back to her body swiftly and called another spirt to her side, asking it to go and hide the bodies of the dismembered scorpions. Calling on a new spirit released the old one from her control, but it would finish what she had asked of it, and it would be some distance away by now anyway. Once the spirit had been dispatched, she projected again and flew up to keep an eye on Shimazu and Aswon, hovering halfway between them. Her spirit arrived, and started to pull the corpses down into the sand, hiding the bodies and any sign of the disturbance.

Just as Shimazu reached the location for the second charge, another pair of the enormous scorpions boiled up out of the ground, pincers clacking and tail stinger arched over the top of their backs. With a smooth fluid motion, Shimazu stepped into the gap between them drawing his blade with lightning speed and then spinning in a complex motion. The sword lashed out, stabbing one straight through the mouth and driving deep into the internal organs before swiftly withdrawing and lashing at the second, taking off the three legs on the left side with a whip-crack sharp strike.

Tadibya saw the creatures clearly on the astral plane, and realised that they were dual-natured – existing on both the physical and astral planes simultaneously. That meant she could affect them, even only being here as a “spirit”. She gathered power and threw a ball of energy at them to stun them, but didn’t throw all of her power into the attack – whilst in spirit form, it was far too easy to damage herself by channelling too much power through her nebulous form. She was disappointed to see the creature shrug off the spell with no apparent effect, but neither did she suffer any ill effects.

The second scorpion gave a squeal of pain and burrowed back down into the loose desert sand, whilst the first thrashed and squirmed as life fled from the body. Moments later the desert was quiet and still again – Shimazu watching with his sword drawn, ichor dripping from the point and clutching the explosives to his chest carefully whilst he scanned the desert. The desert spirit had finished burying the first set of bodies and unhurriedly made its way over to the fresh carcass and started to shovel sand over it.

After a few more moments of inactivity, Shimazu saw and heard nothing, and moved to place the explosive on the pipe. Aswon made it look easy, but it was harder than it looked. First he had problems getting the charge to stick in place, with it constantly sagging and peeling off. When he pushed down hard enough to make it stick, it seemed to pancake out and spread very widely. He had no idea what that would do in terms of explosive power, but there didn’t seem to be a lot he could do about it, so he left it be.

Setting off back towards Aswon, he felt the sands shift again, and rolled quickly to the side before rising to his feet in a two handed stance. The wounded scorpion lurched from the ground, leaving a trail of fluids behind from its crippled legs, and attempted to grapple him with the two large pincers. Wounded as it was, Shimazu had no problem evading its clumsy swing and dispatching it with an elegant blow, leaving a fourth corpse twitching in the desert, to be covered by the silent desert spirit.

He got back to Aswon moments later, and saw that his condition was now visibly worse. He looked like he’d just finished a session at the gym – sweating profusely and looking exhausted and dehydrated. Shimazu helped him to his feet and watched him carefully as he began to stagger back towards the edge of the escarpment. The journey back took considerably longer, as Aswon struggled to move over the rough terrain. Part way back he slipped, and a foot impacted on a loose stone, sending it skittering into the darkness until it hit something with a meaty “thwock” noise, followed by a plaintive bleating. The goat lowered its head and prepared to charge…

Aswon saw this through his shaky vision, and lowered his spear until the haft was braced against a foot and the spear head was pointed at the goat – more or less. It was hard to tell which of the goats he should focus on, but then he realised it was ok – he could point one spear at each. He blinked a few times, trying to get the rocks to stop swimming in his vision, and then cursed as Shimazu stepped straight in front of him. The point of his spear was pointed straight at his back now, and if the goat hit him it would drive him onto the blade. He tried to move, but his muscles seemed strangely lethargic and everything just seems so difficult.

Shimazu stepped in front of Aswon, convinced that he was in no state to defend himself. The goat sprang forward, but he was prepared for the burst of speed and rate of advance this time, and swung his blade down hard on the head even as he sidestepped. The blow caught the goat straight across the brow, slicing through the flesh but then hitting the bony carapace and reverberating almost hard enough to make him drop the blade. Whatever the stuff was made of, it was harder than body armour – it was like swinging his sword into a building or a tank, for all the good it did him. All he achieved was to make a wide cut that bled freely, but he didn’t seem to have harmed it significantly.

With blood pouring down its face, the goat bounded away into the darkness, still doing over a hundred kilometres per hour. A moment later a sound shattered the night air, as if a giant gong had been hit with an enormous hammer. Or as if a goat travelling at high speed with a bony head had hit a strong metal pipe at high velocity…

The spirit appeared at a command from Tadibya, and held Aswon steady as Shimazu tied him to the rope, and then lowered him down the cliff, following quickly afterwards. Hunter remained in position, watching to ensure that nothing was following them, and their explosives were not noticed. At the bottom, Shimazu untied Aswon and helped him back to the truck, again assisted by the spirit. Kai and Tadibya were waiting at the truck, pulling the tall Nigerian up and into the truck, and casting worried glances at each other as they felt the heat of his skin and the rapid but thready pulse.

Gathering breath, Tadibya channelled mana through her hands into his cheek, the golden light bathing his face in a healing glow that removed all sign of the sting wound. It did nothing for his condition otherwise, and prompted a question from Kai

“Why hasn’t it healed him? He’s still burning up, and his pulse is over two hundred according to the med-kit!”

“Magic doesn’t work like that, Kai. It’s very literal. A healing spell heals damage – it doesn’t cure poison. It doesn’t stop disease. It only removes the effects of those things once they’ve happened. I’m guessing that thing has some horrible venom or toxin, and its running riot in his body – but I don’t have any magic that can fix that.”

Shimazu had been rummaging around in his bag for something, and approached them with a small vial.

“Here – give him this? It might help”

Kai took the small brown plastic bottle with the dropper top, and examined it.

“What is it?”

“Remember that guy we found in Quba, near the garages? The one that was trying to kidnap that little girl? Well, this was the drug he was using. Someone said it was a date-rape drug? But it will make him go all relaxed right, and slow him down?”

Kai grabbed the bottle and clapped Shimazu on the shoulder, and quickly administered the drug to Aswon. Within a few seconds, it had a small but noticeable effect. The left hand side of Aswon’s face fell, as his muscles relaxed and sagged, and the tremors on the right lessened for a moment. The readout on the med-kit stabilised and then dropped slightly, but soon picked back up and continued to rise until his heart rate was back up over two hundred again.

Kai shook his head, and applied some more of the drug, and then rummaged around in the med-kit and pulled out a large plastic coated disc. Peeling the protective seal off, he slapped the patch onto the side of Aswon’s neck, and watched the readings like a hawk. Within moments the powerful drugs went to work, sedating and calming the body, and fighting against the effects of the neurotoxin.

The heart rate continued to hover at just over two hundred… but climbed no higher. Worryingly, neither did it fall, but at least it got no worse. Kai got some cold water into a spray bottle and started to mist it over him, and got the doors open and the blowers working, encouraging evaporation and hoping that would both help cool him down, and lower his heart rate further.

They watched him carefully, hoping that the venom would not have any further effects on his body, and Aswon lay trembling on the bunk, hallucinations now in full swing.


	43. 043 - Time to initiate

Date 10/01/2060, Location 39.84492, 54.39949

Aswon twitched and trembled, his temperature up several degrees and his heart continued to race, as his body fought against the potent neurotoxin injected by the Nova-Scorpion. The rest of the team continued to minister to him, keeping him cool, watching the med-kit readings and mopping up the pools of sweat that gathered around him. As the hours crept by, his temperature finally started to drop and his heart rate steadied, then slowly decreased. Dawn broke, and an exhausted-looking Aswon finally managed to raise himself on one elbow and sip at a drink unaided, his eyes lidded and narrow with exhaustion. He winced as he moved, his muscles sore and his body exhausted from the intense workout caused by the violent trembling he had been subjected to.

Kai examined him slowly and carefully, his normal flippancy muted as he made a professional assessment of his condition. He found a number of haematomas scattered around his body, the skin taking on a purple sheen that glistened against the blackness of his normal skin tone. Carefully checking them out, he could feel the blood pockets beneath the surface, pooling where the violent muscle spasms had ripped muscle tissue and damaged the flesh. There wasn’t a lot he could do with this low-level but widespread damage – it was mostly going to be a case of time spent resting and waiting for his body to heal. Or at least, that’s what he told the team.

Tadibya gently pushed him out of the way, and gathered her mental energies again, and then let the mana flow through her, purifying the energy and shaping it. The golden glow emanated from her hands and suffused his entire body, knitting together muscle and sinew, bone and flesh, revitalising red blood cells and fortifying the white, scouring away the dead cells caused by the toxins. Now that the damage wasn’t being caused directly by a toxin or a disease, but was as a result of physical trauma – her healing magic was effective.

Minutes later Aswon appeared to be a new man. He crawled out of the bunk and into the shower, scrubbing away the accumulated sweat and stench before towelling dry and donning fresh clothes. He was tired, but moved without pain or impediment, and set to examining the parts of scorpion bought back by Shimazu, and the venom sacks in the stingers. With no proper chemistry kit to hand, he had limited resources, but it didn’t take much to realise that the venom was some kind of organic compound, either acid or alkaline, that interfered with the neurons and nerve endings when injected. He gathered what he could, working with utmost care, and stored it in a sealed container in the fridge in the truck. It would probably break down in short order, but the cold should retard that. If they could get a decent analysis on it, they might be able to work on an anti-venom or more effective treatment.

Hunter leaned over his shoulder, watching with interest, and raised another possibility… if they could work out how to store it, and keep it safely – it would also make a very interesting weapon to use against targets in the future. The truck was quiet, as they considered that – thinking about the effects that it had wrought on Aswon, and what it would do to someone else.

The day passed without note, Marius having found an ideal location to stash the truck, in a steep-sided ravine. Only a direct overflight stood a chance of spotting them, and they would still have to see through the concealment granted by the spirit Tadibya had summoned. During the day Marius listened in on the airwaves, narrowing down the frequencies used by Dekita. Their transmissions were brief, and encrypted – nowhere near long enough to run his decryption tools on. With a spotter drone set up a few hundred metres away from the truck, he could do some very rough and ready direction finding, and plotted their positions. From the looks of things, they were very simple checks or call-ins, as they reached parts of the pipeline – it could be easily inferred then, that these were the patrols from Dekita, wandering around the pipeline network and checking things over. The comms all sounded routine though, so Marius just gathered more information as he could, on their procedures and patterns.

As the sun quickly sank below the horizon and night fell once more, Aswon created two more demo-charges from their supply of explosives, and prepared two more timer detonators. Tadibya summoned a spirit again, just after dusk, and once more sped over the desert terrain with it, showing it the locations to place them, and then returning to the truck within thirty seconds. The spirit was persuaded to materialise fully in the physical world, handed the explosives, and send flitting across the broken terrain towards its destination.

The team relaxed, planning to doze and relax through the night and the next day, before initiating their plan the next evening, setting off the charges in a sequence designed to throw the enemy into disarray. They were unprepared then, for Kai’s phone to suddenly ring at just after ten in the evening.

“Hello,” said Kai, after hitting the accept button on voice only.

“Ahh, hello. My name is…. Hans. We have a mutual friend, that you are performing some services for. I’m curious as to the status of that mission? We’ve not heard any… well we’ve not heard any loud bangs you see.”

Kai frowned, glancing around the back of the truck at the others, seeing them shrug or look at him expectantly.

“Just to clarify things… what colour eyes does our mutual friend have?” asked Kai.

He listened to the voice as it responded, giving a very detailed description of Johanna, the European dialect coming through clearly as that of a native speaker. The answer was smooth and fluid, and described their hiring contact at Mearsk exactly. It seemed that this was the manager that Johanna spoke of, giving her a cut-out, and Kai saw the others nod as they reached the same conclusion.

“Well, we’re in our deployment phase, setting things up. We’re planning on things getting interesting some time over the next... well, the next few days or so.”

“I see. Well, that should be fine. I wonder if you might be able to warn me before the party started? I’d love to be able to play some music myself, if you know what I mean?”

The team thought back to the elegant aerial dance they had seen when approaching Dekita territory. Was that what Hans meant? Was he going to send attack choppers to go and distract Dekita, or stage a diversion somewhere along the way? That might make their escape considerably easier…

“I think we can manage that, Mr. Hans. Would an hour’s warning be sufficient?”

“Excellent, that will be fine. In that case I will leave you to continue planning your party. Good night.”

The team relaxed, spending the night warm and cosy in the truck – apart from Hunter of course. He was wrapped up in his survival gear, nestled into a tiny alcove between two large boulders, covered in scrim netting, keeping a careful eye out for killer head-butting goats, burrowing venomous scorpions and armed enemy patrols, whilst the frigid winter winds blew across the mesa. Yet at the regularly scheduled contact times, he sounded quite happy, almost as if he was enjoying the experience.

The third day passed as uneventfully as the second for the team. Marius spent a while under the truck, checking over the shocks, springs, transmission couplings, wiring and everything else he could get at, looking for any maintenance work that needed to be done – the last thing he wanted was for some minor, preventable issue stalling their getaway. 

Dusk arrived soon enough, and Tadibya summoned her spirit for the night, calling forth the spirit of the desert again. She flew first towards the point where the pipeline crossed the road, on a raised set of gantries, and then over towards the facility, her ethereal form floating through the crisp desert night on gossamer wings of thought. From on high she saw the concrete pad, twice as wide as the rest of the drilling sites. The grey blobs of concrete and metal constructed objects were clear against the shimmering whiteness of the living earth below and around them. She showed the spirit where the two bombs for tonight were to be placed – one on the holding tank, one on the main pump, then turned and headed back towards the truck, casting glances around her and looking for anything unusual, anything that piqued her senses.

Back at the truck, the rest of the team kept a watch out – on the unconscious body, on the surrounding area, on the sensors on the vehicle. Already on edge, they jumped when the radio keyed up, a low powered signal from Hunter.

“Contact, far, bearing 043, vehicle – approaching. Standby.”

Weapons were checked, and Marius stood ready to start the truck. Kai checked the map, the bearing and the expected lines of sight, and then glanced at Tadibya – then the map, the bearing, the lines of sight…. If they drove to go and back up Hunter, if his position had been compromised and he needed backup or extraction – they had to take Tadibya’s body with them. Her spirit would have to find them, to rejoin it. The spirit could leave the body, but only for a while – too long apart, and the link broke. Too long apart, and they would both die.

“Shot! Shot fired, supressed weapon, somewhere close. Target vehicle, two troops external, aiming. Aiming. Standby… ok, they took out a goat. Collecting it now. Either an assault rifle or a bolt action – large suppressor mounted, single shot. Ok, heading out now. Stand down.”

The team breathed out, not realising they’d been holding their collective breath as the staccato report had come to them, short phrase at a time. Moments later Tadibya arrived back in her body, opening her eyes and seeing people standing ready with weapons drawn and looking ready to spring into action.

“Did I miss something?”

Kai gave a little wave, smiled and then just patted her on the shoulder.

“C’mon. Time to get those last charges in position.”

Tadibya turned to her spirit, hovering next to her in astral space, and asked it to materialise, handing over two more demo charges for it to deliver. Once more it loped off into the darkness, this time heading south-west, rather than north-west as it had done on previous nights. It should have time to get to the overhead gantry and then up to the new oil strike in a few hours. Though it didn’t move fast when physically present, it didn’t tire, didn’t rest – and more importantly could float just above the ground, ignoring any kind of terrain.

The team settled back to wait, and Kai went over the plan one more time.

“Ok, the spirit drops off the bombs, and clears the area. We wait a while. At 03:00, the spirit heads over to the sites at the far west, hits the timers. At 03:30, we make the call, and send the spirit to hit the timers on the middle bombs. At 04:00, the first bombs go off. The response should head to the north-west pipeline – along with everything in the area going on high alert. Then our friends make a flight, we guess towards the terminal – that pulls a response back towards that. At 04:30, the middle bombs go off, and take out the centre pipeline. Response force now has to split between two damaged pipes, but keep enough cover on the terminal. Then we hit the radio det on the overhead line, and give them a third broken pipeline. Hunter sets off the charges we placed first, to give them a fourth, then he gets down from his perch and double times it back here. We wait about ten minutes, to give the reaction force from the facility time to be heading that way at high speed – then we blow the last set on the facility itself. If it doesn’t do the job, we play it by ear, but otherwise, we throw up the trid phantasm over the vehicle, then we just schmooze on out of here and go get paid.”

The rest of the team nodded, and they got a double click from Hunter’s radio. Then they settled back in their seats to hurry up and wait.

The evening passed slowly. Guns were cleaned, swords honed, armour checked. Marius examined the map in intricate detail, checking routes and alternate routes, and backup routes, Tadibya meditated and Aswon sat perfectly still with his rifle on his lap and his eyes closed.

The radio gave a squawk on one of the Dekita frequencies. The signal went on a few seconds, then a few seconds more. The decryption gear accepted the inbound signal, processing it, gathering information on patterns, symbol sets, jumps. The signal went on, and the team moved uneasily – this was too long for a standard check in. The processor in Marius deck span up to 100% usage, as it crunched the numbers, searching for the right key to decrypt the transmission.

The warbling hiss of encrypted traffic stuttered, then started to play in clear text as the algorithm managed to break the key used by the Dekita radio sets.

“…I say again, this is unit 14-2 at facility Juliet. We have encountered hostile magical spirit. Request immediate magical support. We are going to condition Bravo at this time.”

Just as the team were listening to them, the spirit appeared in the middle of the truck, looking a little contrite.

“I think they saw me…”

Aswon keyed up his radio and warned Hunter of the issue, whilst Kai pulled out his phone and dialled back the last called number. It answered after a few rings, but before anyone from the other side could speak, he spoke rapidly.

“The party is on, gatecrashers are early. We are initiating now, now, now.” With that he hit the disconnect key and then stashed the phone, dived through the form of the spirit and swinging into the cab. Marius already had the engine started and was concentrating on landing the surveillance drone that the temple team had left them. As soon as the drone had been recovered, he started to move down the canyon towards clear ground. Kai pulled up the map, waving it at Tadibya.

“We’re going here, then down this ridge, then to here. We’ll try to wait for you there… go see if you can get those charges placed. Hunter, get ready to evac.”

Tadibya studied the map to identify where her meat body would be going, then she left her body, flying at speed towards the oil drill. Barely a second later she arrived and saw a fire elemental hovering above the compound. It spotted her and immediately moved to attack. Tadibya evaded its attack and fled, heading over to the Chechen camp again, to avoid leading it back to the truck. The elemental did not pursue, however. Back in the truck though, the rest of the team could hear the results.

“Base, base, this is 14-2, we have confirmed sight on the fire elemental. It’s indicating an astral event and pulsing on a course of 278. Request further backup.”

Tad arrived back at the truck and merged with her body, her astral form waiting for the truck to drive through her and then “jumping” into her physical body. She took a deep breath as the two parts of her merged, and then concentrated hard, summoning a few watcher spirits to her side – nebulous wisps of astral energy. Far weaker than a regular spirit, they were good for keeping a watch on something, or poking things astrally, but were far too weak to stand up to any serious damage. But, they would give her a good distraction, and may let her get the jump on the elemental. Moments later she was ready again and flew from her body, pursued by a handful of watcher spirits.

Marius gave a shout as his sensors picked up a flare of energy far to the west, as the Dekita security choppers redlined their engines for a crash launch. The signals faded moments later as the pilots reduced power and engaged their systems, but he’d got a good paint on at least two choppers inbound.

Back at the facility, Tadibya set her watcher spirits on the elemental. It was nearly as powerful as she was, but the pack of simple watchers attacked with no regard for their own health. One was destroyed almost immediately, but the other two swarmed onto it, pulling and tugging at its body and trying to destroy it. Their efforts were not effective in hurting it – but they thoroughly distracted it. Tadibya gathered her will and with a mental grunt rent the spirit with an attack, tearing it apart whilst it flailed at her watchers. The fight was over quickly, leaving only one badly damaged spirit with Tadibya, but her unwounded.

Over at the escarpment, Hunter triggered the blast on the pipeline, watching the two gouts of orange flame flare into the blackness of the night. He quickly grabbed his gear and ran to the edge and the waiting rope. A quick flick sent the rope flying out into the darkness, and he deftly attached the line to his climbing harness using a composite figure-8 device. Without a backwards glance he walked over the edge, letting the rope slide through his fingers until he was standing perpendicular to the ground. As soon as he was in position, he started to run, letting the rope run loose through his gloved hand. There was just enough friction on the line for it to be not quite a free-fall, but it wasn’t far off. In seconds, the ground loomed out of the darkness, and Hunter swept the rope across his front, applying pressure and letting the increased friction slow him. He felt the rope heat his hand as the friction increased, and stopped less than a metre from the ground – stepping down quickly and then cutting the rope quickly with his knife to get off the line as fast as possible. He broke into a fast jog, heading for the truck’s position. His pace was a compromise, a mix of speed and stealth as he picked his way through the boulders and rough ground.

Once back at the truck, Tadibya sent her spirit out again on its last service – go and start the timers on the other explosives – all of them.

The truck picked up speed, heading for the rendezvous with Hunter, hoping to clear the area before the choppers caught them.


	44. 044 - Kicking the anthill

Date 13/01/2060, Location 39.88207, 54.24499

Hunter jogged forwards through the darkness, picking out the boulders and soft sand as best he could by the faint starlight, his breath misting in the cold night air. He moved quietly, despite his size and the amount of gear he carried, having packed and stowed his equipment carefully to avoid rattles and clinking.

He never really knew what alerted him, but he was halfway through a controlled fall to the ground before his conscious mind picked up that there was something wrong ahead. His eyes processed the dark shape ahead of him – “APC” – just as he fell to the floor and pressed himself into the cold sand of the desert, holding his breath and praying that the motion had not attracted attention.

Luck was with him through – the Dekita troops standing in the back of the APC’s open rear compartment were looking through their thermal viewing sights, and had a narrow field of view. He eased back down the shallow rise he’d been climbing, putting solid ground between him and the troops, and then keyed his microphone – sending dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot.

In the truck, Aswon and Marius had been plotting a circle on the map, showing the maximum range for the radio transmitter for the explosives. They then marked a smaller circle, giving them a buffer area where they hoped communications would be guaranteed, so they had a last place they could trigger the last explosions. Suddenly the speakers activated, delivering the SOS message as a series of tones, interrupting all conversation. The rest of the team exchanged glances and looks of concern. Marius keyed up in response after a few seconds.

“If that’s you, say your last again.”

They listened, and the SOS was repeated again after a few seconds, but with no further explanation.

Then the speakers activated again, playing back the intercepted and decrypted communications.

“This is unit 15, we have a point electronic source near map point 39.88 by 54.24, no visual on source, no DF, we are investigating further, unit 15 out.”

Marius reduced power and let the truck drift to a halt, and powered down his sensors and radio to minimum settings, checking to see if any other electronic equipment was transmitting that might betray them.

A different voice sounded over the radio, a quiet and calm voice that spoke with some authority

“SCADA shows a fire on pipeline Bravo-2. Roll the fire units and response force. Weapons free, ROE-Alpha. All units go hot. Sit-reps on five.”

Aswon winced, and turned to the rest of the team in the truck.

“That’s bad news, friends… they definitely think they’re under attack as a deliberate act. Very similar to the protocol we used when I was contracting. The weapons free bit isn’t too much of a worry, they were probably always happy to open fire on units. But the change in Rules of Engagement means they are probably going to kill anything that looks even remotely suspicious, then ask if there are any questions. Going hot normally means loading your armour-piercing ammo – so we can’t count on body armour being as effective. And they probably want status reports every five minutes from a unit, so if we take someone out, we’ve got a very limited window to clear the area before they notice they’re down.”

Shimazu nodded in agreement.

“Yes, when I was body-guarding and we got a call like this, our protocol was to go all out, and ensure the safety of our charges. We would let nothing stand in our way, and would attack anything that looked like it was interfering in our mission or escape plan.”

Kai and Tadibya nodded in understanding, and looked at the map. If they were guessing right, Hunter was no more than a few hundreds of metres from them, just over a small ridgeline. Tadibya let her body collapse, and headed over astrally, looking for Hunter – but after thirty seconds or so of searching, she could not see him at all, and returned to her body, reporting the negative contact. It was obvious that Hunter had gone to ground and hidden himself thoroughly.

Marius was pre-flighting his EIS-200 drone, inflating the balloon and checking the drone was fully charged. The size of a dustbin lid, and about ten centimetres thick, the drone had a number of sensor systems deployed across the bottom face, and the outer edge was ringed with small variable pitch electric fans. The balloon gave it lift, and the motors could actually move it at a fair turn of speed – but the main advantage was that the drone was incredibly stealthy.

“Going to do some recon?” asked Kai.

“Nein. Rescue mission. Will fly over, Hunter grabs drone. Fly back. As long as he doesn’t break it.”

“You think that thing can carry him?” Kai asked sceptically.

“According to rated capacity – no. Probably over design weight by nearly 70%. Almost certainly going to break parts, and shorten lifespan on others. But it won’t be for long, and I’m pretty certain they won’t see the drone. They might see him though. Not a lot I can do with that though.”

Tadibya heard the conversation and rapidly summoned a new spirit, asking it to accompany the drone and aid it in its task. Marius nodded curtly to her in thanks as she explained, and then slumped back into his five point harness as he jacked into the drone. He lofted into the air, feeling the wind rushing past him as his lungs inflated and lifted him into the air, and his rotors gently propelled him upwards into the night, with just a quiet electric whirring. He flew around the APC, sticking close to the escarpment and making sure he didn’t crest the top and silhouette himself, and when he reached the location that he thought Hunter was in, he lowered the drone and slowed himself, casting back and forth and trying to spot him.

Hunter saw the drone descend and crawled over to it, then waved in front of the sensors. The drone wobbled as he watched it, then bobbed up and down a few times, until he got the message. Hunter leaned in close and pitched his voice low.

“Are you serious? You want me to what – climb on this?” The drone wobbled from side to side. “No. Oh, you want me to tie on to this?” The drone nodded up and down. “Are you out of your mind?” It shook from side to side again. 

Hunter grumbled, but pulled out a couple of slings and carabiners from his climbing kit and looped them over the drone’s body, trying to keep clear of anything that looked fragile or that might need to move, and clipped them together underneath the drone. Carefully crawling under, he clipped on to the carabiner from his harness, and spread his arms and legs wide, hoping to use them to balance and avoid spinning.

“Ok, I’m ready – or as ready as I’m going to get.”

Marius ramped up the throttles, climbing to 100% smoothly. The drone swayed slightly and pulled taut, applying pressure on the harness and taking some of the weight of the burly ork slung beneath it. Marius entered the over-ride code, accepting the warnings in the control software and ramped the power up further. Jacked into the drone as he was, he felt rather saw messages, feeling his heart rate accelerate as he “ran” harder. The feeling of the great weight suspended from him manifested itself as a feeling of someone grabbing his earlobes and hanging from them with their full weight. He gritted his teeth through the pain and flexed, and slowly the drone lifted from the ground, motors making a high pitched whine as they ran at 135% of their rated “max” speed, and the battery pack draining at a worrying rate. Once he got a couple of metres from the ground though, the pain eased slightly as the weight decreased – the spirit had moved underneath Hunter and had used its power to aid his movement through the air.

As he continued to claw for altitude though, Marius became aware of a nagging pain down his left side, a dull ache that didn’t ease. Something had clearly been over-stressed on the drone, and was not happy. He put the ache to the back of his mind and focussed on trying to stay close to the escarpment, and with cover between him and the APC below. Hunter swung on the end of the short ropes, grimacing at the high pitched noise just over his head and the faint smell of overheated components being given off by the drone. His attention was pulled away though, when a string of bullets sliced through the air past him, no more than a metre away. Completely unable to dodge or turn under his own power, all he could do was bring his rifle up and try to sight at his attacker. The random movement of the drone and the ropes made this almost impossible, and he held fire – not wanting to confirm his position.

The drone drifted behind cover again, rose a few more feet, but then once more became visible to the APC as it reached the top of the escarpment. Alerted by the single trooper that had spotted “something”, the machine gunner on the top hatch had swung his weapon onto the right bearing and was waiting. He didn’t so much see the drone, across the intervening distance, more he saw the occlusion as a number of stars disappeared behind the lifting bag. Depressing the spades on either side of the gun, a long string of fire arced up into the air, tracers burning a path of fiery light to mark their passage. Marius dodged as best he could, but the terrain was the crucial factor – as he cleared the ridge, a strong gust of wind blew him sideways, causing the rounds to sail harmlessly past. With a mental flick, the motors blew the drone over the ridge, and out of line of sight once more, picking up speed along the ridgeline as the spirit assisted.

Back in the truck they heard the sound of gunfire over the speakers a moment before the sound was heard outside as it was relayed from Hunter’s pickup. Tadibya quietly slipped from her body, and shot over there as fast as she could. She took no more than a second to assess the situation and put her plan into action.

Back in the truck, the rest of the team flinched as a massive burst of gunfire ripped the quiet night apart. Multiple guns, all firing multiple rounds – lighter barks from assault rifles and a deeper chatter-chatter-chatter noise from the vehicle mounted machine gun. Aswon was halfway out of the door with his rifle, convinced the APC was about to crest the ridge and engage them in battle, before Tadibya stirred in her body and shouted for them to wait. With a big grin, she announced that it was probably her fault, as she’d just manifested in front of the gun and shouted at him, and he appeared to be somewhat highly strung.

Seconds later, they spotted Hunter, dangling below the drone as it crested the escarpment again, rapidly dropping height to get into cover. It bottomed out just above the truck and Hunter swiftly uncoupled, dropping to the roof and looking pleased to be back in contact with the ground and able to move under his own steam. It took Marius two attempts to dock the drone into the rack on the top of the vehicle, the manoeuvring thrusters clearly misfiring and not working as they should. As soon as it was docked though, and starting to deflate, he jumped out of the drone and back into the truck’s systems, starting it up and pulling a sharp turn and heading south east. 

Aswon pulled out the radio detonator stick and with a nod from Kai sent the activation code. A moment later they were rewarded with a loud explosion from the north, and a brilliant fireball arcing into the sky, the roiling clouds of red and yellow fire lighting up the sky over the installation. Rather than dissipating though, the fireball continued to roll through the air, obviously being fed by a high pressure source of fuel from below. Marius put his foot down, easing the truck up to its maximum speed and sending it bouncing across the rough desert terrain. Even with the off-road suspension and the metre-high tyres, the vehicle movement was extreme, and everyone grabbed hold of seats and stanchions, or strapped themselves in.

They drove for perhaps a minute in silence, cutting through the darkness until a strange look of concentration washed over Kai’s face. He turned towards the speakers, thinking, “It’s awfully quiet… when did we last get an intercepted message?” The speakers suddenly boomed into life – but the voice was that of Marius.

“Alarm! Chopper, bearing 273 degrees, range 1200, altitude 150, closing on us. Closing fast. Faster than we can go.”

Hunter and Aswon pulled the roof hatch open, and stood up to get a good view to the rear, being thrown repeatedly into the lip of the opening as the truck hammered across the uneven ground. They could see the anti-collision lights on the chopper flashing behind them, and caught the occasional glimpse of the body as the starlight caught it at just the right angle. The others crammed into the side seats, watching through the side mirrors, for what good it did them.

“Sensor readings indicate this is almost certainly a Dekita craft. It is very likely to be at least as heavily armoured as us, and will carry auto-fire weapons on the nose turret, and may well also carry rockets or missiles in addition. It probably will be at least twice our speed and can carry a squad of troops, as well as having plenty of range as well. The only thing we have going for us is that it’s not that stealthy, or agile.” Marius relayed over the speakers, then returned to concentrating on the driving. With no integrated weapons, he was only able to act defensively. The best he could do was to drive erratically to throw off their aim, and be ready to dodge if he saw incoming fire.

Kai hastily reassembled the phone, sliding the carrier card into the body and examining the display. It seemed to take ages to start up, but then immediately told him there was no signal. Nothing. The pursuing chopper was obviously sporting a decent jammer, and had shut down their comms in the area.

Aswon looked at his Purdey rifle, and Hunter at his Alpha combat gun, and shared a look. With regular ammunition, they were pretty much guaranteed not to do any damage to a target as heavily armoured as the chopper. Maybe if they could strike a vital component, something not so heavily armoured – maybe then. But the odds of hitting a tiny target like that was pretty slim in a truck bouncing across the desert pushing a hundred kilometres per hour. Tadibya suddenly squirmed her way up into the opening, and spent a few seconds wedging herself in place. At least with the three of them, they didn’t bounce around as much. She focussed behind her, then waved her hands theatrically – and nothing seemed to happen.

“It’s one way – you can see in, they can’t see out. They’re just looking at darkness.” she shouted at them, fighting to be heard over the slipstream. Aswon and Hunter just stared at her for a moment, and at first she thought they hadn’t understood her. Then she realised it was because they were watching the blood seeping down her nose and across her lips, and starting to trickle down each of her earlobes forming a spray around her neck as the wind caught the droplets. Maybe she’d thrown a bit too much power into that last spell…

The chopper was obviously affected, and started to slew violently across their course, pulling up slightly and weaving like a snake. The pilot presumably could see nothing, and had to assume they had some heavy weapons on board and were lining up to take a shot, and was making the best of it that he could, and trying to avoid planting his craft into the ground at high speed.

Tadibya used her sleeves to wipe away the blood, then paused mid-motion, staring at the chopper. In astral space, she could clearly see the twelve metre diameter sphere of magic she had cast, centred on the chopper. Though not visible from the outside, she knew that the inside of the sphere was a myriad of flashing lights, streamers of sparks and glows in all colours, whistling and booming noises and a horde of bizarre shapes flying out of nowhere towards the front of the cockpit as if in a head-on collision. But she could also see the magical energies being syphoned away as someone fought to dispel her illusion, seeking to shatter it. She studied it for a few seconds, and saw it decrease in effectiveness, easily losing half of its potency.

“They have a mage on board!” she yelled at them. “He’s destroying my spell – it’s not going to last long. Whatever you’re going to do, do it fast!” With that she dropped back into her seat, strapped back in and asked her wind spirit to help them flee – using up the last service she had bargained for during its summoning. The spirit extended its powers over the truck, and the vehicle leapt ahead, suddenly accelerating wildly. Marius slewed and fishtailed slightly, but his recent practice on the journey back to the temple had given him lots of practice in this, and he quickly steadied. The truck accelerated up to nearly a hundred and fifty kilometres per hour, and the chopper stopped closing the distance.

Hunter ducked quickly and grabbed one of the LAW rockets they had picked up from the strange warehouse in Tashkent. He rapidly extended the tube and flipped up the primitive ladder sight, and drew a bead on the chopper, trying hard to keep it steady. He waited a few seconds, for the truck to catch some air as it hit a slightly larger dune, and then when the motion was steadiest, he gently squeezed the trigger – just as the spell failed completely. The chopper pilot had a split second to react – but it became clear that a split second was all he needed. Obviously he was also a rigger, like Marius – directly connected to his vehicle and able to perform astounding feats of control. In the time it took for the warhead to leave the tube and cross the six hundred metres, he’d managed to dip the nose of the chopper, just a few degrees.

Hunter had been aiming for the rotor shaft at the top of the craft, trying to hit the precision bearings with a shockwave that would transmit through the gears and engine assembly. Instead, the warhead was intercepted by the spinning blades of the heavy duty troop carrier. Rotating at over four hundred RPM, the heavy duty composite blades sliced into the warhead before it could be fused properly. The resulting explosion shrouded the aircraft in debris, but the areas struck were armoured against impacts like this, and the helicopter emerged from the explosion unscathed.

The pilot was understandably not taking this treatment kindly, and raised the nose, and a moment later a missile of his own erupted from the starboard under-wing pylon. The missile was a standard issue Block III design, popular the world over. It leapt from the launcher on a plume of fire, accelerating fast as it raced across the distance between the chopper and the truck. Marius equally had only moments to react, but slewed the truck hard to the left, and the missile zipped past, missing by mere metres before impacting the desert ground ahead of them and exploding violently, sending rocks and sand flying from the impact crater. 

Tadibya, already suffering from the drain on her body from throwing the trid-phantasm spell, tried to clear her mind and reached out with her hands to touch the side of the truck. She wove her invisibility spell around it, trying to hide it further against the view of those shooting at it. The spell worked, but given her condition, was not as strong or convincing as she’d hoped. Still, every little bit helped, and it might make the difference between their attacker getting a snap-shot and a solid lock on them – and that could be the difference between life and death at this point.

Marius dodged another Block –III missile, swinging even further to the left, before he straightened course again. His angry snarls could be heard over the speakers.

“They are shooting at us! Those missiles will cut though our armour like its paper. Somebody do something – they only have to get lucky once and it’s all I can do to…”

His voice cut off mid-sentence, and the team stared - some at his unconscious body, some at the speakers on the cab wall.

“New target, almost dead ahead. Fast moving, under stealth. No idea what it is?”

Tadibya peered ahead and saw something magical, in the distance. A spell of some kind. As she struggled to focus and pay attention through the pounding headache, she recognised the distinctive “flavour” of another invisibility spell. She was about to speak, when instead she let out a startled yelp as a watcher spirit pancaked into the ward over the vehicle, slamming into it and splaying over the passenger side screen. It crawled over the side of the vehicle, appearing badly wounded from the high speed impact with the magical barrier, and rapped furiously on the side window. This seemed bizarre enough that curiosity got the better of her, and she flipped the window hatch open for a second.

The break in the continuous boundary of the truck created an opening in the ward, and the watcher spirit oozed into the cab. It was moderately powerful for a watcher, which were simple creatures at the best of times. This one manifested in front of her, causing more yelps of alarm from the team and several weapons to be pointed at it.

“What did you ask the colour of?” it demanded, in a vaguely Nordic accent.

“Eyes,” Kai said, examining the spirit carefully.

“Oh good, I’m in the right place then. My boss says stop shooting, and head east, as fast as you can. Be ready to hide, and look small and inoffensive!” With that, the spirit popped out of existence, its message delivered.

The magically-shrouded target ahead closed, and Tadibya pointed at it, trying to describe what she saw. It streaked past them on the left, and was gone from her view – but whatever it was, it didn’t attack them.

“Definite contact, airborne, fast moving. Ten seconds!” came Marius’ voice, sounding stressed. Trying to split his attention between contacts front and rear meant that he was likely to miss another launch, but whether he got shot from the front or the rear, they were going to be equally dead.

The forward contact grew at a frightening rate, and then flew over them. In the split second they had before it swept through their field of view, they saw the lean, vicious and predatory shape of an attack chopper travelling at full speed – easily three hundred and fifty kilometres per hour. As it passed overhead, they saw the red and white flash of the Espirit logo, then it was gone. The attack chopper lit up its weapons systems, targeting the slower-moving and larger Dekita craft still pursuing them, and a nose-mounted laser ripped out rapid fire shots that scored and burnt the outer layer of the troop carrier. The armour held however, resisting the Megawatt range pulses of energy. It distracted the pilot however, who swung sideways, trying to clear the line of fire. The attack chopper followed up by launching a pod of rockets, the 40mm fin-stabilised tungsten rounds slamming into the side of the troop doors like the hammer of a Norse god. The pod held dozens of rounds, and most of them hit, and the Dekita bird broke apart under the withering fire, exploding violently and crashing to the ground in a tangled mess of burning and twisted metal.

Marius detected more choppers to his rear, the second wave of birds from Dekita, and saw the Espirit chopper moving to engage them, a furious dogfight breaking out behind them. He kept the throttle jammed to the stops though, and left that behind – knowing they had no weaponry or ability to make a difference, and not sure that the Espirit chopper would see them as friend or foe. Instead he raced across the desert, trying to put space between them, and wondered just what was going on. Not that it mattered – the only thing that really mattered was that nobody was shooting at them anymore.

An hour of driving saw them get back to the ridge east of Kum Dag, and they threaded their way through the canyons and gorges, back to where they had left the trailer. Shutting down their systems, they listened and checked – but they had apparently evaded any pursuit, and could rest a while. Slowly the team unwound, several of them finding they needed to wring out clothes coated in sweat as the stress of combat bled out. Tadibya got a damp cloth and slowly scrubbed at the dried blood around her nose and ears, and gratefully swallowed a handful of painkillers offered to her.

It looked like their mission was a success, and they were away from the area – though they still didn’t know what had caused the Espirit chopper to arrive. Their best guess was that it was something to do with Hans – but that could wait until they debriefed – and more importantly, got paid.


	45. 045 - The Fuchi Fallout

Date 14/01/2060, Location 39.28462, 54.89387

The truck sat in the defile, snugged up against the rock face, partially obscured by an overhang. The engine pinged and ticked as the metal cooled in the pre-dawn air, and the first glimmers of daylight led to a glow in the eastern sky, forming a counterpoint to the glow in the north-western sky from the plumes of fire erupting from the shattered wellheads and pipelines. The team sat in silence for the moment, looking out at the sky and terrain around them, or staring into space, their eyes unfocussed as they thought about events. Weapons lay ready by people’s sides, but not in hands.

The silence grew as the engine cooled and rested, the sky empty of birds and the ground clear of creatures and critters. Marius broke the quiet first.

“I think we should respray the truck. These colours will not be useful to us now, and I think will draw attention we do not want.”

The others stirred, and considered his words – but there was no denying the truth of them. The Dekita colour scheme was likely to draw attention one way or another that was not helpful. They all got out, and grabbed the large tent from the trailer, and spent some time putting it together, stretching the fabric taut over the plastic poles and encasing the truck in the lightweight structure. 

Tadibya, Hunter and Marius returned to the truck and settled back on watch, while the other three busied themselves with the painting kit. After a moment, Hunter pulled out his phone, and piggybacked off the truck’s systems to pick up a cell tower in the town, putting in a quick call to his contact Julius in Copenhagen. Unsurprisingly given the time difference, it went through to voice mail, and he left a short message telling his friend to make sure they had recon assets watching the area because things had kicked off.

Kai, Aswon and Shimazu broke out the compressor and the spray attachments and loaded up the system with some of the tan paint they had picked up in Ashgabat and set to work. Kai and Shimazu took a side each, with Kai definitely seeming to have the hang of the painting process now, covering the truck in smooth, even strokes of paint of just the right density. Shimazu was slower, but nearly as good. They both worked wordlessly, concentrating on their work and listening to the rhythmic thrum of the compressor. Finally they reached the rear of the truck and then stopped and looked for a moment at the rear of the truck, and the horrible mess that Aswon had made.

“How did you manage that? That looks awful!” exclaimed Kai, as he prodded the thick coat of paint that was dribbling and running down over the lights and pooling in a puddle on the ground below.

“Hey, I’m a merc, not an artist! You know – guns and bullets and breaking things. Aswon, not Van Gogh. And I got poisoned.”

Shimazu and Kai sent Aswon to go sit down in the truck, grabbed cloths and scrapers and set to redoing the work. They were just finishing when the team phone rang, with an unlisted number. Kai grabbed it, answering with his left hand while he continued to paint with the airbrush in his right.

“Kai? Katana.”

“Morning boss. How are things going?”

“Pretty well really. Excellent in fact. We can see you’ve been busy. I understand our friend Hans was in touch, too?”

“Yes. We’re not really sure of exactly what was going on, but it all seemed to have worked out ok.”

“Well, I’m very happy with your work. Now, can you sit in place for a couple of days until I can shake loose from here, and come to see you and make restitutions?”

“A few days? I…. I suppose so. I think we can wait here for a couple of days.”

Kai glanced over at the others. Aswon held up a hand for a moment, then quickly checked the water level in the tank, and the supplies in the cupboard, then gave a thumbs up. “Yes, sure, why not?”

“Excellent. I’ll call when I’m on my way.”

And with that, she disconnected. Kai finished the piece of panelling he was spraying, and then informed the rest of the team. Inevitably there was grumbling about sitting in the desert for a few days with nothing to do, and some query over the use of the word “restitution” rather than “payment”. Kai mentioned that he had agreed to meet Johanna here in a few days, but that didn’t stop them from moving about a bit in the meantime. On checking the maps though, they realised they didn’t have that much choice – Ashgabat was too far away to make the trip worthwhile, and the settlements between didn’t have anything to offer. The only sizable place nearby was Kum Dag, and they’d specifically been told not to enter there.

The next two days were spent in and around the truck, but the time was put to good use. Hunter and Aswon got to properly clean their guns, taking them apart down to component level and cleaning out the carbon from firing, and not a small amount of sand and dirt. Shimazu continued to work out with his sword, becoming more and more adept with it. Marius did a full survey of the vehicle, interrogating systems and checking parts against the surveyed data. By the end of the second day, he’d come up with a list of parts that needed routine maintenance or changing that was fairly long – and was probably going to run to the best part of fifteen thousand Nuyen or so… Kai seemed to spend much of the time asleep, snoring gently as he swung in the hammock during the day or curled up in one of the bunks at night – just decompressing and chilling out. Tadibya spent the time in meditation, mentally examining the paths of her life and her environment and relating her place in the world against her morals and ethics. 

They discussed what they were going to do next – maybe push north into Russia, and find the New Silk Road, see if they could do some business there. Alternately, they could head south east and down into India – busy and heavily populated, there were bound to be things that needed to be moved. China was floated as a possibility – the fractured landscape and warring provinces added danger and risk, but also promised greater profits. 

However, when Aswon reminded them that they had contacts in Baku, and information on various paracritters in the area, it was decided that was a good place to head, to try and gather some more Nuyen together, to give them better options. After all, it was no good being smugglers if they couldn’t afford any goods to smuggle…

With his equipment cleaned and maintained, Aswon settled down on the morning of the second day with the spear, sitting on top of the rocks that sheltered the truck. He relaxed his mind and body, and tried to feel the magical patterns in the spear, determining what – other than the obvious – it did, and how it worked. For several hours he sat, trying to make sense of the magical patterns in the weapon, but the shapes and designs were complex, and the form eluded him. The more he studied it, the more he appreciated the ancient design, the exquisite workmanship – indeed the weird and notable magical flavour of the spear, which was unlike anything he’d ever encountered before. However it was no clearer to him after his hours of study than before. Shrugging his shoulders, he spent the next few hours more productively by spinning and twirling the spear, grabbing it from the floor and setting it to resist a charge, working out against a variety of mental opponents. The weapon was solidly built, obviously not meant as a throwing spear, and was larger in circumference than a modern spear built of hi-tech materials, but after a few hours he had the measure of it and it felt entirely natural.

Towards the end of the second day the team settled down for dinner, sitting in the rear of the truck. Aswon had been experimenting with various ingredients made by Tadibya, and had produced a batch of fairly palatable cookies – crisp and crunchy on the edges, but still soft and gooey in the centre. Just as Tadibya was about to bite down onto a cookie, she felt the presence of her mentor spirit watching over her. Extending her senses into the astral, she saw the magnificent primal elk, impossibly standing next to her in astral space, the astral form distorting space around her. She felt a mouth grab her sleeve, dragging her out of her body – gently, but irresistibly. She opened her mouth to say that she needed to warn the others, but felt the spirit pulling at her, and realised that it didn’t matter what she said. Elk wanted her now. 

She let go of her body, and floated with the astral form, revelling in the power. It was an odd feeling of power, a strange feeling – it wasn’t power over others, or the ability to impose itself on the world – it was an internal power, a strength of being and self. She felt warm, wrapped up in the care and love her totem showed for her, and followed it without hesitation.

They walked for a while, past the site of broken pipelines and fires, shattered buildings, corpses from the ambush on the truck. As they passed each site, she felt the gaze upon her, and she spoke to her totem, describing the actions of the team. She spoke honestly, from the heart. Not because she knew it would be foolish to lie to her totem – who almost certainly would know if she did lie. She spoke the truth because she couldn’t imagine lying to her totem, no matter the situation. Elk listened as she recounted the decisions made, the paths chosen. For hours she talked to Elk, describing the discussions they had had as a team, of trying to minimise the ecological damage their pipeline bombs would cause, and balancing that against the damage caused by the drilling regardless. Of trying to give the attackers a chance to walk away and mend their ways. She felt herself being judged by the spirit – but didn’t resent this. How could one resent being in the presence of God?

After hours of walking, they approached a fork in the path. Three trails led onwards, away from them. The left led into a set of thick bushes, winding amongst the dense foliage and quickly being lost to sight. The trail looked clear, but it was obvious to her that visibility was limited. The second path seemed to travel forwards to a certain point, and then went through some weird kind of lens – beyond that point things grew larger in size for no apparent reason. The third path wound to the right, and the trees on the sides of the path were marked with glowing sigils in the bark, arcane energy spilling from the marks and forming a glowing barrier to the side of the path.

Tadibya examined the three paths, then turned to Elk.

“I’m not sure what these mean. Do I have to choose one? Is this a test?”

Elk looked at her for a moment with huge brown eyes, then snorted, lowered his head and started to feed on the tufts of grass. Tadibya waited a moment, and then shrugged. If it was a test, she was on her own, it seemed. She looked at the paths for a moment, trying to figure out the symbolism or meaning. Then she turned and strode down the right path, shoulders square and head looking forward. Whatever the choice meant, Elk meant for her to have a choice, and to her mind that meant there wasn’t a bad choice. She walked for a few miles down the path, examining the sigils of power and slowly getting used to them, seeing how they made the barrier to the side of the path, and determining the patterns and formation. The path bent around a large copse of trees, and ahead of her she saw some people eating dinner, clustered around a fire. As she closed the distance, the figures seemed to become familiar, taking on comforting shapes. She saw her body ahead, and as she approached, saw one of the other figures turn to her, speaking – the mouth moving but no noise coming out. She merged with her body again, feeling the comforting fusion between body and soul.

“Are you feeling ok, Tads?”

“Huh? Yeah, I’m ok. How long was I gone for?”

“Gone?” asked Hunter. “You’ve not gone anywhere. Just stared at that cookie for about two minutes, even when the gooey bit dropped all over your lap.”

“Really? Felt like I’d been gone for hours…” She flexed her feet, and her calf muscles told her that they thought she’d walked a considerable distance, too. “Oh well, I’m back now. Any more cookies?”

Aswon pushed over the plate towards her and raised an eyebrow, and gave her a little smile. Yeah – he probably knew what sort of experience she’d just had. As she munched on the cookie and ignored the occasional glance from the others, she looked around the truck. Her eyes saw the ward she’d erected previously and she couldn’t help but see the patterns contained within it. As she looked at them she realised that while it certainly worked, she could do better if she put them in a different pattern – something like the ones she had seen down the side of the path, perhaps? Ahh, so that was what Elk had shown her!

The following morning after another uneventful night, the phone rang again and Kai picked up. Johanna told him that she was heading out to see them – but would appreciate some magical cover if that could be arranged. Kai agreed, and after hanging up the call, asked Tadibya to go to the edge of the defile with Aswon and Hunter, to cover her approach.

Twenty five minutes after the call, the team spotted the dust plume approaching from the west, and soon after saw the Maersk patrol vehicle driving across the desert. They spotted Johanna in the back, and watched as she climbed out of the rear load bed and onto the running bars on the side. Tadibya concentrated and wrapped her in a blanket of invisibility, just as the vehicle slowed a little into a sharp turn, throwing up a cloud of dust and sand. Visible only to Tadibya, she saw Johanna tuck into a ball and roll across the desert before she flattened herself and stopped, laying low until the vehicle had moved on. She stood up, examined herself and her kit, and then moved towards the defile at a brisk walk.

A few minutes later she arrived at the rocks, and called out to the team.

“Hope I’m covered?”

Aswon heard the voice coming out of thin air, but was facing the right general area based on the faint footprints left in the sand.

“Well, I can’t see you… just your trail. Follow us.”

They turned and headed back to the truck, Tadibya dropping the spell once they were all in cover of the rocks.

Back at the truck, Johanna accepted a cold drink from the fridge, washing out the dry desert taste from her mouth, and settled back on the large bunk to face the team. A large smile lit up her face, and her eyes sparkled.

“Well my friends, you certainly delivered, didn’t you. Production is all but stopped, and Dekita are running around with their crews all over the place. Excellent. I’m very pleased with the outcome of the mission, and the effect it is having. And so are head office.” She reached into her jacket and unzipped an inner pocket, withdrawing three credsticks marked up with coloured bands.

“I’m not surprised head office is pleased,” responded Kai. “We’ve been watching the share price and the news, so that seems reasonable.” Several of the team stared at Kai, then tried to compose their faces and not give anything away, realising that they would compromise his negotiations if they betrayed the fact that they had done nothing of the sort. Johanna seemed to be focused on Kai though, and gave no sign of having seen anything.

“Right, this one here is your main mission pay. In light of the downturn in production, it’s the full fifty thousand as originally specified.” She flipped the small stick to Kai, who caught it with a nod of thanks. “Now then. As I said, I’m happy with the outcome, and so are head office. So I have a choice now.”

She held up the two remaining sticks, one in each hand.

“This one contains an additional twenty five thousand in bonus pay, in recognition of the effectiveness of the job.” Hunter, Aswon and Marius perked up a little at that, happier with the level of reward for the risk undertaken now that seventy five was on offer.

“This one though,” she waved the other hand, “is a special set of travel papers I’ve been authorised to offer you. You can have this instead of the first stick.”

The team looked at each other, and then focussed on Kai. Kai gave each a quick glance, and then leant back a little, moving away from both credsticks.

“What kind of special travel papers?”

“Well, as long as you don’t turn up actively pursued by someone, if you approach any of our shipping agents worldwide with these travel permits – they will load you and your cargo on-board, no questions asked, and take you to their destination. One time only. Your cargo has to fit of course – no good turning up with a van full of stuff at a bike couriers. But you turn up with a truck like this to a shipping or rail port – and sure, we can move that.”

Silence fell over the truck, as each of the team considered the deal. If they never used it, it was worth nothing of course. And it was no good if they were being pursued by anyone – corp, police or even a gang potentially. But in the right circumstances, they could disappear from a country like wisps – it was a travel “get out of jail free” card. Kai glanced around at the team and saw general approval for the offer.

“I think we’ll take the travel permits, please.”

Johanna pulled out a terminal and entered the stick into the slot on the side, and then keyed in her ID to authorise it, passing around the terminal to each of the team. As each person got the device, they scanned their thumbprint, which was used to generate a unique string of numbers based on the patterns, which was added to the crypto-key that scrambled the permit. Any of them could unlock the permit now with a quick thumb scan.

“Excellent. My thanks again for the job well done. And now, unless there’s anything else to discuss?”

Johanna zipped her pocket back up and finished the cold drink off.

“Not unless you can give us a lift to Baku?” joked Aswon.

Johanna missed the joke though, and turned to look at him.

“I think that could be arranged. I mean, it’s just the truck, and your trailer yes? As long as you’re not too heavy, I think we can manage that. Just how much do you weigh, anyway?”

Marius gave her the vehicle weight, which caused a raised eyebrow. She leaned back a bit and rapped her knuckles on the side of the truck, listening to the “donk” noise.

“Ahh… upgraded the base armour then I see. That explains the trailer. Well, either way, the deck plate will handle that. Sure, we can give you a lift.” She pulled out her terminal again, and keyed through a few pages of information. “Ah, here we are. Emerald Queen, due to sail at 13:10, four days from now. Just turn up at our docks a few hours before and see the loadmaster, and I’ll have things squared away.”

Aswon seemed taken aback, but then thanked her, as did Kai.

“So, is there any problem with us going to Kum Dag now?” asked Kai. Johanna considered for a moment, then shook her head.

“No, if you’re moving on to other countries, there’s no reason to keep you hidden anymore.”

“Want a lift back to town, then?”

And so the team hitched up the trailer, and headed into Kum Dag, driving past the large Espirit compound to the east and to the Maersk compound, where they dropped off Johanna. They headed then to the town’s one and only hotel, a smallish building but with somewhat decent rooms, and booked in for a few days.

Marius ordered in the parts needed for the truck, and spent the time performing a full maintenance cycle, getting everything back in grade A condition. Hunter meanwhile, inspired by Kai’s statement to Johanna, hooked up his pocket secretary to the matrix, and was monitoring the news and the Dekita stock prices. On the morning of the 19th, two days after their arrival, Hunter called the team together, and showed them the stock prices and news reports he’d saved.

Dekita had been trading at 528 Nuyen per share, with a fairly steady price over the last few weeks. When news of “production difficulties” were heard, the price slumped a little, but nothing untoward. However, several news reports showed satellite and very high angle recon photos of what appeared to be large blazes and damaged equipment, and the Dekita employees caught unawares by a journalist babbled some very damming reports that cast huge doubts on their ability to deal with the issue – just before a couple of Dekita troopers came and forced the journalist and their cameraman back away from the facility, at gunpoint. The stock price had tumbled after that, dropping to 396 per share, at which point some automated event had been triggered and trading was suspended. Talking heads discussed the “wildfires” and “ecological damage”, and the lack of organised response from Dekita. Further news articles appeared, as each of the major news networks smelled blood in the water, and the heavy-handed response from Dekita security didn’t help their cause.

By the second day, when trading resumed, there were further pictures from high orbit sources – large, full colour and detailed shots showing oil spills, ruptured pipes and burning well heads, along with “experts” describing how this proved that Dekita had obviously been skimping on safety measures. Now the Sierra club and various Green policlubs were in on the act too, making for excellent interviews full of vitriol. PR teams were geared up now from Dekita, and their parent company Fuchi – but their answers were ripped apart and painted as “cover ups”, and normally sympathetic media were amongst the circling sharks.

The next day the price had dropped again to 297, and hit another speedbump threshold, causing trades to be suspended for a second time. The graph that Hunter showed looked like a cliff, and it was not hard to imagine people dumping shares of the company like it was poison – which caused a general market slump. Espirit and Maersk, along with other oil companies were all down as well – but not like this.

The shares dropped again, and hit a 3rd and final speedbump at 148.5 amidst news that the refinery in Baku had discovered contaminants and “irregularities” with the supplies coming from the Dekita holding tanks there, and the news that over two hundred thousand barrels of crude had been quarantined. This had apparently been done a few days ago, but only just been released generally. Checking the time and date, it would have been the morning of their meet with Johanna. Aswon was the first to voice what most of them was thinking – there was at least one other team working this as well…

After that the shares went into freefall, and as Hunter finished his little presentation, the clock ticked over to 10:37am, and the shares hit 17 Nuyen each.

“Do you think we could buy some?” asked Tadibya. “I mean, they’re going to stop the fires and stuff. And it’s bound to go back up. And if it doesn’t, but we bought it really cheap – then we won’t have lost that much, right?” The team discussed and thought about it, and then decided – why not. They could afford to speculate a little on the market – especially when they knew how much damage they’d done – and they guessed the other teams had done.

They made the decision though, not to buy too many shares – no matter how cheap they were. What was happening to Dekita was more like an assassination than a mugging, and it wouldn’t do to be too conspicuous. People taking advantage of a situation – sure. But too many shares and people might add facts up and realise they had inside knowledge – and then wonder how they came by that knowledge. Best not to be too greedy, and appear on anyone’s radar if they could help it.

They dug around on the matrix and found a broker that they could deal with through their charity, who would accept the IDs they had and the somewhat skimpy forms of registration, and made the call. A few minutes later, they had their account set up, and were ready to make their first trade. In the time that had taken, the shares had inched up to 19. They put on an order for a thousand Shares at 19, paying a brokerage fee of 665 Nuyen on top for the privilege. The order was confirmed, the credstick debited and shortly afterwards the message appeared confirming that they now held a thousand shares of Dekita issue A.

On and off through the day, they kept an eye on the stock price, as the news articles continued to hammer Dekita and spin a tale of doom and gloom. There was not much to do in Kum Dag – no local scene, and the town was very much focussed on oil exploration and exploitation. The price inched up a time or two, then fell again, but remained generally low. Starting to grow bored of the hotel, they were quickly packed the following morning, and ready to head out across the scrubland of the Mearsk territory to their port facility.

Arriving at the port, it appeared to be very similar to the Dekita terminal – obviously there was an optimum way to set up an oil terminal and storage facility, and that book was well understood. Other than obvious allowances for terrain and the harbour facing north east rather than south, it could have been the same place. On close examination, it even appeared that many of the components were made by the same company.

Quickly cleared through the entrance gate, and directed to follow a port vehicle, they pulled up alongside a small oil tanker. Small was of course a relative term – it was still a ship of significant size, a hundred meters or more long, nearly sixteen wide and with a draft of six meters, and held according to a quick estimate from Marius, over five thousand cubic meters of cargo. The dockmaster came and spoke to the team, surveyed the truck and swiftly got to rigging up a sling, and soon the truck and then the trailer were swung up on to the ship, and chained down to the deck by a swarm of crew.

The captain met them at the top of the gangway, a dour, humourless-looking European. He examined each of them quickly, and told them that he wanted no funny business on his ship, and directed them to their cabins, before heading elsewhere in the ship. Deciding not to upset their host, the team headed to their cabin, and Marius fired up his sat-link to get the latest on their shares.

The price had recovered somewhat with no new disasters, and was climbing slowly, and was hovering in the mid-60 range, but showing signs of continuing to climb. Marius wasn’t keen on staying connected via the sat-link for too long, so they agreed to check in every couple of hours. The loading of the ship continued around them, and about thirty minutes later they eased from the berth and headed out of the harbour for the journey across the sea to Baku. The tanker seemed particularly slow, only doing about six knots, meaning the two hundred and twenty one nautical mile journey was going to take nearly thirty-eight hours to complete.

By mid-afternoon the price the of the shares had crept up to 85, and the team made a call to the broker, with the intention of putting in an order to sell if the shares crossed a hundred Nuyen each. Kai got chatting with him over the phone whilst he accessed their records, and was chatting away, doing his thing – not even realising that he’d turned the charm on. When he gave the sell order, there was a silence from the other end of the line.

“Are you sure? I’m thinking you might want to reconsider. Seems to me these shares have got a way to go yet.”

Kai shared a look with the rest of the team, and then asked if there was any particular reason for this, but the broker remained silent. The silence stretched out for thirty seconds, both sides waiting for the other to make a move.

“Just to let you know, the shares have just hit 114, and are climbing. Still want to sell?”

“Ok, let’s hold on to them for now. How about we keep them while they climb – but if they drop 10% for any reason, no matter what they’re at – sell them.”

The broker agreed, and after confirming some details, disconnected. They fired up the news service and saw that there was an update on the Dekita situation – the report of contamination was apparently due to a sensor malfunction – bad firmware had affected an entire set of sensors, and that had caused the quarantine. In the light of that, manual testing had confirmed the oil was actually ok, and had been released from quarantine. It also appeared that a number of the fires had now been contained or extinguished.

Over the course of the afternoon, they checked a few more times and saw the price continue to climb – 274 by dinner time, 342 by mid-evening. They checked in again just before they hit their bunks, just before midnight – and found the price at 691. Kai immediately called the broker, and after keying in his access code, waited to be connected.

“Sell. Sell them all, right now. No arguments – just dump the lot.”

“Of course sir. Do you want me to use some of the shares to cover the brokerage fee, or do you want to settle your account separately?”

“Um… I’ll send you the cred separately. Just keep all the cash from the transaction together for the moment, yeah?”

“No problem. Selling a thousand, Dekita A at 691…. Confirmed. 691,000 transferred to your broker account. Fees come to 24,185.”

Kai keyed the release, paying the brokerage fee with the remaining funds on the credstick that Johanna had given them, leaving only a few grand left on the stick, before disconnecting with a slightly shell-shocked expression on his face.

They checked again at dawn, and found the price at 492, and each of them did the maths and worked out how that would have affected them – or how much it would have hurt if they’d sold at 100… The news had details of upheaval in the stock market, and the lead article was news that a flurry of trading in Dekita, had driven the price up almost to pre-accident levels, and possibly indicated some kind of corporate takeover event.

As they sat in the cabin munching on breakfast cereal, they worked out what nearly seven hundred thousand Nuyen would do for their prospects, each of them working out what they would want to buy.

Just as Kai was pouring some fresh orange juice into his glass, the deep thudding of the engine slowly faded away, and the ship grew quiet.

“Uh oh…”


	46. 046 - Fuchi Assault

Date 22/01/2060, Location 40.31723, 51.69616

Kai put down his glass and looked over the room to the other bunk, where Tadibya was sitting cross-legged, her eyes glazed over as she meditated.

“Feel that? Engines have stopped. And I’ve got a bad feeling…”

Tadibya blinked rapidly as she came out of her trance, and then called her spirit to her. It answered at once, the sea spirit appearing astrally by her side – that meant it wasn’t dawn yet. Couldn’t be far off though – the sun should be up soon. Kai pushed himself out of his chair and opened the door into the passageway, crossing it swiftly and pushing open the door to Aswon and Hunter’s room without knocking. Aswon was performing some kind of calisthenics, but paused mid-movement when Kai leant around the door. Hunter was dozing lightly, but woke and sat up rapidly as Kai spoke.

“Engines just stopped, and I’ve got a really weird feeling. Grab your gear, just in case.”

They didn’t get chance to speak to him, as he ducked out of the room straight away, crossing back over the passageway and to the next room to his, entering the cabin assigned to Marius and Shimazu. Shimazu was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the cabin, with his sword laid across his knees. His eyes flicked up to Kai and then relaxed slightly, and his hand loosened on the hilt of his sword – until he saw the body language, and heard the message as Kai repeated the warning. Shimazu smoothly rose from his position and turned to the bunk, poking the foot sticking out of the bottom of the duvet. Marius continued to snore loudly, but the foot withdrew into the warmth, until Shimazu poked him again and roused him from his dreams.

Back in the second cabin, Hunter had glanced out of the porthole and then done a double-take, checking the time on his internal display and peering out again.

“Hey Aswon… its dawn. Should be light. But its dark out – can’t see anything.”

Aswon left the room, spear and rifle in hand and moved swiftly to the end of the corridor and one of the doors leading out onto the gantry that spanned the ship. Crouching by the side of the doorway, he pulled the large plastic lever that undogged the mechanism, and pushed the door open – ducking back as he did so. No gunfire or shouts of alarm greeted him – but a thick tendril of fog wafted into the ship swiftly. Glancing out, he could barely see ten metres through the roiling bank of dense water vapour. Everything was a uniform grey, with barely any light making it through the bank of fog, and sounds were deadened and flat. He reached out and pulled the door shut, and locked it again, then returned back down the corridor, heading into Kai and Tadibya’s cabin.

Everyone was there now – Shimazu strapping on his armour, Hunter with his assault rifle cocked and ready to go, Marius passing out the tactical comms system from the padded travel case.

“Fog outside – crazy levels of fog. Can’t even see the back of the ship…”

“Stern,” interrupted Marius.

“Whatever you want to call it, you can’t see it. Everything’s quiet and visibility sucks!”

Tadibya quickly crossed to sit on a bed, and then projected out of her body – she flew outside the superstructure quickly, and looked at the fog, did a quick circuit of the superstructure and then returned to her body moments later.

“It’s not magical, not so far as I can tell anyway. Think it’s just a crazy foggy morning. I’m going to ask my spirit to go do a better look around though.” She concentrated for a moment, imparting her wishes upon her spirit, and then focussed again on the room, seeing everybody bar Marius leaving in a line. With a shrug, she leaned back on the bunk and waited, keeping an ear open and checking the area around them astrally.

Kai led Hunter, Shimazu and Aswon up the stairway to the top deck, ignoring the warning given previously by the crew when they had boarded to stay away from the bridge. Reaching the landing outside the bridge, he was confronted with a sturdy security door made of toughened metal, with small security-grade polarised windows. The door was locked shut, and with no way to peer through the windows, he was forced to push the small intercom button next to the door.

A very testy-sounding voice demanded to know what he wanted. It was the voice of a woman who had a whole heap of problems, and really didn’t want any distractions at the moment. None the less, Kai persisted.

“Listen, we may be able to help. Tell me what went on, from the beginning. We’re stuck here with you, you make as well make use of us.”

“Alright. Look, I’ve buzzed the captain, he’s on the way. Everything was fine overnight, but a few minutes ago, we started to lose speed, but the engine room commed us to say the engine revs were going up, and they needed to throttle back to avoid damaging the engines. We’re looking into it.”

Kai leaned over to Hunter and spoke quietly.

“Why not go get some more stuff from the truck. Lots of things that go bang and such like”. Hunter grinned, and headed back down the flight of stairs to their initial deck, and out of the forward hatchway into the dense fog, heading for where the truck was securely chained down to the anchor points.

Down below in the cabin, Tadibya suddenly sat up as the badly mauled remains of her spirit limped into the room, flakes of magic falling from the deep wounds inflicted upon it. It was barely cohesive, and had obviously taken a thorough battering at the hands of some force.

“Strong beings, all around the back of the ship, under the water. Around the churner. The big one saw me and attacked, but I ran away to come and tell you. Quite strong, many beings of water, full of angles.”

Tadibya told the spirit to wait here, in relative safety and shot up astrally through the deck and manifested next to Kai and the others, making them jump slightly with the suddenness. She swiftly recounted the news that there were water elementals around the propeller, and then shot back to her body.

Kai was just relaying the information to the watch officer via the intercom as the Captain of the vessel appeared, running up the stairs in a tracksuit and fleecy top rather than his normal uniform, and clutching a pistol holster and belt in his hand. He heard the back end of the conversation as he stopped at the top of the stairs, buckling the belt around his waist before he popped the stud and opened the protective waterproof flap, drew the pistol, checked the magazine and chambered a round. 

As he did so, there was a quiet but deep “boom” and a faint shudder through the deck plates. The lighting flickered and then died, to be replaced by the emergency lighting. Leaning past Kai, he depressed the intercom button.

“Knudsen, it’s the Captain. I’m outside with our guests. I’m heading down to the engine room to check things out. Send out the distress call, it sounds like we have boarders.”

There was a second boom, and then the emergency lights went out too. The captain turned and headed down the stairs, with the team following him. As he reached the next staircase, his entourage grew larger, as Tadibya and Marius joined them. Marius looked at the team with a frown on his face.

“Whassup?” asked Kai, seeing the frown on the German’s face.

Marius tapped his ear first, then pulled out one of the tactical radios. When he turned up the volume, howls of static could be heard from the speaker.

“Jamming. Pretty powerful. Point source is close – but it’s echoing and magnified by the ship hull. Somewhere inside seventy five metres, but I’m pretty certain we can’t call for help through this – it’s on every frequency I’ve tried.”

The Captain looked over his shoulder as he heard this, and scowled at them – clearly wondering if his passengers were the cause of this assault. Tadibya waved her hand, and then focussed on the astral, calling her spirit from the room and asking it to appear physically, and to describe what the elementals were doing. The spirit materialised, a wispy cloud of roiling green and blue, with small waves rolling over its surface. It appeared as a blob, not even taking humanoid form – just a ball of “stuff”. It spoke, the sound distorted as if music was being played on land but listened to in a swimming pool – until the listeners realised that it was actually the other way around.

“The beings are gathered around the churner. They are working together. They are holding back the…”

The sun finally crested the horizon, signifying the end of night and the start of day. 

POP.

The spirit disappeared, returning back to the astral realm, the bargain it had struck expiring with the cosmological start of a new day. It disappeared like a soap bubble growing too large, there one moment, but gone the next.

Tadibya sighed, as she checked her watch, then shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, there’s a bunch of elementals, all as powerful as the spirits I summon, messing with your boat. I’m not sure how, and it’s probably very dangerous to go and try and find out.

Tensing, the Captain looked about to say something, but changed his mind and closed his mouth, then resumed his pace, and moved swiftly and surely, racing down the stairway with the pistol held in a two-handed grip, his gait easily compensating for the slow wallowing of the ship.

The deck below was dark, the corridor being internal and all the lighting being out. Only the first few steps were vaguely lit by the grey dreary light filtering down the corridor they stood in. The Captain did not pause though, and barrelled down the stairs into the darkness. The team moved to back him up, following down the stairway in single file. As they did, the stairs got darker and darker as their bodies blocked out the light from the deck above. Shimazu led the way, followed by Aswon, Marius, Tadibya and with Kai bringing up the rear.

Just as the Captain reached the bottom of the stairs a single pistol shot rang out, and the Captain flew back into Shimazu with a cry. Shimazu caught him by reflex, and the lolling body flopped in his arms. As Shimazu’s arm grasped the Captain, he felt the wide plastic mushroom of the gel round pressed into his chest. Whoever had just shot him was using “less lethal” ammo at least – but the impact had hit him in the sternum and the driven consciousness from him. Shimazu let him slide down his body and ducked around him, sprinting towards the corner with his sword held at the ready. Time flowed like thick viscous liquid as his reactions kicked into high gear, and he felt the others moving behind him.

His brain caught up with his reactions though as he reached the corner of the T-junction ahead. He knew his sword was raised in front of him, held in a close-high guard. His hands were inches away from his chin, the ancient steel blade rising up in front of him with the razor sharp blade ready to cut in any direction. And he couldn’t see a single thing. He didn’t even have any idea where his hands were visually. This… this was a dumb idea. He needed a light, or to let someone who could see go first. He flattened himself against the wall, on the right hand side of the corridor, making plenty of room for someone to leapfrog past him.

Aswon, rifle raised in front of him, followed up Shimazu, and leant around him when it was clear he wasn’t moving forward. He paused at the darkness too, letting his enhanced vision suck in the light, trying to discern details. Being able to see in “low light” was no good in “no light” though, and he, too, paused.

Marius followed up, and with a cybernetic command switched to ultrasound. Tiny emitters built into the corners of his cybereyes blasted out high-frequency sound, and the receivers gathered the returning information, building a wire-frame 3d view that was sent over his optic nerves. As he moved round wider, trying to see past Aswon and Shimazu, his vision picked up an anomalous reading, just around the corner from Shimazu. Something small, about the size of a large fruit, on the floor, was causing the sound waves to scatter in odd directions. He was only picking it up from the bounced signals from the far wall, so it was an amorphous blob though, lacking any definition. He pointed it out to Aswon, then fell back, trying to clear some space.

Tadibya had moved around and under the stairs, and sat down with her back against the bulkhead, letting her astral form wash out of her body and got ready to move ahead and scout for the team. In the astral, the bulkheads, ceiling and floor were the washed out grey of manufactured items, but the air sparkled slightly with motes and bacterial life, and like everywhere in the astral realm, the lighting was a smooth, constant white.

Kai grabbed the Captain and checked him over, pulling out the gel-round from the dent in his chest and expertly probing the ribs. Cracked, not broken, and the breathing was ok. He’d been knocked out from the traumatic shock, and was going to have a hell of a bruise, but he’d be fine in a few hours. He struggled with the body for a moment, but then managed to liberate the keycard from his pocket and the pistol from his grip.

Back at the corner, Aswon threw a loose round down in the direction Marius indicated, and heard a dull “thwock” as it hit something – it sounded plastic, but dense. Shimazu pulled back away from the corner, feeling a shudder down his spine as Tadibya flew through him astrally and sped down the corridor. Shimazu looked around to work out what had happened, and saw Kai struggling with the body - moving to assist, he easily hefted the Captain over his shoulder, and started to climb the stairs. Tadibya flew on, unaware of the discomfort she had caused, and she saw the man who had shot the Captain just as he turned through a door most of the way down the passage, the astral form bright and clear as day. 

Moments later the grenade he had placed at the corner went off. Rather than exploding, it released a high pressure stream of compressed gas, spinning and wobbling over the deck from the force of the expulsion. Marius retreated back down the corridor quickly, whilst Aswon backed off down the left leg of the T-junction. He was closer than the others, and unfortunately the edge of the gas cloud washed over him. The potent chemicals soaked through his clothing and were quickly absorbed by his skin.

Aswon exhaled sharply, gasping the word, “GAS!” as he did so. He backed off quickly, knowing he had only moments of clarity left before the chemicals took effect. Slamming into the door at the end of the short corridor, he swept the locking mechanism over, pushed through the door, and then pushed it closed behind him. A second later his vision exploded into coloured streaks that seemed to shoot out of the darkness ahead of him, his ears rang like a bad case of tinnitus, and muscle trembles and contractions made him twitch and sway in place. A throb across his temples made him smile though. It quickly wiped from his features as a second throb followed, then a third, then a fourth. The quick onset migraine was a tell-tale sign of Neuro-Stun VII gas – one of the most common “non-lethal” gas types. On the good side, it meant he wasn’t going to die. On the bad side, he was going to have vivid hallucinations, balance problems, mild incontinence and a headache that felt like some small creature had climbed inside his skull with a mallet and was going crazy for some time.

He tried to remember the breakdown time for the gas… was it one minute or ten? Did the headache last for an hour, or more? He couldn’t think clearly, what with the alarm bells he could barely hear over the rushing of the waves as the wall gently stroked him with pink fronds of warmed fur. He stood still, or at least he thought he did, and tried to ignore the crazed messages his body and mind sent him as the psychoactive drugs went to town on his nervous system – thinking back to training he had received when he first signed up as a mercenary. He remembered the grizzled instructor who had given them “a sniff” of the gas, so they knew what to expect, and how terrified he’d been when he’d seen his face melt and slide across the floor. But he also remembered that he’d been told the best thing to do was to hunker down and stay still. Sure you were not combat-effective – but you also then didn’t wander off the edge of a cliff, into a minefield or out of your foxhole during a strike and into the field of fire. He swayed on his feet as his balance went, standing in the darkened room, unaware of the shit-eating grin plastered on his face as sweat ran down the side of his head and he giggled to himself.

Meanwhile, back on deck; Hunter had reached the truck and grabbed a pocket full of grenades, another assault rifle, several magazines, a little bit of demo and finally had slung two LAWs over his shoulder. Moving somewhat slower than before, he was just climbing out of the truck and locking the door, when a flash of movement from the bow end of the ship distracted him, barely seen through the fog. He crouched by the truck’s wheel, and watched. Sure enough, thirty seconds later, he saw it again. A large, muscular man, with something large and heavy-looking clutched to his chest, staggering out from behind a pump and across the open part of the deck, before disappearing behind a mass of pipes.

Hunter locked and loaded, and then moved forwards, darting from cover to cover. He closed the distance and sighted the rifle, ready to attack if he saw aggressors. Slowly he closed the distance, catching glimpses of the man as he crossed and re-crossed the open deck area. What was he carrying that was so heavy? Gold? Demo? Ammunition? He continued to move up, cautiously – aware that he was out here in the fog, on his own, with no backup.

Kai and Shimazu ran up the stairs, back to the bridge, Shimazu with the unconscious form of the Captain slung over his shoulder. They reached the door to the bridge, but the intercom looked to be down, and they had to shout to get the deck officer’s attention. They laid the Captain out next to the door, then ran back down the stairs and out onto the deck, going looking for Hunter and some more firepower.

Hunter was close enough now to make out the features of the man running back and forth across the deck. He was not that tall, but powerfully built, with thick muscular legs and massive biceps. Wearing a t-shirt and shorts, he looked more kitted out for morning run, than a boarding action. Finally Hunter worked out what he was carrying – it was a link from an anchor chain. The huge piece of metal must have weighed over a hundred kilos easily, and the guy had it clutched to his chest. As he ran back and forth, his breath came in short rapid gasps and his face was a bright red.

Kai and Shimazu ran past the truck, having spotted Hunter crouching by some deck equipment. As they closed on him, Hunter saw them and raised a finger to his mouth, pointing towards the bow. The moved forwards more cautiously, but not as quietly as Hunter – on the next pass the man spotted them and slowed to a halt. With a struggle, he crouched and let the anchor link slide down to the deck, where it landed with a resounding clang.

“What are…. You doing…. Out here….” he demanded, his chest labouring up and down, fighting for oxygen.

“We think the ship’s been boarded. The lights are all out, including the emergency lights, the bridge door is locked down, and the Captain took a round – only a stun round, but he’s out like a light. Someone’s on the lower deck, and has planted some booby traps and gas grenades. And who are you, and what were you doing?” said Kai.

“Chris Harris, I’m the Cheng.” He saw the look of confusion on their faces. “Chief Engineer. And I was doing my morning workout. It’s like a beep test, but with a bit of weight.”

All three of them looked down at the anchor link, and imagined what it was like trying to do timed sprints back and forth with that resting on their chest. Whilst they shuddered and wondered if he also liked being stabbed, or eating broken glass, Chris had disappeared out of view for a moment. When he reappeared, he had a large sledge-hammer held in one hand with the head resting on his shoulder. Despite being a full-sized sledge, it looked vaguely child-like in his grip.

“Now, who’s been taking liberties with my engines and my Captain?”

They chose not to mention his choice of priorities, and filled him in on more information as they headed back to the accommodation block at the rear of the ship. As they neared the truck, Chris veered off towards the crane that had been used to load the truck onboard. With a heave of the hammer he smashed off the padlocked cover on the cranes lower portion, and started to mess with the mechanics inside. He asked Kai, Shimazu and Hunter to hold various bits, or pass supplies from toolboxes stored under the crane, and about two minutes later had a pair of jump leads bridging the gap between the crane and some exposed terminals next to a pump. He fired up the engine on the crane, and set the throttle high, wedging it in place with some chocks. Turning, he called over the noise of the engine to them

“The APU should kick out enough power to start the lights up for a bit, at least as long as the fuel lasts. Unless they physically start cutting lines, they won’t be able to drop that.”

They passed the truck, and once away from the revving engine, Hunter asked if there was an alternate way into engineering they could take. Chris told them there was – through the bilges. However, it was a long and slow journey, as they literally climbed their way through the sections one by one – and that they’d also need respirators for sure. With the mains power knocked out, there was far too much chance of a gas build-up in the enclosed spaces. As he described the technical difficulties, it became clear that while the route was possible, it was very much a last-ditch option.

In the darkened room below, the pounding headache started to recede, the colours faded away and the floor stopped feeling like a trampoline. Aswon took a few deep breaths, and moved to the doorway, pointing his rifle down the corridor, past the T-junction. He couldn’t see anything, and his vision still swam a little, so he stayed where he was, spotting for movement in the darkness. Marius was crouching by the stairs, using the metalwork as cover, and keeping a watchful eye on the body of Tadibya, who was still maintaining astral overwatch. The corridor was quiet, dark, and full of menace. There could be just the one enemy down there, there could be a whole team of them, poised in the darkness and ready to assault at a moment’s notice.

As the lingering effects started to drain away from Aswon and his mind cleared, he seemed to remember that Neurostun was heavier than air, and tended to sink. If he could get over – he should be ok. No physical light glowed and illuminated the compartment he was in, but in the astral plane the tattoos glowed quietly as he climbed up the wall and onto the ceiling, using the power of the Gecko trapped into his tribal markings. He padded down the roof of the corridor, like a scuttling insect, he gear all hanging from his harness and the rifle dangling on the sling. 

Nearing the superstructure, Kai, Shimazu, Hunter and Chris pulled up short as a sudden clearing in the fog blew past them, and they spotted a large motorboat pacing the tanker. It was a good fifteen metres away from the ship, but seemed to be conforming to their movements. They couldn’t spot anyone onboard – but it seemed likely that this was the boarders’ vessel. After a moment’s discussion, Shimazu shucked his armour off, and he and Kai leapt over the side of the tanker, crossing their legs and arms to try and minimise the impact into the cold waters below. They pushed up to the surface, and quickly swam over to the boat. Shimazu climbed aboard deftly, but Kai struggled to gain purchase on the hull, and after a short struggle, Shimazu had to reach down and physically pull him aboard, dragging Kai past the emblazoned name of the boat “High Roller” and onto the deck. 

They checked the boat carefully but it seemed deserted. The wheelhouse at the rear had all manner of electronic devices turned on and operating, and Kai looked them over, trying to work out what was what. Shimazu made his way down into the boat, sword ready. There were four cabins below, all deserted, and all with gear scattered around. One room was obviously that of some kind of a mage, decorated with all manner of texts and magical looking gear, but the others had assortments of guns and random kit lying around.

Kai wished he could speak to Marius – but the jamming prevented that. So, almost at random, he started to flip switches and adjust dials, hoping to have some effect. His hopes were granted – but not in the way he wanted. Something he did disabled the autopilot, and the nose of the boat started to swing around, catching the waves and making it start to roll. It got worse as the boat turned, and soon the small craft was wallowing sidewise and rolling alarmingly as the waves smacked into the broadside. Shimazu shot out of the half-stairway leading down to the cabins.

“What did you do?”

Kai looked a little sheepish and pointed at the electronics panel, then flipped a few more switches as if to demonstrate, in case it wasn’t abundantly clear. A small alarm light flashed and a buzzer sounded, the kettle started to boil, and the radio squawked into life.

Shimazu looked like he was going to punch Kai in the face for a moment, but then the realisation hit him. The radio was making noise. Somewhere in there, Kai had hit the jammer.

“Marius, Marius – can you hear me?”

“Ja? Shimazu? You found the jammer?”

“Yes. Well, Kai did. As well as the autopilot and some other stuff. You’d better talk to him.”

Marius spoke with Kai over the radio, talking him through the controls slowly and methodically, and managed to get the autopilot re-engaged.

Aswon tensed as he heard Kai babbling about buttons and icons and displays, and turned down the volume on his earpiece to avoid the distraction. He took a deep breath and steeled himself as he crossed the area of the grenade, but felt no twinges or effects from the gas, and pressed on, climbing down the walls and back onto the floor once he figured he was past. The corridor was still pitch-black here, so having lucked out once, he decided to risk it again – pulling out his phone he used the torch function and cast the light around. The corridor was empty, with most of the doors sealed, and nothing visible until the end of the corridor on the far side of the ship. He called back to Marius and updated him on what he could see. Just as he did so, one of the emergency lights down the corridor pinged into life. Then the next. Slowly the lights marched towards him, one after another, as the energy from the auxiliary power unit on the crane ramped up and fed into the ships systems.

With the jamming now off, and some lights restored, Aswon ducked into a side room and pulled out his comms scanner, and started to look for other frequencies with traffic. He found one almost immediately, and listened to the hiss and pop of encrypted traffic flooding across the circuit. Tadibya returned to her body and melded with it, and guided Marius towards Aswon’s location, whilst he continued to give remote tech support to Kai. When he arrived, he saw Aswon waving the scanner at him with the display flashing, the backlit screen showing 1593.3Mhz. He locked his decryption gear onto that frequency and started trying to decode the signal, whilst he finished with Kai.

Back on the boat, with expert help from Marius, they had reset the auto-pilot, which now had the boat running back on a parallel course to the tank, but only a few metres away. It was much rougher here, in the water disrupted by the bow of the larger ship, but the autopilot was more than capable of keeping them on course. Chris lowered a line to allow them to re-board the tanker when they were ready. Shimazu and Kai had a good look through the cabins, and made a quick assessment, which they flashed to the rest of the team. There were probably four boarders – maybe as many as six, but unlikely to be more than that. One was certainly a mage, though the presence of water elementals had already pretty much confirmed that, one looked to be a rigger, and two general purpose troops. Their gear looked to be good quality, and well maintained – so they were a very credible threat.

Chris had moved inside the ship now, descending down the passageway secured by Aswon, Marius and Tadibya, and caught up with them. After brief introductions, he showed them the quickest way down to the engineering deck, and they proceeded cautiously. The increased light levels helped, as did his expert guidance – warning them of doglegs, ambush points and dangerous areas. They quickly descended down the stairwell, weapons ready. As they descended they smelt and felt the change into the engineering spaces – exposed oil, grease, heat and vibration all became more apparent. When they arrived at the main hatch to engineering, it was closed – a large solid door that looked to be heavily reinforced.

Aswon placed his head against the door and closed his eyes, reaching out with his senses to try and listen to conversations on the other side. After a few moments, he pulled his face away from the metal panel.

“Frustrating… I can hear voices, several of them, talking. Can’t make out what they are saying though. The walls are too thick, and there’s too much interference.”

Tadibya sat down on the bottom stair, wincing a little as the cold and raw steel dug into her, and the sharp edges pressed into her. Leaning back, she got as comfy as she could, and then projected, floating up to the door and examining it. A dense dark grey object astrally, it showed no sign of magical reinforcement – but would be resistant to magical attack or spells based on the highly technological nature of the design and construction process. She described it to the others as she checked the walls and door out, and then looked up and around, spying where large water or steam pipes entered the room.

“I’ll try and hide in here and squeeze through, for a look.”

She pushed through the pipework, trying to stay inside as much as possible and using it for cover, and to enter the room at an unexpected angle. Entering the huge engine room, her senses were confused by the massive space for a moment – huge grey boxes, grey lines, grey pipes, and grey walkways – all criss-crossing, interconnecting and passing through each other. For a moment her senses rebelled as they tried to make sense of it all. Then she saw the figures – a bunch of life signs all tucked in one corner, then four more, scattered around the room, standing by grey boxes. One of the four had a small group of elementals with them, and one of those elementals spied her – and flew to engage.

She backed off quickly, back through the wall and down to her body, and it foolishly pursued her. Back in her physical form she quickly turned to engage the spirit. It was powerful – no doubt about that. It was easily as powerful as she had been when she started her pilgrimage all those months ago. But since meeting up with the rest of the team, her experiences had shown her much, taught her much – and she was closer to her totem now than she’d ever been before. She struck at the spirit hard, using that new found knowledge and power, and swiftly dismantled it, banishing it back to the metaplanes.

“Well, that will have woken the mage up for sure – but we’ve one less spirit to worry about. There’s a whole mass of bodies in there, a bunch that way,” she gestured with an arm, “and a bunch scattered around, there, there and here.”

Chris listened and then looked thoughtful. “One by the main generator panel, one by the control board, two on the far side of the main engine, keeping an eye on the crew, who are over near the transmission. If you storm the door, you can only see one of them straight away – the other two will have solid cover behind the engine or structural material.”

“Maybe there’s a better way to take them out. I presume there’s a decent gas suppression system in there?” asked Marius. On seeing Chris nod, he activated his radio, and sketched out a quick plan to Kai, suggesting they contact the bridge who should have power to activate the gas system – at least as long as the APU in the crane held out.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you.” The voice was not any of the team, nor the ship crew, as far as they could tell. It sounded somewhat similar to Marius – somewhere central European, with a strong dash of German.

“And who are we talking to?” asked Kai. Aswon, Tadibya and Marius shared a look and a brief smile, as they heard the voice change. All the irreverence was gone, as was the nervousness of the earlier conversations about the electronics. Now there was that honey-gold voice of reasonableness and compromise. A man you could trust. The sort of voice every politician envied and wanted, but so few were able to emulate.

“You can call me Bravo.”

“Excellent. You can call me…” there was a pause, and the Kai continued, “you can call me, High Roller.”

“Oh…”

There was a volume of understanding there. The change in pitch of voice was noticeable, even to those unskilled in negotiations. “Bravo”, whoever he was, clearly understood that his opponent was on board their escape vessel.

“Well,” the voice continued after perhaps thirty seconds of silence, “this puts us in an interesting position. I control the engine room, some hostages, and have enough demo to send this vessel to the bottom. You control the route out of here.”

“I’ll take your word for it about the explosives – but let us not be hasty. I’m sure we can come to some arrangement about this situation. I know you were shooting with stun rounds earlier. As far as I’m aware, you’ve not actually killed anyone, or broken anything so far? Perhaps we can come to a deal?”

Bravo considered this for another thirty seconds – perhaps conferring with his team. Then his voice came back over the radio again.

“Ok, here’s our offer. You and your team, and any of the crew, go gather at the bow of the ship, locking the bridge and other stations behind you. Once you’re all at the bow, we come up on deck with the hostages, and leave them in view of you whilst we transfer to our vessel. We leave, you take control of your ship back. Nobody wins – but nobody loses either.”

Now it was Kai’s turn to be silent for thirty seconds whilst he considered the deal. Then he keyed up the transmitter.

“Ok, that sounds reasonable. Give us five minutes to gather everyone together, and we’ll do this thing.”

Kai shook his head as he watched Shimazu immediately head down into one of the cabins on the High Roller and begin to look for the best hiding point. On the deck of the tanker he saw Hunter climbing up into the cab of the crane with his LAWs and assault rifle, looking for a vantage point. Shortly afterwards Aswon appeared on the roof of the superstructure with his rifle for a moment, then disappeared into some hiding spot.

Kai wondered if the other team was as distrusting as his was, and just how this was going to play out, and watched as the off-duty crewmen started to gather and head for the bow of the ship.


	47. 047 - Fuchi Retreat

Date 22/01/2060, Location 40.31723, 51.69616

A minute passed, and then the voice of Bravo came over the radio again.

“Is this how it’s going to go down, chummer?”

“What do you mean?” asked Kai

“Well, I can see one of your team up on top of the superstructure, another on the rear part of the deck, and I’m still showing two on our boat. That ain’t what we agreed to.”

“Well, I told them,” Kai emphasised his words heavily, “to go with what’s agreed, so they should be doing it. Give them a minute, just in case they ahh… misunderstood my intent, for them all to get their asses to the bow of the ship.”

Shimazu, Hunter and Aswon heard the interchange, and waited a few seconds in case either party said anything more. In the absence of any coded instructions from Kai, they got ready to move out. Hunter and Kai climbed out of their concealed positions, and started to make their way towards the bow. Shimazu had a quick look around the cabin, and grabbed a bag of some strange powders and crystals, shoving it inside his top before he headed back up onto the deck of the High Roller, and swarmed up the line thrown by the Chief Engineer before he had retreated to the bow.

Kai waited a few minutes, then called out again over the comms.

“All team members – confirm your position at the bow.” He listened to the chorus of acknowledgements from the team. “Bravo – everyone should be up at the bow now, so we’re ready if you are?”

“Acknowledged. Ok, we’re coming up.”

Back at the bow, Tadibya leaned in towards Marius and spoke quietly.

“Do we need to make sure they haven’t sabotaged our ship or left a bomb or anything?” She saw Marius shrug slightly and nod towards the port side, where Kai was still on the High Roller. He was obviously concerned about it, too, but had decided that he didn’t want to step on Kai’s toes. 

Through the thinning fog, they could just make out the door open in the superstructure. A figure came out wearing a hi-tech and solid-looking suit of armour, decorated in a myriad shades of blue and green. It stood out like a sore thumb against the white background of the painted metalwork – but if the figure was in the water they would become incredibly difficult to spot. It would probably work just as well in the dark, too – the subtle changes in colour and the variable direction stripes and splodges would confuse and baffle sensors and imaging systems.

The figure surveyed the deck slowly and carefully, then trotted over to the railings at the side of the ship. It was impossible to tell if it was male or female, but the figure was probably a human or elf from the build. It carried a carbine cradled in its arms, and had a variety of other gear strapped to the armour and various bits of webbing. It appeared to be satisfied with the situation and backed off from the railing a few steps.

With no warning, the figure broke into a sprint, charging towards the railing. The front leg rose, and hit the top bar of the railing, bending as far as the armour would allow as the figure leapt up onto the top of the barrier. With a single push, the figure rose into the air, sailing up several metres in an arc. At the top of the parabola the figure tucked and spun, then descended smoothly onto the boat.

Kai tried not to show how impressed he was as the figure landed with a resounding thud on the centre of the boat, absorbing the impact with a deep flex of the knees, whilst the carbine pointed unerringly at his chest – but it was hard. The jump had covered five metres horizontally and nearly eight vertically, but the landing had been spot on. The figure stared at him for a moment, then surveyed the controls carefully. Pulling out a device, it scanned across the boat’s wheelhouse and over the stairwell for a few seconds, then nodded and seemed satisfied.

“Bravo One, this is Two. Boat secure. Condition nominal.”

The voice sounded female, and possibly elven. Kai smiled at the figure, but got no change in body language or audible response. Instead the figure went to check on the line leading up to the ship, testing its durability and fixing. Obviously not happy with what they found they pulled out a small knife and pressed a button on the hilt. Instantly a piercing whine was heard, that jarred and resonated. The figure sliced through the line, then deactivated the vibro-knife and re-sheathed it.

The door opened on the superstructure again and three more figures came out. One was in the same slab-like combat armour, but the other two were in more toned-down and form-fitting sets, that looked closer to what Kai and his team wore. They were all painted in the blue/green camouflage pattern, though. The one in the heavier armour was hugely built, over two metres tall but making Hunter look slender. They also carried a carbine in their arms, and as the sun continued to burn off the mist, they could see a large canister at the back of the carbine’s stock. The second figure was a Dwarf – no one else was that short, and that powerfully built. They carried a bit more equipment, and had a harpoon gun in one hand. The last figure was of average size, and lightly loaded, not carrying any firearms or melee weapons.

They approached the rail, and looked down at their boat, and at Kai and their team mate who was keeping him under observation.

“Any chance you can pilot the boat in closer to our ship?” asked Kai over the radio. “I’m not the best climber, see….”

The last of the armoured figures gestured, and a moment later Kai rose up from the deck, legs kicking slightly as he fought for balance. The mage gestured and floated him through the air up onto the deck, landing him a few metres forward of their position. As he landed, the heavily armoured figure pulled out a grapple gun and fired it down to their boat, and then ziplined down the intervening distance to land near the elf. One after another they followed him down, and then they touched the line with the catalyst stick, the chain reaction spreading up the line rapidly and causing it to break down and degrade into flakes that soon snapped and floated away on the wind.

With no further fuss, their boat powered up, the nose turned away to the south, and they accelerated swiftly. The boat got up onto plane, and was soon skipping away from them, from wavetop to wavetop, rapidly opening the distance between them until it was swallowed into the fog.

As soon as they were out of sight, Tadibya called Kai over the comms.

“Kai, got the astral signature of their mage from the spell they cast to levitate you up here. Will recognise them if I see them again.”

That seemed to be the signal for a lot of people to let out a deep breath of relief.

“Right, you bunch of slack-jaws. Time to get to work. Parties of two, grab your diagnostics, and down to the engine room. Generators, engines, steering, comms, pumps – the works. Level 1 diagnostic on everything, make sure they haven’t left anything behind,” said Chris, standing with his hands on his hips and his feet apart. Neither the first nor second officer seemed inclined to argue, so with a bunch of “Aye, Cheng!” responses, the crew headed below decks or back to the bridge to begin their work.

Aswon went down to where the gas grenade had been set and recovered it. After a quick examination, it appeared that he should be able to recycle it – assuming he could get some gas to put in it – so he added it to his kit. After that, he joined the rest of the team who were helping the crew pore over the engine room, machinery spaces and other areas of the ship to determine if they had been left any unwelcome surprises. 

The checks took hours to complete, but eventually everyone agreed that the ship was as it should be – or the devices were so well hidden they weren’t going to find them. During the checks the team had been grilling the crew who had been on duty in the engine room at the time of the attack.

It appeared that they’d felt woozy, and then collapsed – quickly enough that none of them had been able to reach the fire-fighting gear and breathing apparatus that was stored in the engine room. Aswon was sceptical that this would have helped them at first, but after he was shown the gear, which was more of a full environmental suit with separate air supply, realised it might have done the job. After they recovered from the gas, they found themselves restrained and positioned against the bulkhead, whilst the raiders in the blue and green armour had taken over their systems.

Marius, at least, got to work out how they’d blacked out the ship. By jury-rigging the generator and running some custom code on it, they’d changed the operating parameters so far out of kilter that nothing worked properly. Rather than the normal 230 Volts at 50 Hertz, the generator was pushing out really weird combinations – dropping the cycles down to a point where equipment just wasn’t functioning properly. However, the voltage sensors in the lighting were quite happy, as they were still receiving 230 volts, so they didn’t push over to their internal batteries. The code indicated that the raiders had some advance knowledge of the specific generator installed on the ship, and how to mess with it – but the principle should be sound when applied to other targets. Marius made some notes, just in case he ever needed to do the same thing to someone else…

The crew recounted how the raiders hadn’t been that interested in them to start with – then suddenly the mage had gotten all fired up and turned on them, demanding to know who the shaman was on the crew. They’d been grilled for a few minutes, and the mage had waved his hands at them weirdly, and they all felt a little odd – but they’d not been able to say what they didn’t know – the Captain had said they had some passengers, not to interact with them, and not to go near their truck. And nobody wanted to mess with the Captain. Shortly after that, the biggest one had left the engine room and gone barrelling upstairs, before returning a few minutes later.

They didn’t seem to be damaging anything, and they hadn’t really hurt anyone that much – as long as the crew did what they were told. One of the engineers had struggled, but they’d quickly overpowered him and made it abundantly clear that they were armed to the teeth and would quite happily make an example of him. They certainly didn’t fit the template for eco-terrorists or green warriors, and it was unlikely they were pure mercenaries – too much care taken not damaging things or proving their point. That of course left Shadowrunners…

Marius and Hunter broke off at that point, fired up the sat-link and started work, trawling the matrix for records. Port records, ship registries, insurance companies, news reports – they started a worldwide search for the phrase “High Roller”, filtering down the results and reviewing them, trying to get some idea of who they were up against. They sat around their terminal, heads bowed and concentrating as they sifted through the enormous amount of data, realising quickly enough that this would take hours to complete.

Shimazu pulled out the bag he had lifted from the boat, and showed it to Tadibya.

“Hey, I found this and it looked… well, magical. What is it?”

Tadibya opened the bag and examined the contents carefully, staring at the powder and trying to gauge its worth.

“You got this from the boat, from the mage’s room?” She saw Shimazu nod at her, then handed him the bag back. “Well, it is magical – it looks like materials for summoning a water elemental. Powdered seaweed and crushed mollusc shells, I think. Treated of course. Probably enough to summon half a dozen quite powerful elementals. And yes, worth a good chunk of cash,” she said, as he opened his mouth to speak, guessing at his question. “Unfortunately, no good to me at all. But we might be able to sell it.” Shimazu shrugged, and took the bag back, with a wry grin.

Kai went up to the accommodation block, and found his way to the Captain’s cabin. The steward was watching over him, and had made him comfortable in his bed, propped up by pillows. Kai reassured him that he was just here to check up on him, and make sure he was going to be fine, but wasn’t paying attention to where he was going – instead concentrating on making the steward feel at ease. That unfortunately meant that he didn’t see the rucked up rug where the Steward had struggled to get the Captain into his bed. His feet caught in it, and he lost his balance as his momentum propelled him forwards. His arms flailed as he tried to regain his balance, but he couldn’t stop himself in time and he crashed over the bed – where one of his flailing arms drove a pointed elbow down into the Captain’s groin with devastating accuracy. 

The Captain awoke, and let out a shrill scream of pain. The last thing he remembered was descending the stairs and being shot – and then he wakes to find Kai in his face, in excruciating agony.

It took Kai some minutes to calm the Captain down, amidst copious apologies and frequent checks if he needed anything, but eventually the Captain was calmed down and caught up on events. He called the bridge, and got a radio call put through to the dock at Baku, where he made a terse report that they’d had some trouble with unidentified raiders who had boarded their ship – but that had left shortly afterwards, with no damage done or goods taken. Due to their little adventure, they’d be delayed by several hours getting into port. He didn’t mention the team at all.

When he was done with his report, Kai thanked him for keeping him out of the radio message. The Captain turned to face him and spoke with mock surprise.

“I don’t know what you mean. There’s no one else to mention in the report. We don’t have any passengers, or they’d be on the manifest. All passengers have to be recorded for transit across international borders, you know.”

Kai nodded in understanding, and excused himself, heading out of the captain’s quarters, checking up on the team, and then relaxing for a bit, thinking about the events of the day. 

With the boat checked, they were back underway, steaming slowly towards port on the western side of the Caspian Sea. Aswon brought the spear they had found in the temple back to Tadibya, and asked her to have another look at it, to see if she could determine what it did – and just how difficult it would be to try and attune with the magical energies contained within it and activate them.

Having nothing better to do that afternoon, Tadibya agreed, and spent the next few hours poring over the design, and peering at the magical emanations given off. The few days of rest or the change in scenery must have given her a fresh viewpoint, as she uncovered some information in her studies that she relayed to Aswon.

“Well, it’s obviously a weapon focus – we knew that. But it’s not hugely powerful directly – it’s fairly low-level in fact, which is good news, as it shouldn’t be too hard to attune your aura to. Overall, I think it’s probably going to make you about a third more effective in combat – but that’s a pretty rough guess, from how I’ve seen you fight. The big advantage of course is the length of the weapon, as it’s far easier to hit someone if you can keep them at range. But there’s something else there as well, and I can’t put my finger on what it is. It’s a powerful enchantment to be sure, and unique – I’ve never seen anything like it, ever. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to find out anything more, unless we get a much more comprehensive facility and materials to work with, either.”

Aswon nodded his thanks and sat back in his chair, studying the spear for a moment and then staring into the distance. It would take considerable time and effort to try and attune to the spear, and possibly involved some risk – but for what reward?

The hours slipped by uneventfully, and on the western horizon a brown smudge appeared, slowly growing into a coastline as the boat continued to chug through the water. They adjusted course slightly, bending north a little around the spit of land protruding into the sea, before taking a more southerly course into the large sheltered bay. On the starboard side now, they could see the port ahead of them – the buildings looking very similar to those on the far side of the Caspian. Here though, all three corporations were situated right next to each other. 

Kai called everyone together on deck to see the port and the area, and to ask how the research had gone. Hunter and Marius filled him in with the results of their searches - they’d found matching descriptions and details for the boat, with it being registered in Monte Carlo. There was some detail about it having been won by an executive there in the last year, during a high-stakes poker game. The winner was employed by Fuchi – the parent corporation for Dekita. Suddenly things seemed to make a little sense.

They stood in silence for a while, watching the scenery slide by slowly as the large vessel traversed the quiet waters. Annoying Dekita was one thing – a large and powerful company, with impressive resources, they could make life difficult indeed for them. Annoying Fuchi was a whole different level. Fuchi was one of the largest mega-corporations in the world. With fingers in literally every pie imaginable, they had global reach and resources that defied belief. They hadn’t thought it would be that big of a job – if they had, they would have asked for a lot more money, for starters!

They slid past the Espirit docks, where a few small ships were laid up next to the harbour wall, and some activity was taking place – but it didn’t look particularly busy. In the next dock over though, the one they were approaching, there seemed to be a lot of crew around, with a large number down by the waterside, standing ready with hoses and other equipment, all watching and waiting. The tanker cruised on by, and they could see the tiny figures on the dock side pointing at them, and gathering in small knots to talk as they continued at a slow by steady pace right by them. They seemed to be expecting the tanker to heave in to the Dekita dock, for some reason.

Finally, they pulled up alongside the Maersk dock, and the tanker slowly spun in place, sliding close to the dock. One of the crew waved to Kai, and wandered over to deliver a message.

“Captain said it looked like Dekita were expecting the delivery. Asked if you’d mind hanging around while we offload, just in case something happens?”

Kai looked around at the rest of the team, didn’t see any dissent and turned to the crewman, “No problem, we’ll grab some gear and keep an eye out from up here then.”

They grabbed arms and armour, and spread out a little around the deck, moving to new positions as the crew started making preparations to dock and they realised they were standing by vital equipment or in a hazardous location. The process of docking was routine, and the crew obviously well-drilled – they were watchful and alert but not tense, and the radio chatter had no sense of urgency. Lead lines were swung over to the ship, followed by stronger haul lines, and then huge hoses that were swiftly attached to the pumps on deck. Shortly afterwards the deck vibrated as the massive pumps drew thousands of litres of various grades of oil and pushed them through the 300mm diameter hoses to the waiting tanks on the dockside.

About half-way through the unloading process, Hunter called from the bow, where he’d been keeping an eye on the Dekita dock, telling the team that they appeared to be shutting down operations, and lots of crew were heading away from the dock area – and it now only had as many people as the Espirit docks had – presumably the minimum watch rotation for safety or the work in hand. 

“I think we need to stay ready. That’s exactly the kind of thing they would do to lull us into a false sense of security, though!”

The team murmured in general agreement, and maintained their patrols, keeping a watchful eye on the dock workers, the crew and the area surrounding the tanker. After a few hours, the unloading was completed though, without incident. Nobody approached the tanker that was not authorised and supposed to be there, and the area was quiet. Kai used the quiet time to get on the phone to Johanna, asking if she was willing to have a chat and a debrief over the events of the crossing. Somewhat cryptically, she said not to discuss it any further, but to wait until they were off the ship and call them from the security vehicle…

With the sun setting in the west, the truck and trailer were finally unchained from the deck and swung down to the harbour though, and the captain came down to the top of the gangway to see them off. They swiftly hitched up the trailer and got their gear aboard the truck, with their weapons stowed again. As they were loading up, a large security off-roader pulled up alongside them – causing a few raised eyebrows from the team. Kai however, just waved at them to continue loading, and moved over to the vehicle, taking the offered comms headset from the front seat passenger. Donning the lightweight headset, he saw the guard twiddle with some settings on her radio, before she leant back and gave him a thumbs up to indicate a live mike.

Kai spoke first, asking Johanna to confirm some details of their last conversation. Her voice came back after a brief, but noticeable delay, and it sounded somewhat robotic and choppy. Kai guessed that some very heavy duty encryption or routing was at work here, and the signal was bouncing around all over the place to reach her, rather than it being a straight radio transmission. He quickly sketched out the situation with the raiders on the boat, and covered the broad strokes of their assault, before asking if Johanna was interested in some more information, and hinting at a suitable payment for it.

“Hah. No thanks. All things considered, I think we both know what’s going on, based on the trid releases and such like. I admire you trying, but really it doesn’t take a prospector to work out what’s going on, does it?”

Kai thought frantically for a moment, then squeezed the transmit button

“No, no – and of course, given the news reports, it’s not hard now, is it? Still, I have to try and get the best deal for my team.”

They exchanged a few pleasantries, with Kai checking that she had their contact details for any further work in the area, before he said his goodbyes, and headed back to the team. Once in the truck, he recounted the conversation to the rest of them – before he’d finished Hunter and Marius were both searching for a news broadcast and the latest headlines. A few minutes later, they had some information, and about half an hour later they had enough of the picture to fill in the details.

As the price of Dekita shares had plummeted as everyone offloaded, someone other than them had been waiting as well it seemed. Maersk had also made significant purchases, which was what had driven the price back up as rapidly, using a number of proxy agents and trading houses to try and obscure their corporate mugging from being quite so obvious.

A story like that couldn’t be hidden for long of course, and at mid-day today in Japan, Maersk announced via the Tosho stock exchange that they had managed to purchase sixty-one million shares in Dekita at a total price of 4,484 Million Nuyen, with 75% in leveraged debt and the rest in operating reserves / cash in hand, giving them an additional 24% share in the company. Hidden investors and proxy voting blocs which had suddenly been revealed took this to 58.31% of the total share issue, and a board meeting was called to propose a new chairman. This caused a massive upheaval in the market, with frenzied trading and speculation, as it became clear that Maersk had just absorbed Dekita, effectively stealing it out from under Fuchi’s nose.

With a bit of backtracking and allowing for time zones – the news of this hit the airwaves at about the time Kai was negotiating with “Bravo”. If the enemy team were in fact a Fuchi-sponsored Shadowrun, then they’d be faced with the sudden realisation that their mission was a bust – if they stole the tanker, and took it to the Dekita port, they were still delivering the oil to Maersk effectively, as the new owners. Either way, they probably weren’t going to get paid much, if at all – as Fuchi had to be hurting from the loss of one of their core assets. Kai looked slightly deflated at the realisation that it wasn’t his superb negotiating skills that had made the other side decide to fold, but the fact that they were obviously monitoring world events and realised they were on a hiding to nothing.

Once the news articles started to repeat themselves they started the truck, heading out of the port. Security was a breeze – the gatehouse having been obviously briefed that they were “not really here” and let them go without any issue. The road from the ports to Baku was pretty good – a nice wide and well maintained blacktop, designed for lots of heavy traffic, so they made good time. Along the way, the team discussed what to do next. Nobody had massively strong feelings or a desire to go to anywhere in particular, so it was agreed that they would stay in Azerbaijan for a while, and perhaps go looking for some wildlife to hunt and try to sell to talisleggers, and to see about setting up a somewhat permanent base camp somewhere – not too close to Baku that they would attract attention, but not so remote that they couldn’t get hold of supplies easily enough. Tadibya suggested that they consider the Chechen camp where they’d first been bought together, but the others quickly shut that idea down – saying it was too remote and too much of a pain to get to. Tadibya sensed the mood and didn’t press the issue, though it was obvious from her facial expression that she felt that was not the reason people felt most strongly about…

As they drove into the main town, they spied an open supermarket, and pulled over to stock up on supplies such as snack food, water, and some spare clothing. Aswon pulled out his phone whilst he was waiting for the others to finish their supply run, and called Germaine – the fixer who had provided his gun for him the last time they were in town.

“Ms. Germaine? It’s Aswon. I just wanted to let you know we were back in town, and wondered if we could meet up some time to discuss work?”

“Oh. It’s you. I see.” The voice changed noticeably, growing colder and more abrupt. Aswon stared at the phone for a moment, and his eyes tracked back and forth. She sounded… well, she sounded pissed at him. Really pissed. And he had no idea why.

Germaine continued to give him the cold shoulder, but as tactfully as possible, Aswon requested that she meet with “his captain” to discuss things. She eventually agreed that she would allow him to take her out for dinner – and to book a table at the Waterview Bar and Restaurant at 8pm the following day. Aswon informed Kai, and they contacted the restaurant to book a pair of tables, one for the meet, and one for the rest of the team.

Finally the conversation turned to where they were going to stay for the night. Sure, they could sleep in the truck – but after a couple of days of decent beds, nobody wanted to make do with the racks again if there was something better on offer. Aswon had hoped to get something from Germaine – but with the mood she was in, that wasn’t such a good idea. The idea of a hotel was discussed, but rejected. Any place nice enough to want to stay in would cause problems for those of them without a proper ID or documentation, and besides they now had some fairly heavy-duty ordinance in the truck, which may well set of the chem-sniffers at a decent hotel. And if they had their truck broken into at a cheap and nasty place, they were going to cause a major ruckus.

Shimazu called his friend Turul, who had hired them for the job into Iran. As the connection was made, Shimazu had to take the phone away from his ear due to the background noise – wherever Turul was, it was noisy. He managed to work out from him after a bit of shouting and repeating himself that Turul was on a road trip somewhere in Russia, and was most definitely “out of town”. On hearing of their situation though, he told them to go stay with his brother if it was only a night or two. He did warn them though, to stay away from the women, otherwise his brother would become very angry… Shimazu agreed, deciding not to tell the rest of the team about their potential host threatening to cut a man’s penis off for looking at his wife inappropriately.

They headed to the place, in the north east of Baku, finding a large walled compound that Turul and his family apparently both lived and worked in. The yard was enclosed by a high wall, and looked pretty secure, with good camera coverage and modern locks on the gates and doors. They nestled the truck in amongst the haulage vehicles, smiling a little when they spotted the truck they had “robbed” a few weeks before.

Turul’s brother Nadim was waiting for them at the door, and welcomed them into his home with a poetic speech full of flowery phrases, telling them how honoured he was to have guests in his home, and how they should treat it as their home and that nothing was too much to ask for. Each of them was greeted warmly with a firm handshake and a hug, and welcomed across the threshold into a large sitting room. There was a huge fireplace on one wall, surrounded by low settees and a huge number of large cushions, throws and soft cubes. The lighting was subdued, the walls covered in drapes with repeating geometric patterns and a number of strange-looking hookahs dotted around, with long hoses and complicated multiple chambers filled with coloured fluids.

Nadim clapped his hands together loudly, and women entered the room from several doorways, bring in trays of sweetments and large carafes of strong black coffee. They were all dressed in a very traditional and conservative fashion, and did not make eye contact with their guests, but instead fussed over them and made efforts to make them comfortable with the refreshments and get them settled into furniture. Tadibya drew a deep breath, expecting to be singled out for different treatment, based on her gender, but was instead served according to her physical place. In fact she was treated exactly the same as all the other guys - it appeared that for Nadim’s purposes, tonight she was in fact “just one of the blokes”. Tadibya wasn’t sure if this amused her more by being “reclassified” to avoid conflict, or annoyed her because she shouldn’t have been treated differently in the first place – but as a guest in the house, she decided she could live with it for a day or two, in the interests of not offending their host. After a little while, a couple of younger men joined them, introduced as the various sons and cousins of Nadim and Turul, all of who worked in the family business. 

Nadim called a blessing up on the house, the food and his guests, and set up the hookahs, and was soon offering each of them a hose to sit back, relax, and have a smoke, discuss the weather, the soccer and the transportation business. Gradually the team relaxed a little – still wondering if they’d backslid a century or two into a nest of misogyny, but it was warm and comfy, and they were fed and watered admirably. A couple of hours slipped by as they chatted, waited upon by the women, and entertained by Nadim and his male relatives.

Eventually the conversation wound down as yawns became more frequent. Nadim showed them the two rooms that were set aside for them to sleep in, with throws and cushions piled up on thin mattresses to sleep on. Kai, Shimazu and Tadibya grabbed one, with Hunter, Marius and Aswon in the other. Gradually the house grew quiet, as one by one they fell asleep.


	48. 048 - Dinner with Germaine

Date 23/01/2060, Location 40.44018, 49.85378

It was 04:13 and fifteen seconds when Hunter woke, tripped by some sense. He held his breath and lay still, trying to listen carefully. The sounds of someone creeping through the room could just be heard, over the gentle snores of Aswon and Marius. Slowly his hand moved down to the scabbard, checking that the knife contained was handy. He didn’t think he’d be able to grab his assault rifle quickly and cleanly enough. He waited, trying to map out the movements in the room.

It was 04:13 and thirty-two seconds when Marius awoke. Maybe it was the noise of someone crouching down beside him. More likely it was the soft caress as a hand touched his shoulder. He jolted awake, his eyes only seeing a dark blur in front of him at first, his senses still too addled with sleep to make the change to ultrasound imaging.

“I’m sorry, sorry to wake you. Please, I need your help.”

In the pile of cushions to the right, the hand that was slowly drawing the knife from the scabbard paused for a moment.

“What do you mean? Help you with what?”

“Please, help me. I need to get away from here. Please, can you help me? Take me with you?”

The hand slid the knife back into the scabbard and released it, and Hunter lay still, with a small smile pulling on the corner of his mouth. This should get interesting…

“Take you where? Who are you?” Marius hissed, now coming fully awake and pushing himself up onto his elbows. With a mental flick, he engaged his vision systems, and the room was rendered as a 3d wireframe image of reflected sound.

“I am Nadia. Please, I wish to leave this place, but uncle Nadim will not let me. I do not wish to stay here. Will you take me with you?” The ultrasound paint of her gave an outline of her features, but lacked fine detail, but her voice was full of emotion. Marius thought for a moment, trying to stall as he worked out what he was going to do.

“Why me? What makes you think I’ll help you?” he asked.

“You have nice face, I watch you, last night. You say thank you when you were served, and tried to help. You not treat us like different, you treat us the same. I trust you. You will help, I am sure.”

Marius thought about trying to explain that he just had manners, but realised it wouldn’t help him – of course he was going to treat them well and be polite – why wouldn’t he? Of course that sort of proved her point – he wasn’t going to discriminate against her based on her gender.

“So, hang on – Nadim is your uncle, so your father is…”

“Turul.”

Marius face-palmed. Hunter sniggered quietly to himself, and then slid a foot out from under the blankets and gave Aswon a shove. Aswon woke quickly, turning towards the low-pitched conversation on the other side of the room.

“You can’t be here!” he whispered, as soon as he heard an unmistakeably female voice speaking. Aswon looked over to Hunter then back to Marius and the girl, frowning. “We were specifically told… quiet.”

His voice changed, from one of warning to one of command, and the others froze. Outside their door, they head a shuffle – someone moving through the common room with slippers flapping on the hard stone floor. 

Aswon fumbled his earbud into place, buried his head under the blankets and called out, wondering if anyone else would have their comms in at this time of the morning.

In the adjacent room, Shimazu had also awoken – but for him it was a full bladder that disturbed his sleep. He rose carefully, stepping over the form of Kai who had swaddled himself in blankets until only his nose and mouth were visible. Tadibya had tucked herself in the corner of the room and was curled up into a tight ball with her arms wrapped around her knees – it looked uncomfortable and he couldn’t imagine sleeping like that personally. If her brief stories of having walked from the northern parts of Russia all the way down to Georgia were true though, then she’d spent more time sleeping outdoors than he hoped he would ever have to, and he guessed she’d slept in some very strange places – at least she wouldn’t have to dig much of a hole in the snow to fit in like that.

Opening the door, he blinked a little at the relatively bright lights, and his attention was drawn over to Nadim, who was prowling around the room. Their gazes met, and Nadim headed over to him, with an odd expression on his face.

“Is all well with you my friend? Do you need anything?”

“I’m fine, thanks. I just need to go to the bathroom.”

“Oh. Oh, yes, of course, that is fine. This way, I will show you.”

Shimazu let himself by guided to the far side of the room, with his host steering him by the arm. It felt odd for this relative stranger to be touching him, but thinking back to the previous night, it appeared that the concept of “personal space” was very different here to how he had been raised. There was a lot more touching and physical contact than he was used to, but fortunately his training had prepared him for “unexpected contact” and he managed to restrain his natural inclinations.

He made his way into the bathroom, fumbling with the light and closing the door behind him. Nadim had already turned away and was wandering back around the room – the lack of personal space didn’t extend anywhere near bodily functions, fortunately. Shimazu checked the facilities, carefully lifting the seat and checking for bugs before taking care of matters.

Aswon, Marius and Hunter had heard the byplay, as had Nadia – who was physically shaking now. Aswon got up, and silently pulled on some clothes, then rolled up to his feet. Leaving his rifle where it was, he padded quietly over to the door, and turned to the others, holding up a single finger to them, before pulling the door open and walking out into the common area.

As light spilled into the room Nadia threw herself down to the floor, tucking herself behind Marius. She snuggled in behind him, his 82kg bulk and 1.9m height easily concealing her. He wasn’t sure she needed to press herself quite that tightly behind him though…

Aswon pushed through the door, raising his arms above his head and giving a large stretch, hoping the obvious movement of his arms would distract any onlookers. Nadim stared at him for a moment, then hustled over to greet him and shake his hand.

“Good morning, my friend. Are you well? It is still very early.”

“Ahh, I only normally sleep a few hours each night – a skill I seemed to have picked up whilst hunting big game on the plains of Africa. Have you ever hunted, Nadim?” Aswon engaged him in conversation, steering them both towards the back door. “Do you mind if I get a little fresh air? I so love the outdoors. Nothing like the feeling of being a hunter, stalking your prey for hours, sometimes days on end.”

Marius scrambled to his feet, pulling Nadia up with him and crossing to the door. Opening the wooden door a fraction, he stared through the opening, watching as Aswon decoyed Nadim away from them.

“Right, when Nadim goes outside with Aswon, you get back to your room, ok?”

“You won’t take me with you then?” The disappointment in her voice was manifest. She seemed to lose a few inches in height as her shoulders slumped, and she wrapped her arms around her chest.

“We can’t. We just can’t, I’m sorry.” Marius touched her lightly on the shoulder though, then pressed a card into her hand as she moved to clasp his hand and plead with him. It stopped her speaking, as she probed at the business card in the darkness.

“But…. That’s my number. On the card. If you happened to be out, in Baku, and we happened to be out in Baku. Well, that’s a different matter. Maybe then, maybe, we can sort something out. But we can’t betray Turul and take you from here.” He seemed to put a little emphasis on the last word. Nadim and Aswon had almost reached the back door, and he started to ease the door open slowly, not listening to the indrawn breath from Nadia. The door was no more than a few millimetres open when he froze, as Nadim suddenly turned on his heel.

“Well my friend, if you are up, then you must have breakfast, perhaps some coffee, yes? I will see to it at once.” Nadim strode over to one of the doors on the far side of the room, and pushed in, and his voice could be heard calling in the darkness. Marius watched as far as he could until the door jam blocked his view, then described the room to Nadia. She stifled a cry, and whispered back to him that it was her room that Nadim had just entered. Marius cursed under his breath, and wondered how they were going to get this resolved. She gave a little start as Shimazu returned from the bathroom, but he just nodded at Nadim and Aswon, returning to his room and closing the door behind him.

Fortunately, it was one of Nadia’s sisters that was roused from her bed, and entered the living area a few minutes later, still adjusting her clothing to cover her head. She gave a little bow of respect to Aswon, then headed into the kitchen and could be heard preparing coffee and items for breakfast. Nadim returned to Aswon, staring out into the still dark sky. Once again Aswon began to regale him with tales of hunting big game on the African plains. He put his left arm around Nadim’s shoulder, pulling him close, and gestured with his right arm ahead of them – painting a scene with his hand as he described how the men would hunt, whilst the women stayed home to prepare the fire and the food. The story obviously gelled with Nadim’s world view, and he listened raptly as Aswon described the hunt.

Behind them both, the door swung open silently as Marius lifted the handle and swayed, taking the weight of the door off the hinges. Nadia ghosted through the gap, pausing for only a moment to kiss Marius on the cheek and let her hand stroke his arm, before she moved swiftly to her room, casting fearful glances at Nadim as she did so. Not a moment after she was safely back in her room, Nadim interrupted the story, turned and came back to the table, retrieving his cigarettes and then returning to Aswon to listen to the story as he smoked his pungent local brand. Soon thereafter, they returned to lounge and were sat comfortably, whilst Nadia’s sister served them breakfast. Aswon complimented Nadim on his hospitality, still trying to distract him and put him at his ease, but caught the flash of disgust that crossed the girl’s face as he spoke. He made a mental note to try and speak to her to explain later. Or, maybe he should get Tadibya to do it? That might make more sense…

Aswon continued to talk with Nadim, listening to him as he described the shipping business he ran with Turul. Aswon listened attentively – absorbing the information about operations and the type of cargo they carried. Who knew when something like that might come in useful? It was obvious after an hour or two that Nadim was struggling to stay awake, but felt compelled to keep Aswon company, but he didn’t realise how much of a disadvantage he was at against the somatic control Aswon had over his own body processes.

At dawn, Tadibya woke and headed out to the trucks “to get some bits”. Whilst out there, she summoned a new spirit to replace the one from the night before, asking it to guard the truck and to come and warn her if anything attacked or tried to interfere with the truck. The spirit stood next to her astrally, the body formed of ethereal arms made from shock absorbers, an oil can for a body, two gently spinning tyres for legs. A newspaper sheet made the head, crumpled to give the impression of eye sockets and a mouth.

“No.”

Tadibya raised an eyebrow in surprise, and looked at the spirit.

“Why not?”

“Can’t.” She waited a moment, but the newspaper face looked away around the yard, as if bored with her.

“Um. I’m talking with you.”

“Yeah, I know. Don’t care though.”

Tadibya examined the spirit carefully. It appeared to be a fairly normal City Spirit, summoned from the essence of the people and place nearby. The formation of the body indicated that it was certainly tied to the repair yard and the business – but she couldn’t work out just why it was giving her so much sass. With a slight air of exasperation, she repeated her request.

“Told you, can’t. Dumbass. Can’t go in the house.”

Tadibya suddenly realised why it couldn’t – the home was not part of the city domain, where the spirit could wander freely. Being a place that was permanently occupied, it was likely a hearth domain. To the non-magical, it was no different – but on the spirit plane, the difference between the inside and outside of the house was like night and day. The boundary of the domain stopped the spirit dead in its track, and it quite literally could not cross the threshold. Elementals had no such restriction, being bound from primal magic and directed at the will of their creators – but they also took extensive rituals to bind, that took hours to complete, unlike the expression of will and thought that Tadibya was more used to working with.

“Well, in that case then, guard and protect the truck. And if anyone attacks, just make a lot of noise.”

“Whatever.”

It appeared that was as good as she was going to get, so she went with that, returning to the house and curling up on the soft sofa next to Aswon and accepting a drink with a nod of thanks. 

Gradually, the rest of the team woke, and joined their host for breakfast. When there were enough people up and about – the family as well as the team, Aswon pulled Tadibya to one side.

“Can you do me a favour? We had an issue this morning, and I needed to distract Nadim. Had to lay it on a bit thick about a woman’s place being in the kitchen and stuff like that. I think one of the women took me seriously. Can you have a word and explain that I was just playing up to him – I’m not actually like that?”

Tadibya considered his words for a moment, and then shook her head. 

“I’ll do it… but I’m not sure I’d be any better at this than you, or anyone else. I mean – I’m a woman, sure. But they haven’t been treating me like one since I got here. I’m not sure why that is, or what it means, but I don’t want to make things difficult. It might make things worse, is what I’m saying – especially when they’ve all been treating me just like one of you guys. Might be seen as rubbing their nose in it.”

Aswon listened as Tadibya babbled on, and got the distinct opinion that she didn’t think it was a good idea, and decided to let it drop. Perhaps, if he had the chance, he’d say something. Or maybe get Kai to say something – when he put his mind to it, he could be pretty eloquent. Either way, it was probably not a good idea to get Tadibya involved.

After breakfast, they thanked their host. Kai gave a little speech about the quality of their hospitality which seemed to go down well, and they excused themselves. Ten minutes later, they were in the truck, picking their way through traffic on the main road into the centre of Baku. It was comparatively busy, and the traffic was slow moving, which gave them a little time to look around them. Although they’d been through the city once before, they were considerably more relaxed now, and less worried about pursuit from Chechen guerrillas, the Police and other people interested in detaining them – and considerably better armed, armoured and equipped in general.

Baku was a strange mix – some of the city was obviously aged, with buildings hundreds of years old – built from stone blocks with intricate carvings, gargoyles, arches, and a weird mix of Christian and Islamic influences. Other parts of the city were ultra-modern – walls of glass, steel and chrome in a brutal post-modern style. It looked like the revival of the city had come via the power of the oil and gas industries, and the extraction of natural resources. Here and there older buildings were being demolished to make way for newer, “better” buildings, but it was obvious that the city had grown organically and not part of any planned design.

They found a car-park large enough to leave the truck in, and secured the doors, then headed to the largest department store they’d found. En-masse they visited the business section, and soon the guys were all being measured for good quality suits. The concession owner managed to get Aswon, Shimazu, Marius and Kai fitted with reasonable ease, but Hunter proved to be too much, for even his largest suits, and he had to call a local seamstress to assist. With some difficulty they worked out how to expand the suit to fit around his frame, mostly by buying a second suit of the same colour and using it to donate additional panels of fabric. No bias seemed to be shown to Hunter on account of his orcish nature – perhaps because the salesman had entirely too close a view of just how big his biceps were.

With additional purchases of shirts, belts, shoes and small sundries like cufflinks, the pile of shopping grew quickly, and good financial sense quickly snuffed any lingering racism that may have been present. Other people were shopping, to be sure – but none were spending even a fraction as much as the team obviously were. Aswon spent some time checking over the ties, ensuring he got a tie in both dark and light blue. According to the research that Hunter had helped with, these were tied to two universities in England that had some kind of reputation. He hoped that it would cover part of the issue that Germaine had with them – whatever it was.

Whilst they were waiting for people to be measured and for the seamstress to do her thing, Aswon raised the issue of Germaine again. They talked for a while, racking their brains and thinking back to the last time they had come through Baku, and what had been discussed. Playing back the conversations in their head, and following an off-hand remark from Tadibya, the closest he had come up with was that it was something to do with not going to the Talismongers in Shirvan… maybe she’d arranged a special meeting or something?

After all the guys were sorted with smart business-ware, they crossed to the other side of the store and sorted Tadibya out with a dress, which proved to be harder than expected. She had a very particular set of requirements that none of them could fathom out – it had to have sleeves of a certain type, and a specific cut or drape. It took some time, but eventually they found something that seemed to please her, and they made their purchase there. 

Taking all their purchases back to the truck, they decided to split up and fan out for the next phase. Kai went and purchased a selection of news-faxes, and located a café to sit in. For the next few hours he sipped coffee and studied the financial markets, in particular the fallout and effects of the Maersk takeover on Dekita, and what it would do to the area. The dust was still settling on the initial buyout, and the market was still in a lot of flux. However, it turned out that the purchase had caused major upset in the world markets, and the ripples still seemed to be spreading outwards. Fuchi, it seemed had been losing ground steadily to a lot of the other corps recently, and had been targeted quite heavily. They were still a mega-corp, a very powerful global entity – but they had lost a lot of ground to the other megas. It was a massively complicated issue, but he gained a lot of information on the bigger picture over the course of a few hours.

Shimazu meanwhile spent some time in stores looking for books or chips on the Russian language, and also picked up some information on psychology. He ended up with a selection of courses that claimed to teach both of these skills in thirty days of study, some on chip and some as an audio service. There was even a couple of old fashioned printed books, though the pages were made of a wood/plastic hybrid.

Marius went looking for some electronic equipment – but was initially disappointed with the available goods. No matter where he went, he could not find any suppliers of encryption and decryption tools that were better than his current gear. Obviously unsettled by the ease with which the other team had cracked their communications net, he was determined to do something about this – but it appeared that Baku was not going to be the place. He didn’t find anywhere that sold products to the security market, but it appeared that only the most rudimentary of encryption was available to the public. He had a little more luck getting hold of some jamming devices and white-noise generators – those being seen as “defensive” technologies. Even here though he found that the local markets were more expensive than he thought the products should be, with his wish list costing nearly thirty-five percent more than he was expecting. One thing he did find was lots of gear that was much more powerful than he expected – having larger ranges or more powerful signal boosters, compared to goods found in Europe. He figured that a lot of it was adapted for either maritime use or in the deserts or mountains that made up so much of the terrain here.

Tadibya, meanwhile, spent the hours looking for a magical shop. Any magical shop. Even a touristy one selling mostly rubbish and magic wands. She wandered around the city centre, such as it was, for hours – trawling up and down small alleyways, exploring courts and plazas, round the back of older buildings, and narrow by-ways. All of the places at the fringe, where shops like this were normally found – but nothing. After several hours of wandering the streets with nothing to show for her troubles but a scowl on her face, she headed back to the truck to meet with the rest.

Hunter found himself a café that offered free matrix connections and a pleasing selection of chili spiced pastries, and spent some time researching local laws and regulations. Baku, and the Trans-Caucasian League in general, looked to have a very weird mish-mash of laws. A lot of stuff was illegal to own, use or get implanted here, but was legal if it was bought elsewhere. Many things could be gained with a permit, but the rules on getting permits were byzantine and complex. Slowly as he deciphered the rules, it became clear that a lot of the laws had been changed or fitted around the people who had come with the oil and mineral businesses. It was illegal to have a cybernetic eye with a laser system – unless you were a foreign prospector using the laser to scan mineral deposits that would bring in foreign investment into the country. It was illegal to have an implanted control system to interface with vehicles – unless it was a vehicle with the purpose of mining, drilling or exploration. Rule after rule had been written around, modified or flat out caveated to death to account for the high-tech gear needed for efficient harvesting of oil, gas and precious metals, and the guards, admin staff, mages and other support staff that came with them.

After an hour or two of wading through the mass of legal waffling, Hunter decided to clear his head a little, and checked on the location of hospitals in Baku. It appeared there were two – one older one in the city, and a newer one at the edge of town, on the way to the oil refinery and terminals. Figuring the older one was more likely to be underfunded and perhaps willing to cut him a deal, he headed over there.

Sure enough, the place was run-down and crumbling, and seemed to deal with the locals mainly – there were very few “western” patients or staff. He found a doctor after a short while, and managed to pull him to one side for a quiet chat. After describing his medical requirements, the doctor told him that he had two drugs he could offer him – Warfarin or Apixaban. The Warfarin was two thousand for a month’s supply, and the Apixaban was four thousand. Examining the bottles the doctor brandished at him, he could see the Warfarin had the same labels on as he had seen previously – packed somewhere in Russia, it was likely to suffer from poor quality control and may have been watered down or possibly contaminated, and certainly not to be trusted. The Apixaban was of Ukranian origins – he quickly keyed up his pad and did a data search, ignoring the doctor who was pushing for a decision. The first page of results indicated that there were a number of stories in the media from a year or two ago that related to a quality control issue. Hunter didn’t bother checking any further, but instead turned to the doctor and politely declined both. He wasn’t going to be injecting anything into his blood stream unless he was a hundred percent happy with the quality – or desperate enough to take such a massive risk. He made a mental note to get a visit out to the newer hospital to see what they had in stock – and to take Kai with him to do some bargaining for him.

Aswon found a shop selling some nice food, got himself a picnic together and went down to the shore and relaxed for a bit. He figured he owed it to himself to have a quiet afternoon once in a while. After his picnic and a bit of time watching the fishing boats plying their trade and a few pleasure craft zooming around in the bay, he turned his attention inwards, and made a systematic review of himself. The wounds sustained during the pipeline assault seemed to have healed nicely, the scabs over the wounds almost gone and the flesh healed. He was still pretty supple and limber, and in good condition. 

After his food had gone down, he started some gentle exercises, using the activity to centre his thoughts and make sure he was in tune with his body. His thoughts drifted as he relaxed – considering his life, the spear, his relationship with the team. Something disturbed him though. As he sat meditating in the cold winter sunshine on the edge of the dock, he felt a little tremor in his hands. It faded after a few seconds, then was gone. He waited, and just as he was about to put it down to a random event, it happened again. A minor tremor, but it made both of his hands give a little tremble. Imperceptible to most people, but with his somatic control, he felt it clear as day. Maybe he needed a checkup, Aswon thought.

He contacted Kai and caught up with him, but was distracted from the tremors when Kai told him what he was searching for – a gift for Germaine. They spent a while trawling the shops, looking for something appropriate – but it was a difficult task given how little they knew about her. What do you buy an ex-patriate fixer living in a place like this? Despite searching for some time, they were unable to come up with anything appropriate that didn’t run the risk of being way off base and making her even less helpful. In the end they settled on a bottle of the Russian vodka they had previously acquired. It might be like anti-freeze, but it was at least authentic.

One by one the team trickled in, and they cycled through the shower and into their new clothes, emerging from the dusty truck some time later looking like a cabaret act. They headed down to the Waterside, parking their truck in a side street nearby. The streets were fairly quiet, and most people wandered by with coats pulled tightly around them. A cold wind scythed off the water, making several of the team shiver as they cross the road and entered the main square.

Once they approached the Waterside Bar though, it warmed up considerably – a combination of the gas burners situated around the tables and a clear plexiglass barrier around the seating area was sufficient to defeat the worst of the winter chill. Kai spoke with the waiter and they were shown to their tables – Kai, Aswon and a space at one table, and the rest of the team and one space at a second table a few metres away.

At a few moments after eight, a lean and fast-looking Jaguar entered the square, pulling up outside the entrance to the restaurant and parking right in front of the “No Parking” sign. The chauffeur got out from the right-hand side, and walked around to open the left passenger door. Germaine emerged, wearing a brightly coloured dress with matching bag and shoes, and a large gold chain around her neck. The waiter greeted her politely, and escorted her over to the table. She followed in his wake, like a galleon under full sail. She owned the space around her with absolute confidence and had a few nods and smiles for people sitting at other tables as she passed.

Kai and Aswon rose as she approached, and waited for her to be seated before they resumed their places. The waiter distributed the wine list with speed, and they opened the menus in front of them. Kai however held his down and away from him, and faced Germaine directly.

“Would you care to choose the wine? I’m sure you’re more familiar with the tastes here, and the menu, and you’ll certainly be better at choosing something more appropriate to the meal.”

Germaine nodded graciously, and selected a bottle of Meursault from the list – it wasn’t the most expensive wine by far, but it was certainly not “cheap” either. The waiter departed with the lists, leaving them at the table for the moment. Aswon pulled out the two blue ties, one dark and one light, and held them up.

“Good evening Miss Germaine. I was wondering if you would care to choose which blue was most appropriate.”

“I wouldn’t say either of them was directly appropriate for you, my dear.” The tone of voice was flat and dismissive, and somewhat cutting, and there was no warmth or friendliness in the ‘my dear’. Whatever he’d done he certainly had ticked her off, that much was certain. Glancing at Kai, he cleared his throat and slowly stood.

“If you’ll excuse me, I’ll leave you to speak with my Captain and employer, and hope that you have a pleasant meal.”

He nodded his head respectfully, retiring to the other table where he joined the rest of the team, hoping that Kai was better off without him there to upset her. On the first table, the waiter returned with a bottle and three glasses, which he set out. He didn’t mention the now empty seat, but instead poured a small amount of wine into a glass and offered it to Kai. Kai, knowing nothing of substance about wine, swirled it in what he hoped was an authentic looking fashion, sniffed it, sipped it and then nodded, and watched as two large glasses were poured. The third glass he turned upside down, and pushed to the far side of the table. Moments later a second waiter delivered the menus, and he offered them to the pair.

Germaine didn’t even open hers, instead looking up at the waiter.

“If chef has fresh stock, then I’ll have the lobster.” When the waiter nodded, she smiled, her face transforming into a wide smile. “Splendid!” The enthusiasm was at odds with her previously frosty demeanour, and Kai watched her body language and comportment with interest. As the waiter turned to him, he didn’t stop his study of her. She wore not only a gold necklace, but also ornate golden earrings, and had a number of rings on her fingers, of both hands. Kai looked at them briefly, but couldn’t work out if they were valuable or not.

“That sounds like a recommendation to me. I’ll have the lobster as well then please, exactly the same.” Only at the end of the sentence did his eyes flick to the waiter to ensure he was understood. With a nod, the waiter acknowledged his order, and headed away, leaving Kai to focus his attention on Germaine again.

“So, Mr Rolla. You wanted to meet?”

“Please, let us not be so formal. My friends and business partners call me Kai – I would hope you will fit into one of those two categories by the end of the meal.” Kai went to work, tweaking micro-expressions to fit her mannerisms, echoing body language, smiling at attention and schooled his body to present the image he needed to put her at ease.

He spoke slowly and carefully as he toyed with his wine glass, apologising for any distress or harm caused by Aswon in his ignorance of proper behaviour, and went on to describe how he wanted to make personal amends for any insult offered to her by his employee’s conduct.

At the end of his little speech, he reached down and pulled up the bottle of Russian Vodka, in the decorative bag they’d found whilst shopping, and offered it to her, explaining that it wasn’t much, but they wanted to at least offer something to her for the ‘inconvenience’.

Germaine took the offered bottle and examined it carefully, checking the seal and the label with a hawk-like stare.

“An authentic Russian Vodka – internal market, original label. Excellent. Well, thank you, Kai.” She laid a hand over his, and he twitched as he felt the warmth of her hand on his – it was like the tingle from an electric shock. He stared into her eyes, studying her as she told him that all was well, and waved away the issue with his “employee”. With a start he recognised that she was using the same techniques on him. She was less adept with the control of her body, but very experienced. 

Something very subtle made his nose twitch, and he suddenly realised that he was flushing slightly, as well as his heart racing. She had pheromone implants as well, designed to send out chemicals designed to make her opponents more pliant. He’d gone up against negotiators with pheromone implants before, but he’d not encountered any this smooth before. He looked up, and saw the amusement in her face. She knew, but more importantly, she knew, that he knew. And she didn’t mind that he knew, that she knew that he knew. His mind swum for a moment as he tried to work out what that all meant.

She pulled her hand back and sat back, and the intensity of the situation was broken. She called out in a loud voice that carried clearly across the plaza.

“HEEEEENRY!” The chauffer appeared moments later by her side, summoned like a genie from the lamp. He must have been moving before she’d taken a breath… She handed him the bottle, and then shooed him away to the car.

Shimazu watched him from the other table, and leant forward slightly, lowering his voice.

“His suit is armoured, quite discreet, but there are some tell-tales if you know what to look for. He’s definitely carrying a piece too, probably a heavy pistol – very distinctive bulge in the left hand side of the jacket – probably means he’s right handed and going for a cross draw. Moves pretty smooth, so he’s either an adept or he has some kind of cyber-augmentations.”

The others nodded as Shimazu reeled off his assessment, trying to avoid staring at the chauffeur.

“But, I don’t think he’s that pro – he’s too far away from her to act to defend her as a principal – unless his skills are through the roof and he’s reading the tactical situation before it develops for us. Of course, there is the other alternative – he’s actually trained ok, but is comfortable by the car because we’re no threat to her that the snipers can’t deal with.

That sobered them a little, and they started to cast glances around them, looking for possible backup in the buildings and rooftops around the plaza.

Back at the main table, Kai relaxed a little, and actually concentrated less on being charming, and stopped trying to manipulate his responses. If she knew all the “plays”, and was as proficient as she seemed to be, she was going to recognise any moves he made. Aswon seemed to think she was a really important contact here, and he was starting to come to the same conclusion – he couldn’t imagine someone this good at negotiating not being wired into the local scene pretty well. They chatted generally – the weather, the news about Fuchi, travelling… nothing specific, but lots of little hints dropped about business and how things could be affected. The more he chatted with her, the more he grew to agree with Aswon – Germaine was definitely “in the biz”.

As they consumed the excellent lobster, Germaine mentioned that she would of course be happy to reintroduce the team to her Talislegger friend – hardly emphasising the “re”, although Kai heard it clearly. Without pause though Germaine continued.

“Of course, I’d be happy to do this – but I’m finding myself so distracted at the moment, that I hardly know if I’m coming or going.” She sighed a little, and Kai restrained a smile. The idea of this woman being distracted was about as likely as the idea that he’d grow wings and fly without the help of a mage. He could see exactly where this conversation was going now.

“Distracted? Why, whatever is the matter?” Kai asked – picking up the conversational ball and politely offering it over.

“Well, you see, there’s this piece of artwork, in an office here in town. And I just can’t stop thinking about it…”

Germaine pulled out a small PDA and keyed the display active, and slid it over to show Kai. He could see a picture of different coloured triangles and quadrangles in a variety of colours, all in an ornate frame. Germaine pushed the PDA over for Kai to examine, and then sipped at her wine.

Kai examined the PDA and then slowly chewed on a mouthful of lobster. They continued to chat, talking about life in Baku and the Trans Caucasian League, and finished their dinners off. At the end of the meal, Kai slid the PDA towards him and pocketed it casually, before standing and moving around to behind Germaine to pull her chair back for her. She flashed a smile at him, and spoke quietly.

“Well, thank you so much for dinner, Kai. I enjoyed our little chat. Perhaps we can meet again for dinner sometime – perhaps in about a week?”

“Of course, I’m sure we can sort something out. That should be plenty of time to make arrangements.”

He escorted her back to the car, where she flashed him a thousand watt smile before climbing into the soft and luxurious interior of the Jaguar. Kai waited for the chauffeur to drive away before re-joining the team and settling the dinner account. On the way back to the truck, he keyed alive the PDA and checked the text files and information that accompanied the painting. He refused to discuss anything of substance until they were back in the truck.

As soon as they were sealed away in the truck, he motioned for Marius to pull out onto the street and to head east.

“Ok, head to Uzeyir Hacibeyov Street. Seems like we have a little job to do for Miss. G to get her back onside. Let’s take a look at the place.”

The truck pulled out into the night air, and started to wend its way through the darkened streets towards the fifteen-storey tower block identified in the dossier.


	49. 049 - The Art Theft

Date 23/01/2060, Location 40.36133, 49.83675

The target building was at the other end of the harbour from the restaurant – so Aswon and Shimazu went to scout it out on foot, arranging for Tadibya to catch up with them for an astral flyby once they had arrived. It didn’t take long to walk around the harbour, and they got to see some more of the town, for what that was worth. Down on the waterfront, much of the old and perhaps more charming and characterful parts of Baku had been decimated, and replaced with newer high-rise buildings in chrome and glass, covered in huge displays advertising NERPS. The illuminated displays cast light shows onto the water, strangely distorted by the lapping waves but with just enough detail to spot the more well-known brand names.

The target building was one road back from the waterfront – a reasonably upmarket-looking fifteen storey tower block, with a large glass atrium, set back slightly from the road. The atrium was a double height affair, and was slightly unusual in that the front windows were clear glass, rather than polarised. Inside they spotted what looked like a pair of security guards sitting behind a desk, both with eyes downcast – whether they were watching security monitors or the game was an interesting question. Aswon hit the speed dial and then after a ring, hung up – knowing that Tadibya would be on her way to them and would spot them easily out on the main road. Then he and Shimazu slowly meandered past the building, glancing at it out of the corner of their eyes as they passed. 

Security seemed proficient, but not over the top. The cameras were well sited, and covered the entrances well, and the devices themselves seemed to be reasonable quality – though they didn’t have all the bells and whistles. In fact, the opinion they both came away with was that someone had opened the catalogue to the “professional” section, but then gone with the cheapest and most basic option there – good gear, but nothing fancy or complicated. The locks on the doors looked to be similar, a good brand name but without anything special about them. There were no defensive planters or anti-ram mechanisms, but the streets were patrolled relatively often by ground and air units, and the surveillance coverage was as expected for a central business district – pretty omnipresent in the main streets.

As they glanced around they could see plenty of buildings surround their target which were taller – some a good ten stories or so taller – which offered some interesting options for a rooftop assault. The bad news though was that each of these buildings looked to have security just as good, if not better than the target. It was unlikely they would offer a shortcut for them – and neither was the sewer system. Looking downwards they quickly realised that the planners of Baku had some challenges to take into consideration – such as the city’s elevation of -28m below sea level. The sewers were very shallow and flat, and looked to include non-return valves to stop sewage water backing up into the street at key locations.

There was a promising side alleyway that was fairly dark, and that led to a small service area with the bins and delivery area for the surrounding buildings. Their target had a single fire escape door into the area, but it was a panic door – there was no external access at all, it seemed, so that too looked to be out of the question except for a noisy smash and grab option. Whilst they were slinking through the shadows in the service area, dodging the cameras set up to watch the area, Tadibya manifested and grabbed their attention. 

“Wards up over the whole building – patchwork though. Main area has a fairly weak ward over the whole thing – looks very basic to me. Had a quick look up the tower, and the top office is our target, yes?” She waited for them to confirm her understanding, then continued.

“Well, that one is at least twice as tough to get through. The one underneath is even stronger, mind. The rest of the tower is a real mish-mash of different strength and design wards. They’ve obviously been subcontracted out to different security firms, or renewed at different times. But, the roof – that’s interesting. There’s a parapet all around the outside, and a ward that stretches across the roof from about halfway up the parapet. Cuts right through some of the machines and such like. That ward is pretty weak. I think we could possibly do something through or across that. I mean, it would still alert the mage who put the ward in place if you smash it down, but it’s really not that strong.”

Aswon and Shimazu nodded as they listened, and asked Tadibya to check the roof top for other security measures – cameras, vibration sensors, pressure mats and such like, and to meet them back at the van.

Meanwhile, back at the truck, the others had been doing some basic research on their terminal, hooked up via the sat-phone.

It looked like Zeta Imp Chem had the entire top floor of the building, with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic – SOCAR – having the floor just below. Other tenants of the tower included Baku Exploration, Interpipeline, Transneft and Unev pipeline – it was a who’s who of exploitation and extraction industries in the area. Whether this was a leftover from the one time Soviet style control of the country, or something to do with zoning and planning laws they didn’t determine – but it put all the companies together – including Dekita, Maersk and Espirit as well. All three of those companies had a floor, though it appeared to be more an official registered office rather than a place of work, given their sizes.

They were able to pull up detailed street maps of the area though, as well as get some information on the local police patrols and the camera density. Baku was not rich, so their protection lagged behind cities such as Seattle, Tokyo or Singapore – but it was also much smaller than such sprawling city-states, so the police coverage was actually pretty good. They might not be as technically competent as some of the “first world” nations, but they made up for it with some good old-fashioned enthusiasm and cheap labour, it seemed.

They even managed to dig up some information on the painting – an abstract work by Gerhard Richter. Made up of coloured triangles and quadrilaterals on a white background, it had apparently been purchased a few years ago at auction – for just over a hundred thousand Nuyen. The picture didn’t seem to reflect a painting worth that much, but then the world of art was a strange one. The artist was still alive, and still producing work of a similar nature – seemingly reasonably well regarded in the art world.

Once they had gathered the information they could, Marius switched to his internal communications suite, and set up a long distance call to Istanbul, making sure his encryption gear was fully engaged – calling his friend Milo Aramkis. Milo and he went back a few years, and Marius had managed to do a hot extraction that had saved not only Milo, but his family as well, and since then they’d kept in touch. Crucially however, Milo was in the business of arranging for new identities for people... 

When he got through, the first five minutes was spent going through the same song and dance routine as with Georgi Kolarov – yes he was alive, no really, yes he was fine, thanks for asking. No, please don’t let anyone know you’ve spoken to me. No, especially not my family. Milo even asked him the name of the restaurant they’d last met in – just to make sure it was really him. Once he’d established his bona-fides though, Marius quickly got down to business.

“Right Milo – I’m in the market for a set of IDs. Got myself a couple of friends, and none of us have solid SINs for what we’re doing. So, we’re looking at getting ourselves set up with some new ones. Something decent, that means we can move around no problem and get things sorted without hassle.”

“Depends what you’re after of course, Marius – but I can hook you up. Just how good do they need to be – I can make them solid enough to go to the moon, but that’s gonna cost you a wagon load of cred – even for you, my friend.”

Marius thought for a moment, about the sort of things that would be needed, and what they would need to use the IDs for.

“I think, we need something good enough to get us onto an internal flight in a country – not a full up international border, but solid enough for travel bookings, hotels, general banking – that kind of thing. And yes, I know, that will mean some serious work on them, and it’s going to cost.”

“Wow man, someone must have been hard at work – because yeah, that won’t come cheap. We’re talking about hitting twenty or thirty top tier systems to get that kind of detail edited and cross-referenced, and scores of minor systems. Going to take me some weeks to pull this together, and I’ll need to see you to get the biometrics sorted.”

“That’s not a problem – we’re not that far away, all things considered. We can drive over to come see you, in a few weeks time, if that’s acceptable?”

“Ok, that sounds like a plan. If you can get me some pictures of your guys though and a general description, I can start trawling the files and find some matches. As long as you ain’t got no trolls, we should be fine. Once you get here, though, and I get the rest, it’s likely to be a few weeks before they’re ready – maybe as long as a month?”

“That’s no problem, Milo. I’ll get some shots over to you in a few hours. Speak to you soon.”

When the team was all together, he outlined the conversation and got them to pose for a quick photo, sending it though to his contact with notes on height, weight, sex and general description to help his friend narrow down the possible matches in his database of scavenged and created IDs. With that done, he moved into the back of the truck and joined the conversation about how to get into the building to get at the artwork.

Their first plan involved a fairly brute force affair – levitate someone up to the roof, with one of the drones in attendance. Drop the spell when they reached the parapet, so they didn’t touch the ward and set off the magical alarms. Then it was a case of kick in the door on the roof to gain access to the stairwell, and race down a floor, using a shotgun or some other breaching mechanism to gain access to the offices. Hit like a whirlwind, into the office and grab the painting, then back out and up to the roof – before the security on the ground floor could even make it up to the fifteenth storey. Once on the roof, hand the painting off to the drone which would evade one way, and Tadibya would levitate them off the roof and away in another direction. If they went hard and fast, they should be able to keep ahead of the guards, and slip away into the night.

The plan felt a little crude though, and could easily be upset by wandering patrols, so they explored other options. Getting a spirit into the building was possible, but only if Tadibya got in and summoned one there – otherwise it would have to cross the ward, and set off the alarm. Because of the wards in fact, she was very limited in what she could do to help inside the building – it looked like she was mostly going to be used as over watch for this one.

After an hour of spit-balling ideas, they came up with a modification of the plan that might serve better. Kai would get into the building using his social skills, following a bit of research – taking in with him some smoke grenades and a simple timer. He’d find somewhere to plant them near a smoke alarm, and then leave. Sometime later, the grenades would go off, triggering a full fire alarm and evacuation of the building. At that point, with all the alarms going anyway, and hundreds of people using the fire doors, it was likely the security team would be overwhelmed and would not notice a forced entry through the roof.

Shimazu would be levitated up, and would wait for the top floor to be clear, and then would go as previously planned – grabbing the painting and getting back to the roof to escape, with a drone taking the painting away and him being covered by Tadibya. The rest of the team would be waiting nearby in the truck, ready to assist with the escape or to delay the police or security teams as needed.

Satisfied that they had the workings of a plan, they decided to bed down for the night, and to do some internal recon the following morning, seeing if they could actually infiltrate the building along with the morning crowd, to enact their plan.


	50. 050 - The Fire Alarm

Date 24/01/2060, Location 40.37711, 49.8968

The team woke early – the alarm going off at about 05:30, causing some grumbles and curses as they rolled out of hammocks and bunks. The town was blissfully quiet as they got on the road, and headed towards the tower. Being only a block back from the waterfront, and in the middle of the central business district, parking was an issue – the signs made it clear that they would be towed or fined, no matter where they were. In the end, they found a multi-story garage that let them pay for a day about five blocks away. Marius crept into the garage in low gear, watching the sensors as the truck scraped under the height barrier, having to use the truck’s active suspension to lower it down enough to fit, and then making sure he parked in a place at the end of a row so he had a clear route to pull out without having to turn.

The car park was almost empty – only three other cars were present, presumably belonging to overnight security staff working nearby. When they were settled and parked up, Tadibya summoned a watcher spirit to her for use later. Then they settled down to wait for a bit…

Around 06:30, a couple of vehicles arrived in the car park, all old and battered models covered in rust spots and with mismatched panels. They parked up and disgorged full loads of passengers – in some cases they appeared to have more people than seats even. From the dress and deportment, they were obviously cleaning staff, maintenance engineers and other custodial functions. Car-pooling was the only way they could afford to travel into the centre of Baku effectively, and the banter between them showed that it was a routine arrangement. They travelled in a loose group to the exit of the car park, and then split up, heading to their respective buildings. Tadibya trailed after a group or two, but none of them went to the building they were checking out.

When she returned to her body, she found the team discussing the general plan and how to infiltrate the building, including how they should dress to try and avoid attention.

“Erm, I don’t have one of those suit things. Or anything really busisnessey. Is that a word? Clothes for office work I mean.”

“What, nothing? Did you not get a suit or anything when we went shopping?” asked Hunter.

“No, why would I do that? I didn’t think I needed one.”

“Well, it’s a country with a reasonable number of Muslims still. Guess it’s time to get back in your burka.”

Tadibya sighed, and then rummaged through her pile of stuff, looking for the burkas purchased in Iran, and then tried to smooth out the creases in the fabric from where it had been scrunched into a ball.

They continued to chat aimlessly whilst waiting for more arrivals, and ended up discussing food – it became clear that they were a very multicultural bunch with a variety of ethnic backgrounds when they started to discuss their ideal puddings.

“Donoughts. With jam in the middle. Lovely things, full of sugary goodness, but not over the top.” was Aswon’s chosen sweet. “Got a taste for them when I was running with a Merc unit and we were doing ops in a toxic zone in the UK, looking for some stuff.”

“They are not bad, but what you really need is a modified version – you add cream to the jam in the donut, and they give a much more refined taste,” pronounced Marius, then stared at Aswon with horror as he turned his nose up at the idea and restated his preference for just jam.

Tadibya also liked a variation of donuts, made with a slightly different dough mixture based on the crops grown in her area – but liked hot fruit fillings with a touch of spices to flavour them, with the sugar caramelised over an open fire.

All conversation stopped though as Kai chipped in that he personally rated chicken donuts, though they took ages to cook on account of their size – being formed around a whole chicken. You could see the thought processes as the rest of the team worked through this chain of logic, including the shudders as they contemplated the taste – or the idea of having to pick bones out of your donut…

However, the conversation did fill up the time until the next batch of cars arrived, at about 07:30. Also battered and relatively unkempt, these two disgorged relatively full passenger loads – but with radios, batons and pepper spray in evidence, along with some holstered side-arms. The security staff followed the behaviour of the cleaners, travelling to the car park entrance in a group and then splitting out to their various buildings. Once more Tadibya followed, but was rewarded this time by someone heading in the right direction.

She called her watcher to her, and told it to monitor the doors of the target office block, and to observe what happened when they opened. It was to come back and tell her if the ward stayed up over the dividing line for the outside of the building, or if the ward was tied to the doors and opened a hole when the doors swung open. She took her time explaining the concept and what she wanted to the spirit, ensuring that its simple mind comprehended what she wanted – in fact she took so long that the security guard wandered up to the building and wandered in. As she and the spirit watched, she saw the doors slide open, the ward with them, leaving a big hole to wander through.

“When the doors open, the ward goes with them,” the watcher spirit told her, with utter seriousness and no irony at all. 

“Well, thanks for that. Ok, come on – back to the van.” She and the spirit flew back to the van, Tadibya merging with her body, and the spirit amusing itself by tracing the faint chalk marks of the ward around the van’s interior.

Around 8:30 the car park became more active – cars starting to arrive thick and fast. It filled up over the next fifteen minutes until there were only a few spaces left, as the vast horde of office workers arrived for their 09:00 start. Shimazu remarked that they seemed to like late starts here, comparing it to his native Japan, and commenting that they obviously didn’t care for their companies much.

Marius noticed with a snort of amusement that the people that had parked near the truck had given it a wide berth – parking as far over in their bays as they could. They must have realised that with the ground clearance and steelwork on the military style truck, any collision would have wrecked the paintwork and possibly the body panels on their cars and caused nothing more than scrapes in the dirt covering the truck.

The street outside the carpark was awash with people now, in a mix of traditional dress and business suits. Many of them carried coffee or bags from the local stores with breakfast inside, and they moved without the haste or urgency common to cities like New York, Frankfurt or Tokyo. Still, there area was as busy as any other city-centre finance district, and they watched as drones drifted past and the odd patrol of the local police drove through the area to keep an eye on things.

Now that the staff were in, Marius fired up his electronics suite however, and trained his sensors on the right bearing for the office block, gathering electronic intelligence. At first he thought he was being jammed or disrupted, and he spent a good few minutes hopping frequencies and trying alternate settings. Eventually though he realised what was causing a problem – the building itself. It appeared to be a legacy of old construction materials, and the concrete was the special blend of “Soviet Style” – instead of using rebar rods to reinforce it, instead they used cheaper wire mesh. It made for thicker blocks, but also transformed the building into a series of massive Faraday cages. The entire office block was an incredibly adverse environment to begin with – made worse by the multi-tenancy occupation. Each floor had its own wireless matrix system, with the little signal that did make it through floors competing with those of the floors above and below to create a constantly fluxing set of hopping signals and variable strength fields that must have driven people mad in the office. 

After watching the displays for a while and ensuring his information was correct, Marius told the rest of the team the news. It was probably a good thing for them – not only did the building not have a Rigged network that would make infiltration harder, but with the types of dropouts and interference they must experience, there would be no lockdown sequences or panic room activations – the false alarms and inconvenience would have seen to that. And also, if they did cut the building systems, it was entirely likely that people would just “blame IT” – and probably for a while, at least. Their systems must be ropey as all hell, and a constant battle to use.

Based on this, he took a wander down to the building, and checked round the back, in the service area. Moving carefully to avoid the field of view of the fixed cameras, he found the service console for the tower’s matrix connections positioned on the wall a few metres from the rear entranceway. A moment with his multi-tool swung open the plastic cover and then he let out a little gasp of horror – he couldn’t help it. Inside was the scene from one of his worst nightmares. There were about forty or fifty interconnects coming up through the service duct, and available. Each one had multiple pairs of old fashioned twisted copper connections in a variety of coloured sheathes, with a leavening of fibre optic cables snaked throughout. The twisted pairs were looped, hung, intermingled and threaded through each other, with crimps and splices all over the place. In a few examples, the outer sheath had just been trimmed back and the bare copper twisted together and rolled up into a ball, then covered with a sliver of tape. The fibre splices were if anything worse – each one was in a snap-fit plastic sheath, with no strain relief or order, and he could see the stretch marks in some of them where the jackets had been snagged or crimped by other tools. Nothing was labelled, nothing made sense.

He slowly resealed the box, and retraced his steps – his inner sense of calm and order destroyed by whatever thumb-less retards from the local telecom provider were responsible for that abortion of a cabinet. It was a wonder that anything worked in the tower at all, let alone reliably. It made the job even easier – a tiny amount of explosives in there would trash everything for sure – and it would take days, possibly weeks to reconnect. On the other hand, there was no way he could even begin to fathom which of those connections were for the fifteenth floor without a full survey team. He got back to the van and let them know a simple and direct demo charge, something small, would do the job – but he didn’t mention the horrible image now imprinted into his mind. While Aswon prepared a small section of det-cord and a simple detonator, he sat back and stared into space, imagining some special kind of torture to be used on installation engineers who didn’t label their work, use strain relief or proper insulation…

Tadibya meanwhile left her body behind again and floated down the street, keeping a careful and watchful eye out for other astral forms. Other than the wards over most of the buildings, the area was pretty quiet astrally, and she saw barely any other astral entities – even here in the capital, it appeared that magic was still very rare indeed. She waited outside the tower, for the next person to walk through the doors, and followed them in as the ward split open. Once inside she slowly looked around, before darting into the lift as it responded to their request. They got off at the seventh floor, as did she, continuing to look around the place. There was a ward over the office, low in force and appearing to be one continuous block around the floor. However, the lobby and stairwell were free and open. She floated up the stairs, switching back and forth as the stairs climbed sharply through the core of the building and glad that her astral form didn’t require any real effort to ascend. At the fifteenth floor, she spied the ward and gave it a good long look – like the floors below, it appeared to be a continuous ward that was tied to the outside view – all part of the same astral construct.

Out of curiousity, she floated up the last flight of stairs to the roof access door and checked it out – it appeared to be unwarded. Slowly and carefully, expecting some kind of trap or very subtle alarm ward, she examined and pressed through the door – before finding herself outside on the roof. She could see the ward on the roof below her, just above the roof level and intersecting with the parapet – but it stopped flush with the roof door. It didn’t go up and cover the roof access, or cut through it like a plane – it just stopped on the outside. Whoever had done this job was definitely putting in minimum effort, it seemed! After checking the stairwell out some more and confirming her thoughts, she headed back to the truck and her body, and like Marius, reported in her new findings.

This report changed their options a fair bit – as long as they didn’t have a spell active on the roof, it was all good – and knowing the ward didn’t cover the actual door, gave them the option to enter the building under the cover of an invisibility spell or a spirit concealment, as long as the door could be opened. So, the next trick was to get the door open it seemed. Kai placed a call to Germaine, but her number came up as engaged. He waited a few minutes, then tried again – but she was still on a call. He hung up, but had barely started to put the phone away when it rang in his hands. Answering, an automated message told him that the person he was calling was still on the phone, but gave him a chance to leave a message which it would display as a text to them. Kai told the messaging service he was after a little gear, and hung up.

Hunter had been on the matrix searching through various services and online shops, and had finally found a place that would sell a print of the piece of artwork, without an outrageous cost. Once paid for and downloaded, he then found a print shop in Baku that could output the work onto a canvas roll. Hopefully that would allow whoever actually did the steal – looking more and more like Shimazu – could perhaps do a swap, leaving a print behind in the hope that it might cover the theft, even for a few hours. He headed over to get the print run off, and bought it back to the team without issue.

Germaine had called back whilst he was gone, and spoken with Kai to find out what he needed – to which he’d let her know that he needed some lockpicks to “get into his garage, as he’d lost the key”. She sounded vaguely amused, and then asked him if he was free for lunch, arranging to meet at the same restaurant at midday. With nothing more to do on site, the team pulled out, leaving the massive space in the car park as the only sign of their presence, and heading back towards the Waterside restaurant for their meeting. Germaine arrived, as before and the Jaguar was parked in front of the no parking sign without anyone raising an eyebrow. She greeted Kai with enthusiasm and volume, and then sat down with him, recommending the Prawn Salad as being worthy of his attention. 

They chatted amiably about art and the state of the world, and tucked into their salads when they arrived, and about halfway through Germaine casually pulled out a small velvet wrap and slid it over to the side of his plate. Kai casually scooped it up with his next forkful and slid it into his pocket with what he hoped was a graceful motion. Germaine also mentioned that she hoped that Kai would be able to get into his garage – and then raised a query.

“Of course, if you do find anything valuable in your garage, I do hope you will take proper care of it – white cotton gloves, a muslin bag, a nice sturdy box to ensure it’s not damaged in transit?” She raised an eyebrow and looked at him steadily.

“Absolutely – I have all of those things ready, just in case I should find anything interesting in there – you never know what you might find, after all!” Kai hoped that she couldn’t tell that he had no such thing, and had just added it to his mental shopping list. They finished up their lunch with more small talk, before Germaine made her goodbyes, rewarding Kai with a kiss on each cheek. 

The waiter slid over the bill to Kai after she had left. Bracing himself, he opened the folio, and saw that a five hundred Nuyen charge had been added to the bill. Kai paid with a certified credstick and headed back to the truck, waiting until he was inside before he fished out the velvet bag and opened it up. It turned out to be a roll, rather than a bag, with a number of slender compartments each containing a finely wrought individual pick. Aswon looked disappointed, and let out a sigh.

“I was hoping for an auto-pick, rather than actual lock picks. It would have cost more, but it would have just done the job automatically – these you actually have to know how to use. Unless there’s something you’re not telling us, Shimazu?”

Shimazu shook his head, and reached over to pull out one of the picks to examine it, rotating and turning it in his hand carefully. 

“I’m guessing it’s more complicated than it looks in the trid – you don’t just have to put them in and wiggle them about?”

Hunter tapped on some keys on his pad, and a couple of moments later Marius started the engine, as he received the GPS routing to a nearby hardware store. Once there, they purchased some cheap padlocks – something easy to learn on – and a couple of more serious locks that looked close in design to the model on the rooftop door – or at least as close as Tadibya could describe from her exterior view of the mechanism. As soon as they were back in the truck, they were handed over to Shimazu who made himself comfortable at the table in the back and started to practice, following a guide found on some site discussing magic tricks and escapology. They bounced around a little more, until they’d found some appropriate gloves, a bag of something that looked soft and lint free, some bubblewrap and a plastic box large enough for the picture and frame.

Hunter spent a few more hours online, researching the picture and in particular the frame – trying to find out something about how it was likely to be mounted or attached to the wall, and if it was likely to be alarmed separately. What he found wasn’t encouraging. The heavyweight frame looked to be an original, not a plastic reproduction. This meant the canvas was likely to be stretched and attached into a mounting batten, screwed into the outer frame and not something quickly and easily dismounted.

The rest of the afternoon passed by, with Shimazu practicing with the lockpicks. His natural levels of dexterity helped, and he soon was cracking open the padlocks in a reasonable time. He then started to vary his routine a little – working on speed with the simplest padlock, and then trying the more complex lock but taking as long as he needed to. The others relaxed – reading, practicing skills or cleaning equipment, or just dozing a little, banking sleep against the potential operations of the day to follow. Shimazu practiced until about 9pm, then stopped for food and a break, and settled back for a few hours of reading with his psychology texts.

The next morning, the team were up at 05:00, and headed over to the office tower. Once more the streets were deserted, just the occasional bit of litter blowing down the empty road in the morning breeze, lit up by the orange street lights. Aswon grabbed his demo kit and sidled down the access road and into the service area, moving around the field of view of the cameras they had scoped out previously. It didn’t take much effort to lay the det-cord and set the small amount of C4 in place, and he quickly returned to the truck and told them it was all set. With that done, Tadibya cast her spell on Shimazu, making him levitate in the air. She walked with him down past the building, and also ducked around the side alleyway, and then with a mental command sent him swiftly soaring up the side of the building. In mere seconds he had reached the parapet, and balanced on the edge, giving a quick thumbs up to Tadibya when he was safe. She dropped the spell, and Shimazu dropped down onto the roof, out of sight – and now there was no active magic, he could freely walk through the ward without issue. He moved to find a place behind some air conditioning equipment that kept him out of sight from the surrounding tower blocks, and pulled out the lockpicks and padlocks, and continued to practice.

The rest of the team hung around in the truck, waiting until the bulk of the workforce was heading in, just like the previous day. At around 08:30, Tadibya cast another spell, this time wrapping her invisibility spell around Kai. He wandered down the street, dodging pedestrians and traffic unaware of his presence, and waited by the corner until he saw a likely candidate. When they turned into the office block, he dashed over behind them, tailgating them through the open doors and the hole in the ward. Once inside he had a look around, and then slunk towards the back of the reception area, walking as quietly as possible and standing in the corners. It felt un-natural, standing there in plain sight, but people’s gazes just seemed to wash over him – confounded by the magical protection.

After a few minutes to ensure he really was unnoticed, he moved over to a piece of artwork – what appeared to be a huge piece of a drill head on a display stand that was noted as being the first drill piece used after the formation of the State Oil company that was used to break ground in Field #3. Whatever it was, when he gave it a shove, it slid and fell with an enormous crash, clattering to the ground and scaring the receptionist and the security guard, who spilt paper and coffee alike. Whilst they were mopping up the coffee and wrestling to get the drill piece back on the stand, Kai pushed open the door to the staff break room and slid inside. Nobody noticed the door open and close without anyone being there…

Inside the break room, he looked around for anyone lurking, but found himself quite alone. Moving swiftly he pulled out one of the smoke grenades and the timers that had been set up by Aswon earlier that morning, and climbed up onto a table. With a gentle push he lifted a ceiling tile, and then gently placed the demo package in the ceiling void, and twisted the timer until it read 16:07, then hit the activate button and then lowered the tile back into place. He left the room, crossing the hallway and into the staff toilets, again unnoticed by the reception staff. Climbing up onto a toilet cistern, he again placed a device in the ceiling, this time set for 16:09.

When he got back into reception, the receptionist and the guard were back in position, having resumed their normal duties. He gave them a wide berth and then slowly climbed the stairs, keeping to the edges and placing his feet carefully, avoiding as much noise as possible. He climbed slowly and carefully, pacing himself, until he’d reached the tenth floor. The stairwell was painted an institutional beige, with a rippled plaster finish that looked worn and tired, and past the first atrium level there were no pictures or adornments on the walls – it was purely functional. He slid out into the tenth floor area, and saw the lift banks and a few chairs and plants in the common area, surrounded by the frosted glass of whatever company had rented this space. He slid out a third device from his bag, setting this one to 16:04. With a couple of moments work, it was secreted behind one of the potted plants, and he slowly and carefully descended down the stairs again to the reception area. He had to wait about ten minutes before someone left the office, but once again was able to tailgate after them and slide out through the hole in the ward, and then quickly return to the truck.

They waited, the hours crawling by slowly. Despite not being in immediate danger, there was still a gnawing tension – Shimazu was on the roof, on his own, and other than Tadibya they had no real way to assist him quickly. She was limited to the actions of a spirit or watcher, and there were plenty of circumstances where that would be unhelpful or would bring its own set of problems. Hunter and Aswon had purchased a cheap set of alternate clothing from a vending machine, and left it with Tadibya and the motorbike – it should allow Shimazu to change his appearance if needed during the exit phase of the plan. The only person who had a task with any real purpose and length was Marius – who had found the details of a Baku-registered delivery company and had made a quick stencil for their logo and was busily spraying it onto the side of the truck. The armoured truck was noticeable of course, but not completely out of character for a courier, especially those that carried high value cargo or travelled through troublespots. 

When the paint was dry, they headed off towards the central business district, arriving a little before 16:00. Marius drove the truck into the loading bay of a nearby business. After a quick check for security cameras, he drove in nose first, leaving the truck at a tight angle, with the back corner just missing the entranceway. It was terrible parking, and made the truck impossible to get out of on one side – but it neatly covered the drone launcher mechanism from view. He fired up his Condor drone, quickly inflating the lifting bag and running the self-check on the drone and then fitting it into the launch tube. Moments later it was expelled into the air and spiralling up into the air, the translucent bag filled with helium quickly fading from view, and the streamlined body of the drone fading away behind it as the drone gained altitude. The electric motors were almost inaudible as soon as it launched, let alone at height. 

Marius jacked into his deck, and connected up to the drone, his consciousness flooding into the tiny drone body. There was a moment of discombobulation as he adapted to having motors and a giant lifting sack instead of a normal body, but it didn’t take long for it to feel right for him to be floating through the air.

The clock ticked past 16:00, and Tadibya puttered into the side alley on one of the motorbikes. Climbing off, she lifted it onto the kickstand, and then crouched down by the side of the back wheel, and began to poke at the mechanism, as if she was troubleshooting some mechanical issue. She was out of sight of the cameras, and hopefully looked respectable enough to not draw any police attention.

The seconds ticked down on Kai’s watch, hitting zero. He was perched almost on the dashboard, craning his head to look down the street, watching the narrow sliver of the target office block that he could see from their vantage point. The seconds ticked by… nothing. Another thirty seconds…. Still nothing.

Despite expecting it, Tadibya was still startled when the fire door was thrown open and a stream of people erupted out of it. People sauntered out from the door, most of them with coats on and bags in their hands. They were probably from the first floor, and that meant the fire alarm must have been triggered ok. She watched as the snake of people wound its way out from the door, people chatting amiably, a few of them lighting up cigarettes once they emerged from the building. Down the road, Kai released a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding as the first handful of people emerged from the front doors of the building.

More people continued to stream out of the building, but a minute later there was a surge of people pushing out of the doorway. From the panicked expressions, high-pitched voices and elbowing and jockeying for positions, it seemed that they were certainly from an upper floor – or responding to those from above. The crowd moved more rapidly now, pushing and shoving to get clear of the building. The first wisps of smoke drifted out of the fire doors, and the crowd surged again – that should be the first blast from the ground floor. The evacuation become hurried and desperate as people found themselves in a building rapidly filling with smoke to back up the ringing of the alarm bells, and the orderly and somewhat bored expressions of people dealing with a fire drill were nowhere to be found.

Tadibya continued to crouch by the bike, not making eye contact with anyone. A few people called to her, shouting at her to move, to get away from the building – but the press of bodies from behind them kept them moving, and she continued to ignore them.

On the roof, a quiet alarm beeped, and Shimazu swung into action. He moved to the door, and crouched by the lock, going to work with the lockpicks. Moving slowly but surely, he inserted the picks carefully, manipulating and turning them just like he’d been doing for hours, questing for the pins and trapping them in place. The seconds passed and he worked his way through the tumblers one by one – commanding his body to remain calm and refusing to sweat. At least that level of somatic control didn’t require any magical expression! Two minutes later the lock clicked and the door swung open.

He moved in slowly and cautiously, looking down the bare concrete stairwell and cocking his head to one side to listen for movement. He could hear the sounds of feet pounding on the stairs, but it was far below him. Moving down the stairs with careful and controlled steps, he reached the turn in the stair well, and paused again by the painted line on the wall, the transition point that could be seen from the top office floor and the facilities only section. Still nothing.

Now he accelerated, bounding down the stairs two at a time. It was possible he would be caught on camera now, either in the common area or the office itself, but with most people out of the building, and the building staff trying to deal with the smoke, speed was his best friend. He reached the landing, and barrelled through the door, crossing the vestibule in a few strides and then shouldering open the door into the office.

A quick glance around revealed a certain amount of disarray. By the looks of things, people had started to evacuate as if it was a drill, taking coats and bags with them – at least until the people at the front had reported smoke in the stairwells and lift shafts. From the knocked-over chairs, abandoned clothes and unlocked computers, it was obvious that they had suddenly become more aware that they were on the fifteenth floor of a building potentially on fire…

He quickly established his position against the map of the office they had studied, and then ran to the north-west corner, hitting the glass door with his hip and pushing through into the office. There! There was the picture, hanging on the wall, as expected, lit by a pair of spotlights. With a very quick check, he lifted the picture from the hooks on the wall, leaving an empty wall with a square of brighter coloured paint behind. Turning and heading to the door, his other arm shot out and grabbed the laptop on the desk, squeezing it shut and tucking it under his arm as he retraced his steps.

Less than thirty seconds later he was back on the roof, the picture flapping under one arm as the wind on the roof tugged at it. From around the top of the stairwell, the Condor drone motored forwards towards him Marius bought it to rest next to him, and Shimazu quickly grabbed the bag that was slung underneath the drone, sliding the painting into it. Once it was secure, he moved to the front of the drone, and gave an exaggerated two thumbs up gesture. Marius applied power, and the drone spiralled up into the air, heading back towards the truck to the east, whilst Shimazu headed across the rooftop to the west. Carefully climbing up onto the parapet, he ensured that he was clear of the reported position of the ward, and then looked down the side of the building, quickly spying Tadibya still crouched by the bike. He keyed up his microphone for the first time since he’d deployed this morning.

“Exit, please.”

Tadibya glanced up, spotting the tiny figure balanced on the edge of the concrete parapet sixty-five metres above her. She concentrated hard, her fingers moving to shape the magical energies and control their form, still shielded from observation by the body of the bike. Shimazu felt himself lift off the parapet gently, then float out into the alleyway – a profoundly disturbing feeling to be lying on nothing but an immaterial support of magic, staring down at the concrete far below. Slowly at first he started to descend, then faster and faster, plummeting down with dizzying speed – it appeared that Tadibya was confident with the quality of her spell – or at least he hoped so. As he reached the ground he decelerated suddenly, grunting as he pulled several G’s.

Tadibya climbed onto the bike and kicked it into life, and then turned and moved next to the floating body of Shimazu, before gently lifting him onto the back of the bike. She stopped concentrating on the spell, and the force of gravity returned to his body abruptly, and the bike sank on the suspension as his full weight lowered onto the pillion. Carefully she pulled away, onto the street and turned west, away from the truck. She accelerated smoothly and turned off the main road at the first opportunity, and started to make her way north and west, turning frequently. Shimazu kept an eye out behind them for pursuit – either ground vehicles or aerial drones, but they appeared to be away fine.

Back at the truck, Marius had just landed the drone onto the roof and was deflating the lifting bag when a security guard emerged from the building, and rapped on the side of the truck. Leaving Kai and Hunter to deal with the painting, he returned to the front seat, and waved at the angry guard, started the truck and began to reverse. The guard continued to gesture and shout at him, but as Tadibya had done, he ignored him whilst generally going about his business, hoping that the guard would just be happy he was no longer clogging up his delivery area.

In the back of the truck, Hunter and Kai unclipped the bag from the drone, and slid it into the protective box they had purchased, before sliding that box into the warded box they had used previously – hoping that would keep it safe not only from astral tracking but also prevent any radio trackers attached to it. Just to make sure, Aswon also activated both the jammer and the white noise generator, dialling the power down a little to avoid setting off alarms as their truck drove past systems in houses and shops. Like Tadibya and Shimazu, they got off the main road quickly, and drove in a north-easterly direction, taking random turns and keeping an eye out for pursuit.

When they were happy they were away cleanly, they pulled over in a quiet street, and Marius went to work with his bug scanner, shutting down the jammer and white noise generator and waving the sensitive electronic wand over the painting carefully. A thorough check revealed that there were no trackers on it at all – which seemed suspicious. So, they pulled out the painting and gave it a thorough visual inspection as well, looking for “activate on demand” trackers that could be triggered remotely, but that lay passive until triggered. No matter how hard they looked, they couldn’t see anything though…

Kai called Germaine, pleased to get through in a few rings.

“Hello, Germaine? It’s Kai. I just thought you might want to know that I managed to get into my garage after all, and I found some things that I would love to show you. I wondered if I could arrange to meet you?”

“You have? Oh marvellous! That’s such good news. Well, it happens that I’m free now, and I can probably be with you in thirty minutes or so.” Germaine seemed genuinely happy, and Kai couldn’t help but smile at the enthusiasm in her voice.

“Ahh, that sounds good. Where shall we meet?”

“There’s a small supermarket, on the old ring road to the north of Baku, just past the 12 prefecture. I’ll text you the GPS now. See you soon, toodleloo!”

Kai waited a few seconds and then got the GPS location, and passed it over to Marius, then forwarded it onto Tadibya, with a brief message to meet there ASAP. Moments later, they were on the way to the rendezvous location. The late start for the people of Baku had a noticeable effect on traffic – the local rush hour also starting later than was common elsewhere, so they made good time, meeting up with Tadibya and Shimazu in the quiet side street behind the supermarket before Germaine arrived.

Shimazu showed the rest of the team the laptop he had lifted from the office along with the painting, and was somewhat surprised when both Aswon and Marius made a grab for it, before playing the sensor wand around it. As they got to the back left corner, a harsh buzzing sound came from the bug scanner, and their frowns became more intense. Aswon grabbed the toolkit whilst Marius flipped the laptop over on the table, and they went to work like a pair of surgeons, stripping down the chassis until they could get to the tracking chip and remove it, before snapping it in half. Another check with the wand, and the laptop came up clean.

Before they could say anything else, they were disturbed by the arrival of a vintage Range Rover, painted in British Racing Green. Nobody was surprised when the chauffer hustled around to open the door for Germaine, who strolled towards the truck holding a large folio case. She was wearing a tweed jacket, checked cap and green wellingtons over beige moleskin trousers – and it would not have looked out of place for a shotgun to be held in the crook of her arm.

Kai hustled over to greet her, and invited her into the rear of the truck. Germaine climbed aboard deftly, along with her chauffer and looked around the inside of the truck with interest.

“My my, this is homely isn’t it?” Her glance flitted across the piles of bedding and spare clothes, and the few dirty dishes in the sink, then back to Kai. Kai followed the look, and couldn’t help but feel a little shame – like a student away from home for the first time and having their parent come to visit and judging the state of the house. Dammit! That wasn’t the type of relationship he was after!

“Well, it’s mobile, and it will do – for now. But that’s not why you’re here, so let’s see what we have, yes?”

He motioned to Hunter, who reached into the warded box and pulled out the stolen painting, making sure he had on the white gloves they had purchased earlier. He turned towards Germaine, holding the picture aloft for her to see. His eyes flicked to Kai in concern as Germaine wrinkled her nose in disgust and made a little noise that somehow conveyed that she was disgusted with what she saw.

“Knife!” she exclaimed, and held her hand out to her side. Kai managed to pull his survival knife out and lay the hilt into her hand before the chauffer had extended the blade on his flick-knife, and smiled at Germaine, but then his smile froze, along with his expression as she grabbed the knife and in one smooth motion plunged the blade down and into the canvas, ripping the blade from the top right of the picture to the bottom left. She then sliced up and around the frame, sawing away at the canvas and sending shreds of painting fluttering to the floor of the truck.

The rest of the team stared at her, several of them open-jawed with amazement or confusion as Germaine destroyed the painting that was last sold for over 100K. She continued to shave away the canvas, humming quietly to herself amidst the silence of the onlookers. She handed back the knife to Kai, who received it without a word – still watching Germaine to see if she had in fact lost her mind.

Germaine motioned for Hunter to lay down the frame gently on the table, before pulling out her own gloves from a pocket and donning them. She then opened her folio case, pulling out another canvas and carefully lifted it into position, onto the frame. It was a traditional painting, showing a pastoral scene with a horse and wagon in the water, and she smiled as she laid it over the frame. The frame style was certainly a more traditional fit for the style of artwork, and Germaine tipped her head one way, then the other before nodding in satisfaction.

“Excellent work Kai. Very well done. I’ll have that rest of that rubbish taken out of the frame and get something worthwhile put in its place. And in excellent condition too – no marks or scuffs. Thank you. Now, let’s see…” She moved to the side around Kai, until she could see Aswon clearly. “I think the darker blue for you, young man. Yes, dark blue, not the light.”

Aswon pulled out the ties, and held up the dark blue to his neck, swapped to the light, then back to the dark again. The enthusiastic nodding and large beaming smile from Germaine made her face light up, and it was hard not to be swept along by the mood. More importantly from Aswon’s point of view, it appeared that with that declaration he was most definitely “out of the dog house”, though he was still unsure quite how he had ended up in there in the first place. 

“Now, you’ve done me this little favour, which I very much appreciate. Might there be anything I can do for you?”

The rest of the team looked at Kai, watching as a broad smile spread across his face. 

“Well, funnily enough, yes there might be. We’d really like to settle down somewhere for a while, and put some roots down. So we’re looking for a building somewhere we can use as a base, or a safehouse. Perhaps you might know of somewhere…”

As Kai started to discuss their hopes with Germaine, Marius slipped out of the rear section of the truck into the front compartment, and then answered the incoming call he was receiving.

“Hello, Marius? It is Nadia. I am in town with my brother, he bought me shopping. But he has gone to the bar to drink with his friends, and left me in the shops. Can you come now? I have a little time to get away, before he will miss me?”

Marius gave a sigh, and told her to hang on for a moment, then turned and slid open the dividing door a few inches, and waited for Kai to notice him. When Kai saw him out of the corner of his eye, he raised his hand to the side of his head and made a “phone” gesture. He saw the nod, and returned to his call.

“Nadia, where are you, we should be able to get to you soon….”


	51. 051 - Collecting Nadia

Date 26/01/2060, Location 40.40496, 49.88767

Marius got the team loaded back in the truck, and got the engine started. As soon as the last person was aboard, he pulled out and started to head into the city centre, dodging through the evening traffic. Kai hit the intercom button once they were in motion.

“Marius? Where are we going? And why are we in such a rush?”

“Nadia called, she requires a pickup. She is located at the Al-Hameed department store, and has a limited window of opportunity where she is unmonitored.”

Kai released the button and sat back, then looked around at the others – all of whom found something or somewhere else to be looking. Hunter appeared to be trying to stifle a smirk – but it was clear that this was going to be one of those “leadership functions” and it was on him to resolve this. He activated the button again.

“Um… right. Ok. Well, slow down a touch, before we attract the attention of the police. And give me a random run down a side street or back alley in the next two blocks. Tads, as soon as Marius is off the main road and we’re out of sight, let’s have a disguise please. Everyone else – weapons ready but safe, just in case…”

The truck turned down a side street, and rippled as it reached the mid-way point. A dingy grey colour swept over the side, and a large logo appeared down the centre, proudly proclaiming “Nadia Removals”. Tadibya neglected to mention to anyone what the disguise said, just that it was done… Marius pulled back onto the street, and to the rest of the world rather than a powerful and well armoured Russian 6 X 6 truck, there now appeared to be a grey, non-descript removal truck, with worn shock-absorbers and a dented bumper.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the rear of the department store, following the sat-nav directions and finding themselves at the entrance to the parking structure. Marius pulled over to the side of the road and braked, then ran a quick sensor sweep.

“Ach. Problems.”

Shimazu, in the front right seat, looked around the street, trying to find the issue, and after a second or two, asked Marius to explain when he couldn’t see anything.

“Well, the machines that control the barriers – they look like they require a SIN to be operated. If they’re like the systems I’ve seen before, if you go in the shop and make a purchase, they give you free parking – otherwise they charge you a fortune for using their spaces. But either way, you need to use ID to get in there, which leaves a trail.”

“Oh. Can’t we hack the machines or something to get around that?” Shimazu glanced at Hunter as he said this, as he seemed to be responsible for most of the matrix searches and computer use so far for the team. Before Hunter could say anything though, Marius spoke again.

“I said problems though. Even if we did get past the barrier, by my estimation, we have less than eighteen millimetres of clearance based on the height of the decks. On the flat we would be fine, but over the top of ramps, we would scrape the roof. I am not scraping the roof of my truck.”

Several of them smiled as they heard the defensive tone of his words. Even though they had only had the truck for a few weeks, and had quite blatantly stolen it – it had become quite clear that Marius regarded it as his, and guarded it with jealous pride. Kai looked around the street, and spotted a few cameras, but none seemed to be covering their current position.

“Why not give her a call and get her to come to us, then?”

The intercom light blinked out, and they waited in silence, the truck reverberating as the large diesel engine ticked over. About two minutes later though, they saw Nadia striding down the exit ramp, wrapped up in a headscarf and coat, and carrying a few large carrier bags with her. She squeezed around the barrier, and checked up and down the street – paused for a moment as she saw the truck, and then quickly crossed the distance and headed for the rear doors. Kai, Tadibya and Hunter moved into the rear section and opened the back door, helping her to climb aboard and closing the door behind her once she was clear. 

Nadia looked around for a moment, looking uncertain and somewhat vulnerable as she stood in the subdued lighting in the living accommodation, surrounded by strangers. For a moment, she was a scared girl, way outside of her comfort zone, in a strange vehicle and the company of wandering mercenaries that she knew little about other than some wild stories from her father. She took a deep breath and steadied herself, and then laid down the bags on the surface of the table, heading for the door into the front of the truck. Kai saw Tadibya and Hunter looking at him, shook his head a little, and then followed her into the front cab.

Nadia slid through the doorway, and spotted Marius in the middle front seat, strapped into the harness and with his head lolling to one side, the silvery snake of the rigger interface jacked into the back of his skull. To his right was the large form of Shimazu, his toned muscular bulk filling the seat more than adequately. Shimazu turned and looked at her for a moment, then returned to watching the street outside. To the left of Marius was the more slender and slim form of Aswon. In between Aswon and Marius was a gap, probably no more than twenty centimetres wide…

Resolutely, she climbed into the front of the truck, and with a hand on the shoulder of Marius to steady herself, started to squirm down into the spot. She quickly filled up the room, and then started to press in between the bodies, the fit becoming tighter and tighter. After a few seconds of wiggling, Aswon hit the release buckle and pulled himself up and over the seat back, into the rear row of seats, abandoning his position to her. Nadia slid into place, buckled in and then grabbed Marius by his upper arm, wrapping herself around him with a proprietary air and resting her head on his shoulder, to watch the world go by as they drove through the city centre.

Aswon pushed his way past Hunter and Tadibya, both of whom were smiling at the interaction, and into the back where he waited for a straight piece of road and climbed into his hammock.

The silence was broken by the ringing of Kai’s phone. With a relieved look, Kai grabbed at the phone and took the call. It was quickly clear that it was Germaine on the phone, and Kai listened for a minute or two, before frantically waving at Hunter for a connection lead to his tablet. Moments later when he was connected up, a picture appeared on screen.

It was a building interior, a long concrete hallway with a high trellis ceiling, grimy and dirty with flaking walks and ancient pipework standing proud of the walls. Buttresses ran down the hallway into the distance, nearly a metre across and giving a sense of weight and solidity. Down the very centre of the floor was a set of iron rails, embedded into the concrete and obviously designed for some chassis to carry materials with great weight. To the right of the picture were high windows, covered in grime and filth, some smashed and then boarded over with cheap-looking extruded plastic. The light filtered through the windows, casting rays of light into the interior, with dust motes caught dancing in the beams, a frozen moment in time. It looked cold and barren, with no signs of comfort or homeliness, wherever it was.

Kai continued to listen for another two minutes on the phone, and then the image changed again.

Another abandoned building, but this time the purpose was obvious – it was a theatre or cinema of some kind. Fading and torn chairs, covered in plush red fabric curved gently in a series of tiered decks facing a large screen, with battered velvet curtains in bunches on either side. Again, the plaster was peeling and ripped, with rents in the ceiling and rubble strewn all over the floor. Some of the stage was ripped up and cables ran across the scene haphazardly. 

Kai continued to listen, and after a few minutes thanked Germaine and told her they would consider and be in touch, before hanging up and smiling at the others. He quickly explained that Germaine had found two places they might want to consider. The first was an old concrete factory, where they used to make pre-fabricated sections of heavy structural material. Abandoned for some time, it was located north west of the city centre in an industrial area, in a poor state as regards comforts and security – but solid as a rock structurally and with room for them to get up to all sorts of things. Hunter swiped back to the first image, and examined it closely, zooming the picture and panning around.

“That’s long enough for a decent gun range for rifle fire, maybe even for sniping. Walls nice and solid, easy to rig up heavy machinery and workshops. No tunnelling in. I like it.”

Kai flicked to the second image, and relayed the information for that location – a city centre trid-cinema, also abandoned for some time. It was easier to get to, but they were much more likely to be seen coming and going – although the area was much busier and gave them more incidental cover. The building would be smaller, but likely to be extensively soundproofed, and was designed for large crowds to be present – so it had catering and toilet facilities scattered around, and several large rooms with good ceiling heights.

Hunter made some quick notes, and attached to each of the pictures and fired them through as a message to Shimazu, before looking at the others.

“Not going to discuss this stuff with that girl here. Which you still need to sort out, boss.”

Kai sighed a little and pushed through into the front of the truck, moving to sit behind Nadia who was still holding on to Marius like a teenager on a first date…

Kai settled into the seat behind her.

“So Nadia. Where are you going? Where do you want dropping off?”

“I stay with Marius. He is nice man, and help me, and he has a trusting face. I stay with him, I think, is best for me,” she responded, either not recognising the implicit hint to leave, or just ignoring it. “I cannot go home, I am tainted. I have no money, but I will work, and do things. Marius will help me, I am sure.”

Kai glanced at the microphone embedded in the ceiling, spotting the pickup light, but didn’t hear Marius respond. His physical body gave no sign of interaction, and he wisely didn’t join in the conversation.

Kai asked her some more questions, determining that she was nineteen, and that she had two older brothers and a younger sister, that they all lived in the house with Turul and her uncle, and that her father was often away on business for extended times, drumming up business and setting up new contracts, while Nadim managed the logistics and haulage side of things. Nadim was the elder brother, and though the business was a partnership, Turul mostly let Nadim run the company.

“So why are you running away? What is it that is so bad that you need to leave home, and leave like this?”

Nadia twisted around in the seat and for the first time since sitting down, let go of Marius. She frowned as she stared at Kai for a moment. Then tipped her head to one side, considering him. He stared back at her, waiting for her to speak. When she did, her tone of voice had changed, and was much less pleasant, the words coming out with brusqueness and a lack of warmth.

“Where is my cup of tea? Go make me a drink, at once!”

Kai looked at her for a moment, then shrugged. To the amazement of the rest of the team, he just nodded, and then climbed into the back of the truck, and started to clatter around with the kettle.

Whilst he was out of the way, Hunter leant in towards Tadibya and whispered in her ear, ”What does she mean – tainted? Like, a mage or something?”

Tadibya shrugged, but then turned and asked Nadia the question.

“Magic? NO. I am NOT a witch.”

A firm look came over Tadibya’s face and she leant forward in her seat, staring with suddenly cold eyes at Nadia.

“Young one – you should be careful who you call a witch. Unless they are one, you are likely to offend someone like that. Generally, people with a magical gift are either Shaman or Mages. If in doubt, I suggest you use the word mage, as a general term, and it will probably help ensure that nothing nasty happens to you!”

Nadia blinked at the sudden ferocity from the other woman, and closed her mouth, choosing not to say whatever had been in her mind. Tadibya relaxed a little, and spoke more calmly.

“As it happens, I’m a Shaman,” a wry smile pulled at the corner of her mouth, “but the rest of them call me Tadibya.”

Kai returned with the tea, and carefully climbed into the seat and offered it to Nadia, who took it without acknowledgement with her left hand. As he let go of the cup, her right hand rose up and smacked him across the cheek with sudden and unexpected speed. The sound of flesh on flesh was like a gunshot, sudden and loud in the cab.

“Where is the biscuit! How can you be so stupid! Go get me a biscuit at once or I shall beat you!”

Kai locked eyes with Nadia again, a red imprint of her hand spreading on his cheek. His eyes didn’t waver, didn’t break contact with her, but his hands made a calming motion on each side of him. He wasn’t sure if she heard or understood the faint noises that followed her outburst, but he was gratified to hear the sound of safeties being re-engaged from the others in the cab.

“I think I understand why you wanted to leave your uncle’s house. Just one moment.” And with that, he went to get her a biscuit. On his return, he spoke with her some more, establishing what he’d already guessed - that growing up in the patriarchal household had been a constant struggle against rampant sexism and discrimination. Kai encouraged her, asking her about her life and manipulated the conversation subtly. Nadia was obviously bright and intelligent, but had been denied access to certain subjects like science and engineering which were “for boys”, though she had a good grounding of maths – presumably so her uncle could trust her with the shopping. Despite the handicap, she was adept at the essentials of logistics and management, and understood the haulage business well. She was also reasonably likeable and charismatic, and though not well-skilled, had some ability to read people well – as had been seen with getting Kai to understand her position and how she had gone about that.

Whilst Kai and Nadia were talking, Hunter had pulled up their route on the auto-nav, and marked up a turning onto a side trail. Marius queried the reason for the diversion, so Hunter sent a brief message back that it would be a good place to stop and drop the girl off. Marius neither responded or stopped, instead continuing to roll down the highway to the south west, heading for Shirvan and the talismonger contact.

As they drove down the highway, Nadia continued to chatter away with Kai, talking about her lack of significant religious beliefs but her adherence to religious cultural icons for the sake of safety, the deep-seated bitterness she felt towards her uncle and some – but not all – of the men in the family, and how she helped the business to run. As she relaxed, she finally addressed the important question – was she going to be allowed to stay?

“Before we get to that, first we need to sort out what we’re going to do about your father. He’s going to worry, you know, and he may well call on us – as we have stayed with your family recently. I’m not sure we want to lie to him, and betray his trust.” Kai watched her carefully, reading her body language and obvious desire not to hurt her father, vie with the absolute commitment to not going back to her uncle. “Perhaps we can work out some way of getting a message to him so he knows you’re safe, but without knowing where you are.”

Aswon pushed through from the back, and nodded his agreement, adding his view on the importance of family and tribe, but saying that this sounded like a good compromise, so she could still live freely. Kai nodded in support, and continued, “Well, although I seem to be calling the shots, in this case that’s something you’ll have to raise with Marius, as you’re entirely his responsibility and problem,” and then grinned as he was rewarded with the truck suddenly jinking to one side in surprise, responding to a mental command from the rigger. 

Nadia was about to say something, a humorous quip perhaps to take advantage of the situation, but instead she just stopped, her mouth hanging slack at the visage in the back seat. Her eyes were as round as saucers, and looked nearly as big, and a strange high pitched whine escaped her lips.

Kai turned to see what she was looking at, and was greeted with Tadibya staring out of the window on his side, her hands raised into two claw-like grips, and her face entirely enveloped with a projection of her totem. Large ethereal antlers sprouted from her skull, and twinkling fur covered the massive mouth. Kai snapped his head around to look out of the window into the darkness, looking for whatever had attracted her ire – she must be working powerful magic for the form of her totem to be so apparent.

In the darkening gloom to the west, there was only one source of light – a ranch perched on a gentle slope some distance back from the road. A yellow light spilled from the lamps outside, illuminating the front veranda and a clearing, where the warm light from the house mixed with three sets of colder, harsher lights from the vehicles that had stopped. Kai was just in time to see everyone hit the floor – the presumed home-owners and what looked like a party of burly men intent on attacking them. The spell was almost certainly her stunning magic – but it was indiscriminate, as the team had learnt before at the scrap yard. If she could see them, they were likely to be blasted with it. And by the looks of things, everyone there had been blasted hard enough to ensure that not a single figure was moving.

“Marius, next left, hard turn! Everyone, hang on, and gear up – looks like we’re involved in some kind of house shootout or something.”

The mood shifted abruptly in the truck as everyone grabbed weapons and ensured they had a round in the chamber, or shrugged on combat jackets pulled from the hooks next to the doors. Nadia continued to stare at Tadibya, until the shaman noticed and turned to look at her.

“Sorry I called you a witch, Shaman.”

Tadibya was going to reply, but instead made a grab for a handle and the seatbelt as Marius slung the truck into a tight turn. They all felt the left three wheels leave the ground and the truck tip up to the right as they skidded around the ninety degree bend at an unreasonably high speed, before slamming down onto the ground again, the wheels hammering up and down as they ripped along the track leading up to the ranch. The high speed turn had left them doing over forty kilometres per hour up the track, the military suspension smoothing up the uneven surface and they ate the distance rapidly.

Hunter threw back the hatch over the rear seats, and crouched underneath with his assault rifle ready, Aswon had his hunting rifle in hand and was by the back door and Shimazu had managed to draw his sword and was ready to deploy as soon as the truck slowed. At that moment three men stood up from behind the cars, and raised small arms to point towards the truck. They fired, and a veritable hail of bullets hit the truck. The sounds of the rounds ricocheting off the hardened steel plates hung over the engine and the thick bulletproof glass of the windscreen. None of them had the stopping power to even dent the truck, but they scraped off long streaks of paint where they hit, leaving ugly gashes clearly visible. After spraying what looked like a full clip at them, all three ducked behind their vehicles, presumably to reload.

“Uh oh!” Kai grabbed Nadia and held her tightly, fearing what would happen. She squirmed a little, terrified at what was going on, and not understanding his intention. With no time to remonstrate, Kai just overpowered her and wrapped the seatbelt around her, and then pulled her down onto the padded seat to ensure she was as safe as possible.

“Schießen du nicht mutterlose huren auf meinen truck!”

They all felt the truck accelerate, and a moment later it rammed the middle car, driving it up and over the body of the man and crushing him underneath. It didn’t seem to bother Marius at all that he was going to have even more scratches to get rid of now, and possibly a large amount of biological material to wash off the truck – what was important was that the man who had the temerity to scrape his truck was suitably dealt with. The engine screamed for a moment as Marius drove forwards, then there was a bump as the body was propelled from under the front right wheel. The screech of brakes rang out, and everyone was thrown forward by the sharp manoeuvre, Hunter nearly pitching out of the turret ring and having to hold on tightly with both hands, his rifle falling on its sling to his waist.

As they truck screeched to a halt, trying not to push the rammed vehicle over the unconscious bodies ahead, the rest of the team bailed out. Aswon started to aim at the figure on the left, but checked fire as Shimazu jumped ahead of him, sprinting hard with the sword held aloft and the light sparkling along the blade. Instead he tracked right, keeping the other shooter under surveillance. Hunter scrabbled up and into position, also covering the right.

A flash of movement to the left, and the man there started to rise, fumbling in a fresh clip. Shimazu appeared before him silhouetted in the dazzling beams of the truck. He flew through the air, clearing the load bed of the truck the man was sheltering behind, one leg tucked up high and the other extended behind him where it had propelled him from the ground. The sword was held above him in a two-handed grip, and as he started to arc down towards the ground the blade swung through the air with a swoosh. 

The man tried to defend himself. If he’d been facing a run of the mill assailant, he might even have done a credible job. But Shimazu was faster and stronger by far than any regular human had right to be, and had trained long and hard enough that the blade was an extension of his body. The defensive efforts were for naught, and the blade entered under the left armpit, driving up through the body and exiting on the right side of his neck. It wasn’t a decapitation – the blow removed far more than the head. The slice of shoulder and neck flew off into the darkness, hidden behind the spray of blood and gore that erupted from the corpse as it slumped to the floor.

Hunter caught sight of the other man, and tagged him with a couple of rounds, knocking him down and back into cover, the shots painful, but not lethal. He slid out of the truck and ran down the nose, vaulting onto the car and aiming down to cover the man, whilst Aswon sprinted around the right side of the truck. As they looked down at him, the wounded man saw two gunmen holding their weapons on him with rock-steady aim, and some kind of ninja to his other flank, casually flicking blood from his sword whilst the stump of a body collapsed behind him. He dropped his gun and with a wince, raised his arms in surrender.

“Do you know who we are? Who I am? I am Hamad Dejeti! You, all of you have made a mistake and will pay. You will…”

The angry ranting was cut short as Hunter smashed him in the face with the butt of his rifle, and sent him spiralling into unconsciousness to join his friends. He took him into custody, using plasti-cuffs to quickly bind his wrists behind him, then moved to secure the five other men who were still unconscious from the massive stunball spell let loose by Tadibya. The one driven over and the one attacked by Shimazu were clearly deceased, but the rest were lined up in a rough line and kept an eye on.

Aswon found what looked to be a family on the veranda, with the man sporting a number of fresh bruises from the beating he had evidently been receiving before their intervention. He was also covered in petrol, the empty jerry can by his feet. With care, Aswon lifted him up and entered the house, ignoring the frantic barking of a dog somewhere in the rear, and started to push open doors until he found a bathroom. Moments later he was rinsing him off, pouring soap and shampoo all over him to mix with the water, before some stray spark turned their rescue into an unwanted arson incident.

Outside the rest of the team gathered weapons and loot, checking the wallets and phones they had found, and moving the family to a safer position. Shimazu checked around the back of the house, ensuring there were no more attackers. When he returned, he cautioned Tadibya to be careful – astral space was polluted and raw around the back building, and it looked like some horrific event had taken place there. She flitted around the back of the building, and saw the swirling maelstrom of death that still lingered around the stable block – something horrific had happened there, and astral space was on the verge of tearing – she certainly didn’t want to get any closer than she had to.

Through it all, Nadia sat in the front of the truck, next to the slumped form of Marius, holding his hand as she watched the events taking place. Now that the adrenaline was coursing through her system, but her mind realised there was no danger to her, she panted like a drug addict as the excitement of the situation washed over her.

Kai checked over the bodies, realising it would still be some time before anyone woke up.

“Marius, I assume we’re all clear on the sensors. Please keep an eye out. Everyone else, let’s get the family comfortable and these…. people…. ready to answer some questions.”

The team set to with a purpose, and the last rays of sun disappeared behind the hills as night fell.


	52. 052 - Examining the ranch

Date 26/01/2060, Location 40.02419, 48.95808

Aswon called Kai into the bathroom, to help check over the man and ensure that there weren’t any additional injuries they hadn’t spotted. After rinsing him off with warm soapy water until there was only a faint smell of petrol, and a quick examination by Kai, he was put back under the shower head and the water turned to cold and played over his body at full blast. Even so, it took several minutes and a dose of smelling salts to wake him up.

When he did rouse, Kai spread his hands in front of him, showing the man he meant him no harm – and coincidentally shielding the view of Aswon, who stood with his rifle held in the crook of his arms. It wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular, but indicated that it was certainly an option if there was any funny business. Understandably, the man was confused – he was still the worse for wear from the beating he’d taken, and was somewhat distressed at being woken up by a strange man in his bathroom, and finding himself under the cold tap. He struggled out of the bath tub with a little help from Kai, and motioned that he wanted to leave the room. Aswon backed up and to the side, letting him pass, all the time watching him carefully.

The man ignored him and staggered to the front door, Kai racing to help him as he bounced off one of the walls halfway along the short corridor – it wouldn’t do to have him knocked out again. Checking outside, the man was relieved to see his wife and children had been moved to a bench on the veranda, and all appeared fine – though unconscious. He saw the bodies of the attackers, laid out in the dirt before his house, hands pulled up tightly behind their backs and wrapped in plastic restraints.

The team were unprepared for what happened next. He turned, and moved towards Kai, kneeling before him, before beginning a long speech. Aswon’s smattering of Azerbaijani was not up to the task, and he only caught some of the words – enough to determine intent – but not enough to catch the nuances and descriptions. No one could misunderstand the delivery though. Tears shone in his eyes as he thanked his saviours, for not only his life but his family’s. He pledged himself as clansman or bondsman of some kind, swearing some kind of fealty to Kai and the team.

As he finished, Aswon leant inside the house and grabbed a coat, returning to drape it over his shoulders. The steadily dropping temperatures were wicking away heat from him at an alarming rate, and he was naked apart from his damp underwear. He was clearly not thinking straight at the moment, and if they weren’t careful he would go into shock and their efforts would be for nothing.

Falling back on his previous experience, Aswon decided that what he really needed was a nice strong cup of tea, and headed into the house. Just as he opened the kitchen door, his brain caught up with the earlier barking and the sudden quiet now – just in time for him to raise his arm protectively in front of him. The large mongrel launched itself at his throat, but quickly found a large forearm in the way. Instinctively it bit down, the massive jaw muscles driving top and bottom jaw together with great force. The armour plates crunched together and compressed, trapping skin painfully, but saving Aswon from any real damage. He walked backwards, the dog trying to worry his arm and shake him from his feet as he did so. Getting close to the door, he called out, and the man shouted at the dog, who instantly let go of him and crouched on the floor, growling loudly and rolling the whites of his eyes at him as he resumed his journey to the kitchen.

Minutes later, Aswon returned with the cup of tea, and found the rest of the team still trying to communicate with the man, with limited success. Tadibya pulled Aswon to the side slightly and lowered her voice.

“Tell him, that I want to communicate with him, but I need his permission and acceptance, if you can.”

Aswon nodded, and did his best to translate. He wasn’t sure how well he came over, but the man nodded and smiled, and the intent was certainly there. Just behind him, Tadibya gathered her magical energies and shaped them into a spell, gently touching the man’s mind and forming a link between them. Suddenly his words became clear to her, as if he was speaking her native tongue. She cleared her throat, and took over the translation duties from Aswon. The man seemed surprised at first with her fluency, but was distracted moments later by the questions – and the massive pounding headache that he was still suffering from. Slowly Tadibya gathered the story from him, and paraphrased it back to the team.

“His name is Rusudan Avalian, that’s his wife, Naena, daughter, Eteri and son, Vardo. They’re ranchers – they seem to run this place like a holiday cabin or something. They own a bunch of horses and all this land. A couple of months ago, these guys turned up and made threats against the place, and extorted a little money from them, making them pay a protection fee. They’ve been coming back ever since, but the fee keeps getting higher and higher each time. Last time, Rusudan couldn’t pay, and they took one of his horses instead, and beat him up a bit.” 

The rest of the team stood quietly, asking the odd question here and there, but mostly listening to the story as it unfolded.

“They came back more often, took their car, and various other things instead of payment in cash. Rusudan tried to contact the police, but the person he got through to didn’t seem to care – kept asking if there was any evidence of crime not just ‘unreliable witness testimony’. It was enough that it was clear to Rusudan that these guys had someone inside the police force anyway. This morning they came back and wanted ten thousand – said it was late fees and processing fees for the other payments missed. They didn’t have that kind of money, so the guys dragged them round the back to the stable block and…”

Tadibya listened to Rusudan as his voice grew thick, and tears started to stream down his face. Wracking sobs shook his body as he recounted the story, and the onlookers could see the raw emotional distress. Kai moved over to him, laying a hand on his shoulder and despite the language barrier gave him some very human support with a sad smile and a squeeze. 

“They dragged them all around the back, at gunpoint. Started at one end of the stables, and bolted the doors with the horse inside. Threw some kind of incendiary in there, set fire to the hay. Burnt it to death.” Her voice grew flatter and emotionless, until she was speaking in a monotone, concentrating on telling the story and trying not to be involved. Her hands gripped tightly into balled fists, and a small tic tugged at the corner of her eye.

“They went from one to another, burning them one by one. Driving the others mad with the smoke, the heat and the screams. Just murdering them. It took them hours, and they made them watch. Then they left them for a while, and said they would be back later, and that Rusudan had better have the money, or they’d take the Ranch and everything on it.”

As Tadibya translated the horrific story, their faces lost all animation, and any sympathy they may have felt for them was gone. Several of the team wavered, and although they didn’t want to get involved, they also didn’t want to let scum like that go unpunished.

The team carried the family inside, setting them down on the settee in the main room and covering them with blankets and throws to help keep them warm against the cooling night. Shimazu and Hunter dragged the bodies of the mobsters around to the side of the house, away from the veranda, and laid them out in a row. They came back into the house and escorted Rusudan and Tadibya to the side, where Hunter pulled out one of the mobster’s pistols.

He showed Rusudan how to load and chamber the pistol, where the safety catch was, and how to make the gun safe again, then passed the empty pistol over to him. Rusudan slowly repeated the process, his headache still slowing his movement, but the prospect of revenge driving him on. Once the weapon was loaded, he aimed at the first mobster, extending his arm in a straight line and then snatching at the trigger, flinching as he did so. His arm raised, and rather than shooting the prone figure in the head, the bullet went high and struck in the back of the thigh. A low moan came from the body, as the injury started to revive him from the stupor he was in, and Rusudan lowered the pistol for another shot.

Hunter motioned for him to wait, and then came to stand next to him, placing his hand over the top of Rusudan’s, guiding and holding him steady. He pushed him closer by a few paces, making sure to stand mostly behind his body to try and avoid splatter, using his longer reach to push the pistol down at a sharper angle. Quiet words advised him to squeeze the trigger gently, not snatch at it, and to breathe slowly and evenly. The next shot rang out and flew true, striking the back of the head and killing the target. Slowly and steadily they worked down the line, killing the mobsters one by one. At the end of the process, Hunter helped him clear and safe the weapon, checking the barrel for blockages and showing him what he was doing.

Rusudan turned and staggered into the house, without a backwards glance at the bodies and rapidly expanding pool of blood, with Hunter, Shimazu and Tadibya in tow. As they entered at the front of the house, they could see Nadia and Marius standing by the truck, half hidden in the shadows.

Marius waited for the others to enter the building and turned his attention back to Nadia.

“So Nadia. What is it that you want to do? Where do you want to go?”

“Can I not come with you? I like you, you are nice…” Nadia smiled at him and gently laid her hand on his arm again. Now he wasn’t jacked in, he could feel her warmth through his clothing, smell her scent on the wind. She was pretty, there was no denying that. And she had a certain exotic air about her. Almost as intoxicating was her demeanour – she was certainly interested in him, and his sense of caution battled with his ego.

“Where we go, it’s not going to be safe. We’re working, and the work we do is dangerous.”

“But I would be with you, and you would protect me. I know you would. And I could be useful, and help. I can do many things, do much to help.” She leant in close to him, both hands resting on his upper arms. He could feel her pressing against him, standing way inside his personal space, but all he could see were the dark orbs of her eyes boring into him, pleading with him not to send her away. Elsewhere, another part of Marius’s body showed it’s thoughts on the situation, despite his attempt to control himself.

“Well, look – I can understand that you want to be free, to live your own life and make your own decisions. We’re heading to Constantinople next, to see about some business. I guess you can come as far as that with us, and maybe there we can help you set up a new life or something?”

Nadia considered for a moment, then agreed. It seemed to be a point far enough off into the future as to be not worth concerning herself about – and she could cross that bridge when she came to it…

Kai appeared at the doorway, and then broadcast to Marius over his commlink.

“Marius, when you’re all done – can you get the two driveable vehicles round the back and parked up under cover, and then move the wreck somewhere out of the way?” Marius, grateful for the distraction, set to – grabbing the keys and moving the sedan and the pickup truck first, before returning and grabbing a tow line to run around the wrecked vehicle he had squashed with his ram. Nadia insisted on helping, passing the tow line over and around the wreckage. He wasn’t sure if she was doing it deliberately, but he couldn’t help but be attracted to her shape as she stretched over the bonnet of the car, grasping for the line, her breasts pushing upwards and outwards as she squirmed to reach.

Inside, Kai was making use of the translation spell that Tadibya was maintaining to talk to Rusudan. Firmly, but kindly he explained that no, Rusudan was not his serf or vassal, or beholden to him. That Kai and the team would really appreciate being able to stop by some time, in the future – and that it would be great if they could keep a low profile. But Rusudan was not to end up sleeping in the barn with his family to “make room for his lord” or any nonsense like that. In fact, if anyone was going to end up sleeping in the barn, it should be them – but they’d be ok with that. More than anything though, Rusudan was not to mention the team, or the death of the mobsters to anyone – keep it all a secret, and life would be quiet, and have a better chance of normalcy.

Hunter dug out one of the mobsters’ phones, and grabbed the number, then passed that over to Rusudan, who was told to text or email them if needed – and only to call in the most dire emergency. Tadibya arrived with a massive jar of oats to donate to their kitchen stores. Kai gave a quick check of the wife and children, all of whom were recovering nicely and would probably wake up shortly. The keys for the two operational vehicles were passed over, along with advice to sell them reasonably far away from here, and keep the cash to help rebuild the ranch. The team gathered their gear, moving swiftly to be gone before anyone other than Rusudan got to see them, and they had to explain what was going on to someone else. A few minutes later, they – and Nadia – were back in the truck, turned around and on the road west again.

Kai seemed to be in a negotiating mood, and sat down near Nadia.

“So, I’ve been thinking. And I have an offer for you, if you’re interested.” He waited for Nadia to nod and continued. “We’re looking to set up an office. Well, more of a base of operations. Somewhere near Baku. We’ll be gone for periods of time, but need someone to look after the place, deal with business and such like. It will involve a wide variety of work – talking with customers, prioritising jobs, security, operations, logistics, and maintenance. You would need to live there, and look after the place, be responsible for the operations there. You would get some pay, but your rent and food would be taken care of. Are you interested?”

Nadia looked at the slumped form of Marius, then round at the team and back to Kai. She asked a few questions – what sort of work, how long between visits, how much responsibility would she have. Kai answered truthfully – that is was a massive variety of work, for unknown periods of time and it would be all down to her. She considered for a few seconds, then offered her hand to Kai, shaking it firmly when he accepted. Tadibya leaned in after she had agreed.

“You may want to consider changing your name – or thinking about a name to go by. You will be close enough to Baku that there is some chance of Nadim and Turul finding you – so having a different name to use will help prevent that.” Nadia sat back at that, thinking, planning her life and contemplating options.

The truck fell quiet, each of the team members keeping their own counsel as the truck headed west on the E60 highway. They passed the large cloverleaf intersection, rumbling along the inside lane and being passed by a horde of fast-moving commuters, the tail end of the rush-hour traffic. Soon they were driving through farmland, wide expanses of pasture and arable plots, which the highway cut through like a scar. They reached a junction and turned off the highway onto the local road, then onto a side road, before finally turning onto a farm track.

They bounced their way along the rutted road, into dense woodland, the trees crowding alongside the road with the leaves brushing against the top of the truck as they passed. The road descended into a dip, then started to rise sharply. As they drove along, they caught glimpses of the land as the moonlight filtered through the trees. The land was relatively open, covered in mulch and detritus, the remnants of last year’s growth. The oak trees looked massive, with trunks half a metre across and a height of fifteen metres or more. Stark branches thrust into the night air, lit by the pale moon, looking like questing fingers reaching into the sky. After they had gone a few hundred metres, they realised that the trees were widely spaced but in obvious rows, forming broad avenues that lay at right angles to the road. How long ago must they have been planted to have reached this stage of growth?

As they neared the top of the rise, they discovered a clearing, to the south side of the road. It contained a dilapidated looking windmill, built of wood and stone. It appeared to be old, very old, and built in the style of the English windmills of the middle ages. Marius pulled the truck in, following the faint trail in the grass, and swinging the truck around until he could reverse towards the windmill, stopping a good five metres from it, with a clear trail ahead of him in case they needed to leave at speed.

Kai, Tadibya and Shimazu got out of the truck, leaving the rest behind, and walked across the springy and moist moss towards the door. The air felt clean and crisp, and moderate in temperature. Around the clearing, the trees stood in a circle, forming a barrier around the windmill that even in winter screened it from prying eyes.

“Odd…” said Tadibya, “they can’t get much wind here, below the ridge line – especially with all those trees around!” She shrugged and walked towards the door, catching up with Kai just as he raised his hand to knock on the heavy wooden door set deep into the stonework. With a squeak and a squeal of tortured hinges, the door swung open, into the darkness within, before Kai could rap on them.

Kai paused for a moment, then squared his shoulders and entered the windmill, closely followed by Tadibya and Shimazu. Inside they found a dark and shadowed interior. A winding wooden staircase followed the wall to their left, rising up the interior at a steep angle, cutting through the ceiling four metres above them. The rest of the ground floor appeared to be a single room, though lines had been run from hooks fixed into the wall, holding sheets up that subdivided the space into different areas. The area just to their right was kitted out as a combination of living area and laboratory, it seemed – several old and battered chairs were scattered amongst benches, tables, bookshelves and rails which held skins and parchment, all covered in runes and spidery handwriting. Glass jars and phials filled racks against the walls, and candles flickered and guttered as they burnt, casting yellow globes of illumination onto the interior. It felt like somewhere transposed in time – it was dark and primitive, organic and earthy. Out of touch with the modern world around it.

Sitting by a table covered in alchemical tools was a short and shockingly obese man. In his middle years at a guess, he stared at them from under a thatch of dirty brown hair, a small and upturned nose spreading to a wide base. He was sat in some kind of wheelchair – the only thing made of metal or looking modern that they had yet seen, and both of his legs were missing from just above the knee.

“Ahh, welcome. Germaine said you’d be along… this time.”

Kai nodded, wincing at the reminder of their previous error and returned his greeting, apologising for the confusion over their previous appointment. Whilst Kai was chatting, Tadibya concentrated and examined the man, letting her gaze extend into the astral without quite letting her spirit leave her body. She could see the windmill with her normal vision still, but it was muted and dull, with the magical traces of the astral plane overlaid over the top. The area hummed with magic, with runes, sigils and wards everywhere, and nearly everything in the place glowing with background power. Her gaze slid over to their host, and she felt some power radiating from him – but not as much as she was expecting. He felt no more powerful than her, as she examined him. She didn’t probe deeply, not wanting to be rude, trying to work out what he was. She felt some similarities to her magics, but couldn’t see anything that tied him to a totem. Neither did he seem to favour the geometric or numeric foci that pure mages favoured. That made him something else… something a little out of the ordinary – as ordinary as one in a hundred thousand of the population could be anyway.

Shimazu meanwhile had been studying the building carefully. Something about the place felt… homely. It triggered something in him, a sense of calmness and tranquillity. It was as if the building was in tune with the earth and the world around it. Taking a step back, he gently ran a hand down a wooden beam, feeling the texture and naturalness of it. Closing his eyes, he could almost imagine being back in the Shinto temple near his village, feeling the building around him that had been painstakingly crafted from materials, worked by hand with patience, love and attention. He opened his eyes again, and turned to the centre of the building, and bowed deeply – acknowledging the spirit of the building. When he turned back, he found that Kai had finished his welcome speech, and the talismonger was watching him. When they made eye contact, the talismonger smiled at him, and nodded.

“Now then. Germaine says you have need of supplies. Aslick has supplies. Many fine things to trade and purchase. What do you seek?”

Kai took a step back and waved encouragingly to Tadibya, who pulled out a list written on a scrap of paper.

“Well, I’m looking for some hawthorn twigs, gathered by moonlight, and about a handful of dried spirit moss, a dozen beeswax candles, eight sticks of hand shaped chalk, the formula for a spell to probe a being’s mind…” the list went on, and Kai and Shimazu stood patiently whilst Aslick and Tadibya discussed magical wares, spell formula and supplies.

Back in the van, Aswon was in the back of the truck, cleaning up the cups and plates in the tiny sink, whilst Hunter looked out of the windows, watching the darkness – and studiously ignoring Marius and Nadia. Nadia was sitting close to Marius, asking him about his previous life as a pilot, listening to his tales of flying and rescue missions. As he talked, Nadia let a hand stroke up and down the back of his hair, staring into his eyes.

Back in the windmill, after some discussion and a little bit of haggling, they had finally agreed on a list of supplies and a rough price. There were enough things to make two very powerful shamanic lodges where Tadibya could perform magic with her totem, some warding materials to protect the truck on a permanent basis, as well as buildings, boxes or other things, a spell formula to allow the creation of water by the bucketful – out of thin air, a spell to kill loose organic material in an area to prevent forensic harvesting, a powerful spell to mask the appearance of a vehicle, a similar spell to affect people, and a final spell to subtly alter and influence a person’s mind. For this, Aslick wanted around seventy thousand Nuyen – which seemed like a lot. Kai started to psyche himself up to begin negotiations, but was interrupted when Aslick turned to Shimazu.

“What about you friend? What do you seek?”

“I don’t know. What have you got for me?”

“Hmmm. Well, I don’t think you’re a Shamen, at least not one of a totem I recognise. And you don’t have the look about you of a mage, that’s for sure.”

“Take a look, if you wish.” Shimazu concentrated for a moment, and parted the mental veil that he normally kept in place. He imagined himself throwing open a shroud or curtain, revealing himself and allowing others to examine him, lowering the barriers that prevented idle examination. He watched until Aslick nodded and grunted in satisfaction, and then reversed the process, wrapping himself in the protective folds of the mental disciplines taught to him by his trainers once more.

“I don’t think I have anything for you – at least not directly. But I think your weapon has a tale to tell, and I could perhaps help you with that.”

Shimazu drew the sword carefully, and balanced it on his palms, approaching Aslick slowly. In turn, Aslick pulled out a pair of linen gloves, sliding his pudgy fingers into them before placing his hands under the blade and lifting it carefully from Shimazu’s hands.

The examination took several minutes, and despite the primitive conditions he appeared to live in, it became obvious that Aslick was no stranger to the workings of a forge. He told them that the blade was definitely hand-made, crafted by a master artisan, using a folded and forge welded technique. He confirmed that the blade was made from tamahagane steel, the traditional and labour intensive material used by the highest class of blacksmiths that took weeks to prepare. He estimated that the sword was over a thousand years old, but could not date it tighter than that without extra investigation. However, he had felt that the sword had spirit, and would be receptive to enchantment – having been crafted by experts using nothing but hand tools and muscle power, it had not been robbed of its connection with Gaia.

Shimazu thanked him and received the blade from him, bowing over it, and then sheathing it by his side and stepping back. Kai began the negotiations, seeing if the price could be moved at all. During the opening phase, he mentioned they might be interested in an enchanting laboratory, mentioning that the one over in the corner would be of interest it seems – certainly from the amount of attention that Tadibya had been paying to it. Tadibya blushed, and averted her eyes – not having realised just how much she’d been staring at the complex kit of equipment.

Aslik surprised Kai though – he didn’t seem interested in taking a down payment on it. He invited Kai to take a closer look at the bundle, and explained to him as he probed at the mass of equipment in crates and wraps, that he wanted to sell it, but he needed to get it out of the way – he couldn’t make another until this one was sold, due to the space it took up. Kai instead tried another path – did he perhaps need anything taking by courier to Constantinople, where they were heading next? No, Aslick had no need of that. Ahh, how about some rare magical compounds then – some Rock Lizard blood? Aslick sat up straighter in his chair, and indicated that yes, he was interested in some things like that, and became very interested as they described the pincers and stingers from the Nova Scorpions, and the tufts of hair from the ludicrously fast goats they had encountered in the desert, as well as the herbal materials they had traded for in Iran. Kai called to the truck, and asked Aswon to bring in the various preserved parts of critter and the magical supplies for him to have a look at.

A minute or two later, Aswon entered the windmill and delivered the supplies, which Aslick soon sorted through. The Rock Lizard blood was still viable, but would soon turn it appeared, having needed to be kept under different conditions to last longer. The rest of the materials were of interest, especially as they had been killed by hand, with a natural weapon. It was all going well, and then suddenly the mood changed.

Aslick sat back in his seat with a start, and then rolled backwards until the chair bumped into the table. His voice went from being a calm and soothing tone to a higher pitched and panicked squeak, and he waved his hands in front of him.

“Get out, get out of here! Go! BEGONE! Get him away!!!” The temperature dropped in the room, and the candles flickered madly, the flames all bending at an angle away from him. They all stepped back in confusion and surprise, but only Shimazu saw what Aslick was staring at with frightened eyes the size of saucers. Aswon had smiled, and revealed the massive implanted teeth in his mouth, the oversize canines that were obviously not natural, glistening in the candlelight. He gestured for Aswon to close his mouth, and stood between him and Aslick, until Aswon reached the threshold of the windmill and could step outside, and out of sight.

Aslick calmed slowly, and they watched as he wiped away a trickle of sweat that was running down the side of his face. Kai read his body language, and saw the tension and fear still within him. It wasn’t hatred or anger – it was fear, pure and simple. Interesting.

They spoke for a few minutes, trying to bring the negotiations back on course, and discussed the materials, the enchanting toolkit, the critter parts. Eventually they hashed out a deal – they would take the enchanting workshop, all of the magical supplies and the spell formula as previously discussed – but they would leave the creature parts, the lizard blood and a hundred and fifty thousand. Kai was just about to shake on the deal when Aslick spoke.

“And because your friend here showed such respect for my home,” he nodded to Shimazu, “I will throw in one more service – I’ll take a look at his spear and tell you its tale. But he can’t come in! And I will need to hear the story of it’s finding in return for the examination.”

Kai nodded, and excused himself, then went to speak to Aswon. Aswon was unwilling to give up the spear, especially to a stranger, and one that had thrown him out of the house. But he was very curious to know what the artefact was. The conflicting emotions warred within him, and for a moment he looked like he was going to refuse. Shimazu told him that he’d been very respectful and careful with his sword, and told him of its forging, and that seemed to sway him back. Even so, he gave up the spear with reluctance, and stood at the doorway watching, frowning and staring at the talismonger whilst he examined the artefact.

The examination was slow and thorough, and Aslick talked throughout, discussing his findings. Whether by design or because he was concentrating, he didn’t make eye contact with Aswon, or indeed even look in his general direction.

He did roll around the workshop several times though, gathering materials and crunching up some lichen with a pestle and mortar before setting it alight. As the flames died down, he tamped at it, and ground the remains up, then sprinkled it over the shaft of the spear, chanting as he did so.

Where the black sooty material fell on the ancient wood, a sparkling pattern emerged. Delicate writing appeared down the length of the spear, in a smooth flowing script. Aslick held it up to the light, and then sounded out the words, speaking in a reverent tone.

“Medaron Speren mes Bele se'Farad.” He considered for a moment, his head slightly to one side. “An ancient form of Sperethial if I’m not mistaken, the language of the elves from the time before. I think it translates as ‘Death Harmony, Path of the Great Hunt’, though that probably does not do the name justice. This my friends is a relic of the 4th age, which makes it probably close to seven thousand years old. I can perhaps find out more about this, now we have a name – but suffice to say that this is an item beyond value.”

Aslick handed the spear to Shimazu, and waved in the direction of Aswon, still avoiding even looking in his direction.

“It is of course a magical weapon, and as these things go, none too powerful. It has the advantage of being long of course, and able to keep your opponent at range, but it will add only a very small amount of power to the wielder. However, it has another aspect to it, one most cunning and unusual. It extends a form of magical protection around the mind of the one that bears it, and will aid them in resisting magical attacks and effects.”

Aslick demanded to know how they came about the spear, and listened with avid interest as they described the inside of the tomb and the fight against the creature, and asked many questions about the inside of the tomb and the decorations – but did not query the lack of information about the location of the tomb itself. In this he did appear most honest – he wanted the knowledge of the thing, not to find the location of the tomb itself to further raid it.

Finally it was time for payment – and for this Aslick reached into a basket and pulled out a decidedly modern credstick reader. He poked and prodded it, and then swore at it when it refused to light up. Reaching down again, he pulled out a cable and plugged it in, then sat back in his chair and concentrated. There was a draught that made the candles wobble, and then a loud creak from outside as the sails of the windmill began to turn. Inside, previously unseen electric lights glowed, dimly at first, then brighter and brighter as the hidden generator turned the motion of the sails into electricity. After a minute the credstick reader made a ‘TaDAAAA!” noise as it booted up, and Aslick and Kai completed their transaction, transferring over the money from the Charity bank account for the magical goods.

They loaded the truck, and then said their good byes to Aslick, and a few minutes later, they were bouncing down the trail again, Nadia sitting behind Marius with her hands draped around his neck, occupying the rear centre seat normally used by Tadibya. Tadibya was in the back of the truck, examining the various pieces of parchment, skins and moss, planning what she was going to use first, and already the back of the truck smelt musky as she lit a stick of incense to help her concentrate.


	53. 053 - Meeting Georgi

Date 27/01/2060, Location 40.01686, 48.86843

The truck pulled out of the clearing, back onto the battered and bumpy track, bouncing its way down towards the main road. The moon shone through the bare branches, casting rays of diffuse white light onto the potted surface. Marius fired up his internal commlink and made a call – first to his friend Anatoly in Tbilisi. The phone didn’t even ring – just went straight to a dead tone. Marius checked the number and redialled, but got the same result. Apparently Anatoly had changed his number at some point, or something had happened to him. Marius being officially “dead” had some drawbacks, it seemed – he missed out on the gossip. He tried another number, that of Georgi Koralov, his talislegger who was also based in Tbilisi. He rang, and Georgi picked up after two rings. Fortunately Marius and Georgi had already had “the chat” about his supposed death.

“Georgi, we’re heading for Constantinople, from Baku, and I was thinking about swinging through Tbilisi to come and see you. We’re in the market for work, either way, if you have any?”

“Hmm, I don’t have anything that needs shipping that way at the moment, and nothing really to come back. Unless. Hrmm.” The line went silent for perhaps fifteen seconds. Marius waited, letting the truck roll gently down the track and steering around the worst of the potholes.

“I do have one possible thing. But I warn you – it’s a hot job, very hot. You’ll definitely need magical support – I’m guessing you have that shaman with you still?” Marius confirmed they did, and then Georgi continued, “Well, if you’re up for it, then sure, come on over and we can have a chat. It will be a hot job though – this one is definitely not going to be smooth sailing. But pay is appropriate, I’m sure.”

Marius arranged to meet him at the Café Regal, in the centre of Tbilisi – a place they’d both been to before with business, meeting at 13:00. Just as he was about to hang up, Marius thought of one more thing.

“Oh hey, Georgi – have you heard anything about Anatoli Chevenny?” There was a snort from the other end of the phone.

“Anatoli? Let’s just say he got himself involved with some bad people and got in a bit of trouble a week or two ago. He’s pretty much disappeared – trying to lay low, I guess, and avoid them finding him. I’ll see if anyone knows where he is, and let you know tomorrow…” Marius broke the connection, as they reached the bottom of the track, turning onto the side road and heading down to the valley bottom and the main road. As the truck idled down the slope, the intercom fired up, and Marius spoke.

“So, Kai. I take it we’re heading to Constantinople now, right – to see my contact and get some fake IDs set up? Via Tbilisi first, to go meet with my talislegger, and see about a possible job?”

Kai pulled up his pocket computer and zoomed out on the map, checking distances and terrain, then nodded agreement. He turned and poked Hunter in the ribs.

“Plot us a route, would you – main roads as far as you can, but avoid any trouble spots.” Hunter nodded and started checking the route, looking for various alternate paths to Tbilisi, and on to Constantinople. After checking the news, information about the country on some matrix sites and discussion with Marius, they agreed that the coastal roads around the Black Sea were likely to be the safest and fastest routes, with the least chance of trouble.

Five minutes later, Hunter had the first leg of the route plotted and had thrown the details over to Marius and the auto-nav, bringing them to a retail park on the south side of Tbilisi where there should be room to park up for a few hours. The journey was around four hundred and fifty kilometres, and would probably take five to six hours, depending on trouble – getting them there about 06:00. That gave them a few hours of sleep, then some time to head into town for the meeting. Marius accelerated smoothly and the truck swung off the side road, heading north-west on the main road, accelerating to about ninety-five kilometres per hour.

Aswon and Kai moved into the back, Kai climbing into his rack and pulling a blanket over him, trying to get a bit of shut eye. Aswon got near his hammock, and realised it was full of guns – rifles, pistols, spare clips – all piled in a heap.

“What are all these guns doing in my hammock?” Hunter appeared in the doorway with a smile on his face.

“Gimme a minute. I was just sorting them out. Don’t worry.” He squeezed through the doorway into the back, and moved the guns, splitting them into piles on the table and then sorting them into storage boxes. Whilst he was waiting, Aswon sighed and moved back into the front of the truck, to find that Nadia had quickly moved into his spot, and was curled up with her feet under her, taking up the entire space. He glared at the back of her head, then headed into the back of the truck again, and waited for Hunter to finish sorting out the pile of liberated firearms they had acquired over their journey. Eventually, his hammock was empty and he was able to climb in and pull a blanket over himself, and interlace his fingers behind his head. He closed his eyes, and relaxed, letting the swaying of the hammock as the truck drove along the road, lull him.

“Oh, this smells good. I can definitely use that.”

The rumble of the road and the engine noise droned in the background.

“Ahh, I see how they’ve done this formula – very clever. The impulse is all contained in the hoof print!”

The back was quiet again, and Aswon and Kai drifted towards sleep…

“Ohh, these herbs are perfectly preserved, excellent quality!”

After a few minutes, they both fixed Tadibya with a glare, until she realised that she was still making lots of random noises whilst she examined her new purchases. She looked up with a guilty expression on her face, and then put the new stuff down, and climbed up in her bunk too, curling up into a tiny ball like she normally did.

Whilst the back of the truck settled down to sleep, in the front Nadia stirred against the unmoving form of Marius. Glancing around the truck, she saw Shimazu in the front right seat, and Hunter in the back left. She looked from one to the other a few times, then drew an almost imperceptible breath and climbed into the centre back seat. She kept an arm in touch with Marius, almost as if he gave her confidence, then turned to Shimazu

“Hello. We haven’t really chatted much, but now seems like a good time.”

Shimazu turned towards her and stared at her for a few seconds with a blank expression on his face.

“Ok.” Shimazu’s voice was flat and uninflected, and he gave no change of expression or body cues. Nadia tried again, asking a few more questions – but each time Shimazu answered it was a perfectly polite – but flat, closed and minimal answer. After she had asked him half a dozen questions, Shimazu reached down between his feet and pulled out the small bag that was nestled there, and removed the set of lock picks and a few practice locks, along with the data slate holding the “how to pick locks” instruction manual.

“Here. This might interest you.” He handed over the items to Nadia, who peered at them, examining each in turn. When she looked up to ask Shimazu a question about them, she found him turned away from her, staring out of the window into the darkness. She looked at him for a moment, and decided that she was unlikely to win him over that night. Instead she turned towards Hunter.

“So, hi. Um. Do you want to talk?” She sounded a little defensive when she asked, expecting similar treatment from the large ork, who had shown little interest. However, she was surprised when Hunter turned and gave her his full attention, and started to chat with her. To begin with, he asked her how she normally dressed, and did her makeup – and then started to offer some advice on how she could change her appearance. He kept asking her for words in Azerbaijani, and then explaining more concepts. They chatted away for the next hour, and Nadia realised with a start that at least half the conversation was now taking part in her native tongue. She stopped and looked at Hunter with an odd expression.

“I learn fast. Very fast.” Hunter didn’t mention the extensive bioware enhancements of cultured and tweaked material inserted into his brain directly into the centres that controlled the learning and assimilation of knowledge.

They continued to talk, and Hunter continued to pick up the local accent and nuances of the language, and was soon sounding as natural as Nadia. By about 03:00, Nadia was spending as much time yawning as she was speaking, and Hunter told her to get her head down. He, in turn, climbed through into the back, gave Aswon a nudge and crawled into bed himself. When Aswon climbed through into the cabin, he took over the watch from Shimazu, who also headed to sleep. Marius pushed on, keeping the truck moving as they drove up into the lowlands and mountains of the trans-caucaus ridge. They kept up a steady speed, the huge engine providing more than enough power to keep the truck at full speed up the mountain roads.

Traffic was remarkably light, and they saw very little else on the road, either good or bad. The weather held, and there was no ice or snow to slow them down on the route. Neither did they encounter any toll booths, bandits or police inspections, nor other unexpected troubles and they made good time. Around 05:45, the pulled up in the shopping centre, a large retail centre a little way to the south of town. The large car park was nearly deserted, with only a few cars parked up near the McRonalds burger joint. Marius jumped out of the truck and stretched, working his muscles and getting the blood flowing around his body again, waking Nadia in the process. Aswon joined them and they headed in to grab some breakfast, getting a large selection of soy-muffins and some hot black soy-caff. 

They sat and enjoyed their breakfast in relative quiet, watching as the first few employee cars for the other stores limped into the car park, and headed in to get their own breakfasts – some of them eating as the team did, and some just buying several cups of coffee and trying to wake themselves up. Once they had breakfasted, Nadia and Marius returned to the truck, and Marius made to settle himself down. Nadia insisted on tucking him in, and settled down next to him, actually picking up the book on lock-picking and making a start on the first chapter.

Shortly after dawn Tadibya awoke, yawned and then started to summon a new spirit. Still half asleep, and running a little low on sleep, she didn’t perform at her best. A spirit answered her call, and agreed to guard the truck, but she appeared to suffer a little from her lack of concentration. She grabbed a coffee and some painkillers and settled down for some breakfast, too, though, and twenty minutes later appeared to be back to usual.

Aswon grabbed Tadibya and suggested they go for a ride, scoping out the local area and checking on the town. Once Tadibya was feeling back to normal, they grabbed one of the bikes from the rack on the back of the truck, and headed north into town. 

Tbilisi was an odd mix of architectural styles. In places it was very similar to Baku – low-walled buildings, roughly made from local stone and brick, rendered with a muddy coloured plaster and with rooves of tin, they appeared to be close to a hundred years old and generally in a poor state of repair. Row upon row of these were found, in large districts with narrow winding streets, lean-to garages and intermingled factories and businesses. Then, for no discernible reason, a modern building thrust from the ground in a mix of plasteel and glass, with modern security measures and automated systems proudly on display. Several of these modern commercial or residential towers would lay along-side the road, then it would shift back to the primitive and low tech huts. There was no rhyme or reason for this, and no pattern that could be seen. However, the modern developments showed that someone was investing money in the area, which meant that there was going to be service industries to support them – and presumably a seedy underbelly too, with goods and services that could be of interest to them.

As they stopped at a corner and examined the split between ancient and modern they heard labouring turbines ahead. Tadibya killed the engine and they both listened, heads rotating as they tracked the noise through the low clouds. By the sound of things it was a multi-engine jet, labouring hard. The engine noise fluctuated and then faded slightly, then rose again. Aswon spotted a wing tip emerge from the cloud, at a thirty degree angle, the strobe on the wing tip flashing. By the looks of things, the plane had come in over the ridge of the mountain, then dropped and banked hard, on approach to a runway somewhere over to their east.

They set off again, and followed the road into town. Again, there was a startling mix of old and new, intermingled at random. None of the new buildings were the truly massive arcologies or redoubts that could be found in western cities, but there were still towers that must have been forty or fifty storeys high, rubbing shoulders with five storey brick buildings with ornate iron grillwork on their verandas. They drove around a bit, seeing early morning businesses such as bakers and street cleaners at work, some local police patrols and the very early birds from offices starting to head in. They also saw a large military vehicle, a truck very similar to their own but with a soft canvas cover rather than a hard top, loaded down with troops. They all appeared to be in full combat gear, carrying rifles and a few heavy weapons. Aswon tried to spot the flags or unit IDs as they passed, but couldn’t quite make them out.

In the town they found the Café, and realised that their chance of parking anywhere nearby was going to be zero in the middle of the day. A scout around revealed a couple of car parks nearby though, so they would have no more than half a mile to walk, at the most. They also spotted a few trams doing the early morning rounds, the cars moving quietly on the tracks as they wended their way through the city centre. There didn’t appear to be many buses, and they had yet to spot a rail station at all – but the tram system seemed quite comprehensive.

After a drive around to get the feel of the place, they headed back, Aswon suggesting a different road to try and get a view of a different part of town. After twenty minutes of riding, they discovered another interesting detail about Tbilisi. It was apparently nestled in the valley between several large mountains, and the roads led out along the valleys in radically different directions. The steep-sided hills tended to constrain the houses, roads and civilisation to narrow ribbons, with very little choice for traversing from one valley to another. The city centre was at a conflux of a dozen separate roads, and once you started travelling up a valley, there were few places you could cross over to another, short of travelling back to the centre and trying another “spoke”. Eventually they found a cross route and got back onto the southern road leading back to the shopping centre and the truck. 

Arriving back at the truck at around 10am, they found Kai just waking up Hunter, asking him to run some checks on the local area. In particular, he was looking for stories about heists and jobs that could make life difficult for them, as a noticeable bunch of “out of towners”. Hunter connected up to the matrix and ran a search, spending a while looking but not finding anything specific – at least not beyond the basic low level crime that was part of any city. Meanwhile Kai was looking at the borders and route mapped out for their journey to Constantinople. 

The major worry was the ongoing guerrilla war between the Kurds and the Turks – their route took them pretty much through Kurdistan no matter which way they went, unless they looked at a major diversion of thousands of miles. That meant travelling through contested territory, running the risk from both sides. If they didn’t disguise the truck, the Kurds would probably think they were a Turkish unit and launch an attack. With small arms, they were unlikely to cause any damage now they had increased the armour on the truck – but they were bound to be in contact with other units, and could likely rustle up some heavier weapons given time. The Turks, on the other hand, had access to generally heavier weapons and were better equipped as standard, and if they saw them might think the Kurds had captured a patrol or stolen the vehicle. Either way, it was likely they would both shoot first, then ask questions. 

At around midday, they fired the truck up and started the drive into the centre of town. They quickly discovered that daytime traffic was as bad as most other cities, with frequent jams and tailbacks at intersections. Worse though, was the attitude of drivers, which was decidedly territorial and somewhat suicidal. Regardless of the size of the vehicle, if a driver was even a nose ahead, they considered it fair game to just swerve from lane to lane, or to cut someone up. Marius had grown somewhat used to being able to use the truck’s size and origins to help push through traffic, and was unprepared to deal with someone in a small Lada playing chicken with him – and apparently not knowing when to flinch. Progress was slow, and even though they were not moving that fast most of the time, everyone buckled up as Marius had to slam the brakes on with alarming frequency. By the time they reached the centre of town there was a fairly low-level constant muttering in guttural German coming from the speakers, which made most of the team smile.

They reached the car park, and an ancient-looking wizened man emerged from the cabin and shuffled up to the truck, babbling at them in Georgian. They managed to translate with a little effort that he wanted to charge them extra because of the size of the vehicle, and that it was going to cost fifty Nuyen for parking. Marius dug out a credstick, and waved it at the man, who retried his reader and keyed in the amount, ready to take payment. Marius leant over though, and pushed the “tip” button, putting an extra fifty on the bill, before slotting his stick. The old man’s face lit up with a beaming smile, revealing a toothless grin amidst the deeply lined and mottled skin, and he thanked Marius profusely. As the team got ready for the walk into town, he could be seen returning to the cabin, and emerging a minute later with a chamois leather and some cleaning products and heading to the truck, to the approval of Marius.

Kai looked around the team, doing a quick check. Nobody had anything heavier than a pistol it seemed, which were secreted under jackets and inside coats. Nothing that should attract the attention of the local police, for sure, and they would probably not have any issues with weapons scanners. Even if they did get rumbled, a small bribe might be enough to take care of things. They set off and wandered in to the centre of town, doing a little sightseeing along the way and enjoying the easy walk through the crisp January air.

They arrived at the Café with a few minutes to spare. Kai, Hunter, Shimazu and Nadia looked around with interest, whilst Tadibya and Aswon were mostly comparing it to the scene from earlier that morning. The Café Regal was set on the space between two fairly main roads that both arrived into a busy square or plaza. The roads angled in, not quite triangular, but with the front definitely narrower than the rear. The front section was given over to seating, with folding chairs and tables scattered around the place, cordoned off the street with folding fencework made of lightweight metal grilles and decorative plaques with the names of local beers shown in faded paintwork. The café itself was a solidly built stone building, about five storeys tall. The bottom two were the café itself, with wide windows and doors leading to the interior with more tables and chairs, a long counter and the kitchens. The top floors appeared to be offices, accessed via narrow stairs on each of the main roads at the rear of the property. The seats were half filled, but nearly all of the tables were covered in the remains of lunch, plates mostly cleared and covered in scrunched up napkins and dirty cutlery. It certainly explained why Georgi had told them 13:00 and not 12:00 – they had obviously just missed the lunchtime rush.

Tadibya was looking around with a slightly distant frown of concentration – gazing into the astral plane rather than the physical. She saw the odd watcher spirit, and a few elementals in the centre of town, but astral space was pretty quiet for a major population centre. Certainly it was far quieter than Baku or Tashkent, which were roughly the same in terms of being the capitals (or former capitals) of their countries. She shrugged a little – there must be a reason, but she had no idea what it was. It was enough for now though, that she couldn’t spot anything magically active that was trailing or observing them, and there didn’t appear to be any active threats against them.

Aswon was glancing around the place looking at the high buildings, balconies, ornate stonework on the older buildings and the myriad positions that he could have set up in to provide overwatch for a meeting like this. He studied the area as carefully as Tadibya had, looking for the tell-tale signs of a sniper perch or a surveillance station, but didn’t spot anything. That wasn’t to say there wasn’t one of course – just that he couldn’t see one in the high-density area.

Marius had gone over to a large heavy-set man, who appeared to be in his late forties. He had a dark complexion and eyes deeply recessed into his face, made more pronounced with the massive dark curly beard and crop of wiry-looking black hair on top of his head. He wore a battered leather jacket with most of the buttons done up, in deference to the weather, along with a pair of western style blue jeans and some heavy work boots. A slim cigar was jammed into the corner of his mouth, and he was sitting at about the only clear space in the café, with two tables pushed together and seven free chairs clustered around them. 

Georgi pushed himself up and out of his seat as he saw Marius, greeting him with a hearty handshake and a slap on the shoulder, then worked his way through the line as Marius introduced him. The handshake was firm and strong – not quite a crushing show of dominance, but definitely not a pro-forma show of politeness or social convention. With each handshake came a smile and a nod of the head, along with a few seconds of eye contact and it seemed to be a meaningful thing for him. Once everyone was greeted, he waved for them to sit, and passed the menu around to them.

“It is good to see you again, Marius, it’s been a while. And to you, my new friends – welcome to Tbilisi. You are welcome to look at the menu, but I would recommend the Sava for you all – it is particularly fine here.”

He watched as people nodded, and then called for the waiter, and ordered eight plates of Sava and a round of coffee for everyone. When the coffee came it was incredibly strong, bitter and black – served in tiny little cups. Georgi sipped at the scalding liquid and smacked his lips in obvious appreciation. While they were waiting for the meal, he made small talk, asking about the weather where they had come from, admiring Aswon’s teeth, asking about the journey over. The team played along, asking how “business” was, what was going on in the town, what the weather was like here – all fairly innocuous questions. Nadia sat quietly, soaking in the conversation and listening carefully, all the while sitting close to Marius.

Dinner arrived about ten minutes later, and was deep bowls of some kind of meat stew. The meat – or soy substitute more likely given the price – was tender and tasty, being in a thick vegetable broth with small potatoes and sprigs of green garnish scattered over the top. Steam rose from the surface in the cool air, and everyone tucked in before it got cold. The meal was hearty and filling, and surprisingly tasty, and conversation was limited as they consumed their fill. As they neared the end of the meal, chasing the last dregs of Sava around the bowl with bread, Georgi started to quiz the team more seriously.

“So, Marius I know. No problem. This I guess is Tads, your shaman. You others, hmmm.” He looked at Hunter, Shimazu, Aswon and Nadia. “Muscle, yes. Good muscle. But near or far I wonder. Hmmm?” This time his considering noise had a definite note of interrogation to it. Aswon, Hunter and Shimazu glanced at each other, with varying levels of amusement and mild annoyance at being categorised thus. Shimazu broke the silence first.

“I tend to carry my sword, and provide close-in protection. Georgi nodded, then looked to Aswon.

“Ahh, then I guess that makes you the long-range muscle. Wiry and good physique, hmm?” Aswon just nodded.

“And I cover mid to long range, close if needed,” said Hunter. Georgi turned his gaze to Nadia, who glanced to Marius first, then Kai, and then spoke up when she’d received a tiny nod from them both.

“I do logistics and maintenance. And…. that’s it.” For a moment she sounded like she was going to say more, but decided against it.

“So! Good! Know I know you, know your team. This is excellent. Now, Marius knows Georgi, so you must all know me too. Georgi arranges for things to move, from here to there, magical things. This is no surprise to you I think. But Georgi moves high-value things, with significant risk. Things that need guarding by teams, not groups of individuals. You understand?” He looked around, waiting for nods or signals of acknowledgement from them.

“So, the job is to collect something in Constantinople. There will be hmmm, perhaps four things. Each thing about the size of a large cleaning robot. Things will be hot, very hot. You will need strong magical defences to hide them, and there is good chance that you will be chased and attacked. This much is certain, I say. Now, normal obstacles, border guards and such like – a small bribe would suffice I think, perhaps fifty to a hundred Nuyen per head. But there is risk, much risk, from the things. Pay is good though…”

The team looked at each other, then Kai piped up.

“Can we have a few minutes to discuss this?”

“Of course. I am almost out of cigars, so I will go buy some more.” Georgi showed the almost empty box of cigars, the result of him chain-smoking them through the meal and subsequent chat. He got up from the table and headed into the café to hunt fresh supplies.

Aswon waited until Georgi was not quite out of hearing range and then announced clearly “Well, I have no problems with the job, so I’m in.”

The rest of the team waited until he was out of earshot, and then set to with the discussion. Tadibya was first to speak.

“I’m really not sure I can make a ward high enough to protect this cargo – whatever it is. I can summon spirits to protect us, and spell cast, sure. But if this thing is as magical as he says it is, I’m not sure I can hide it.”

“You’re the spirit-talker. You’ll be fine.” Aswon smiled at her, revealing the large canines implanted on either side of his mouth. “I have faith that you can protect these things, if you put your mind to it. My main concern is the distance we will have to cover through contested territory – potentially dodging attacks from both sides.”

The conversation flowed back and forth – discussing the route, the number of bribes. How dangerous this could be for the team, and how likely they were to engage in combat. How much it would cost them in fuel for the trip, and how much they would need in bribes. It was decided that if they took the job, they would want Georgi to provide some of the money up front in cold hard cash, so they could use that for the bribes, making it harder to trace them. Kai did a quick check around the table, and found that nobody had any serious issues with the job, nothing at least that would stop them from taking the contract on. 

Georgi returned from the café, lighting the first of his new pack of cigars with the embers of the last, and sat down at the table. He quickly looked around the table, assessing the body language and mood, and then turned to Kai.

“So, you will take the job then? You are happy for more details and to discuss pay?”

“Yes. We’re sure we have the skills to cover this, and the equipment needed, so let’s get some more details on what we’ll be moving, and how much the contract is worth.”

“Excellent. Well, the pickup will be a collection of magical parts. I have another team who have a line on a golem, and they assure me they can capture and disable it – but they could not move it. So they will obtain the parts, and meet with you. You will then carry the parts here, back to Tbilisi and deliver them to me. For the delivery run, I will pay fifty thousand.”

Kai listened to him, his face impassive and revealing nothing of his thoughts. Despite their best efforts though, some of the rest of the team winced a little. Kai leant back and rearranged some of the cups on the table, his hands moving to offer some distraction whilst the rest of the team got themselves back under control.

“Well, fifty thousand is a good starting point, but if this is going to be a hot pickup – and it sounds very much like it is – then we’re going to need a little extra. Otherwise the cost of fuel, bribes, repairs and replacement ammo is going to eat through most of that, before we cover any magical protections and consumable supplies needed.”

Georgi sat back and stroked his beard, pulling the hairs straight with his hand and letting them spring back into place. 

“I see. Well, this is indeed likely to be a hot pickup, as you say. I could perhaps go as far as to offer sixty five.”

Kai and Georgi continued to negotiate between them, sipping coffee and discussing the various pros and cons. After another ten minutes of gentle negotiations, they agreed on a price of sixty five thousand, with one third up front, two very low level magical sustaining foci if the team had to grab the gear in a hot-pickup, as well as sustain magical attack during the transport, and they would ensure their drop off to Georgi would take place somewhere in the hills above Tbilisi, with no active pursuit – though Georgi would try and help them with any pursuit when they were back inside the boundaries of old Georgia.

Having worked out the final details, Kai and Georgi exchanged handshakes over the table, and toasted each other with another cup of the bitter black coffee. Georgi paid the bill for lunch, and slid over a certified credstick and some local paper currency to Kai, who quickly scooped it up, passing it to Hunter under the table. Moments later, they rose from their chairs, and handshakes were exchanged once again, before they started to file out of the seating area.

“Oh, Georgi! Did you catch up with a number for Anatoli at all?” asked Marius.

“Ahh, yes, I’d completely forgotten. Yes, I’ve managed to dig him out – or at least a contact number. Here.” He pulled out his phone and fired the number across to Marius. “I’m not sure you’ll find him physically – he’s still laying low. But you should be able to talk to him.”

Hunter checked the credstick and found it had twenty thousand Nuyen on it, and there was a further five grand in cash of local currency and some bearer bonds and other non-traceable funds.

The team assembled, and started to walk back to the car park to retrieve the truck.

Kai turned to Tadibya. “So… magical golems. What do you know about them?”

Tadibya shrugged. “Not a lot. Yet. I guess it’s time for some research on the journey over there.”


	54. 054 - Leaving Tbilisi

Date 27/01/2060, Location 41.71136, 44.79692

The team decided to do a little shopping on the way out of Tbilisi, stopping at a large open-air market that seemed to sell a huge variety of gear. Aswon, Kai and Shimazu picked up a variety of local clothing, in a wide variety of sizes – all manner of things that should let them blend in with the locals if required, and that would also hopefully look in place for the journey across Anatolia, Turkey towards Constantinople. They haggled a little, and manged to get the clothing for a pittance, along with some dried supplies, communicating in broken Russian, very pidgin English and lots of smiling and pointing.

Hunter and Tadibya headed to the far side of the market and found a bizarre sight – a mountain of fresh fruit and vegetables, with locals picking all over it. There was a veritable feast of fruits, from common garden apples and oranges to rare stuff like kumquats – and a bunch of stuff they had no idea what to call. Tadibya piled into the scrum and started to collect food, firmly but persistently forcing her way through the melee with elbows and hip checks, gathering a selection of the stuff, aiming to get one of everything. Hunter found someone near the edge who looked to be taking money, and asked them what the story was. In broken Russian the man explained that a cargo load of supplies for some rich Prince had to be gotten rid of, a problem with the transport’s engine meant they were stuck here for several days while they waited on parts. The food wouldn’t last that long, and the cargo was a loss otherwise. Better to sell it for a pittance to the locals and cover at least the fuel costs so far, than run at a complete loss. Hunter nodded in understanding, then dived into the melee as well, helping clear space for Tadibya using his superior strength and size.

Back at the other end of the market, Aswon was taking the mound of clothes back to the truck. Kai and Shimazu headed in opposite directions, each searching for specific targets to be used on the journey west. Shimazu was the first to find his target – a liquor store. With the five hundred Nuyen given to him, he managed to get twenty bottles of some clear spirit. He had no idea what it would taste like, or how blind it might make you go – but booze was booze as far as most soldiers went, so it might make a checkpoint crossing easier. Kai took longer to find his target, having to wander down some very narrow side streets and into some disreputable areas, before finally stumbling across a small doorway with a beaded curtain hanging over the entrance. Pushing the beads aside, he found a bookstore with a mass of faded and yellowing old style books, jammed on the shelves and piled on the floor. In the back of the room, another doorway led into a darkened area lit by neon tubes, with chips and optical disks lining the walls, along with a small trid flickering and with some interference, but clearly showing a sex scene. He checked the price, and grabbed ten of the packages without really looking at the content, and also ended up paying his five hundred to a seedy looking shopkeeper.

As Hunter and Tadibya made their way back towards the truck with the mound of produce, Tadibya spotted a shop down a side street that piqued her interest. Offloading her shopping bags to a grumbling Hunter, she headed down the dirty and litter-covered street and into the shop, ducking to get under the large collection of dried mistletoe that had attracted her gaze. The shop smelt overwhelming, the conflict between fifty kinds of herbs and thirty kinds of poultices. Stuff hung everywhere, some in packages, some just on hooks or hanging from loops of rope. She gazed over the produce, giving the wizened old woman behind the counter just a brief smile as she concentrated. As ever, with most city-based talismongers, a large amount of the stock was pure crap – stuff designed to “look” mythic and magical, but with no real use or value. A sop to the tourists and the gullible, and an easy way for the merchant to rack up profit. But in the glass cabinet next to the ancient mechanical cash register, there were several shelves that sparkled in the astral, containing a large number of supplies. In little wooden boxes were wraps of grass and straw, bound into tiny little strawmen. They were plain and uninteresting next to the polished rocks and woven garlands displayed elsewhere, but Tadibya examined them closely.

The old women gave her a toothless smile as she saw her examine the magical gear and ignore the rest, and after a moment pulled out one of the trays and placed it on top of the cabinet so that Tadibya could see it clearly. Tadibya took a calming breath, and then peered again, just using her astral sight now, trying to determine what the products were. She bobbed her head this way and that, examining the strange little bound figures from the sides, from the top and bottom – but being careful not to touch or disturb them. Some of the cultures she had wandered through had a strict policy on that – you touched it, you paid for it. After a few more seconds she came to the conclusion that these were all expendable foci. Each of them had a small amount of power invested in them. Destroying the foci whilst casting the right kind of spell would allow her to tap into that power, harnessing it and adding it to her own. She slipped out of the astral and back into the mundane world, letting the sparkles and bright glow of the manasphere fade into the background and once again seeing the dull and dreary mundane world, full of peeling paint, dirt and cobwebs. She smiled at the shopkeeper, but shook her head a little as well, before leaving the shop to re-join Hunter, waiting on the path outside.

“Buy anything?”

“No. There’s nothing we need right now from there. But this place will be useful in the future, so I wanted to check it out first. Let’s get back to the truck.”

The others had made it back to the truck, and were waiting for them – a little anxiously, in fact. By the time they had their gear stowed away in the truck, time had marched on and the sun was starting to lower over the western mountains. Hunter fired up the nav and plotted their route, and Marius drove out of the car park, giving a wave to the beaming old man still clutching at his cleaning rag as they passed. He turned right, heading up the side road and looked to join the main road heading through the centre of town, slightly dismayed at the wall of traffic he encountered. The narrow valley bottoms and the layout of the town became brutally clear as Hunter spent the next few minutes trying to find alternate routes, before finally admitting they were out of luck. There were only a few routes they could take – most of the roads running parallel to the river, with massive jams wherever there was a bridge across it that backed up traffic for blocks. Even the side streets were full of locals with a bit of knowledge, and the main roads, whilst wider and in better condition, were all jammed pretty solid with commuter cars – clapped-out cheap vehicles painted in drab colours and with only the most basic of features. Most of them were even still petrol vehicles, with just a few that ran on batteries. Of course, GridGuide, the system of electrical power and vehicle control built into the road system of more modern countries hadn’t made it this far.

It took them nearly two hours to crawl and queue their way out of the city, until they could finally pick up some speed and head north-west on the E60. The sun set rapidly, dropping behind the western peaks and night fell abruptly. The traffic was still fairly thick, and the low speed of their truck was a source of constant rage, it seemed, for the commuters. Their dangerous antics overtaking the truck and pulling in just in front of it to avoid traffic kept Marius on his toes and people strapped in unless they had to move about – sudden and unanticipated swerves were a common occurrence. 

The road rose on a fairly steady incline, winding up into the hills with a series of long and sweeping curves that rose up on the shoulders of the mountains. As they ascended they started to see a little snow on the ground, hard packed and solid. The further west they went, the higher they climbed – but at least the traffic eased as more and more of the commuters turned off or reached their destinations. The truck powered on, the massive diesel engine having power to spare and keeping their speed constant, and in some cases they started to catch up with the underpowered lawnmowers that people called cars around here. Of course, that made life even more interesting for Marius, who had to either slow to pace them, or try and overtake in the truck with only a small speed advantage.

Time ticked by, and they continued to rise, ascending thousands of feet as the road climbed to run along a spur of the Trans-Caucasian mountain range. The air grew thinner, and they felt the unwelcome return of altitude headaches – but knew enough by now that they were already passing out water and food, and a handful of pills to combat the effects. Nadia complained about feeling light-headed, and was told to put Marius down and go lie in a bunk and try to rest, as the best way to get accustomed to the thinner air. They continued to climb, and as they did so saw more and more snow blanketing the land to either side of the road. A few patches of black ice dotted the roads, sending some of the cars sliding and drifting about – but the heavy 6 X 6 thundered on happily, the massive tyres and deep treads giving them plenty of grip.

Around eight, the weather turned. For a few minutes the wind dropped completely, then it rapidly picked up, blowing hard from the north. It drove the clouds with it, bringing thick grey clouds that were scarcely higher than they were with them, and as the leading edge of the storm hit, thick flakes of snow started to drift down. Thicker and faster it fell, until they were in a full-on blizzard, the snow cutting down visibility to mere tens of metres, and making it look like they were driving into a special effect for a sci-fi film. The road was cold, barely warmed by the passage of the sun during the day, and started to layer up, and the light traffic was not sufficient to do more than tamp down the snow or drive it into slush. Soon they saw cars pulling over to the side of the road, forming little convoys of parked cars. In some cases people got out and joined together in one car to keep warm and share company, in others they just locked their doors and sat there alone, waiting out the storm.

The truck continued to climb, barely making twenty kilometres per hour now, Marius having to slow as the tyres bit down on the thickening snow coverage and struggling for grip as they displaced the snow over the patches of ice. The sounds of the differential rose and fell as the wheels span and slid, fighting for traction and the engine struggled to distribute the power to the wheels evenly. As they rounded a sharp turn to the right, they met the full force of the storm and the howling winds were strong enough to shake even their truck. The road was cut deeply into the mountain, with a sharp drop to the left and a near vertical cut to the right. Snow was being driven in blowing sheets towards them, and for seconds at a time the view just became a wall of white. Marius was driving using almost nothing but his short range radar/lidar and cameras, and dropped his speed even further.

“Marius, pull it over. This is crazy. Unless you really can see what’s going on, there’s no point running risks here. We’re not on a schedule or anything.” Kai released the intercom button and sat back in his chair, looking out of the window at the weather as it swirled around the vehicle.

The truck continued for perhaps another twenty or thirty seconds, then just as Kai was about to hit the intercom again, pulled over a few feet to the side of the road and drifted to a halt. When the engine stopped, they could clearly hear the gale blowing outside, and felt the truck wobble on the suspension as the wind channelled down the mountainside, creating a series of eddies and vortexes that drove little twisters of snow and ice dancing across the road.

The cab cooled without the efforts of the heaters – there was no way they could keep them on without draining the batteries quickly. However the vehicle was designed to cope with the depths of the Russian winters, and was well insulated. It wasn’t warm enough to be comfortable, but it kept them viable, and with seven bodies providing heat, the temperature dropped slowly compared to other vehicles. Aswon moved to make a round of tea, followed by bowls of warming porridge – the oat-based product being gratefully accepted rather than causing the usual jokes about “more oats”. The bowls were flavoured with shavings of various fruits gathered from the market earlier, providing a variety of flavours that were new to most of them.

Tadibya kept her share of the fruit to the side, and studied each with fierce concentration. She studied the structure of the fruit, the thickness of the skin, the formation of the pith, the subtle changes in texture of each. She sniffed at them, eyes closed and with the pieces of fruit held under, and almost inside, her nose. Breathing deeply, she absorbed the scent of them, savouring them and locking them into her memory. Then there was a lick, with the front of the tongue. Then the underside. Carefully placing the fruit on the back of the tongue, and holding it in place against the roof of her mouth. Letting the saliva build up, and slide all around her mouth, picking up the subtle flavours. Chewing slowly, feeling how firm or tender each was, how crunchy or squishy. It took her about ten minutes to slowly chew and swallow each bit of fruit, but after she did so there were a series of hand gestures and muttered spell vocals, and a representation of the fruit appeared in her lap. Each of those was tested. Some were obvious successes, eaten with a grin, and with chunks or slices passed around. Others made her scowl with annoyance at having not quite gotten something right. One of them made her gag and quickly spit out the offending article into the bin. Overall though, she seemed pleased with her progress, and seemed to get a good mix of the fruits to her liking. 

They chatted for a while, inconsequential stuff. Discussion about their new clothes, and what colours suited whom. Who liked which of the strange fruits they had found. What fruits people had eaten as a child, in whichever country they came from. The conversation drifted, and the pauses between answers grew longer as people settled down in a nest of blankets and pillows to doze, while the blizzard raged outside. By now they’d fallen into a routine, and they knew that someone would stay on watch, keeping an eye on things.

Aswon roused people at around 02:00, telling them that it was windy still, but the blizzard had stopped. Slowly they stretched, pushing off blankets and climbing out of sleeping bags, hurrying to put their boots on as the cold metal floor quickly leached the heat out of their feet. Marius strapped in and jacked in, his body giving an involuntary shudder before the ASIST over-ride clamped down on his motor functions. He could feel the temperature outside against his metallic skin, the thickness of the hydraulic fluid in his pistons. It was at least a few degrees below freezing out there, with the wind chill that number dropped into the double digits. He cupped virtual hands around the engine block, and the glow heaters fired up, warming the fuel and getting the truck ready. He started the vehicle, which always felt like a weird kind of cough – but the engine caught first time and roared into life. Moments later the headlights cut through the darkness, casting two powerful strobes of light over the white blanket laid out before him. Air started to flow through the blowers – a gust of cold, frigid air first that made people scrabble for the vents to point them away, but gradually warming and starting to bring the temperature in the cab back up slowly.

After a few minutes the screen had cleared and the heating elements in the sensors had also de-iced the pickups and optics. Marius engaged the crawler gears and after a little rocking, the truck powered up over the snow, wheels cutting through the loose pack and sending snow flying out behind them like a rooster tail as the rearmost wheels span. A bow wave of snow built up in front of the truck, breaking in half and spreading like the wake of the ship on both sides as the truck ploughed through the snow. The engine revved high, and the gauges showed their fuel economy dropping like a stone, but they drove forward. It wasn’t quick, but it was progress – and they were the only thing moving. Occasionally Marius would bring the truck to a halt, and back up in their tracks, before getting a good run up at a drift or bank, smashing through it and sending snow flying like an explosion. They made slow but steady progress for a few miles, but then Marius braked to a halt and stopped entirely.

The others peered through the scene ahead, lit by the headlights of the truck, and their hearts fell. A large tanker truck had lost control at some point the previous night – maybe on ice, maybe because of a drunk driver, or idiots in cars cutting him up. The cab of the truck was pointed almost back at them, and the leading edge of the tank was firmly wedged into the corner of the cab. The back end of the tanker must have slid forwards, and was equally firmly wedged into the cut face of rock on the right of the road. The jack-knifed vehicle had slid forwards a little, and now the cab was wedged into the barrier strung along the left side of the road, overlooking the steep drop. The road was completely blocked, and traffic had slid to a halt on both sides – some more successfully than others. By the looks of things a tiny little two-seater commuter car had slid on ice and had impacted on the bars running down the side of the tanker, and had gotten wedged into the wheels. Along with the wedging of the tanker and the stalled vehicles littering the road, everything was also covered in thick snow, ranging from half a metre on the open road to nearly a metre by the obstacles. The situation was royally borked.

They sat and looked out of the truck at the scene for nearly thirty seconds without anyone saying anything or moving.

“I guess we’d better go check on the cars, see if we can get people moving, yes?” Aswon was the first to break the silence, but the rest just looked through the windscreen in silence. “Fine, I guess I’ll go check then.” He pulled a face, then pulled on a coat and gloves, grabbed his radio and earpiece and attached them, and cracked the door open. The wind shrieked through the opening, and what his speech had failed to do, the tendrils of frigid air had no problem accomplishing, as the rest of the team were stirred from their reveries. He smiled and then leapt from the truck, letting the door swing shut behind him.

He landed in the snow and sank, up to his waist in the drift. Cold wet snow and slush penetrated his trousers and a moment later he just stopped moving and let out an inarticulate moan as the frigid water soaked through his crotch and into his groin. Sure, he’d travelled around a bit. He’d seen various countries in Europe, done service with a couple of different merc units and gotten cold and wet before. But for someone born in central Africa, this was a whole new level of cold. His mind flashed back to his first sergeant in the Blackshields, a small merc band that had been the only group willing to take a chance on a then young African tribesman. He thought that day, the first day through an assault course in Italy had been cold. He remembered swimming through the metre wide tunnels that dipped down into the brown swampy water in the bottom of the camp, kept perennially wet with the runoff from the streams and hills nearby. He’d swum through – barely – despite acing all the other obstacles, shocked to his core with the temperature of the water. The sergeant had been waiting for him, and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, asking him what the matter was, and laughing as his teeth chattered, his massive incisors carving lumps out of his lips. He’d bellowed at him, mocked him, dunked him back under the water – once, twice, then a third time, pulling him up and abusing him every time as he spluttered and shivered in the biting cold.

This. This was colder.

But he remembered the bellowed ‘advice’ he had been given that day. Keep moving. Keep the muscles active. Let them warm the water on the inside. Don’t stand still, don’t cool down, and don’t die. Your buddies are counting on you, and you don’t have permission to give in. He ploughed through the snow towards the first car, close to the cab of the tanker.

It was a small car, like most of the cars they saw on the road. Some kind of Lada, or Skoda or something – some European brand. They were basic, little more than an engine, shell and four wheels. But, they were cheap to make, and easy to fix, and very practical for poorer countries – just no good in poor conditions. He scraped at the ice on the window, and then rapped on it with his knuckles. His hand ached from the impact with the cold glass, but in the diffuse light cast from the truck, he saw movement. The mass on the backseat stirred, and slowly turned into two people, wrapped up under blankets and coats. With some squirming, they managed to separate and sit up from their positions, then with bleary eyes look out of the window. At the silhouette of Aswon, his dreads being whipped around in the bitterly cold wind, looking like the very devil himself. The female passenger gave a scream, and the male groped on the floor for a moment, before brandishing a small screwdriver in front of him.

Aswon move to the side, realising they wouldn’t be able to see him clearly like this, and then smiled. As he parted his lips, the huge lion canine implants became visible. Strangely, it didn’t seem to reassure the occupants of the car, who just shrunk back from the visage. He tried to give them a thumbs up, but got only pointing and muffled shouting from inside. Well, at least they were alive and well. He slogged through the snow, heading for the second vehicle, the one wedged into the back end of the trailer.

He scraped the snow and ice off the window and peered inside. No movement. Rap, rap, rap. No movement. He pulled out the little pen light from his coat pocket, and shone it through the window. He made out the vague outline of a man, clutching at the wheel, but unmoving. He rapped again. Still no movement. Labouriously he made his way back to the truck, calling on the radio as he did so.

“Think we got a problem with this one, no movement, no responses. Maybe dead, but can’t get into the vehicle yet. Going to need some bodies and the first aid kit. And someone put some towels near the heater will you?” He pushed round to the side of the truck and unlatched the toolbox, pulling out the folding spade from the holder, and then returning to the car – thankfully an easier journey now the snow was broken.

Soon he set to digging, clearing out a space next to the driver’s door, throwing the snow out of the way one shovelful at a time. After a few minutes work he had enough space to pry open the door with some difficulty, hearing the crunch of ice as the hinges finally relented. Inside the man was still, unmoving. Aswon reached in and checked for a pulse, cursing under his breath as he failed to find one, then realising it was because his fingers were so numb. He cupped his hands over his mouth and blew on them, trying to warm them and get some feeling, and checked again. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Then a weak bump, almost undiscernible. He pushed the button on his radio, and called again for aid, finally hearing the truck door bang as someone came to help him. He started to pry the man’s fingers from the steering wheel, and realised that they had frozen into place on the battered surface, the fingers welded to the exposed metal where the vinyl had cracked and peeled away. As he pulled off the man’s hands, he saw the flesh rip away leaving large red patches of exposed dermis – but fortunately perhaps, the flesh was so cold that no blood oozed from the wounds. Kai and Hunter arrived, with the first aid kit and blankets, and between them they managed to pull the man from the car and get him back to the truck. Working fast, they stripped him and put him in cool water, and started to work on getting his core temperature back up – but not so fast that it would kill him by sending him into shock. 

Tadibya meanwhile hopped out of her body and checked the cars on the other side of the truck, to save Aswon from trying to tunnel under the tanker or risk climbing round the mountain side. She found life signs in all the cars on the far side of the tanker too, all reasonably healthy. Only the one driver, it appeared, had been caught without warm layers and blankets in his vehicle. She came back to her body and reported in, and then on seeing the state of the wounded man’s hands, rapidly set to casting her healing magics upon him. Moments later, the back of the truck was bathed in warm golden light as his hands regenerated under her touch. Slowly his core temperature started to come up, and his vitals steadied, but they kept a close eye on him.

They discussed what they had seen, and what their options were. Hunter scanned the map, and reported that he couldn’t see any alternative route than the road they were on at the moment – not given the weather conditions. The only way they were going to push on was to get the tanker truck moved – but that meant either waiting for snow-plows and recovery vehicles, or doing something themselves. With no experience of Trans-Caucasian League civil abilities, they decided they had to do something themselves.

Tadibya started off by calling on the spirit of the mountains, summoning it to her aid. It appeared next to her in astral space, and she politely asked it for its aid with clearing the road of snow, so they could work effectively. It looked a little unhappy, as spirits were wont to do when asked to materialise in the physical plane. When materialised they were resistant to damage – but not immune. A hard enough hit could banish one back to its home realm and cause it pain and suffering that would take weeks to heal. It grumpily agreed though after Tadibya assured it that nobody was going to hurt it, and moments later it appeared on the roadside. A couple of small boulders supported a larger boulder “body”, and a whole ring of small stones. The stones formed themselves into a ring, or very shallow tunnel, and moments later a whirling vortex of snow spat out of the back of the ring, sending snow in a plume over the edge of the road and out into empty space.

Tadibya changed her focus, turning her mind from the realm of the mountain to that of the sky. As she did so, she felt her control over the mountain spirit fade away – leaving its domain meant she was no longer able to interact with it directly – but it should carry out her last command until either it was done, or the dawning of the new day. She called to the wind, and pulled down another spirit, bargaining with it as before. It too appeared, this time as a swirling whirlwind, like a miniature tornado it span rapidly, flinging snow up and away from the crash scene, gradually clearing the road of snow and ice.

Whilst the spirits were busy clearing the road, Kai went through the man’s pockets and then braved the snow to rummage through his bag in the car, and found some ID – “Nikolus Harid” apparently worked for a tool company in Tbilisi and lived in a nearby town. With the address in hand, Hunter did a quick search and found the town nearby – perhaps only fifteen kilometres away, further down the main road. 

“Idiot. What kind of local travels these roads without preparing for the conditions they must surely know about?” Aswon didn’t seem impressed with his lack of preparedness. Kai smiled at him and clapped him on the shoulder.

“Maybe he thought he could get home before it hit? Who knows? But let’s see if we can get him back to his family. Tads, with this address, can you see if you can track it down?”

Tadibya looked at the address, then at the map that Hunter had on screen, and gave a shrug.

“I’ll try. Very hard to match a map to astral space, though. Back soon.” She settled into her bunk, made herself comfortable and then floated free of her body. Her astral form zoomed through the night, and in a blink of an eye she was hovering over a valley, several kilometres down the road from her physical body. Ahh, there – some lights. She looked down and noted how few lights were showing in the town, and drifted down. With the blanket of snow covering everything, and a lack of visual references she found it hard to work out where she was, and it didn’t look like the map that Hunter had shown her. What she did experience though was a feeling of being watched – by something or someone. She spiralled up into the sky, looking around her for a tail and prepared to flee at high speed back to the Chechen camp – her “go to” place in case of pursuit. But she could see nothing, and feel nothing attacking her. She flew back to her body as fast as she could, the world blurring past her in an unintelligible riot of colours. She landed inside the van, slipping through her wards with ease, but didn’t rejoin her body. Instead she manifested, appearing as a ghostly outline. The team could hear and see her, but in this form she didn’t show up on cameras or other technological devices – someone would have to tell Marius any message she had.

“Couldn’t find his house – the town is really small, more like a large village, but it doesn’t look like the picture Hunter has, especially in the snow. Unless I do a door to door search, I think we’ll have to go there physically. But I did sense something else – I’m just going to investigate.” With that, she was gone, swooping back to the town in another blink of the eye, and looking down upon it from on high. She slowly turned her gaze about her, looking for something odd. 

Ah-ha! There! She spied a large tiger, just nestled in under some conifers. She flew lower, trying to get a better look at it, to make out more details. Was it just a tiger, or something more? As she flew lower, it turned its head and looked at her – unmistakeably looked at her. Their eyes made contact, two brown, two an icy piercing blue. Tadibya felt transfixed, staring into those blue eyes, and found herself drifting lower and lower, closer to the tiger. Hot breath misted in front of it, but it maintained an unblinking watch upon her as she closed the distance towards it.

With a supreme effort of will she broke free, averting her gaze for a moment. She realised she had drifted down and was now no more than four or five metres from the tiger. It wasn’t that big – a juvenile perhaps, but she picked up the telltale glimmer in its aura that told her it was some kind of awakened species. She could certainly guess as to at least some of its powers – she had been totally entranced once it concentrated on her.

“If it’s ok with you, Mr. Tiger, I don’t want to be eaten! Not today!” She rocketed upwards, away from the beast, and with a corner of her eye saw it looking up at her, mouth opened wide as if to roar - but there was no sound. It stretched, far below her now, and then turned and wandered under the canopy of trees, and was gone from her sight. With a shrug, Tadibya flew back to her body and merged.

“See anything?” Kai asked.

“Still didn’t find his house, I think we are going to have to go there on foot. Or in the truck, really. It’s too far to walk.” Tadibya busied herself with getting a mug of tea whilst she spoke. If Kai noticed that she hadn’t exactly answered the question, he didn’t say anything.

They waited, keeping an eye on the scene outside which was showing a remarkable difference. In the grey light of pre-dawn, the road had been blasted clear of snow, and the cracked and potted asphalt could be seen now for a good ten metres on either side. They could see a few people pressed up against the glass in their cars, watching with open jawed amazement as the spirits went about their work. It was a sign how poor the area was, and how basic the cars were of course that the occupants could be seen at all – nearly all vehicles were fitted with one way glass these days to prevent those inside from being seen.

The team got out of the truck – apart from Marius and Nadia. Marius started to warm up the systems and ran a quick diagnostic and Nadia assumed her usual position. The rest of them wandered over to the cab of the tanker and started to rap on the door, waking up the driver. He appeared a minute later, wrapped up warmly and looking at them blearily. By the looks of things his cab had a sleeping compartment in the rear, so he’d been absolutely fine after crashing and had just gone to bed.

Kai beamed a smile at him, and started to speak, stretching his knowledge of Russian considerably. He greeted the man, told him they were going to try and rescue his truck, and clear the road so they could all be on their way. He kept up a broad smile, but couldn’t understand why the man just kept staring at him, his mouth agape.

Hunter and Aswon were standing by the side of him, weapons slung and ready, and they looked at each other and frowned, as they heard some of the words. Did Kai really mean that? Wasn’t that the Russian for explosion?

Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or that he’d spent too much time in the company of people with organised crime links – but between the three of them, they suddenly realised that what Kai had meant to say, and what he’d actually said while close, was somewhat different in linguistic nuance. What he’d actually said was something along the lines of “Nice truck, shame if we had to push it over the edge of the mountain, with you in it, and you died in a horrible explosion.”

Kai’s voice petered out, and Hunter and Aswon raised their hands and waved at the trucker to get his attention, giving a fake but hearty belly laugh to show it was “just a joke”. Between them, they motioned the idea of getting a tow cable on the cars to pull them out of the way, and then freeing the truck – to the relief of the truck driver.

Over the next twenty minutes they moved the cars back that were still mobile, and managed to use the tow cable on the truck to pull out the mangled and crushed car from under the side bars. It was clear that the car was not going to work again – the engine was deformed and mangled by the impact, but the back of the tanker looked ok.

Pulling the tanker free took a little longer, as it was a heavy and ungainly vehicle, so Tadibya summoned another spirit of the mountain, and asked for its assistance, and between the powerful military winch and the power of the spirit they soon had the back end of the tanker pulled free of the side of the cliff, amidst some shrieking of metal and grinding noises – but without any major structural damage. Getting the cab straightened up afterwards was a relatively simple job, though the driver still seemed very unsure about if the team was helping him, or about to rob and execute him and steal his truck, and kept his shotgun handy just in case. The team ignored him – having seen the shotgun and knowing it was another of the basic and cheap knock-offs that they’d seen before in the area, they knew he wasn’t likely to hit them, let alone hurt them.

The road was clear, and they had a good twenty metres or so of space to get up some speed before they hit the snow again. To be safe, Tadibya asked the mountain spirit to guard them against accidents and bad luck, whilst they travelled on the mountain road. Marius put the truck in gear, and started to rev the engine, ready to set off again on their journey – but with a brief diversion a few kilometres ahead to drop off Nikolus Harid at his home. Marius put the truck in gear, and they started to roll.


	55. 055 - The Town of Alerrso

Date 28/01/2060, Location 42.05439, 43.49212

The truck ploughed through the snow, the heavy-duty engine roaring and whining as it drove the mass of the truck through drift after drift. Marius kept firm control of the vehicle, his rigged senses feeling the road through his tyres, monitoring the suspension, the power and the hydraulics more by feel than thought. The spirit moved just ahead of them, throwing up snow ahead of it and breaking through the icy crust, dislodging a small path – but enough to give a channel that the bumper and front grill could enlarge.

The road twisted and turned as it hugged the spur of the mountain, dropping slowly from the peak, but running down the shoulder of the range, rather than dropping into a valley. Jagged rocks lay to one side, rising up sharply where the road had been drilled and blasted from the rock, and a sharp slope dropped away on the other, falling hundreds of metres to the valley floor below. At least it gave somewhere for the displaced snow to go…

They pushed on a few kilometres, until they spotted a valley opening up to the north, a sharp sided affair between two large ridges. Hunter confirmed from the map that they were at the right place, and slowly they turned, still smashing through the snow. There were no cars buried in the snow here, nobody caught by surprise with the sudden blizzard. Whether that was because they had more sense, because nobody lived here or because the people that did live here just couldn’t afford cars remained to be seen.

As they descended into the valley, Hunter fiddled with the radio for a few minutes, before eventually sitting back in disgust, turning the set off.

“No signal. Place is a black hole for signals. Got nothing on my phone, next to nothing on the radio. I reckon even the sat gear will have trouble with the steepness of the mountains here – not much arc to get a lock on.”

The others watched in silence as they lurched their way through the snow, staring out at the snow covered foothills. Densely packed conifers lay in ranks up the lower slopes, with large white falls weighing down their branches, the needles making green chevrons where the wind had caused them to sway and shed some of their load. Other than the trees, the landscape was almost featureless, everything covered in deep snow.

In the distance they saw a smudge – the beginnings of a town, several klicks down the valley. Tadibya said she was going to have a quick look, and squeezed through into the back, and lay on her bunk. Moments later, her astral form soared through the air, looking down on the landscape. The houses were all quiet and dark, and nothing stirred in the town at all at first glance. After a quick recon, she was just about to head back to her body when she saw a single figure emerge from a large building on the corner of the main square, and start to wade across the snow-filled opening, heading to the building diagonally opposite. She flitted back to her body and reported in.

“Nothing major moving, all quiet, no sign of trouble. Only saw one person, moving from one house to another.” Marius pressed on, slaloming through the snow with the engine noise cutting through the quiet of the valley and echoing off the hills. They closed on the town, and could make out some details now. It was a small place, mostly laid out along the two “roads” that crossed, with the buildings stretched out on either side of them like a ribbon. The houses were made of stone and wood, and looked to be very old – certainly pre-crash. As they got closer, they could see – or rather they could not see – certain signs of civilisation. No phone masts. No satellite dishes. No aerials. No street lamps. This place was like falling back in time, and was just about the most backwards area that they’d seen yet.

Finally the truck made it into the large square, and Marius threw it round into a wide arc, snow cascading out from the wheels as he fought to keep up momentum and they span on the deep snow, flinging snow towards the buildings. As they turned, Tadibya pointed out where the man had come out from, and which building he had headed to – which was mostly obvious from the trail through the broken snow.

They slowed and then came to a halt, and Marius killed the engine. Other than the plinking of the engine rapidly cooling, there was silence – but it was a watchful and suspicious silence. Surrounded by buildings, there was no movement, but they could feel that they were under observation. Kai and Hunter climbed into the back, and grabbed the unconscious form of Nikolus, and they started to move him out of the back, climbing down into the snow and passing the body down to support between them. As they moved out from the gap between truck and trailer, a tall man emerged from the doorway of the corner building.

He was perhaps a touch under two metres tall, and wrapped in a drab grey winter coat. A large furry hat was pulled down over his head, and his face sported a large and bushy black moustache on pale skin. As he came out of the doorway, he reached inside his coat and pulled out a pistol, holding it in his right hand with the barrel pointing down into the snow. Kai stopped and examined him closely, looking at the way his shoulders hung, his position and demeanour, and studied his face for a moment, then lowered his face as if to examine the body slung between them and quietly spoke.

“Relax Hunter, it’s a precaution. He wants us to know that he’s armed, but he doesn’t want to use it. Probably just worried that if we kick off, he can’t quickly get at it otherwise. But there’s something about him – authority figure of some sort.”

Having said his piece, he raised his head again, put on his best smile, and started to labour across the square, towards the man in the greatcoat and called out a cheery greeting. The man raised his left hand in a wave of acknowledgement, and closed the distance with them, stopping about three metres away. He spoke, and the language was unrecognised to them. It sounded a little like Russian, with some similar sounds – but not enough to be clear. Hunter tried Russian, and the man perked up a little and responded in kind.

They exchanged greetings, and the man asked why they had Nikolus Harid with them, and what was wrong with him – he obviously knew the man by sight. Hunter explained that he was stupid, and had been caught in the blizzard and had nearly frozen to death, but that they’d managed to get to him in time and warm him up, checked his paperwork, and that the boss – quick nod to Kai – had decided to bring him home, as his car was not likely to ever drive again. During this, Kai tried to keep up with the conversation, and concentrated on radiating calm, open, and friendly vibes. The man in the greatcoat sighed in understanding, and then fought with his coat, eventually managing to get his sidearm back into the holster.

“Come, I show you his house. It is just down this side of the square. His wife Eva spoke to me last night – they were worried that something like this would happen. He is not known for his skill with driving.”

He led them down the street leading off east from the square, heading towards one of the drab and solid-looking houses. As he reached the front door, he curled his hand into a fist and hammered on the door loudly, the sound echoing through the still morning air.

Hunter and Kai bought the body with them, and realised that the cold and wet were starting to rouse him from his stupor. He blearily looked around, his head lolling slightly, and they could feel him trying to take some of the weight on his own legs, just as they reached the side of the road and neared the house.

The door opened, into a dimly-lit and Spartan looking interior, and a women wearing drab clothes appeared. She gave a little gasp at the sight of the man struggling to stand, and moved to greet him with obvious relief on her face. Her eyes flitted over the forms of Kai and Hunter, but she seemed reassured by the presence of the man in the greatcoat. As her eyes looked around though, and she took in the complete absence of car nearby, her tone of voice changed, becoming sharper and more direct. He mumbled something, and the tone changed again, becoming angry and shrill. One of the arms previously raised in welcome became a pointed finger that started to jab him in the chest, and a rapid fire tirade of what could only be abuse started to pour out of her mouth.

The man in the greatcoat raised an eyebrow, and nodded with his head, and at his tacit suggestion, they moved away from the arguing couple, retracing their steps back to the square. They listened to the woman as she grew louder and more strident, until finally the noise receded as the door was closed behind them – though they could still hear her shrill voice as she obviously told him exactly what she thought of him, his driving ability, his life choices and his fitness as a husband. Hunter listened carefully, absorbing the language as best he could, whilst Kai just winced at the situation.

When they got back to near the truck, the figure turned to them.

“You should be careful. Many people around here, not like Russians. Russian truck brings bad fears, bad thoughts. If not Russians, then Chechens with stolen truck. Worse fear. Maybe find different transport?”

Hunter explained, briefly, that it’s was all the transport they had, so they had to make the most of it – but thanked him for the warning. Kai tried to ask him about how they could make the truck look less scary – or at least that’s what he thought he asked him, his grip on the Russian language was tenuous at best.

The figure pointed at the slabs of armour applique that had been fitted to the truck back in Tashkent, and let out a belly laugh, and managed to spit out some words between guffaws. Hunter thought he said something about painting balloons on the side, but decided not to translate.

As the man sobered up from his laughing fit though, Kai did ask him a question that even his language skills were up to.

“So, where are we?”

“You are nowhere. In the middle of nothing. But this sad collection of buildings is Alerrso.”

Kai nodded in thanks, and decided not to comment on the quality of the town. There was a pause of a few seconds, with an uncomfortable silence growing. Kai decided to break the silence first, and thanked the man for his help in getting Nik back to his house, and bade him farewell. They mounted up, and resumed their places – Shimazu and Aswon lowering weapons that had been trained out of the vehicle “just in case”. With a roar, the engine fired again, and the truck backed up a little. Marius gunned it, picking up speed, and then slamming into the snow once more, finishing the turn and trying to head back to his trail and heading south out of town and back towards the highway.

The journey back along the road was a weird mix. In some ways easier – the snow was disrupted and some of it had been pushed out of the way by their passage here, leaving them with less to cut through. In some ways it was harder though – the cool morning air had caused the exposed surfaces to freeze over, and the piles of snow had collapsed in places, causing a mix of drifts and wells, blocks of ice and compressed snow that hammered the vehicle. Marius found himself having to change driving style a little, not driving any faster than before – less battering from the mass of snow, but more skating on sheets of ice.

Slowly they left the village behind, following the gently winding road back to the south, a huge boxy green slab of a vehicle with the trailer snaking and sliding behind them, cutting through the white uniform surface of the snow blanketed valley, the only thing moving as far as the eye could see.

The only thing moving. But not the only thing…

Marius gave a start that translated into the truck giving a weird shudder as he “felt” the threat warning sensors trigger. He was being hit with LIDAR, short range tracking and range finders – military-grade stuff. He triggered the intercom and warned the others.

“Achtung! Weapons system, trained on us – somewhere close. Beware of attack!”

Aswon and Hunter peered into the mountains and hills on either side, and their trained eyes scanned back and forth – and at roughly the same time they spotted oddities in the snow. To the left of the road, Aswon caught a flash of blue light as a targeting laser swept over his sight line and laid on the truck - using that as a position, he made out a spider hole or scrape, the kind of thing he would have dug when out on operations and laying in an ambush. On the right, Hunter spotted a stick in a bank of snow that was just too straight and unnatural looking, and realised that it was the barrel of a weapon, where the cammo netting had either come loose or fallen off entirely, showing the weapon clearly against the snowy backdrop.

Tadibya meanwhile let her eyes glaze slightly as she extended her senses, and saw half a dozen faint life signs on each side of the road, concealed in the snow. The bright shapes of their auras leaked out around the blankets and snow they had used to conceal themselves. She spotted no tell-tale trails of blackness through them that was the sure-fire sign of cyber modifications, and they all appeared healthy.

Both Hunter and Aswon barked out contact sightings, scrabbling to get weapons raised and into the firing ports, but holding just before they did. The ambushers were still ahead of their position, and the firing ports built into the windows would only let them cover a firing arc of about a hundred and twenty degrees on the side of the vehicle. There was no way they could bring their weapons to bear – at least not yet. And pushing the barrels of their guns out would certainly make them a target and display their capabilities.

Kai looked left and right, but couldn’t see what the others had from the front – but he trusted their word. He stood up and undogged the top hatch, pushing back the trapdoor and pushing a hand through first – making sure his head was not the first thing that popped into view. With the other hand on the rim of the turret mount, he pushed up through hole and looked ahead, took a deep breath and then hollered up the road to the unseen attackers.

“Hey! Stop lasing us! We mean no harm, we’re just returning a villager we found that had an accident.”

That’s what he meant to say. Unfortunately, his grasp of Russian really was poor. What he actually bellowed into the frigid air was something a lot less complimentary.

“We see your lasers! We will kill you! Like the idiot in the village! We took his woman!”

A round whistled through the air, the supersonic crack echoing through the mountains like a whip, bouncing from one rocky escarpment to another. A flock of birds erupted from the trees and took flight, fleeing from the sound. Kai was just about to try and say something else, realising that perhaps that had not gone well, when something struck his midriff, knocking the air from him and dragging him down into the cab. Shimazu had dived from his seat and struck him in the stomach with his shoulder, forcing the wind from him and dragging him down into safety. 

The engine roared as Marius opened the throttle full bore, and the truck leapt forwards, gathering speed at a ferocious rate of knots. Time seemed to slow for Marius as the vehicle control rig dumped signals into his hind brain, his thought processes melding with the vehicle completely as the interface kicked into combat mode. He felt the wheels slipping and sliding on the ice – getting grip one moment and then not the next – but with the level of control only riggers were able to exert, he managed the power transmission like a maestro, managing the power flow and moving his attention from one to another with a mental flick. 

A couple of figures broke from their concealment ahead, rising from their shallow scrapes with snow cascading off their backs as they rose to one knee and a small flurry of shots hit the truck. These were not Chechen rebels or unskilled thugs though – the bursts were tightly controlled and precise, striking the truck on the armour plating encasing the engine. Sparks flashed as the rounds hit the thick composites, bouncing harmlessly off into the snow, and almost as quickly as they started firing, it stopped.

Two more figures rose, holding long tubes over their right shoulders, and steadying themselves for a moment.

“Oh frak. MISSILES!” shouted Hunter, as he caught sight of them. Tadibya drew a breath and then flung out a hand at the one at the left, her face concentrated in a frown. The figure far ahead of her fought and wrestled with his weapon, as her levitate spell tried to float it away. He was strong, and had gravity on his side – and her spell was not that powerful. But it was enough to delay his aim and firing, just a touch.

The figure on the right fired. It was a modern weapon – state of the art in fact – but based on an aged design. Originally firing an 84mm round, the Carl Gustav launcher was a weapon system from the middle of the 20th century. Refined and developed constantly during the decades that followed, it was a flexible system that could deliver powerful munitions. This version had all the bells and whistles from the march of technology – smart materials, millimetre RADAR/LIDAR guidance, smart-goggle link, laser-milled penetrators. It was a ferocious weapon system, designed to take out hardened targets such as heavily armoured military vehicles.

The round darted across the distance in the blink of an eye – the velocity of the shell over two hundred and fifty metres per second. But it did take a blink. In the time-distorted world of the cyber-enhanced, half a second was enough to aim and fire, to load a magazine – or in the case of Marius, to see a threat coming and fling the truck to the side. His reactions quivered and as neurons triggered, chemical energy was translated into electrical, firing the control wires and the computer built into his rigger interface sent out the commands to the truck’s systems – at close to three hundred thousand metres per second. With his heartbeat racing in time with the pistons in the engine, the commands fired into the truck’s computer, and the vehicle almost hopped to the side as the powerful suspension obeyed commands that were impossible to replicate for those not forming a gestalt with their vehicle.

The high explosive anti-tank warhead came in at an oblique angle, striking the side of the truck and sliding a little before the fuse activated. The desperate slew of the truck prevented the shaped charge from directing power as designed, and over seventy percent of the blast was wasted into the open air. Of course, that mean that thirty percent blasted into the armoured side of the truck. Metal screamed and twisted under the assault of the focussed explosive blast, cables and hydraulics sheared and ruptured, and fragments of white hot metal splintered out from the blast site. Marius grunted in pain as he felt the blow hit, as if someone had taken a baseball bat to his ribs and pounded the crap out of him. A ragged breath wrenched through his lips though, and he clamped down on the pain.

The truck’s legacy came through – the redundant systems designed into it by some Russian vehicle specialist clamped down on the leaking hydraulic lines and breakers tripped, isolating the damaged circuits. Redundant control lines kicked in, and the engine roared as the tyres continued to thrash at the surface of the snow, propelling the truck along the icy road at over forty kilometres per hour. Marius had no time to consider this though, as the truck slewed hard back the other direction – the second gunner had wrestled his rocket into position, fighting off the effects of the levitate spell, and sent his round spearing down towards the truck.

If they had both fired at the same time, it would have been the end of them. Dodging one would have only thrown the truck either into the other shot, or given it a flat face that would have allowed the round to hit square on and penetrate them with ease. As it was, Marius was able to repeat the feat, sliding the truck sideways and taking the round at an extreme angle. Another blast of damage, another gout of flame, another grunt of anguish. More systems failed, and red warning lights lit up all over the cab of the truck, showing alarms and issues. More fire hit the truck – two long bursts from two of the riflemen. This time the rounds were not directed at the body of the truck – no, they had learnt that their guns couldn’t penetrate the thick armour. Instead, the rounds savaged the tyres – carefully aimed and superbly controlled bursts of fire that struck the narrow band between the top of the snow and the wheel arches.

The rounds penetrated the tyres, and a small bark of explosive outgassing sounded, higher pitch than the gunshots and rocket blasts. But the truck kept rolling. Within a fraction of a second the compound stored inside the tyres activated, expanding rapidly and filling the void. The gooey white mess extruded from the ragged gunshot holes in the tyre wall, hardening on contact with the air and the run-flat tyres sagged, but remained usable.

Marius fought the truck now – the two rocket hits had reached, and then surpassed the levels of contingency manoeuvre controls installed, and the damage to the tyres only added to the trouble. He had to slow, lest he lose control of the vehicle entirely, and his ability to control the vehicle was much diminished now. Another attack from those fearsome rockets could well finish them off.

Shimazu had his pistol out now, and was clambering back into the front seat. Aswon had slid into the back, ready to try and decamp from the rear of the vehicle if they had to stop, so he could get a line of sight on the ambushers. Hunter was poised next to the weapon mount, ready to thrust the barrel of his Ares Alpha through the grommet and get some payback. Nadia had climbed down into the foot-well in front of Aswon’s seat, and had braced herself in position as best she could, breathing rapidly and with her pupils dilated to twice their normal size, obviously terrified. Her senses were strong enough though to keep out of the way of everyone else, and not to engage in such useless activities such as screaming or crying. Kai was picking himself up from the corner of the cab, trying to draw air into his lungs after Shimazu had speared him so effectively. Gasping for breath, he managed to call out to the team.

“WAIT!” He spluttered, then drew in another breath. “Wait! Stand down!!” Ignoring the danger, he clambered back onto the seat and emerged through the top hatch. Both hands waved frantically overhead, one of them clutching a white handkerchief which fluttered madly in the wind.

Time stretched out for a moment, and Kai held his breath. He was sure there was probably half a dozen targeting lasers laid over his body right now – all it would take was one slip, one careless clutch of the trigger. But somehow, he knew that these people were not likely to make that kind of mistake – not with the fire discipline they had shown so far. 

Nobody fired.

The truck slowed and ground to a halt. The fires smouldering along the side slowly extinguished as the heat melted the nearby snow, the melt water sloshing down the side of the truck and lapping over the burning material. Aswon paused by the back door, looking towards Kai with one hand on the lock and the other on his rifle. Hunter kept an eye on the rocket troops – they appeared to be reloading, but not aiming – at least not yet. Shimazu fidgeted, watching Kai like a hawk. It was obvious that his training wanted him to bring Kai down out of the line of fire again – but rapid movement like that might make the situation explode.

One by one, the soldiers ahead melded back into the snow, pulling blankets and camouflage back over themselves. The team tried to mark their positions mentally, keeping a memory of where they had been – but it was hard, as the positions just faded into the overall mass of white. After thirty seconds or so, none of them could be seen visually, and only Tadibya had a sense of where they were through her astral sight.

Nadia had climbed out of the foot-well when they stopped, and was gently dabbing at the blood from the corner of Marius’s mouth, cleaning it away.

“Now what? What happens next?”

Kai was about to answer her, when he cocked his head to one side, hearing…. Hearing the sound of loud and somewhat distorted goth-rock music? Mixed with a loud noise that could only be some kind of chopper – the distinctive thwoppa-thwoppa of heavy duty blades scything through the air. He turned in the turret mount, and looked backwards – spotting two things.

The first was a large black helicopter rising up from the other side of the village. Presumably there was some kind of cliff or slope not far out of town. Whatever it was, the chopper was rising up swiftly, with the nose angled down and was closing quickly. Short stubby wings were covered in death. He didn’t consider himself a weapons man – not like some of the others. But he recognised guns when he saw them, and these all looked like they were designed to make live things into dead things with sudden speed. The second thing that caught his attention was the figure from the village, running through the snow towards them, great coat flapping as he did so. The arms windmilled around him to keep balance, and it would have looked amusing were the situation less dangerous.

The helicopter continued to close, and the speakers activated as Marius examined it with his sensors.

“Hind 2-J, late generation Russian heavy combat chopper. Armoured like a tank, good avionics suite and advanced sensors. Armed with 30mm chainguns under each wing pylon, and what looks like 57mm cluster rockets. I think the things on the outer pylons are the Russian versions of Hellfire missiles. Oh, and room for a squad of troops as well. Not fast, but nothing we have will take it down.”

The rest of the team listened soberly. Marius might be young, and slightly arrogant at times – or perhaps just displaying a strong cultural bias, perhaps – but if there was one thing he seemed quite expert in, it was helicopters. And what he said was sounding like pretty bad news.

The helicopter overflew them, drifting by one side, and slowly orbited. As it did, they could make out more details. The cargo door was open, and what looked like four or five heavily armed and armoured combat troops looked out at them, wearing winter digicam. They were loaded down with bulky combat armour and liberal amounts of guns and equipment, and looked to be attached to thick ropes suspended from a gantry over the door. There were also large speakers mounted to the side of the cargo area, from which the music blasted out, loud enough to be clearly heard over the sound of the rotors. The chopper was painted jet black, apart from the nose which displayed a picture of a Valkyrie with wings of almost pure white, with red laser like beams from her eyes and a large golden sword – definitely not camouflaged.

The chopper continued to orbit them, and then slid backwards and lowered slightly, the rotors just starting to kick up snow. The troops fast-roped down and took up positions around the chopper, forming a perimeter with weapons trained on them, and then one last figure appeared in the doorway, dressed in civilian clothes. He looked to be a fairly generic European, about two metres tall and apparently in good physical shape. A bush hat was pulled down over his brown hair, whilst a check shirt flapped in the wind over the top of a plain green t-shirt. Blue jeans dropped down to sturdy looking black boots. With one hand clamping down the hat over his head, the figure leaned out and casually slid down the rope, using his feet to control his descent and letting the rope run through the crook of his free arm.

Kai turned to face the chopper, and the rest of the team watched in silence, guns and spells ready. The tension ratcheted up as the man stood there with his hands on his hips, staring at the truck. If he was bothered by the cold air and the wind whipping through his open shirt, he didn’t show it. Finally he spoke, his voice loud and clear, and pitched to carry over the sound of the chopper which had risen away from them and was covering their position. His Russian sounded fluid and natural, and there was no hesitation in the delivery.

“Right, you dirty raghead sonsabitches. Get your asses out of the truck and tell me why I shouldn’t execute every last one of your miserable hides!”

Kai considered his words for a moment, then called back. In English.

“Hello there! English? Can you understand me?”

“Yes, I can understand you.” The figure swapped to English easily, and spoke with a faint American accent, as many did who had learned the language from the trid or from chip releases.

“Ahh, much better then. Err, hi. Sorry and all that. My Russian’s not so good, see. I meant to tell your friends over there that we had just dropped off a villager that got stuck in a blizzard and needed medical aid. But I think it came out a bit wrong. So I thought I’d try English, otherwise it wouldn’t be you killing me, it would be the rest of my companions…”

Kai smiled and pointed down in the cab, shrugging his shoulders as he reached the end of the sentence. Despite his casual language, Kai was concentrating hard, cueing his body language carefully and studying his opponent with care.

The figure listened for a moment, and looked to be grinding his teeth a little or chewing. Hunter called up from the cab, quietly.

“Think he’s got a subvocal mic, might be calling in for a check. Looking through the scope, there’s something around his neck that might be a transceiver. Assume he’s in constant comms with his guys here.”

Kai made a thumbs up gesture with his right hand, held down by his waist and out of sight of the man he was talking to.

“So, look – there’s obviously been a misunderstanding here. As you can see, we’re not Russians. Or Chechens. Just a bunch of people driving from place to place – we just happen to have a nice shiny truck. Or had a nice shiny truck. But no hard feelings – and we’ve not shot at any of your men, I hope you notice.”

The figure considered his words for a few moments, then started to stride forwards through the snow, his powerful legs clearing a path. As he started to move, the rest of the squad moved forwards with him – at least until he waved them to a halt. Several of them glanced at him and each other, but they obeyed his command, and refocussed their attention on the truck. The man approached them, stopping about five metres from the vehicle.

“Yeah – I noticed. And that’s why you’re not a smoking crater. So, here’s how this is going down. My name’s Jenkins. This is my valley, and these are my troops. And you’re trespassers on my land. So you’re gonna get out of the truck, and get down here where I can see you, and then I’m going to decide what to do with you.”

Hairs rose on the back of Kai’s neck as he listened to this ‘Jenkins’. Kai considered himself to be pretty good at reading people, and he’d talked to a lot of different people in his life. This guy was giving off all kinds of strange signals. What he said wasn’t a request, and it wasn’t a demand. It was a statement of how things were going to be. He wasn’t going to negotiate, or bargain, or brook any discussion. Kai realised then what it was about the guy’s eyes and demeanour that troubled him – this was a man who just didn’t care about consequences. Borderline sociopathic perhaps. But that meant he would quite happily kill them all, bury them in the hills, and then he’d go home and watch some trid, and wouldn’t have a single bad thought about it. 

“Right you are, then! We’ll just rack our weapons, and we’ll be right out! Nice and carefully.”

Kai dropped down into the truck and quickly spoke to the rest of the team.

“No messing now, weapons away. This guy gives me the willies. I’ll get out, each of you get out then, I’ll introduce you, then get back in the truck. He didn’t say to do that – but he didn’t say not to. If he says different though, don’t argue, for all our sakes.”

He climbed over Shimazu, who squidged to the side to avoid being trodden on, and then climbed down out of the cab. One at a time, he called the team out, and they carefully climbed down into view, leaving their weapons behind. Kai called out their name, and gave the briefest of introductions, describing them as his assistant, or magical researcher, or security specialists.

The man had snorted when Shimazu had climbed back into the truck after being introduced and before Hunter climbed down, but seemed more amused than annoyed, and didn’t stop them. So they continued. Nadia of course climbed out with Marius, and kept close to him, so Kai introduced them as a couple, not that it seemed to make any difference from that point of view. However, when Kai described him as the driver, Jenkins held up his hand in a ‘wait’ motion. He looked at Marius, evaluating him up and down carefully.

“Good work, driver. Tell your boss you deserve whatever you’re being paid and more, for getting him through those hits.”

Marius seemed torn. On one hand, it was clearly a compliment and testimony to his driving skill and abilities, from someone who understood just how hard the manoeuvers had been. On the other hand, this guy – or his troops at least – had scratched his precious truck, and his desire was to start the engine, run him over and grind him to a mushy red pulp whilst screaming obscenities at him. Of course, the chance of that happening was pretty much zero, given the firepower they faced. Instead he settled for nodding his head in acknowledgement, before helping Nadia back into the cab and climbing up himself.

After the team had all been introduced, Jenkins waved Kai over to him. Kai approached, carefully – wondering where this was going, and trying his best to get a read on this guy. Jenkins seemed unconcerned though, and turned to face his nearest trooper, barking out a command. They pulled out a small package and threw it to him underhanded.

Jenkins turned back and unrolled the package, flipping out the screen from the small tactical style computer, and keying up the display. 

“See this area. This is mine. All of this, from here, to here, and down here. You stay out of this area, unless you’re invited. Clear?” Kai studied the area, several thousands of acres, covering a pretty big swathe of the mountains to the north, all the way to the main highway. He squinted at the names on the maps to either side, reading them out to confirm his understanding.

“Right. Be on your way.”

Kai looked into his eyes – the dark brown, almost black eyes of the Mongol tribesman staring into the nondescript medium brown eyes of this random European. Kai studied him for a second, then nodded his head, not seeing any give in the other.

“Right. We’ll head out then, go find somewhere to repair and such like.”

Kai mounted up, and gestured up the valley to the main road.

“Come on Marius, nice and steady, before they change their mind. Let’s not tempt fate.”

The truck started up and started to fight through the snow again, following the road south, with Marius fighting to keep the truck moving now with the damage sustained. The run-flat tyres had fully cured now, and they gave the truck a weird wobble, the bubbles of foam throwing off the tracking significantly and making the truck vibrate in an odd fashion. As they struggled up the road, they kept a close watch on the situation behind them – aware that there was still a platoon of troops dug in to concealed positions, watching them, let alone the chopper and the other soldiers. The man from the village had closed to talk to Jenkins and was discussing things with him, occasionally pointing towards the truck – but nothing happened from that.

Eventually they made it back to the main road, and turned west, heading towards the coast.


	56. 056 - The black coast

Date 28/01/2060, Location 42.05439, 43.49212

As the truck laboured through the snow, gusts of frigid air throwing up fine spray of ice crystals, the air in the cab was warmer – in some cases, quite heated. Aswon, Hunter and Marius were all chuntering about their last encounter, and how Kai and his shocking grasp of Russian had nearly bought them a one-way ticket. Kai responded, saying he would work on it, but that seemed to be the wrong thing to say – the others proceeded to put their opinions more forcefully, and even Shimazu and Tadibya, normally the quiet ones in confrontational situations, were nodding with them. Kai realised that he’d probably crossed a line with the last altercation, composed himself, and then spoke to them at length – describing how he was going to fix this, and it wouldn’t happen again. Eventually his charisma and charm won through – or at least mollified them a little – and the complaints subsided.

The truck shuddered and lurched up the road, struggling with the deep snow and patches of ice. Marius had to fight hard to keep the truck moving, and the journey was considerably rougher than the inbound leg. Tadibya asked her existing spirit to move to the front left wheel, and break through the snow there for her, and to keep doing that until they were out of the snow, or they got to dusk. She shifted her centre, moving from the domain of land to that of sky and felt her control over the previous spirit fade. It should carry out her last request with no problem – but she couldn’t change it now, or ask it to do anything else instead. In her new domain, she called an air spirit and asked it to blow the snow out of the way for the right wheel. With both wheels now being cleared, there juddering of the truck was somewhat lessened, and the journey became easier. Reaching the main road, they swung to the right, turning west again and heading for the coast. The snow up here was just as thick as it had been overnight, and it was clear that snow plows or other similar vehicles had not made it up here yet.

As they turned onto the main road, they found themselves in an odd situation. Every vehicle they passed, waiting in the snow for rescue, started up and joined up with them – using the truck as the next best thing to a bulldozer. They slipped and fought their way through the snow with various amounts of skill and sometimes lots of scraping and cursing, but the wide tracks and trampled snow left by the truck was manageable – just – for the standard cars in the area. With the damage to the truck, they were hard-pressed to manage more than a few kilometres per hour, and it took them nearly three hours to clear the zone of control claimed by the warlord in the valley. Once they cleared that area though, Marius pulled over into the next wide area he found. It wasn’t clear if this was a passing point for wide loads, or a tourist spot that gave a spectacular view over the valley to the south – but it did give them room to pull over a little and get around all sides of the truck and view the damage. Behind them, the convoy of cars, now nearly twenty strong, skidded and slowed to a halt, a few of them sliding and gently rear-ending the ones in front. At least half of the cars just had plain glass in, and they could see the occupants watching them through their windscreens – wondering what had happened.

Everyone but Kai got out of the truck, with Aswon making a point of climbing out with his rifle slung over his shoulder, before racking the weapon, making clear to everyone watching them that yes, they were armed. Marius started to dig at the snow around the wheels, and after a quick examination said that they really needed to swap over the front and middle tyres. The rest of the team set to with shovels, clearing out space around them to help with the changeover.

Inside the truck, Kai called his friend in Vietnam – Ngo Ding Diem. Reaching her on the first try, he asked her how the credentials were going that he’d previously requested. She advised him that they were in progress, but it was proving a little harder than expected to get IDs that matched their descriptions thrown together, and it was going to take another ten days or so. Kai and Ngo then chatted for a while – until Nadia interrupted them, pulling open the back door and letting a blast of cold mountain air into the vehicle, and demanding tea for everyone working outside. Kai finished his conversation, and then set to with the kettle.

It took them about forty-five minutes to do each side, jacking up the truck, loosening the wheel nuts and exchanging the metre high tyres from one axle to another. Fortunately the rounds that had shredded the tyres hadn’t damaged the rims or the axles, and the swap went ok. Ninety minutes later, and the team mounted up again, and set off on their journey – gratefully followed by the convoy of battered cars who had waited with them. Everyone but Kai cycled through the back of the truck, getting out of cold wet clothes and into something more comfortable, and within a quarter hour the back of the truck looked like a raid on a launderette, with clothes strung everywhere, slowly dripping water onto the floor. As they started to clear a path through the snow again, Tadibya made a suggestion.

“Maybe we should stop and have a wander down the line with a donation bucket, see how much they value our services?”

The others smiled, and for the first time since leaving the valley there were a few jokes made and the mood lightened. They didn’t stop, though – the idea of getting back out into the groin-deep snow didn’t appeal to anyone.

The truck rounded the shoulder of a mountain, and a wide vista presented itself to them. The road started to descend, and looking ahead they could see it wound around the mountain they were on, entered a wide looping switchback, and dropped, then headed for the next haunch a few miles away, winding down again. They could see to the south and west for what must have been thirty kilometres, and it all looked downhill from here. More importantly though, as they rounded this corner, they hit a dividing line in the mountain range, and the weather pattern changed abruptly. Inside a few hundred metres the snow diminished rapidly, dropping down to barely thirty centimetres deep, and inside a few hundred more it faded away to almost nothing. Marius slowly increased speed as the battering on the truck faded away, and the digital readout on the dash crept up…. 30…35…40…45... As they pushed past this and closed in on fifty, the truck started to vibrate and there were some weird grating noises. They slowed a little, and settled on forty-five, and rolled down the hill.

Within a few minutes, they started to get overtaken, as the convoy of cars closed up on them and then in clouds of blue smoke and the sounds over over-revved engines, hammered past them on the straight sections. As each one passed, there was a chorus of honks and toots from their horns, presumably of thanks for services rendered.

They continued to descend, now travelling much more smoothly though the pace seemed maddeningly slow. On the bright side, as they got closer to the coastal areas and lower in the mountains, the signal on their commlinks picked up, and soon Hunter was able to get some useful data off the matrix about their destinations. He plugged in, and was soon updating the maps with some information that he shared with the rest.

“Right folks, we’re heading for Batumi, which is the second largest city in what was Georgia. Biggest place for miles around though, and should have the infrastructure we need. It’s got rail links and a port, and according to this at least one actual shipyard, so there should be some heavy industry around as well. Lots of light manufacturing places listed, some feed processing and they’ve got a bunch of casinos listed and some pretty good tourist facilities. Population is a little under two hundred thou, with a mix of religions – most of ‘em are Orthodox, but there’s Catholics, but some Muslims, Jewish and Armenian Apostolic, whatever the hell they are. There’s an airport here that is listed as international as well, but I can only see one runway, and it’s barely two and a half klicks long. Um… yeah, I suppose you can get a widebody down on that ok, as long as it’s not too heavily loaded. But it’s probably going to be local and mid-range flights from there mostly. Nearly everything we want to see will be in or near the city centre, which has some towers and large modern buildings – outside that, there’s miles and miles of suburbs, just like Baku.”

As he described what he had found, he highlighted areas of interest on the maps that he piped through to pads and displays around the cab.

“I’ve also found three possible places we can try to get the truck fixed. First one is this place – ‘Car Happy Friend Garage’. I’ve checked the translation, and that’s what it’s really called. Look!”

The map was displayed with a low resolution shot taken of a battered and tired-looking building, covered in car logos and with exhausts and wheels piled up in big heaps. Sure enough, there was a hand-painted sign with the name, in English, in big bold letters.

“Next place is Batumi Heavy Transport, place looks like it does work for a number of the local hauliers and advertises rebuilds and conversions, service work and such like.” The picture changed to show a much larger double warehouse, with a number of trucks being worked on over pits or on heavy duty lift mechanisms. It looked much more like the facility they had visited back in Karaj.

“And last of all, as an out of the box thought, we could try the shipyard. They’re going to have all the tools needed, should be skilled on the fabrication side of things, and will have masses of raw material to work with.” The picture changed again, showing a busy drydock where a mid-size freighter was being worked on, with twenty-five milimetre steel plates being cut up and used to make replacement hull plating for a large rent down one side.

“Otherwise, it’s a town, much like any other. I’ve found a couple of hotels, from the big luxury jobs – one here from Renraku Hospitality with five stars – all the way down to smaller motels and cheap end stuff, where they probably won’t check our IDs that carefully. Oh, and two casinos that keep trying to install some pop up game on my terminal – one from Aztechnology, and one from Fuchi. Though I’m not sure how long that one is going to stay open!”

The last comment was met with snorts from the rest of the team, and a confused look from Nadia, who shrugged when nobody explained, pouted a little and went back to hugging Marius.

“Right, good work Hunter. Let’s try giving them a call. Pass the data over will you?” Kai waited until all the numbers filtered through to his pad, and then selected the heavy transport company and dialled the number. The team listened to his half of the conversation, and could more or less follow along. No, the person who answered didn’t speak Russian. Or English. But someone else did. Here they are now. No, they’ll be shut by the time they would arrive – Hunter working out an ETA for the slow moving van and holding up a pad with the time scrawled on it – no, they’ll still be shut, even if it’s an emergency. What’s that? Paying in cash, with a bonus? Oh, that’s different. For two hundred nuyen, they could get someone to stay and wait, no problem. Around 20:00, yes, see you then.

The truck trundled along the main road, heading for the coast as the sun dropped to the horizon. The mountains were behind them now, and they were well onto the coastal plains, the ground relatively flat and showing signs of agriculture and light industry but still with huge swathes of undeveloped land around them. As they got onto the coast road, they could see the Black Sea to their right, looking harsh and uninviting in the wan sunlight of the late January afternoon. The beach was made of pebbles or gravel, rather than sand, and stretched about fifty metres on a very shallow incline.

As they headed south along the coast, the character of the buildings changed. There was a near constant level of development, all along the left side of the road – inland. House after house with large double fronts were built up on raised rock piles – presumably to avoid flooding during storms and high tides. All of them looked to be “guest houses”, able to hold the tourists from the inland areas during the summer months for their precious few days of holiday away from the factories. All of the guest houses looked closed though, and from the exteriors also looked to be in a poor state of repair. They drove on, kilometre after kilometre, with the same thing repeated – a single row of housing on the left of the road, closed and feeling abandoned, and the rocky beach and sea to the right. The only life they saw were the few other trucks on the road and the passing motorists who jockeyed for position to overtake them.

They drove over an old concrete bridge, covering an inlet or gully of some kind, and could see down to the water as they crossed. It was dark and looked oily, and as they hit just the right angle, the water reflected the last rays of sunlight back in a rippling rainbow. It looked quite pretty – until it sunk in that this was oil, lubricants, long chain hydrocarbons and other industrial pollutants. Black films covered the rocks, and they could see swirling pools of rubbish caught in the eddies and basins. That probably explained why the guest houses looked run down – nobody wanted to come to a beach that looked like that.

Not far after the bridge they passed a large fuel stop, one with a two-tier roof system designed for the large long haul trucks to fit under. They checked their fuel status, but having filled up in Tbilisi, they were still pretty good – they’d used a higher than normal amount of fuel due to pushing through the snow, but they still had a good thousand kilometres in the tank. Hunter added a note to the map with the location, and they pushed on towards the town.

They found the place ok, finding a few bored-looking employees waiting outside the mostly closed doors, smoking cheap-looking cigarettes. One of them wandered over to the truck and waited for Kai to climb down, then walked with him to get a quick look at the damage down each flank, raising eyebrows at the blast damage and making clucking sounds in the back of his throat. After a quick assessment, he looked up at Kai.

“Much damage, my friend, and hard to fix – very heavy parts and difficult to work with. Will cost about sixty thousand, and will take us two, maybe three weeks. Depends on parts and other work we have in.”

“Ahh, that’s really too long. Is there no way we can speed that up?” Kai watched the man, and saw him glance at the man leaning against the door, taking a long drag and blowing smoke out of his nose. He seemed uninterested in what was going on.

“I don’t think so, garage is very busy, with much work to do. Would be very expensive to let other customers down.” Kai listened to his response, and then lowered his voice, to barely more than a whisper.

“Would you care to come and discuss this with us in the back of the truck. Maybe a cup of tea? Just you and me?” The man stared at Kai for a while, then took a step back, shaking his head. Kai tried a different tack.

“Ok, look, if you could get the parts shipped priority, and if you had no other work – how long would it take you to do the job? What’s the fastest time you could do it?”

In the truck, Shimazu stirred as his pocket buzzed. He fished out the phone, and saw that it was from Saito, his fixer friend back in China, and keyed the accept key and listened. Back outside, Kai listened to the response.

“Well, it will take us about a week of work. Cut away damage. Fix box section. Replace damaged control runs. Balance wheels. Load test… yes, five days. But that is five days with two crews working, morning and afternoon. Would be very expensive. Would cost…. A hundred thousand.” 

Shimazu said hello a few times, then pressed the phone right up to his ear. Across the connection, he could hear the sound of fighting and things breaking. Thuds and “oofs”. Definitely not happy noises. He waved for quiet in the cab and hit the speaker button, and seeing the frown on his face, the others listened in. Outside, Kai continued to talk, unaware of the situation inside.

“Ok, here’s a deal for you. You get your crews working on this straight away. You bump whoever you need to down the queue, so we’re first. You get the priority shipment on the parts you need. And you get your best crews on, morning and night, to get this done – in four days.” As the man started to protest about the impossibility of such a thing, Kai waved him to be quiet. “In exchange for this ahhh… overtime and great customer service, we will pay you one hundred and ten thousand – with half up front to cover the parts and disruption, another quarter when you are midway through the job and the last quarter when you hit the deadline. Oh, and we’ll need a new pair of runflats as well.”

The spokesman turned to glance at the silently smoking figure, who gave a tiny nod of the head.

In the truck, the mood had sobered. They could hear the unmistakable sounds of someone being beaten, and the sound of destruction. Tadibya paled, and spoke quietly.

“Something is on fire there, and they are inside whatever it is.” There was something to her voice, a faint tremor – but she sounded certain of what she said. Hunter chimed in as well.

“And that was someone being thrown through an external window – a large framed window, with no openings. It’s quite distinctive.”

Shimazu’s frown deepened, and his hand clenched white around the hilt of his sword, matching the set of his jaw. He looked around at each of the others, but was aware of the distance between their current location and his friend.

Back outside, the spokesman held out a grubby hand to Kai.

“For one hundred and ten, we will get you a blowjob as well from our secretary!” He cracked a large smile, and the rest of the men guffawed loudly, before they set off. Kai smiled, but didn’t respond.

“You bring truck back, tomorrow morning, 8:30, we start work”. Kai nodded and told him they’d be back, on the dot, before turning to climb back into the cab. As soon as he entered, he could feel the tension, and stood quietly, absorbing the situation.

“Shimazu, show me on the map where your friend is. As precisely as you can. I can fly there astrally and at least go and check on him.” Shimazu nodded at Tadibya, and then took the proffered data slate from Hunter and zoomed in, panning to the east from Turkestan and towards the edge of China. He zoomed in to the area, and then paused for a moment, looking around at the team. He seemed to wrestle with something for a moment, and they could see the muscles working on the side of his jaw. Whatever was going through his mind though, he made a decision, and then zoomed in more on the map and identified the house where Saito lived, and further across town, the safehouse that was maintained for him. 

Tadibya took the pad, and zoomed out a little, looking at the mountains and rivers nearby, the layout of the town – trying to get a fix on the geography of the area, and then mentally converting that into what it might look like on the astral plane. She zoomed out some more, then a little more, then more – until she could finally see where they were, and where she was headed.

“That’s about three thousand kilometres,” said Tadibya, using the ruler widget to bring up a rough distance. “Ok... that's going to take a while.” She saw the look of disappointment and worry on Shimazu’s face, and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “I’ll go fast, as fast as I can, and look for your friend. It will just take me a while, maybe twenty-five minutes each way.” Shimazu nodded mutely, as if unwilling to say anything that might betray his feelings. Tadibya curled up on her bunk, and then projected out of her body. She took a moment to align herself and then accelerated. Faster and faster, until the landscape was a pearlescent blur beneath her. The astral plane shifted under her, becoming a hue of pale blue with streaks of gold as she crossed the Caspian Sea, and for two minutes she swooped down until her astral body was ripping through the waves, feeling the mass of life in the form of plankton and bacteria spraying against her.

With a flash, she transitioned back to land, and space became dark around her as she entered the desert. Bereft of life and harsher, the space became unwelcoming and cold, apart from the odd clusters of life around settlements, rivers and oasis patches. She banked and followed a river, driving headlong towards her destination, at an equivalent speed of around seven thousand kilometres per hour.

Back in her bunk, the body lay silent, only the faint rising and falling of the chest betraying that it was still alive. 

Hunter had pulled up the details of the town, and tried calling through to the town’s emergency switchboard, trying to report a fire at the location. He was sure he had the right dialect of Chinese, and she understood him, but he had a hard time trying to explain. It took a good five minutes of back and forth he realised that was she meant was that they didn’t have a fire service, or fire trucks. And there was no police – just the local garrison of the Warlord. 

Shimazu dialled Odemoyd, as the closest person he knew to Saito that might have some hope of having an effect, but snarled when it went straight through to voice mail. He dialled again, but got nothing different. He kept redialling, getting more and more frustrated as he did so. The others sat in silence, waiting – unable to offer any advice or help.

Tadibya arrived, swooping down from the mountains and plateaus and dropping down to “normal” speed. The blur solidified into a landscape, and she checked her surroundings, then zipped north again for a few more seconds at maximum. Ahh, there, that was better… now she could make out the formations of rock she had seen on the map. Not bad for a three thousand kilometre journey – she had only been about twenty kilometres out! She sped down, moving as swiftly as she could whilst still perceiving the world around her clearly, spiralling down until she spotted the house. It wasn’t that she recognised the house – but she figured that nowhere else would have an astral signature like an abattoir right now, so it was the right one.

Tadibya looked down at the scene, recoiling somewhat from the devastation. The intense emotions, pain and suffering had distorted and corrupted astral space, sending out shock waves and emotional eddies. As she watched, she saw a body come flying out of the house, triggering a few more shards of glass to explode outwards. A spray of arterial blood arced through the air, accompanied by a high pitched shriek of pain. She flinched herself as a fresh wave of anguish erupted from the scene and washed over her, feeling the aftermath of the considered and deliberate act. The body landed in a clump and after some pitiful struggles slowed and then stopped as it quickly bled out. One of the arms had been removed from the body, strips of flesh and destroyed tendons waving in the breeze.

Then she saw the monster that had caused this climbing out of the window. It was huge – and for a moment her senses boggled as she tried to evaluate it. It was about two and a half metres tall – nearly as big as a troll in fact – but was clearly a man. But the man was distorted and formed with body parts that didn’t seem to fit. A normal sized head sat on top of enormous shoulders, with rippling muscles and taut skin displaying lumps and bumps in strange places. The chest was equally over-sized, and tapered down to a waist that was as thick around as most human shoulders. It was like a man had been scaled up to the size of a troll, and then released into the world. 

She focussed her vision on him, and tried to read his astral signature through the pallor of destruction that surrounded him. She felt his soul, his inner spirit, and examined it, or at least she tried to. The first thing she noticed was that his body was covered in tattoos – faint henna-like marks, carefully painted over the enormous canvas of his skin. They glowed, radiating power in the astral realm – though what they did was unclear to her. She tried to see past them, to his being, and noted that there was no tell-tale blackness, no signs of pollutants such as Cyberware, Bio-enhancement or disease. He glowed brightly, too brightly – his soul was stronger than that of a normal person, much stronger. He was somehow more “whole” than others, stronger than anyone she had ever met. Yet despite this, her gaze slid off him, not able to get a feel for him, and build a unique key. Something was very odd about this man – something had protected him with some kind of magical defence, perhaps tied to the tattoos. Whatever it was, she could not get a good look at him.

Her gaze was caught by the sight of someone breaking from cover on the other side of the house, running to a car and quickly getting in. It looked like the description of Saito, and radiated fear, anger and alarm in roughly equal parts. Saito left the door open, and frantically tried to start the engine, but was met with crunching and whining from the dilapidated vehicle. She flew down to the vehicle and manifested, causing a scream of fear to erupt from his mouth.

The noise carried around the house, and the huge figure put down the body it had been poking, turning with ponderous grace towards the noise. It strode like a behemoth, tiny eyes almost hidden in the deep face, itself ringed with a mass of dark black hair.

Tadibya spoke rapidly, realising she didn’t have much time.

“Saito – calm down. Shimazu sent me. Call him. But get away, I will try to distract… whatever that is!”

Saito pumped the gas pedal and twisted the key again, but with his other hand, pulled out a phone and thumbed it on. She heard him say something, and the name “Shimazu” – and guessed he had his burner phone set up for voice dialling.

Moments later she saw relief on Saito’s face, and a quick glance towards her and a nod. She couldn’t hear Shimazu on the phone – noise made by electronic sources, things that weren’t alive, wouldn’t be audible on the astral plane. Only the living were really able to interact with her.

She turned towards the figure as the engine finally caught and the car lurched forwards, the driver’s door flapping shut with the sudden movement. Saito jammed it into gear, and floored the engine, sending mud and gravel flying, and headed down the road, the back end of the car snaking and twisting as it fought for grip.

The figure broke into a run, moving quickly - faster than anything that size had the right to move. Arms and legs pumped, and it rocketed forwards in a bounding gait that looked effortless. It ate up the distance, following the fleeing car – actually closing on it a little as it took bounds over the corners of plots and across gardens and wastelands. It looked like it could keep going all day, indefatigable, without pause or lethargy.

Tadibya blipped forwards for a heartbeat, getting ahead of the figure. Normally, she would be only a bystander here – her form on the astral plane, the enemy – and it was an enemy, of that she was sure – on the physical plane. Spells could not cross the boundary that way normally. But…. Those tattoos. She concentrated, trying to isolate them from the body. To look at them, as distinct astral constructs. Slowly she managed to unravel them from the spirit of the foe, seeing the magical protections and wards, the enhancements upon its body and mind. She got a good metaphysical grasp on one of them, and then pulled a bolt of power from the area around her, channelling the mana through her astral form and trying to ground it through the tattoo.

It was dangerous. Her astral form, bound together only by her will and fleeting sense of ego was less well-suited for channelling power than her physical body. She had to be careful – whatever power she did not carefully manage and send down to the body, would backlash and tear her form apart. Potentially, too much backlash would kill her outright – severing the link between her form and her body.

The bolt of power arced down and into his head, and impacted with a massive flash of light on the astral plane. Power flashed back towards her, and with a grunt and great effort, she twisted and channelled, directing it back again, fingers fluttering through the air as she struggled to direct the blast. The figure rocked and slid to a halt, and the car with Saito in sped away. Slowly the figure turned and looked up at her. She hovered in astral space, perhaps thirty metres away, and her astral form panting heavily from the effort of casting as if she had run a race. The figure slowly walked towards her, and just as she was about to fly back, fearful of his proximity, he stopped. She knew her spell had hit the target – it should have been reeling, barely able to keep upright. Yet it walked towards her calmly and with composure.

Still wary – she had seen some of the leaps that physical adepts were capable of – she watched and waited. Every second she delayed it, was more time for Saito to get away. The figure just glowered at her, staring from underneath enormous bushy eyebrows at her. She moved a little, floating from side to side, and demanifested. Now her figure was only present in the astral plane – but still it watched her. Interesting. It was definitely gifted, with the ability to perceive spirits.

For perhaps thirty seconds they observed each other. Staring across the gulf of two planes, despite only standing a handful of metres apart. The figure started to speak, but she didn’t understand the words – the language sounded familiar, but she didn’t understand it and couldn’t place it for sure. The emotional content was clear though – she felt the waves of hatred and spite from him. 

A vehicle started to bounce down the road towards them, a large panel van in a plain brown paint scheme. As it approached the enormous hulk of a man turned and approached it, walking towards the side doors as it slid to a halt near him. Tadibya took this as her cue to leave, and started the long journey back to the coast. As she flew back towards the team, she kept repeating the words she had heard but not understood, trying to retain the phonetics in her mind.

She got back to the team and was grateful they had stayed put – she felt tired and drained from her long journey, and the toll of being out of her body for over an hour left her feeling a little weak. Shimazu was still a bundle of nervous energy as she entered the cab, but he gave her a wide grin and bobbed his head at her respectfully – she guessed he’d been on the phone a little more, and that Saito was away – at least for now.

She poked Hunter, who was busy reading the intro section on the two language primers he’d downloaded whilst she was away – Turkish and Georgian, by the looks of things.

With difficulty, she repeated the phrase she had heard, apologising at the end for her pronunciation. Hunter shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and then summarised it back to the team.

“Death to you, oh infidel, death in the most painful way, that stands in the path of the righteous about our holy task.”

As they headed for the hotel that Marius had booked, she filled them in on the events she had seen, and the mood in the truck grew sombre.


	57. 057 - A week in Batumi

Date 28/01/2060, Location 41.64054, 41.6523

The team gathered in the large suite on the twelfth floor of the Plaza hotel. It was reasonably well appointed, and had matrix access – though it wasn’t particularly high speed – but the beds were comfy, the carpets clean, and there was no sign of bedbugs, cockroaches or other infestations. There was also a decent-sized carpark in the basement, where the truck and trailer were currently securely located, behind a sturdy roller shutter and covered with security cameras.

The hotel was pretty empty, and they’d managed to get a deal on the suite. It appeared to be designed for visiting corporate delegations, and consisted of a number of ensuite rooms that all opened into a common lounge area, with some basic catering facilities – it was possible, just, to entertain guests there, but made for a convenient base for a week – giving them room to do things together, and a bit of privacy to spend some time alone if needed.

It took half a dozen trips for them to offload all of their personal gear from the truck, bringing it up in several large laundry baskets borrowed from the service staff, all of whom were keen to help after a generous tip from Kai in cash. With the truck emptied of their gear – and all the illegal guns, demo, magical components and incriminating evidence, it was ready to drop off at the repair yard first thing in the morning. The suite was covered in boxes, bags and under each of the beds in the rooms was a veritable arsenal of stolen AKs, pistols, shotguns and boxes of ammo.

“Gotta remember to tip the cleaning staff to take care round these and not ask questions. Otherwise this could get embarrassing!” muttered Kai, as they got the last of the stuff packed away. Everything was covered or boxed – and should at least allow the staff to change the towels and make the beds, provided they didn’t move anything else.

Finally, they were done – and settled down in the soft, comfortable chairs, put their feet up on the stools and sipped at a selection of cold beers and soft drinks with sounds of appreciation. For a few minutes, the room was quiet – each lost in their own thoughts, just relaxing and taking in the feelings of comfort and safety. Crammed together in the truck, constantly on the move, heading from one trouble spot to the next – it was amazing how used you could get to stressful situations, and not realise how stressful it was until you stopped. 

They sat and reflected upon the events of the past few weeks – the frantic action of combat, the fear of the unknown, cobbling together cocktails of drugs to counteract critter venom, magical threats from the stygian abyss, brazen break-ins to corporate buildings to steal artwork, dealing with local crime elements that felt that burning people alive set an example… it was a rough world. Rough – but they were alive. They had worked together, as a team, and triumphed over the obstacles that life had thrown at them. By the skin of their teeth in places, and with plenty of rough edges, but as six people – seven now if you counted Nadia – that had never met before eight weeks ago, they’d accomplished a lot.

Eventually, Kai broke the silence.

“Ok, let’s sort out what we’re going to be doing for the next week – at least get a rough plan together. Let’s go round the table…” he turned and pointed at Aswon with the neck of his beer bottle.

“Well, I want to get out morning and night, and do some runs. Nothing too long – perhaps ten or fifteen kilometres perhaps. Work on my fitness and my breathing – I think I’ll get a better control on my respiration system them, which should help with the longer shots. Other than that, I want to do some browsing on the matrix, assuming that we can get a secure link – and read up on some demolition techniques and get some better information on shaped charges and detonation circuits. Some of those charges we planted were…. Well, they were a little too fragile for my tastes. I also want to have a read up on those scorpions and goats, the tiger that we saw, those wolves… stuff like that.”

Kai shuddered at the mention of running thirty kilometres in a day, but otherwise nodded as Aswon went through his list. He turned to Hunter and asked him if he thought he could get a secure connection tunnelled through the hotel firewall, saw the nod and smiled, then turned towards Tadibya.

“Well, I’m going to work on the trailer. Making a lodge. I’ve got all the supplies, and it’s just a matter of time now. Normally I think it would take about ten days or so, to scribe in all the decorations and properly sanctify the space… but I think if I do dawn to dusk, I might just about get it done before we need to set off again. There’s a couple of bits I might need help with – the tall bits. But the rest I’ll have to do alone. Once it’s done though, it’ll make a solid astral box around the trailer that will be pretty tough to crack, so it’ll be great for hiding things in. Oh, and I can design spells then, using it as a workshop.”

Looking around, there were various blank looks on the faces of the others, or perhaps a mild look of distaste on the face of Marius, who it seemed didn’t care for mysticism that much. But nobody objected or had any issues. Just as he was about to move on, Marius stirred and cleared his throat.

“I don’t know what you need to do in there, I’m not sure I want to. But I can help put a bed in there maybe, for when you are working late?”

Tadibya smiled and thanked him, and Marius made a note on his pad. Kai paused a moment, then continued around the room, looking over to Hunter next.

“Well, I’ll get the computers set up tonight, and get some basic tunnels set up to give us some basic search portals that will bypass the country’s filtering. They won’t stand up to a serious trace through – I’m no decker remember - but it should be better than anything most of the people here can muster. Once that’s done, everyone else should be able to get the information they need from the matrix. Don’t poke any corper systems though… this is a homebrew lashup, and there’s no filtering or defences on these computers.” He looked around, and waited for nods of acknowledgement from the others, then continued.

“After that, I’ve got my course on Georgian to do in the mornings, and I’m looking at the Turkish in the afternoon. I need to have a wander down to the hospital to see if I can get another month’s supply of Rivaroxaban. Oh, and I’m going to look at some route planning software, and see if I can get something better downloaded than the free app we’ve been using. Hopefully with more up to date routes and one that doesn’t crash as much if you give it a complex route.”

“If the hospital pharmacist speaks English and you need a hand, let me know. Otherwise that sounds good, Hunter.” Kai nodded, and looked across the room to Shimazu sitting on a dining room chair in an upright position, rather than slumped in a comfy chair like everyone else. Just as he was about to speak, a low buzz sounded, and he quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket and spent a moment reading the screen. The others saw him relax slightly, and a subtle smile spread across his lips.

“Saito. Very brief message – he says ‘I’m fine, still relocating, call tomorrow’. I guess he’s trying to stay off the grid as much as he can.” He let out a deep breath, then took a swig of his orange juice, the tip of his nose crinkling a little as the sharp taste hit his tongue.

“I’m going to do some more practice with my sword, same as usual. Getting through that course on psychology ok, starting to make a bit of sense now. I’m also going to spend a bit of time looking into those creatures we bumped into, and other stuff – it seems to me that if we can find magical things to give to Tads, that she can use to help us all, we should do that.”

“That’s good, Shimazu – but making things takes a long time. We got all that stuff from Aslick, but I’ve not had chance to unpack it yet, or do any practice. I don’t think I can make something soon…” Tadibya said apologetically.

“But if we get you the things, then you can practice. If you don’t have the things, you can’t. So we should keep an eye out for the things, and give you the opportunity. And if it’s easy to get you the things you need if we do a clean kill without guns, then that needs to be myself and Aswon that get those for you. So we should do that.” It was hard to argue with the chain of logic, but Tadibya looked like she was about to do that when Kai cut her off.

“Ok, great stuff. Do what you can, work with Tads and she’ll tell you if that’s what she needs. But no pressure – whatever you get, even if it goes off or can’t get used in time, it’s all good practice, right. Right? Ok. So let’s do that.” Kai headed off the debate neatly, and moved on to Marius.

“I will go parts shopping. We need a communications processor, bidirectional transfer cable, relay booster, surge protector…” he continued to reel of a list of parts, breaking down the job of getting a speaker and a microphone through into the trailer in meticulous detail, along with some other tasks he wanted to complete.

“A 16mm grommet? Don’t you need an 18mm to account for the splunge factor?”

Marius looked down in confusion at his list, checking his numbers for a moment, then heard the barely suppressed snigger from Hunter, and looked up at the barrage of grins from the rest of the team. He muttered something guttural in German, and a touch of colour lit up his cheeks.

“It sounds like you have that all planned out, Marius – I’m sure we can leave that with you. Good work.” Kai spoke without any condescension in his voice, taking the sting out of the grin on his face. 

Kai flicked his gaze over to Nadia and considered for a moment, then spoke.

“Right. I’ve got myself a primer on Russian, because that’s clearly been an issue – so I’m going to fix that. And it’s pretty obvious that sooner or later we’re going to get someone shot up pretty badly, or something like that. So I’m going to work on some trauma techniques I’ve heard about, on an online simulator. It strikes me if we’re going to masquerade as doctors, it helps if we have the skills. So that should keep me busy for the next few weeks, let alone the next few days. But I also have something I want to pitch to you three…” he pointed at Tadibya, Shimazu and Aswon.

The others looked curious for a moment, then shrugged, and headed through to the kitchen area to get themselves some more drinks and started to raid the fridge for nibbles. Back in the lounge, Kai ran through his idea – they were working together pretty well, and nobody had any immediate plans to leave, so it seemed. Why not take the next step – work out what they wanted magically, and see if they could form a group to support themselves and each other.

The other three considered the idea and discussed how it would work. After perhaps ten to fifteen minutes of discussion they had agreed that they should form a lodge, a secret society of sorts, bound together with magical oaths. They discussed who would lead it, and came up with a democratic system – they would go with a motion unless there was more than one dissenting vote. All of them saw the value in working together – it would allow them to improve their magical skills much more easily, and learn new techniques. A month ago it would have been asking a lot – but they’d been through a lot, and they knew each other much better now. They agreed to grab a cab and go out to the edge of the wilderness, as a nod to Tadibya’s shamanistic nature in a few days, to see if they could actually make this work.

With that out of the way, they settled down and put the trid on, ordered room service, and relaxed in the comfort of their penthouse suite, and for a few hours tried not to think about much at all.

They set out the next day about their various tasks with a will – after leaving a suitable tip for the cleaning staff and some very detailed instructions on touching and moving things. For most of them the day went exactly as planned – but not, alas for Marius. He toured the town looking for the parts that he needed, and found himself frustrated. Some of the shopkeepers spoke English – but it was very limited indeed, and he had real issues getting over the idea of what parts he wanted. He tried again in Russian, and found the same lack of success.

By the end of the second day, he was way behind schedule and extremely frustrated. He’d found a tool chest, some tools and other small items – but none of the technical gear he wanted. He went back to the hotel and grabbed Hunter.

“I have need of you – and your skill with languages. These locals are impossible to deal with. I have all these parts to find, and dealing with them is…. Ach!” Hunter agreed to help him, and the next morning, they left early and went out looking. It didn’t take long to figure out there was a problem. Hunter had been studying hard for two days and he had picked up Georgian as fast as any of the other languages he studied – the highly concentrated vat-grown cells implanted into his medial temporal lobe saw to that. The trouble was – they weren’t speaking Georgian. Or at least not the same Georgian as he was learning.

It took the best part of half an hour, talking with an old man who apparently had nothing better to do that morning than talk to foreigners to discover that the locals spoke a particular dialect, with many strange loan words, and a strong accent to contend with as well. Their accent, some regional hangover, was a source of pride for the area, and it also polluted their understanding of foreign tongues. Now that he understood the key, and the linguistic nuances, he rapidly picked up the pronunciation differences and things made a lot more sense. He was quickly directed down to the shipyards, and told to seek out the old man’s nephew, Yosh.

Somewhat encouraged, they set off, and soon found themselves wandering the edge of the dockyard. It was a chaotic place, with equipment scattered everywhere and no apparent order. Making enquiries, a burly man dressed in stained red overalls was soon directed down to them, and introduced as Yosh. Hunter handled the introductions, and mentioned that they were after some equipment, and would be happy to pay cash if someone could help them out.

Hunter and Marius were soon fitted with safety helmets, and followed Yosh into the labyrinth shipyard, making their way through to a dry dock near the water’s edge. Here a large freighter was in the process of being stripped down – welding crews were crawling all over the hulk, and a steady stream of equipment was being lifted off by crane or trolleyed down the gangway. Once onboard, Yosh moved through the maze of walkways and rooms and led them to an engine room, and started to assemble components that had been dismantled and were apparently due for removal. Not all of them were exactly as they wanted – but they were close, and with the other parts in the system making a good fit, would actually do the job quite nicely.

Marius asked about a fold down bed, and was rewarded with a quick tour of the berths – there was a choice between the former Captain’s bed, a watch officers, and a regular crewmembers. The Captain’s bed was a huge affair, and would take up far too much space in the trailer, and he decided to go with the watch officer’s – it seemed large enough to be really comfy for one, and a possible for two if they were “close”, whilst the crewmember’s was definitely on the Spartan side. Yosh pulled out a socket set, and soon had the fittings removed from the wall, and moved the frame through the walkways and up onto the deck with Marius holding the other end, and Hunter bringing the mattress.

Emboldened by their success, Hunter made subtle enquiries, wondering if perhaps Yosh knew anywhere they might find some mounting brackets for guns. He watched carefully, trying to pick up on his body language, and hoping he wasn’t crossing a line here. Yosh considered them for a moment, then shrugged, and walked over to the other side of the ship, furthest away from the town. The ship was less dismantled this side, and he pointed at a couple of mountings welded to the freeboard, confirming that was what they wanted.

After a quick check, Marius and Hunter nodded – they were the kits required to mount various weapons to a fixed pintle mount, and had the required systems to feed through an electrical firing command instead of a manual trigger. It appears that the ship had been used in waters away from shore defences, and had mounted several assault rifles for self-defence. Yosh left the mount where it was, though, and led them aft, waving for them to follow. As they rounded the rear of the accommodation block they saw a pile of removed conversion kits – perhaps a dozen in total. Included in the pile were two much larger modules – clearly designed for something the size of a crew-served weapon, perhaps a heavy machine gun. 

A few minutes later, the two large mounts and two of the best condition smaller mounts were added to the pile of goodies, along with a large ammo bin and some sheet metal suitable for converting it down to smaller ammo. Yosh looked at them now, with his head cocked to one side.

“You’re heading out of town soon, yes? In the next few days. Once you have fitted these things to your vehicle?” Marius and Hunter nodded. “Hmm. Are you interested in a deal? I have an issue. A local matter – and I need some help. If you’re interested?”

Marius and Hunter exchanged a look. Both of them shrugged and then turned to Yosh, and gestured for him to explain.

“My brother, Teren. He. Well. He has made a mistake. Gambled much. Owes someone much money. A very bad man. Now Varn wants his money, but Teren doesn’t have even a fraction of it. So I need to get Teren out of town, before Varn finds him, and sells his body for parts. If you can help me with this, I can find you something special.”

“Where does he need to go? And how far is that?” Hunter managed to beat Marius to the question.

“Most important is away. Away from here. I will give him money for a new life – but he has to be out of the TCL. Which way are you going – north to Russia? West to Turkey? Ahh, ok. Across the border then, into Turkey. Or Kurdis. Whatever. Just away from here before he gets found.”

“We can do that, no problem. We’ll get him safely over the border to a new home.”

Handshakes were exchanged, and then Yosh led them back into the ship, right down into the bowels of the engine room, where he pointed to a couple of huge spring sets, mounted under a generator.

“Dampers! Really good for cutting down sound and vibration. But also, Yosh learnt a trick in the army. Watch.”

He pulled out two of the clusters of springs, and then fired up a cutting torch. With a delicate touch he trimmed down the sets until there were two densely packed intertwined sets of coils, the ends glowing cherry red. It took him nearly an hour to do both – but the time flew by. Both Marius and Hunter watched somewhat entranced as he moved the plasma torch like a virtuoso. He grabbed at them with a set of thick leather gauntlets, and led them back onto the deck, where he picked up one of the smaller conversion kits. With a bit of hammering and prying, he managed to fit the spring set into the recoil chamber, and had Hunter and Marius hold onto the mount as firmly as they could. He grabbed the barrel and pushed it hard, demonstrating the increase in stability and recoil absorption possible.

Marius grinned widely – these would make a considerable difference on the aerial drones he was planning on fitting them to. With the extra dampening, he wouldn’t be limited to short three round bursts – he’d be able to fire concentrated streams of fire with perhaps half a dozen rounds, without ripping the gun off the mount or sending the drone spinning out of control. It was a neat trick, a bit of a hack really – but with care it might be one he could reproduce – though he could imagine it would take him most of a day to fabricate the spring set.

Yosh looked at the pile of stuff, then pulled up Teren’s and his own numbers and synced them across to Marius’ and Hunter’s phones.

“One thousand, and you take my brother to safety.”

“Done.” This time it was Marius that pipped Hunter to the line. They wrapped up their gear in some old sheeting, and then used the bed frame as a stretcher, carrying their load down the wobbly gangway and heading out of the shipyard. They thought about trying to call a cab – but there was no way to fit in the bed frame to anything smaller than a panel van, based on the length – so instead they carried it back to the hotel between them, ignoring the strange looks from passers-by. It took them until after dusk to make the walk back, and they were tired and weary, with aching hands and arms from gripping the frame.

Arriving back at the hotel, they went down to the basement, looking to show Tadibya the bed and comms gear they had gathered for her – but the trailer was closed and locked up. Using his key to open the back, Marius could smell chalk residue still settling and the tang of fresh paint – they’d not missed her by long it seemed. They put the bed frame and gear to the right of the truck, taking care not to disturb the paintwork done already, then headed up to their suite. There they found Nadia, sitting along on the settee, watching the trid.

“The others – they went to do magical things in the woods. They said not to wait up for them.”

Nadia came towards Marius for a hug, but shied away at the last moment.

“Ugh, You smell like a trucker.”

Hunter lightly punched Marius on the shoulder and commented as he headed for his room and a shower.

“See, the nagging has started already, you’ll be letting her choose your clothes soon!”

The rude comments from both Marius and Nadia were wasted on the closing door as Hunter ducked through quickly – obviously expecting more than hurled insults. But a shower seemed like a good idea, so Marius headed for his room, asking Nadia to order some food up, if she didn’t mind.

Nadia found herself in the lounge, on her own. Again. She frowned for a moment, then shrugged, grabbed the room service menu, and flicked through the electronic pages to the speciality dishes. Ahh, there… she ordered three of the most expensive meals there, a couple of nice bottles of wine, and pushed the button to add a 20% gratuity, all added onto the room charge, then settled back down on the plush sofa with the trid, watching as Karl the Kombat Mage managed to save the day once more.

Meanwhile, about fifteen kilometres out of town to the north, Kai, Tadibya, Shimazu and Aswon were climbing out of a taxi and walked towards a derelict guest house on the eastern side of the road. A three storey building, it was sturdy and would have been impressive looking in service, but now just looked forlorn and sad. They walked around the back, and found the rear door swinging gently in the night breeze, and let themselves in, smelling the musty air and faint decay of something organic.

“I heard one of the cleaning staff talking about this place – it seemed a nice quiet place, out of the way,” said Kai, as he flicked on a small torch, leading them up from the ground floor. The staircase must once have been a feature, nearly two metres wide and with hand carved wooden bannisters, but now the carpet was threadbare and mouldy, and water pooled on several of the steps. They climbed, then climbed again, finding the top floor to be relatively dry and much less smelly than the middle floor. Emerging from the rear of the property through wide glass sliding doors, they found a veranda or terrace, with ivy growing up the walls and out to the sides, forming a natural windbreak. To the east they could see miles and miles of wilderness, as the land gently sloped up from the coastal plain, with only a few specks of light here and there.

Tadibya nodded in approval, then shuffled to the side as Aswon and Shimazu started to drag furniture out from the room, bringing enough seating for all of them to be comfortable. They sat in the dusk, staring out into the wilderness, letting the night air wash over them. There was the occasional noise as a truck or car drove past the front of the building, but otherwise it was a natural quiet – not silence, but only the noise of birds, bats, small mammals – all going about their business. Then there was a pop, as Kai pulled off the seal from a bottle of cheap spirits, followed by a gasp as he took a swig. He passed the bottle on to Shimazu, who went to pass it on to Aswon.

“No, no, no. Nobody sober tonight. Nobody not taking part. Either we do this thing, or we don’t, and if we do it, we do it all together. And we do it honestly, not holding anything back. And that probably means getting a little tipsy and showing people our inner horse.”

The others stared at him.

“Um. Tribal thing. I’m from Mongolia right, born on the steppes and all that. Loads of horses still, riding horses, draft horses. If the winters are really bad, curried horses. But horses – everywhere. Not quite a totem, but definitely part of our society. So the saying goes that everyone has a little bit of horse spirit in them. Some quiet, some tame, some feisty, some bloody-minded and just waiting to kick you in the plums. But mostly you keep that bit wrapped up and hidden. Except a couple of nights a year, special festivals – where you let your horse out.” Tadibya sniggered. She couldn’t help it. Maybe it was the first mouthful of fire water that she’d swallowed whilst Kai was speaking, going straight to her head. 

“What, I only said you let your horse out?” said Kai, innocently enough. Tadibya sniggered again, then half a mouthful of vodka exploded out of her cheeks in a fine mist as the belly laugh erupted. “Mind in the gutter, I tell you, and this is what we have to work with. Fine. Well, I’ll let my horse out, you can frolick with your moose.”

“ELK!”

“Elk, shmelk. Looks like a moose, smells like a moose, acts like a OOOW!”

“Elk.”

“Fine, elk. Whatever.”

Aswon took a deep swig, swilling the mixture round in his mouth and then swallowing.

“I believe the common phrase is ‘letting your hair down’ – but if you want to handle your horse, that’s fine with me. And this is quite possibly the most disgusting alcohol I’ve ever tasted. Did you get it FROM a horse?”

The banter flowed, the contents of the bottle shrank, and the volume rose. Insults were traded. Stories told of childhoods. Descriptions given of how they discovered magic, and what it meant to them. But over the course of the next few hours, they bonded, slowly getting to know each other on a more personal basis, deliberately sharing details previously kept private.

“Hey, did shou shee shat?” Tadibya waved into the sky.

“I can see you handth, if you stop thinging, waving them.”

“I need a wee.”

“No shurrup. Look! Up there.”

“There’s just those stars. Um, there was some stars. Oh, I’m too drunk to see the sky, they’ve gone.”

“No they haven’t, they’re just there. Or they were. Where they go?”

The language changed as they saw, and then couldn’t see the patch of stars. When they looked up – there they were, a cluster of stars making a complex pattern, twinkling in the night sky. But after a few seconds, they just sort of faded, disappearing into the night. Look away, at something else, anything for a long enough and then turn back, and there they were again – then gone.

They could all see them though, and they all became aware that they weren’t quite as drunk as they had been a few minutes ago. There was….something. Something else here. Another presence. Something they caught out of the corner of their eye, but then was gone. Something seen – yet at the same time, unseen.

Yet none of them felt fear. There was no malice, no ill intent. It was a presence that felt vaguely familiar. They kept trying to spot the thing, whatever it was, but mostly kept seeing each other, as they tried to look past people in the way.

Aswon poked Shimazu, and made an exaggerated pulling movement in front of his face, and then threw his hands over his head.

“Stole your nose.”

“Don’t be silly. This is my nose. Here!” Shimazu touched his finger to his nose on only the second attempt.

“Well I stole something. What did I steal?”

Tadibya stared at him, then did a double take.

“I think you stole his masking. I can see him, but not you. I mean, I can SEE you, but you don’t look magical.”

“Don’t be silly, I can’t mask. I wish I could.”

“I think you need to concentrate on how you’re feeling and reconsider that statement.”

“Hey, look at that! I can mask!”

“Stole your masking!” Kai leaned over and grabbed at Aswon.

“Ow you daft bugger, that’s my hair!” Kai giggled and let go of the dreadlocks, then sat back in the chair.

“Still got your masking. Look, I’m wearing it like a little hat.”

Tadibya stared at him, and told him he was right, which distracted him from the physical assault that Aswon then launched at him, fingers rapidly jabbing him in the ribs.

“I am not having my masking stolen. I’m going to get something back!” Shimazu made a grab for both of them, over-reached and landed on the deck, sprawling at Tadibya’s feet. As he pulled himself back upright, using Tadibya as a climbing pole, he felt something weird, like a static shock. He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination or not, until he locked eyes with Tadibya, who had obviously felt it, too.

“What did you just do?” Tadibya demanded.

“I don’t know… but I’ve got the urge to draw for some reason.”

They sat back in their chairs, the moment of silliness past them, and slowly contemplated what had just happened. The empty vodka bottle rocked back and forth in the wind, and the chill air suddenly gusted, making each of them shiver. They felt slightly flat, deflated. As if they’d expended a great deal of energy. Suddenly they were tired, and ready to sleep – and it struck them that they were three to four hours walk from their beds, and the chance of getting a taxi out here was zero. A look at Kai and his expression revealed that he hadn’t made arrangements to get them back to town.

“Oops. Guess we start walking then.”

They descended the stairs and started the long walk back, talking quietly amongst themselves as they did so. Occasionally one of them would look up at the sky, to the north-west, and catch a glimpse of a group of faint stars, visible for a moment, then fading into the night sky.

Yep. Something had happened. Something they had all been a part of. There was a connection now between them, something linking them all together. And a strange bunch of stars, hidden and elusive.

It was six am when they made it back to the hotel and the walk had sobered them up enough that they managed to creep into the suite quietly. They turned and looked at each other, just before they headed to their rooms.

“Pinky swear. What happened tonight, was between us.”

Despite it being a strangely childish turn of phrase, they felt something more, and each in turn repeated it back. With a nod, they each turned and went to their rooms, gratefully collapsing into their beds for a few hours rest.


	58. 058 - Airships and Hangovers

Date 29/01/2060, Location 41.64054, 41.6523

Hunter and Marius woke early, and headed out to carry out their various tasks around the city, with neither returning to the hotel until after lunchtime. Tadibya, Kai, Aswon and Shimazu, having been up most of the night, slept in – even Aswon, who normally got by on two or three hours of sleep a night, was out like a light, sprawled across the bed with a hand resting gently on his spear. 

Nadia got up and ate, watched a bit of trid, and then did a few turns around the communal living room.

“Bored. Bored, bored, bored.” She sighed, and looked around for something to do…

When Hunter and Marius returned, they headed into their respective rooms, and performed almost identical double-takes, stopping dead as the door swung shut behind them. Each of them surveyed their kit, and found things amiss. Stuff was not where they’d left it, was piled up differently, or had just been moved. Hunter was the first to react.

“Naaaadia?” Moments later, she pushed the door open and looked at him, raising an eyebrow. “Have you moved my stuff? The guns and things?” Nadia nodded, and with confirmation, Hunter pressed his lips together until they formed a thin line. He didn’t care if she was Marius’ girlfriend – he was going to tell her that she wasn’t to mess with stuff. Just as he was about to speak however, she disappeared out of the doorway. He followed her, back into the common area, and was just winding up to have a go at her, when she found the dataslate she had been looking for.

“Ahah! Here. Right then. Here is a list of all of the weapons you have seized so far, along with the country of manufacture, details on calibre, magazine size and a link to the original manufacturer for parts, cleaning kits and supplies, and two or three after-market alternatives. Although some of them I only found the original parts – mostly it seems because they’re too cheap and nasty for anyone else to bother.”

Hunter paused, his mouth falling slightly open, as Nadia highlighted each column as she described it.

“This sheet here shows all of the ammo you have on hand, again broken down by calibre. For each size, I have split and bagged them into three tiers – Asian, Indian and Russian, which tend to be the lowest quality, then Eastern European which tends to be better and quite reliable, and then Western European and UCAS, which are generally regarded as the best. We have a large number of rounds falling into tier 3, and a significant amount in tier 1 and 2. My recommendation is to ditch the tier 3 stuff, or repurpose it.”

Hunter found himself nodding along with her as she worked through the data. He wanted to be angry still, but this was actually useful stuff, and might help them out.

“Last of all with your stuff, I went through the various armoured clothing you have found or obtained, and traced back manufacturers where possible, or technologies where not, and then put them in categories for maintenance and repair, detailing the chemicals or processes needed to keep them functioning. I didn’t do the weapons, as I don’t know enough about them yet, but I was planning to speak to you when you returned.”

Marius was leaning against the door frame, listening, and looking slightly more relaxed now. Having heard what Nadia had been up to, he had a fair idea of what had happened to his stuff. As she finished describing what she had done, and Hunter finally managed to close his mouth and nod at her abruptly, he sniggered at his teammate’s obvious desire to have a grump, despite the work done.

Nadia turned towards Marius, and flicked over to a fresh document.

“And I’ve checked the specs on the truck, found the original manuals, though they’re all in Russian which I don’t speak, and the only translations I’ve found are awful. However, I’ve set up a planned maintenance calendar that interfaces with the telemetry on the truck, and depending on the distance travelled against time will warn you of impending oil changes and preventative work. I’ve also downloaded a number of utilities that track wear and tear, and some other systems we used on our trucks for logistics tracking and repairs.”

She continued to babble on, describing what she’d been doing for the last few hours, as Marius gently took her by the hand and led her back into the room. He waited until she was finished, and then made sure to praise her for her initiative and efforts, saying that it would no doubt help the whole team out. He saw her tense, sensing the “but” coming, and tried to make sure he phrased it carefully.

“Everything else – pretty much anything really, there’s no problems with you doing whatever you want with. This though, my deck – please don’t do anything without checking with me. It’s not that I don’t trust you, or that I think you’d do anything wrong – but I plug this into my brain. It’s deeply connected with… well, with everything. I know where every utility is, every control menu, every file. In the middle of combat, I’m not thinking about things – I’m just reacting, and this translates those thoughts. So it’s essential that everything is exactly where I think it should be – even if that’s not the most optimum place for it.”

He saw her nodding in understanding, and thankfully – acceptance. Just as he was about to speak, he heard a shout from the direction of Aswon’s room.

“Who touched my Purdey?”

He smiled, and looked over at Nadia.

“We have got to get you some other things to do to occupy you. You’re quite clearly underutilised. Come on, let’s go calm him down…”

Shortly afterwards Aswon had also calmed down, once it was clear that Nadia had actually just counted and quantified his ammo loadout, and had left the gun well alone. She’d also gone through all the plastic explosives, and had weighed it out into five hundred gram blocks using the kitchen scales, then carefully wrapped each piece in greaseproof paper, labelled it and stacked them neatly in a sealed box. Aswon was considerably more forthcoming with praise than Hunter had been, and suggested that with her logistics background, maybe she’d be good at working on route-finding and travel plans for them?

He was interrupted though by Marius announcing that he and Nadia were going out shopping, and maybe having a spot of dinner, and that they’d be out later. A few minutes later, she had changed, and they both left the suite, for the short walk into the centre of town.

It didn’t take long for them to find what Marius was after, and soon Nadia was sporting a new commlink, with the teams numbers all programmed in and ready to go. The next stop was a store branded as “Aktive Fashion”, which turned out to be another way of saying “practical and flexible clothing with limited armour”. Nadia was soon kitted out in a set of imported and quite expensive SecureTech clothing – but it was a brand that Marius had heard off before, rather than a local knock-off copy. It was not anything to be charging into a gunfight with – but at least she had a good chance now against stray rounds.

They shopped a little more, but Nadia didn’t seem to be “typical” and enjoy the experience of shopping – she didn’t like browsing, and instead identified a need, and then went to solve it in the shortest and most efficient route possible. If anything, Marius found that it was he that was distracted and caught window shopping, whilst Nadia waited for him. With the shopping completed, they found themselves wandering past a trid theatre, playing a feature film about a bunch of desperate criminals sentenced to death, unless they performed a corporate black operation for a shadowy cabal. The plot sounded weak, but promised explosions and action, and they soon found themselves with tickets and were queuing at the concessions stand.

Finally Marius discovered a bad thing about Nadia. It appeared that she had a monster sweet tooth, and his offer of “whatever you want” was taken with no hesitation. Soon he found himself having spent about quadruple the price of the tickets on food and drink, and trailed after Nadia into the theatre with the bags of shopping, whilst she juggled the supply of junk food. Still, the presentation proved to be suitably loud and impressive, though the plot had holes big enough for them to get the truck through – sideways – and 120 minutes later the criminals had bonded together into a team of super spies with a bucket full of clichéd one-liners and had defeated the cabal.

Back at the hotel, Aswon had found the bags of tier three ammo, and had grabbed the small amount of leftover plastic explosive that hadn’t made a round five hundred gram block. He spent a while trying to build a grenade, using the rounds to decorate the plastic, like a pineapple. It looked like a simple process, but after an hour or so of fiddling and trying it turned out to be much harder than it appeared. After the second attempt broke in half he realised he definitely needed better tools, and gave it up as a bad job. He cleared up and got changed into his running gear and went for a run with Hunter and Shimazu.

Kai was left alone in the hotel suite, studying his Russian vocabulary. He looked up at the end of the page, wondering why it had gotten so quiet. He called out for the rest, then shrugged, got himself a drink and then went back to studying. Mid-afternoon, he got himself a snack, and took something down for Tadibya, who was still hard at work on setting up her lodge in the trailer.

They arrived back into the suite in dribs and drabs, with Marius and Nadia causing a bit of a stir as they deposited a massive shopping bag full of junk food and snacks into the kitchen. Soon the trid was on and they were sitting back and relaxing, eating bad food and watching bad TV. Suddenly Tadibya piped up, making a general announcement to no one in particular that she might have to change her name. There was a pause, whilst everyone waited for someone else to speak, then Aswon cleared his throat.

“Ok, what are you going to change it to?”

“I have no idea. It depends on the circumstances.”

“What circumstances?” 

“I don’t know, it depends what we find.”

“Um, ok. So when will you change it?”

“I don’t know. It depends where we are and what we’re doing.”

A note of exasperation crept into Aswon’s voice, while the rest of the team just kept looking from one to the other, like some bizarre game of tennis.

“So will you tell us before you change it?”

“Umm... I can try. But if I need to change it, I’ll just have to.”

“So what you’re telling us is that at some random moment, sometime in the future, you’re just going to change your name to something completely different, potentially without telling us, and without any warning.”

“Well, if you’re going to put it like that… well yes, I suppose.”

“Right. Well you do know we’re just going to keep calling you Tads until you tell us otherwise, don’t you. I mean, why are you even doing it?”

“It’s a cultural thing.”

“Oh. Well that’s all right then.”

Everyone else stared at Aswon, with obvious surprise on his face. They seemed to feel that as the designated spokesman for the group to establish what was going on, he’d been doing really well, nearly got to the goal line, and then just given up. But apparently, the explanation of “it’s cultural” was all it took to make perfect sense to Aswon. They went back to watching the trid, occasionally flicking through the channels trying to find something they all agreed on. 

They cycled past some low-budget action flick, with badly-choreographed martial arts sequences, and Nadia asked some question about why they were making funny noises. Several of the team started to explain their various takes on Chi, Ki or focus, Nadia probed further, obviously interested in some aspect of martial arts, and Shimazu offered to show her a few moves.

The moved to the other end of the room, clearing the meeting table out of the way and creating a clear space to work in. Shimazu showed her a simple release to start off with, demonstrating how to work against a joint and force someone who had grabbed you to let go. Nadia practiced a few times, and seemed to get the concept readily enough. Her body was somewhat stiff and robot-like, and she had no familiarity with the movements – but her basic level of fitness and the suppleness of youth carried her a fair way. 

They practiced, and soon were being watched by the rest of the team, offering advice and sharing their pool of different martial art styles and techniques, telling anecdotes of bar fights in a dozen different countries. Nadia was a quick study, and was soon pushing the pace, attacking Shimazu in a flurry of strikes and punches. Shimazu, it turned out was pretty world-class with a blade, and not someone to take on with any kind of blade in his hand – but was less of an expert in Ju-jitsu. He was not inexperienced, and was a competent and dangerous fighter, but he didn’t have that level of expertise that a seasoned instructor had. He was forced to fall back on learned reactions and muscle memory, and his counter move went in hard and fast. Nadia found herself rattled by a swift slap to the head, and then propelled into a wall at moderate speed by a joint lock. Shimazu managed to release when he realised what was happening – rather than driving through with the attack, but she still hit the wall with a thump, and reeled away, stunned. 

There were a selection of winces and indrawn breaths from around the room, but amusingly Shimazu’s gaze flitted over to Marius, who had come halfway out of his chair in automatic reaction. There was a moment when their eyes met, and Shimazu wondered if he’d crossed a line with that hit. Marius however shrugged a little, his eyes switching to Nadia and checking she was ok. His eyes widened, which gave Shimazu just enough of a clue that something was going on to turn and look at her – and cop straight for a slap to the face that drove him back a step or two, as Nadia followed up in a flurry of blows.

After the third time that Shimazu had counter attacked and hit Nadia hard enough to leave obvious bruising even past her skin tone, Aswon interjected, grabbing the mop from the kitchen and offering to show Nadia a few moves that were good with spears or improvised pole weapons. They continued to train for another hour, with Nadia soaking up the instruction like a sponge, and ending up dripping with sweat and moving stiffly – unused to the pace of the exercise as well as the rapidly developing bruises.

As she stopped, gasping for breath, Marius approached, and gently took her hand, leading her off to the room where he’d run a nice deep and almost scalding hot bath for her to soak in, with a mountain of bubbles from the half tub of muscle relaxant he’d added. The rest of the team slowly put the room back together, replacing the cushions on the furniture that they’d been using as impromptu training mats, and trying to scrub away the blood stains from the walls.

They settled back to watch the trid, finishing off the supplies of junk food purchased earlier. Examining the packets, Hunter with his newly acquired skills with Georgian managed to translate the ingredients, and told them exactly how much artificial sweeteners and flavourings were in each one – which probably explained why some of them were feeling a little hyperactive.

Aswon heard a noise, and his head perked up. Years of training and intense physical conditioning, augmented with the control granted by his magical talent kicked in. Muscles twitched and moved, changing the shape of his ear lobes and canal, subtly shaping the sound to be better heard. A gasp, of pain? Then another noise, then Ohhhhh! He reached over suddenly, almost knocking the drink out of Tads’ hand, and grabbed the remote, swiftly turning up the sound.

In the room behind them a bottle of wine lay empty on the bedside table with Marius and Nadia stretched out onto the bed. Relaxed by the alcohol to be comfortable in a state of undress, Nadia trembled as Marius gently rubbed some cream onto her bruises, smoothing aching muscles with firm but tender motions of his fingers. Nadia arched her back, and her arms covered with goosebumps that had nothing to do with the temperature. She stared into his eyes, and her lips parted slightly as she made little moans of pain and pleasure as he rubbed at her body. Tentatively, she leant forward to kiss him, finding him receptive and responsive to her advances. Slowly and carefully their hands explored each other’s bodies. Soon, events became… intimate, and the two youngsters found themselves – despite being from very different cultures and upbringing - to be entirely compatible.

In the lounge, Aswon concentrated on not hearing anything but the trid, and the conversation around him. Sometimes, it seemed, magical talent could be a bit of a curse, as well as a blessing. After a few minutes of hearing soft moans and other noises at the edge of his hearing, despite his best efforts, he pushed himself out of his seat and announced he was going for a quick walk around the hotel, to get some fresh air. Hunter got to his feet too, but the rest of the team stayed where they were.

As they stepped out into the hallway their attention was caught by the hotel bellhop approaching them, holding an envelope in his hands. He smiled as he saw them, extending his hand towards them. Then envelope was medium-sized, cream and had a woven texture. As they examined it, they could see it was actually paper, not a plastic film… very old-fashioned. The bellhop seemed confused at them not taking the proffered item, and again tried to give it to them.

“Whoa there… where did this come from? Who gave you this?”

“A man came to the front desk. A wide man, in a suit. Said this was for 1205.”

“Describe him for me.”

They listened as the bellhop did his best to describe the man, but it became clear that he was nothing unusual and had no distinguishing marks or characteristics. He’d turned up in a black car with tinted windows, climbed out of the passenger side, and then come to the front desk and delivered this single message.

Hunter took the envelope, and gently opened the seal, making sure to face it towards the bellhop – just in case. Inside was a single sheet of parchment paper, covered in hand-written text. The paper was thick and textured, too, with the odd wisps of fibre coming off the sides. The text looked to have been written by someone used to writing with a fountain pen – or a very good computer that varied the pitch and spacing of text to make it look hand-written. There was gold leaf in an intricate pattern top and bottom, in some kind of crest of arms. 

Aswon tipped the bellhop a few Nuyen, and watched him scurry away back towards the lifts.

“What’s it say, Hunter?”

“It’s addressed to ‘The residents at 1205’, and invites us to attend a garden party and dinner at ‘The Castle’, 20:00 tomorrow. Says black tie and…” his voice trailed off and Aswon could see his eyes scan over the line again. Then again. “Black tie and discreet pistols only. Signed, on behalf of Mr. Kulkachev”. They shared a look. What kind of host put on a party and then told his guests they could only bring small guns to it? They abandoned the idea of a walk, and instead went back into the suite, standing in front of the trid display until they had everyone’s attention, and then relaying the contents of the note.

“Do you think we should get Marius and let him know?”

Aswon adjusted his hearing slightly, then shook his head. 

“Marius has other things on his mind right now. I’m sure we could disturb him, but unless we need to drive somewhere, I think we should leave him be for the moment.”

Kai examined the note, rubbing his fingers across the paper, sniffing at it, and examining the flowing calligraphy carefully.

“Well, Mr. Kulkachev likes buying expensive paper, that’s for sure, and that looks like decent gold leaf – he’s certainly not a poor man. But I know what you’re going to say… we’ve got a mission, we should concentrate on that. So let’s do some research on Mr. Kulkachev, Hunter if you’d be so kind, just so we know who we’re avoiding. Otherwise we carry on as normal, we collect the truck tomorrow, and we’re out of here and on the road to Constantinople.” There were relieved looks from some of the others, but they nodded. Hunter connected his datajack to the computer, and started to line up some search bots, firing them down the VPN to start crawling through websites around the world to see what they could dig up.

Sihmazu excused himself and headed down to the ground floor, and headed to the kitchens. Sliding through the door and ignoring the “Staff Only” sign, he headed towards the rear of the kitchens, where he found what he was looking for – a bunch of staff mostly finished with the clean down for the day, clustered around the fire exit having a crafty smoke. He coughed discreetly, and was rewarded with a moment’s panic as the smokers thought they had been caught by the shift manager, then recognition that it was a guest – one of the guests from the penthouse suite. A couple of the staff were more skilled in English than the rest, and respectfully asked him how they could help – and did he not see the “Staff Only” sign? Shimazu ignored them however, relying on the fact that they’d been very generous with their tips to the hotel staff on arrival and during their stay.

“There’s a property, up on the hill. I think people call it ‘The Castle’. Owned by Mr. Kulkachev. I’d like to know more about it…”

Shimazu returned to the suite some time later, and pulled a chair round to face the others, sitting just to the side of the trid. Kai hit the remote and paused the feed, so he could speak, and they listened as Shimazu relayed what he had learnt from the hotel staff.

Mr. Kulkachev appeared to run the local mafia, and had his fingers in pies all across town. A number of businesses were fronts for his criminal empire, it seemed, and he was involved in prostitution, drug and gun running, slavery, kidnapping, extortion and blackmail. Shimazu relayed a few of the stories he’d heard, where people had been rounded up by his heavies and had fingers broken for minor disagreements, or arms and legs for more serious infractions. Several of the staff had admitted working with his agents in the past, thought they all claimed that none of them had relayed any details of the team to him. 

Shimazu shrugged at this point, and told them that he did actually believe them – none of them had seemed especially shifty, and one of them had said he’d heard about the team due to the amount of money they had spent on their vehicle – word was all over town that some foreigners were here, and they were rich, and if you gave them instant service and whatever they wanted, they threw lots of money at you… 

But, it appeared that Mr. Kulkachev was certainly a big deal in the town, and someone to be careful around. Hunter looked around with a scowl as Shimazu finished his stories and pushed his computer away from him in disgust, pulling the jack out of the discreet slot behind his ear.

“Well, that’s a lot more than I got, which is approximately nothing. Our Mr. Kulkachev doesn’t appear in any public databases or indexes that I can see, and isn’t referenced in any news or media articles. He’s got no matrix presence at all, that I can see – which is suspicious as hell. Someone has to be managing his data for him.”

They digested this information, and shortly afterwards headed to bed – all of them a little more worried about this invite and local crime lord, with the exception of Nadia and Marius, who were still blissfully unaware and still very much enjoying the moment.

As the sun rose on the Friday morning, Kai headed over to the garage to pay the instalment on the truck repairs, whilst Hunter, Aswon and Shimazu went for their morning run. Tads was already down in the trailer, hanging dreamcatchers and writing on the wall whilst munching on a slice of toast. Nadia and Marius were still in their room, not having been seen since last night.

When the three runners returned, they found Kai searching through the directory of town services on the hotel matrix link, looking for a shop selling or renting black tie outfits. Kai heard them return and turned to face them.

“Right, get yourselves cleaned up, we need to go and get some gear for the party tonight. I went to the garage to check on the truck, and found them all sitting around doing make-work. Turns out that there is a delay in the parts coming, that they need to fix the last bits. They said they were very upset by this and regretted the delay, but that wasn’t evident from their body language. But right after I’d finished talking with them about the parts delay, they mentioned that they’d heard we’d been invited to the castle for the party, which must be very exciting for us. So exciting that perhaps we had neglected to respond to the invitation.”

Kai saw the change in demeanour of the three, and nodded.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. So I told them of course we were going, in fact we were spending today to make sure we had some nice clothes so we wouldn’t insult our host, and we were looking forward to it very much. So, that’s why we’re going shopping for new clothes.”

Marius emerged from his room, disturbed by the conversation, and Kai ran through the details again, getting the same response from Marius as from the others. A few minutes later, they had found the one place in Batumi that did formal evening wear. It didn’t look good – with only one shop, they were likely to be a bit stuffed getting clothes to fit Shimazu and Hunter, who were both on the large size.

They pottered around, doing some small work to get ready for their journey. Marius fitted two of the better assault rifles into the conversion kits he’d obtained from the shipyard, ready to mount into a drone later on, whilst Hunter started work on their route map, looking at the coast road and likely trouble spots. Around lunchtime, the team assembled – rousing Nadia from her bed and pulling Tads out of the trailer, and headed to the tailors.

‘Pieters’ was a medium-sized store in a small arcade, flanked with other speciality shops selling touristy knickknacks on one side, and crystals, geodes and homeopathic remedies on the other. Inside there was actually a decent selection of suits and formal wear, available both to hire and to purchase. Getting long sleeved cocktail dresses for Tads and Nadia, along with smart tuxedos and trousers for Kai and Marius was straight forward enough. Aswon required a few minutes work, selecting a larger suit and quickly taking in the waist and lowering the hem on the trousers as far as possible to account for his height.

Shimazu and Hunter waited patiently, getting ready for the bad news – but here they were surprised. The owner took them to the back of the shop, where there was a rail dedicated to “Unusual” according to the label. There were clearly garments here sized for oversized Humans, Orcs and Trolls, in a variety of sizes – and both of them found that there was a suit available to fit them with only the most minor of adjustments. There wasn’t any choice – but there was at least something to wear. 

All of the clothing looked to be of decent manufacture, and was made of sturdy fabrics designed to resist light impacts and shrapnel. It wasn’t something to go into a gunfight with, but it was better than nothing. They also had some cufflinks, belts, bowties and other accessories to finish off their outfits. They debated the cost of rental versus buying, but Kai cut short the conversation and just pulled out the credstick to buy all seven outfits.

“Look everyone, we’re going to need these again some time, they’re useful to add to the wardrobe. Let’s not mess around.” He put his thumb on the authorisation pad, and then flinched as the sampler built into the reader fired and the needle shot into his digit to extract a drop of blood to confirm his DNA. Fortunately the reader stayed green – the ID check held up and the transaction was authorised.” Only when he turned back did he see that he’d just authorised a payment for thirty five thousand Nuyen – but by then it was too late.

He was saved from further conversation when his phone rang, and he took it quickly before anyone could interrupt. He listened carefully, speaking only a few times.

“Yes…. I see. Ok. Yes, yes. Oh that is good news. Yes, a happy coincidence. Ok then.”

He put the phone away and turned to the rest, nodding his head to the outside. They scooped up their packages, and headed out into the narrow thoroughfare then clustering around Kai.

“It seems that they have managed to find an alternative source of parts, so they can start work on the truck again. They’ve been delayed by this a bit though, and instead of finishing at 17:00, they’ll be done about midnight. To make up for the inconvenience, they’re not charging us extra for the labour overtime… but they understand that we’re going to be up at the castle at the party, so we can collect the truck on the way back from there. Isn’t that lucky.”

They all recognised that it wasn’t actually a question, and headed back to the hotel with their purchases. As they walked through the town, they looked around at the various businesses, workers and shoppers – wondering which of them were reporting back to the elusive and unknown Mr. Kulkachev. Suddenly the town didn’t seem so innocent and benign as before. 

They got ready as evening fell, putting on their smart gear and working just what counted as a “discreet pistol”. Most of them ended up leaving their decidedly heavy pistols or hand cannons behind, settling on just decent knives or batons instead. Tads was waiting by the windows for the guys to finish arguing about the size of their gun barrels, and saw a shadow cutting across the stars. She called out to the rest, pointing up into the sky and asking if anyone knew what that was. It took a few moments, but then someone else saw it, too – or rather, saw the patch of occluded stars, where they were not displayed quite right.

“Big, whatever it is. Moving at a reasonable speed too. I’m not getting anything on IR or UV either – it’s definitely been stealthed up.” Marius stared at the shape, trying to estimate range and size to factor against speed.

“Wow, ok. That’s why it’s so hard to spot. They’ve got a spirit riding with them, I guess concealing the vehicle. Looks moderately powerful, too. So they’ve got a shaman somewhere in there.” Tads dropped out of astral space and squinted at the shape again, along with the rest of the team. Under intense scrutiny they made out a few more details and worked out that it was a zeppelin of some kind, with a large gondola slung underneath the massive lifting bag. As it went past, they also saw a wash of heat and exhaust, indicating that it was also jet-powered. And as they watched, it seemed to be making a beeline towards the hill to the east of town, with the castle on the top… curious. 

They walked down into town, to the address on the invitation, and found the ground base for the cable car. It was an ancient structure, made of painted wood and wrought iron, and looked like it would be more at home on a Swiss mountainside than in a sea-side town. Yet, here it was, lit with equally ancient electric lights, casting a warm yellow glow onto the street outside. And unlike the average cable car station, this one had a length of red carpet rolled out of the door, and brass poles carrying a thick braided rope making a walkway to the nearby car park. As they arrived, they could see a number of large and heavily-set gentlemen, crammed into suits – suits that looked to be exactly the same style and fit as the ones Shimazu and Hunter were wearing. They were also quite blatantly armed.

Aswon got a good look at the firearms, and then turned and stared out at the city centre surrounds. Facing away from everyone around, he spoke quietly, knowing that his voice would be transmitted to the discreet earpieces that the rest of the team were wearing.

“Shotguns, Frenchi-SPAS22s. Nice bits of kit, pricy, but well regarded by mercs. Good feed mechanisms and very reliable. These look like they have the extended mag versions, with an underbarrel laser, additional recoil springs in the stock, and a triple pictinny rail. They also look to have a smartgun fitting, though I’m not seeing an external link or induction pads on the heavies. But they’re not cheap bits of kit, and these have been tricked out by the looks of things.”

They waited their turn in the queue, rubbing shoulders with a bunch of city officials and businessmen, it seemed. As they approached the front of the queue, they were checked over for weapons by one of the goons with an expensive-looking weapon scanning wand, and then asked for their names.

“It’s Mr. Kai, and party, from suite 1205”. The heavy nodded and checked off an item on his pad, before he dropped it back onto his little security desk and then opened the door of the waiting cable car. They shuffled in, with half a dozen of the other visitors too, and found that inside the car was another pair of guards – also with the SPAS22s, but this time in sturdy armoured clothing in a discreet woodland cammo pattern. The door closed and with a lurch, the car left the station and started to climb on the journey up and out of the city. As they pulled out, there was a flurry of messages over the net, murmured as people turned to stare out of the windows.

“They just left the guest list on display, on the side. Dead easy to scan the names of the others.”

“They were all looking at the same people, too, very little combat awareness, no-one covering the other zones.”

“Those guns – they’d been fired, but not much. I’d say minimal range time. Very little pitting or scoring, but no wear on the grips or handles either.”

“Those guys – they’re big, but they’re not well defined. Definitely look more like hired thugs than mercs.”

Kai engaged a group of the other visitors in conversation, and soon found himself the centre of attention – giving the others plenty of time to talk and observe. There seemed to be a cross-section of people coming to the party according to the gossip, and it seemed that this was *the* social scene for Batumi. You knew you’d made it when you got an envelope with a hand-written invitation. All of the people seemed to know each other to a greater or lesser extent – so having new people from out of town was a novel thing for them. Shimazu watched over his back, studying the crowd carefully, but saw only curiosity and interest, with no hostile intent at all.

Nadia studied the other women in the car, and tried to copy their body language and blend in, putting her arm through Marius’s and listening attentively to what was going on. The locals seemed to speak English pretty well – at least at this level of society – and politely spoke that near the team, apart from a few whispers. 

Aswon was at the front of the car, standing next to the guard there, and he pointed at the gun and complimented the guard. The guard’s English was very basic, so the conversation wasn’t going to flow well, but Aswon was able to get over that it looked very big and scary. The guard started to babble at him in a weird mix of Georgian and English, swapping in and out as he struggled for words, but Aswon kept nodding in an encouraging way, and the guard continued to show off the “features” of his gun, giving Aswon a very close view of his kit. He was surprised, though, when the guard turned to him and told Aswon to punch him. He clarified, and was again told – yes, punch. Making sure his adept powers were not engaged, he threw a deliberately weak punch, hitting the reinforced plate and gel pack embedded into the jacket. He made a big show of rubbing his knuckles and wincing, whilst the guard slapped at his chest and flexed his muscles.

As they neared the top of the cable car run, the front guard turned and peered up at the approaching station, taking his attention from Aswon, who turned away and keyed his microphone.

“These guys are definitely packing decent combat armour – lots of ballistic weave and Kevlar lining in here, with a ceramic inner plate at least. Unless you can aim for the face, if you shot any of these guys with a ‘discreet pistol’ it’s not going to do anything to them.”

They arrived at the top station, which mirrored the bottom loading station. There were more armed guards here, again all with the SPAS22 set fully tricked out, and were shining their blue laser sights around on the floor. The team and the other guests were shown out of the top station, and shepherded towards the building at the top – a large two storey house with distinctive wings on either side of the main body. 

On their left, however, was the hill looking down towards the town. They could see the lights of the city centre clustered below them, the cooler and brighter lights of the shipyard off to the north, and sparser and more orange lights of the housing areas and suburban streets to the south. The hill itself was completely barren for nearly a hundred metres or so, scoured clean of all vegetation and cover – a horrible killing zone to charge up and over. At the top, there were fence posts every few metres, but nothing seemed to be strung between them – which was normally incredibly bad news. Large sensor pods were also mounted on the top of a number of the posts, with various lights and antennas in evidence. Whoever lived up here was definitely keen on keeping the place secure and private, that was for sure.

They followed the curving path and went through an archway into a narrow and dark passageway, then out the matching doorway at the other end into a large courtyard, lit by coloured lights embedded into bushes and planters playing up onto the walls. Large gas burners dotted around the periphery burned away, keeping the cold at bay, and a number of white-coated waiters circulated through the crowd with silver trays, collecting empty glasses and returning with drinks. An elderly gentlemen in a black coat held out his hand for the invitation, and after briefly checking it announced, “Mr Kai, and associates,” in a loud and clear voice, cutting through the chatter in the courtyard and directing all eyes towards them.

A number of statues were placed around the courtyard, lit by the uplighters, and Kai moved to examine one. He peered in closely, and muttered into his comms microphone as he did so.

“Good quality fakes by the looks of things. Impressive if you don’t know much about the art world.”

The team spread out, mingling around the courtyard. Aswon headed for the curving steps leading up to a roof terrace, and took position about half-way up, where he could look out over the crowd below. Hunter moved to the middle of the courtyard east wall, standing next to the fountain with its large coppery-coloured dolphin sculptures spitting water in an arc. Tads moved to the far side of the courtyard spying a selection of growing vines and bushes in some kind of ornamental garden, preferring to stand near the natural environment. Marius and Nadia found a corner near a gas burner and took refuge there, whilst Kai and Shimazu mingled in the main part of the courtyard.

As the team split up, each found themselves the centre of a growing knot of locals. People drifted over in ones and two, drinks in hand to examine the newcomers. As with the cable car, there was no hostility or ill-intent present, at least none that they could detect. All the other guests seemed to know each other, and they guessed that the local scene was quite insular – so “visitors at court” were interesting, and bought news of the outside world. Of course, if anyone was manoeuvring for advantage it only made sense to study the outsiders and find out how they would affect the political balance.

Aswon found himself surrounded by a group of people who seemed fascinated with his skin tone and hair, and was soon discussing which part of Africa he hailed from and what tribal life was like. After a few minutes, one of the locals respectfully, and somewhat hesitantly, asked if they could touch his hair. Guardedly he agreed, though he warned them to be gentle, and the couple gently touched his dreadlocks, as if handling some kind of dangerous exotic creature – which wasn’t that far from the truth. This kicked off a new way of excited conversation, which further intensified when Aswon smiled and they caught site of his lion-fang implants. That started a whole new discussion, and it became clear that very few people in Batumi had much in the way of body modifications or implants – not from any bias or issue with them, but mostly due to a lack of GDP. The crowd here mostly sported datajacks, but then they also represented some of the movers and shakers of Batumi.

Tads ended up talking with some people about plants and horticulture, working the angle that she was a medical researcher with the team, with an interest in natural remedies. The people talking with her listened politely, but didn’t seem to engage with the “strange hippie” to quite the same extent.

Over in the corner, Marius and Nadia were approached by a few people, noticeably several of the couples. They started to engage in conversation, asking where they had come from and Nadia started to respond, then paused as Marius frowned. He smoothly took over the conversation, but caught an angry look from Nadia. When one of the other couples started to talk, Marius opened up a side channel just to Nadia, using his internal commlink. He subvocalized a message, inaudible to anyone but her.

“Sorry, didn’t want to talk over you. But we don’t know who is a spy here, so just wanted to say that we should try and be subtle and not give information away. But feel free to take the lead in the conversation now, ok?” He saw Nadia nod, and the frown disappeared. Hopefully the situation was resolved now – he’d hated to talk over her, realising that she’d had a lifetime of men interrupting her and talking over her. She moved around and slid an arm around him, smiled up at him and then answered the question raised by the council member about their route from Tbilisi, describing the beautiful views afforded by the mountain route.

Hunter found himself grabbed by a few people who asked what his name was, to which he responded in Georgian – asking if his pronunciation was correct? They seemed surprised by his skill with the language, and switched to their native tongue, and started to chat with him. Every time they asked him a direct question, he deflected, asking them to clarify one of the words they had used, or querying a tense or their sentence structure – making sure to give nothing away while pumping them for information.

In the centre of the courtyard, Kai was giving a critical appraisal of one of the statues. Drawing on years of experience, he was spinning words into silk, describing the artistic merits of the pieces, and ascribing all manner of values and traits on the person who had collected them. The little crowd of hangers-on listened attentively, and seemed to be impressed with his travels and experience. 

They mingled for another ten minutes or so, chatting away with the various guests, and getting a handle on their roles and positions. There was a mix of people here – two members of the local council, several bankers from the branch office of the bank of Tbilisi, a couple of senior businessmen, a cleric from the local Orthodox church, a policewoman, a couple of lawyers, the human resources manager from the shipyard and so on. They all seemed happy to chat away about their chosen professions, but had nothing bad to say about their host – their expressions going through a range of emotions from barely disguised fear and trepidation through to shows of admiration and praise for his wise business practices.

At eight thirty, the centre patio doors opened, and the man in the black jacket that had announced them stepped over the threshold from the house into the garden and cleared his throat conspicuously.

“Ladies and Gentlemen. Your host, Mr. Kulkachev, bids you welcome and invites you into his home to share a meal with him. Please, step this way…” and with a flourish and a half bow indicated that people should enter the house. The team met up in the centre of the courtyard as people started to drift in, took a deep breath and then followed the small crowd into the house.


	59. 059 - Dinner with Mr Kulkachev

Date 29/01/2060, Location 41.64054, 41.6523

The team entered the house, through the large double doors, finding themselves at the rear of a receiving line. The guards were present, standing nearby with shotguns ready, scrutinising the line with interest, but their attention was fixed on the host. Kulkachev was about a hundred and sixty-five centimetres tall, and of average build – not appearing particularly noticeable at all, were it not for the fact that people were queuing for his attention. Dark brown hair was short and styled back with a few loose curls escaping from the prison of his hair gel. What looked like two to three days of stubble graced his chin and cheeks, and dark eyebrows made a race for the centre of his face. Yet the people queued up meekly, and doffed their heads with respect as they passed him, receiving a hand shake, a clap on the shoulder, or a gentle squeeze of the hand or arm for the ladies. He smiled, but the smile never touched his eyes, just exposing a crooked set of teeth badly in need of a hygienist.

Slowly they shuffled towards him, listening as he welcomed them to the party by name, passing a few idle words. Finally they were at the front of the queue. He grabbed Kai’s right shoulder with his left hand, and offered his right hand out to shake, thrusting his hand forwards towards his torso. Kai shook his hand, his arm folded up tightly by his side – it was a clear power move, an invasion of his personal space and a grab for dominance in the opening seconds. Kai, however, just let it wash over him.

“And you must be Mr. Kai, and guests?”

“Yes, indeed! First of all, thank you on behalf of all of us for inviting us to your most splendid home. This are my companions – Shimazu, Aswon, Tadibya, Hunter, Nadia and Marius,” he pointed to each in turn with his left hand, letting Kulkachev keep control of his right. He let Kulkachev steer his hand, completely controlling him and offering no resistance, not just accepting the submissive position, but revelling in it. A second or two after the introductions were done, Kulkachev released his hand and shoulder, stepped back and then gestured to the buffet tables.

“Eat, drink. We will talk later.” He turned and walked to the end of the room, towards a large and ornate looking seat. The team headed over to the buffet table, and examined the spread of food and drink, carefully selecting a few choice bits to nibble on and to keep their hands busy. As they looked around the room, they saw that people had formed into loose knots, and were amiably chatting whilst nibbling on food or sipping at their drinks. Armed guards stood around the room by the walls – watching the crowd idly, but not looking particularly alert or hostile. There were a few standing by the wall behind Kulkachev, two on each side in flanking positions, but there was nobody else around. 

As Kai looked around the room, he saw a huge range of paintings, sculptures, objects and other pieces of art, hung or positioned almost at random. There was no theme, rhyme or reason to the positioning, and they displayed an eclectic mix of styles. He wandered around to look at them, and stopped dead in front of one of the paintings. Over the next few minutes he examined it carefully, checking from side to side, studying the style and composition, the brush strokes, the texture of the paint – before calling out to the others.

“This one… that’s an original. A Constable. It’s the Cathedral.” He looked around at several blank expressions. “Well, the story goes, it was sold by a leading auction house for a pittance, I think it was five hundred English pounds. They didn’t know it was an original, you see. Then it was tested, and resold and went for nearly two million. Made some people very happy, some people very sad. Wonder how it ended up here?” Kai checked the rest of the room out, and found that whilst 95% of the ‘art’ was junk, cheap fakes or gaudy knock-offs, there were a few pieces of real value.

As they waited and studied the crowd, Aswon saw the guard from the cable car down at one end of the large ballroom, standing with his shotgun folded across his chest. He grabbed a plate of food and went over to study the artwork hanging on the wall right next to him.

“Hi again. Just looking at the artwork. I guess it must be pretty boring, having to stand guard like that, with all that food just over the next table. So I’m just going to leave this plate here, tucked on the back corner, out of the way.” As he backed away, he thought he caught a tiny wink from the guard, and nodded his head. Looking around the room for somewhere to sit out of the way, he realised that there was in fact, nowhere to sit. The only seat in the room belonged to Kulkachev, at the far end of the room. Everyone else was forced to stand. Giving up on finding a quiet corner, he went to stand by the team and tried to look inconspicuous – hard given his towering height.

As the evening wore on, they saw Kulkachev catch the eye of people, and beckon them over to him. In ones and twos they approached, through the narrow gap between two tables, approaching the raised dais that his chair was on. For the average person, this put them at roughly the same level, allowing their host to look people in the eye whilst he was seated. The guards on either side of him stood ready, and looked more alert than those standing by the walls – not that anyone seemed inclined to do anything.

Marius and Nadia moved from group to group, continuing to meet people and find out who was who – meeting one of the city councillors, a watch chief from the local police, the shipyard owner, some businessmen. All of them were happy to talk, and it seemed everyone who was anyone waited for their invite to the hill, and it was a sign of being a “mover and shaker” in the local scene to get one, a very exclusive and sought after club.

The evening wore on, and the team watched as the rest of the crowd went up to Kulkachev for their audiences. He seemed to spend five minutes or so chatting with each of them, sharing jokes and drinks, pointing at things occasionally. It all seemed very relaxed and ordinary – apart from being flanked by heavily armed goons. As the time crawled towards 23:00, the number of people who hadn’t been seen already dropped to zero, and Kulkachev looked around. His gaze fell across Tads, and she stared at him like a rabbit caught in the headlights. He crooked a finger at her, beckoning her across the polished marble floor, to approach him. She raised a napkin to her face and spoke quietly, hoping the transmitter would carry her words to the earbuds of the rest of the team.

“Looks like I’m up. I could do with some help, Kai. Tell me what I need to say to this man?”

She approached, and felt rather than saw movement to her side. Kai and Aswon fell in with her, approaching the dais. She heard a boot squeak on the other side, as Shimazu, Marius and Nadia joined her from the other side. They walked up the length of the ball room, and she could feel the eyes of all the other guests turning to watch them, as the blob approached Mr Kulkachev. Some of the guests she could see had their mouths open, and their glasses tipped to dangerous angles, wine threatening to spill out as they watched the seven newcomers form a column and approach the dais.

All of the guards perked up, and guns were shifted subtly, ready to snap up and fire at a moment’s notice. Undaunted, they walked forward casually, narrowing their formation to fit through the gap between the tables. Kai and Shimazu took the front two positions, Tads and Aswon following them in the second row and Nadia and Marius in the third, with Hunter dropping in-between them at the rear, eyes flitting from side to side, watching the guards.

“So Mr. Kai. I hope you are enjoying our little gathering.”

“Yes, indeed. It’s been a most pleasant evening. Your guests all seem very charming, and I love your collection of artwork – it’s most intriguing. It shows a most interesting and refined taste, from a man of specific culture.” They chatted back and forth, all fairly innocuous stuff. The team were non-committal, trying not to reveal any information, yet still be pleasant-sounding.

“So, what is it that you people do? Exactly.” Kulkachev’s voice changed at the end, growing colder and turning from a question into an unmistakable demand.

“We move things. Internationally. Artwork specifically, but goods as well, as needed. We work discreetly, and quickly, and without fuss and bother.”

“Ah.” Kulkachev leant back in his chair, and stared at Kai for a few seconds, “So, it is as I suspected. So where do you head for next? What is your destination?”

“Well, we’re just heading down the coast road – towards Constantinople. Going to look for work there, as we’re not currently employed. From what we hear, there’s a lot of people who might be interested.”

Kolkachev steepled his fingers together under his chin and gave Kai a considering look, and then grinned widely – but entirely without humour.

“How fortunate. It just so happens, that I know some people there, and I am in need of a small package delivering. It is a tiny thing, of almost no consequence, to anyone but me. But I would like to make sure it gets there safely and securely. And just when I am in need of a courier, who should turn up in my town?”

“It’s almost like it’s a sign, isn’t it?” Kai smiled, also without any humour, watching Kulkachev closely.

“So, you would do this for me then, and perhaps, in the future, we could maybe have some business dealings, I think?” Kai nodded at him, not really having much in the way of options – not if they wanted to get out of the room, and probably the town in one piece. Kulkachev waved his hand idly, but moments later the butler appeared from a concealed door in the back corner of the room, carrying an ornately carved wooden box.

Kulkachev took the box and opened it up, turning it to face the team. It was not large, perhaps big enough to hold something the size of a clenched fist. The inside was lined with some kind of fabric, a deep and lustrous blue – perhaps silk, perhaps some synthetic equivalent. Tads flicked into astral for a moment, but the box appeared unwarded and completely mundane – not a trace of magic about it. Around the lip of the box though, there were a whole series of small wooden protrusions and catches, all finely and delicately carved. Matching holes in the top of the box displayed the very edges of teeth and catches – forming some kind of delicate but complex locking mechanism. Once the box was shut, there must be some kind of sequence needed to release the catches – but any attempt to force it would probably shear off the carved pieces and ruin it. 

Kulkachev reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small optical chip, holding it up to the light theatrically, his fingers twisting and turning it to make it glimmer. With a flourish he placed it into the box, and then closed the lid firmly – listening to the complicated sounding series of clicks. He offered the box to Kai in one hand, whilst he fished in his jacket pocket for a small commlink. Activating the device, he beamed over a small data packet to Kai.

“That’s the delivery address and password, along with a number to call when delivery has been made.” Kai nodded and accepted the transfer, checking to make sure it was received correctly and then pocketed his commlink. Kulkachev nodded at them. “I’m sure your truck will be ready for you by the time you reach the garage.” Kai smiled and nodded back, and turned towards the main room. The team pulled back, heading back to their far corner of the room, where they’d been lurking for most of the night. Around them the various different cliques watched them as they moved away, wondering what they had been given, and why they had gone up in such a large group.

Back in the corner, Aswon whispered that he’d be back in a minute, and headed back over towards the guard he’d made contact with previously. Tads said that she was going to head out to the cable car and check to make sure it was ready to go, and headed out of the double doors into the courtyard.

Aswon approached the guard, making sure his body was between the closest other guard and his target.

“Hey, we’re outta town tonight. Got a job to do for your boss. But when we get back, how about we go for a drink?” The guard looked confused for a moment, genuinely bewildered by the offer. Then in a slightly too loud and somewhat wooden voice, he responded.

“The toilets? This way, come with me.” He led Aswon into the corridor and did actually show him to the toilet, but along the way gave him his comm code. He waited for Aswon to go into the toilets, and then escorted him back to the main ballroom.

Out in the courtyard, Tads took a deep breath of the cool night air and strode out towards the path. As she walked across the quiet and serene courtyard, she flicked into astral sight for a moment, out of habit, rather than any specific reason. As she did so, four forms suddenly appeared on the far side of the courtyard, blazing away with the signature of active magical power. She stumbled, and almost fell over her own feet in surprise, and gawped at them. One of the figures noticed her, and stopped – putting something down on the floor, and then turning to face her. Through the intense glow of mana, she thought she saw a pair of arms folded across a chest. She dropped out of astral, and hurried along the path, calling in a quick sighting report to the rest of the team, and hearing confirmation that they were on the way to the cable car.

The team caught up with her by the time she reached the station, approaching the guard who looked at them with some confusion.

“You are leaving the party early?” The tone of voice said that this was not a ‘done thing’, but Kai headed off the argument quickly.

“See this box? We have a delivery to make for Mr. Kulkachev. Very important, so we want to get it done right away. For such an important man, we must make a special effort, so we need to go and collect our vehicle quickly. So that’s why we need to leave, immediately. Or we have to explain to Mr. Kulkachev what’s stopping us from carrying out his orders.”

The change in demeanour was immediate, and amusing. The guard hurriedly slid open the door and powered up the console, not wanting to be the person responsible for causing the boss to be annoyed. As soon as the last of the team were in the car, he slid the door shut with a slam, and the cable car started to descend from the top of the hill, down towards the town. The team looked out of the windows mostly, in silence – thinking about the events of the night, and assuming that the car was bugged just to be on the safe side.

A ghostly apparition appeared in front of Aswon and Tads, causing Aswon to take a hurried step back, slamming into the wall of the cable car. The ethereal form was vaguely humanoid from the waist up, having arms and a head with distinct features, but below the waist it was just a swirling mass of mist and air currents. It raised an arm and put a finger to its nebulous lips and made a shushing gesture. Tads looked at it, unphased, and just nodded, watching it blink out of existence. A quick check in astral, and she saw the spirit racing back up towards the top of the hill, heading for the giant zeppelin.

“I think that was the mage on the other team, just giving us a warning to keep our mouths shut about seeing them walking across the courtyard.”

“Do you think they were robbing the place?”

“I don’t think so… there was no fear or anxiety. I just think they didn’t want to be seen. I’m guessing they were smugglers, like us – just taking something somewhere, and didn’t expect to come across anybody magically aware.”

They fell back to silence, and rode out the rest of the descent. At the bottom of the line, the single remaining guard opened the door and let them out, and they moved away from the car and out of earshot. After a very quick discussion, Kai, Marius and Nadia headed to the garage to clear the final payment and recover the vehicle, whilst the rest of them headed to the hotel to begin getting their gear together.

Marius and the others arrived first, spotting the warm glow of overhead lights spilling out of the open roller shutter doors. The truck sat in the centre of the bay, facing outwards and appearing to be intact and whole – in fact it sparkled, looking clean and polished. As the three of them strode in through the door, they saw a half dozen of the employees putting tools away and tidying up as if they had only just finished work. The man they had negotiated with first came over to them, looking tired and worn.

“It’s done. All finished, all fixed. On time – done in four days.” Kai decided not to press the issue, given the likely source of interference, and gestured for the pad and cred-reader, fishing out his cred-stick to make the payment transfer. Marius meanwhile had pulled out an electronic device about the size of a small book from his pocket, and had extended two aerials. He moved around the truck slowly, raising and lowering the device and playing it over the surface of the truck. He got nearly all the way down the right hand side of the truck when a number of lights illuminated on the front of the device, climbing higher as he stopped and then started to carefully move around the underside of the vehicle. The lights climbed higher, flashing and dancing from side to side. After some careful scanning and then a close examination, Marius then peeled off a small pad from the underside of the main body of the truck.

He examined the pad for a moment, looking at the transparent sticky pad with a small coloured circuit form in the centre. Then without saying anything, he moved over to the nearest workbench and carefully laid the tracker on the surface, and went back to the truck, continuing to scan. Throughout he said nothing, not giving any indication of his emotions, just continuing to carefully check the truck over, piece by piece. He found a second bug on the other side of the vehicle, nestled in next to the toolbox, and laid that out next to the first, also without a word, before continuing his sweep. After a few more minutes of careful probing, he was back around to the front of the truck and his starting point. He turned and stared at the foreman for a moment, then shrugged, and climbed up into the cab of the truck and slid into his seat. First of all he connected just the datajack, checking the startup codes and diagnostics. He called over to Nadia, waiting for her to climb in next to him.

“I will connect now. If I look unusual, or start to react strangely, this is the order of disconnection, to minimise harm. First this one, the blue cable – push here, twist, then release. Then the red cable, just the same. Finally this one, the black and yellow interface. This one has a latch here, depress that and just pull.” He waited for Nadia to nod her understanding and then gave the electronics a quick last look over. Finding everything to be satisfactory, he inserted the rigger interface, feeling his limbs fade away to be replaced by wheels, transmission and chassis, sensors and radios, windscreen wipers and doors. He ran a thorough check for changed files in the nav system and engine control software, but didn’t find anything amiss. When he was done, he activated the speakers and told Kai he was ready, feeling the doors open as Kai climbed in, buckled into place and then closed the door. The truck rolled out of the garage, the massive diesel engine grumbling away to itself, leaving the garage and the repair crew behind, along with two tracking bugs laid out on the workbench.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team arrived back at the hotel, and found the hotel manager waiting for them.

“Good evening, sirs, madam. I understand you will be checking out tonight? May I ask if you’re ready to settle the account?” He looked over at Hunter as he stepped towards the desk.

“Yes, that’s right. Our manager is on his way back here now with our vehicle, and he’ll settle up the bill. We’ve just been told to get everything ready for departure. He shouldn’t be more than a few minutes, though.”

“Ah, very well then. I will arrange for some staff to come and assist you.”

Before Hunter could stop him, he’d lifted the phone and was giving instructions for a bunch of staff to be woken and to go to 1205 to assist the guests. Hunter shrugged, and re-joined the others, riding up to the penthouse with them in the plush elevator. Once back in the suite they got changed into more practical clothes, gathering the last of their things together and packing swiftly. About three minutes later there was a quiet knock on the door – when Aswon checked, it was half a dozen of the hotel staff with a number of trolleys, some of them clearly still yawning and waking up.

The staff set to, however, loading up the suitcase trolleys with the large cases and bags, ignoring the metallic clinking as copious amounts of guns clattered against each other. They carefully moved the equipment down the short hallway, and soon both the passenger and staff lifts were ferrying loads of equipment down to the basement and piling them up neatly by the trailer. Aswon ensured he had a good handful of cash ready to tip the staff and encourage their continued forgetfulness about what they had seen.

They’d just about finished with all the gear when the truck arrived, one of the staff opening up the security shutters to the basement car park and watching carefully as the truck inched down the ramp, riding as low as Marius could make it on the suspension again to clear the ceiling. When they parked up, Kai went with one of the staff to go settle the account with the hotel manager, while the rest of them hooked the trailer up, and began the arduous task of reloading all of their supplies and packing them away.

“Don’t forget to leave room in the back for our guest, Hunter!” called Marius from the loading bay as Hunter carried a large bag of guns and stashed them under a bunk. The rest of the team looked at him curiously, trying to work out what he was on about.

“It was part of the deal to get the conversion kits, we have to pick up the guy’s brother and get him out of town, across the border and drop him off somewhere he can start over. Bad gambling debts.” Nobody had anything to say, so they continued to load up, trying to make sure that nothing illegal could be seen. As they loaded the supplies, they noticed Marius playing the bug tracker over each of the boxes and bags as they were handed up and into the truck, and queried him – he quickly explained what had happened at the garage, and that he wasn’t taking any chances that someone had gotten into the suite and done something whilst they’d been distracted or out somewhere.

Just as he was getting to the end of the explanation, a number of the lights on the scanner illuminated, rising sharply to the left of the display, and then falling off almost immediately.

“Aufhalten!!!” Marius shouted. He played the bug scanner around, as the team froze in position. He waved it over the boxes just being moved, and those in the pile by the door, and next to be loaded – but nothing. No lights, no alarms. No sign of whatever had just given the strong reading. Kai appeared through the door and strode towards them, an eyebrow raised and a silent question on his face as he took in the expressions.

“There’s got to be another one – maybe an activate-on-demand. Almost impossible to find unless they’re transmitting, unless you do a methodical visual sweep. I think we’ve got to assume we’re being tracked, and possibly bugged, until we can get everything checked over. The rest nodded at Marius, nobody questioning his skill and experience with electronic systems. Marius pulled out the white-noise generator and attached it to a power port, turning the device on and adjusting the settings until the static noise filled the truck without being too uncomfortable. Next he lined up the jammer, placing that next to the first device, but didn’t turn this on yet. He saw Nadia watching him carefully.

“Jammer, not a German model, but hopefully adequate. But we shouldn’t use it in town if we can help it, otherwise we’ll kill people’s TVs, cameras, computer networks and other devices, possibly affect traffic systems – all kinds of things. It would be very noticeable where we had been, because of the trail of electronic systems we leave in our trail that are messed up. We’ll wait until we’re on the open road, out of town.” Nadia nodded in understanding, and leant over to study the device carefully, making sure she didn’t touch it.

They loaded up and headed up the ramp, hearing the scraping of the trailer on the roof beam as they negotiated the ramp, but it was nothing more than scratched paintwork and they emerged onto the street, quiet and almost empty at midnight on the cold winter night. Marius turned south, heading to the coast road leading out of the city. They travelled perhaps half a mile and pulled up outside a small restaurant near the shoreline, still lit up and active. A couple of the team went into the restaurant “The Spice Garden”, and ordered some noodles and soy to go, then re-joined the rest of them, standing in the cold outside the truck. Marius was running the bug scanner over each person, slowly and methodically, confirming that none of them had picked anything up on their clothing during the meeting with Kulkachev. 

Once they were all cleared, and had manually inspected each other for AoDs, they relaxed a little. Marius moved off to make the call to Teren, telling him to come to the Spice Garden with his stuff, as soon as possible. Kai turned to the rest of the team, though.

“Right, we know there’s something, but we don’t know what. So, let’s keep it quiet for now. We’re going to have to do an old-fashioned search, box by box, bag by bag. Start in one corner of the truck, and then go from there. Once you’ve checked something, you pass it on to the next in the line, who double checks it. It’ll be slow, boring, and take forever – but it’s the only way we’ll find something like this.” He saw the others nod. “Ok, let’s get to it then. Shimazu, you and I will start in the front of the truck. Tads, Hunter, Aswon – you start in the back, and we’ll come help as soon as we’re done.” They set to with their search, beginning a painstaking search of all their gear, centimetre by centimetre.

Marius analysed the signal he had picked up in the hotel and didn’t like what he found. According to his readings, the signal was picked up at 25.4Khz, right at the limit of what the scanner could detect. That put it firmly in the VLF or Very Low Frequency band. Due to the mechanics of signal propagation and bandwidth and other technical factors it allowed for only very slow transmission rates, perhaps a few dozen characters per second – but that was enough for a coded signal to be sent to allow triangulation. The advantage to the low frequency was that it travelled over enormous distances, bouncing off the ionosphere if required, or being transmitted as ground waves. Whilst a radio station would be blocked by high mountains or chasms, a VLF signal would punch right through. It needed a very hefty transmitting station – sometimes VLF antennas actually spanned across valleys or craters, forming huge spider webs of suspended cables that covered miles of land – but it would transmit half way round the world, into tunnels and even to a reasonable depth into the sea. That made it top-end security gear – or quite possibly military in origin. Either of those was worrying…

After fifteen minutes or so, the food was ready and the team tucked into some spicy soy noodles – filling up on a meal that didn’t worry them like the buffet up at the villa. They were about half-way through when a taxi pulled up next to the restaurant and a man climbed out of the back, pulling three large bags with him. Marius spotted the family resemblance immediately, and went to meet him, as did Aswon.

Teren looked understandably uncertain, and displayed a certain level of nervous energy. Aswon grabbed one of his bags, and nodded with his head to the back of the truck.

“Come with us, climb in, sit down, and be quiet. No talking, understand?” Teren nodded his head, licking his dry lips and climbed into the truck, struggling with the large and heavy bags. The rest of the team hurriedly finished their noodles, disposed of the boxes and got back into the truck. A minute later, they were on the way, heading south west again.

Teren sat in the corner of the rear of the truck, in one of the small, uncomfortable fold down Russian seats, a bag clasped on his lap. Aswon sat opposite him keeping an eye on him, whilst the rest of the team were in the front.

“Have any cards?” Teren asked hopefully.

“Shush.”

“Oh, right, sorry.”

“SHUSH!”

Once they were onto the main road, the others squeezed through the door from the cab into the rear, and resumed their search – slowly and meticulously going through their kit. Teren watched for a few minutes, then opened his mouth again to speak. Aswon looked up at him, and raised a warning finger. The mouth closed and he breathed out, clutching his bag tighter to his chest.

Tads suddenly sat up, holding a thin sheet of plastic, about twenty centimetres long by five wide, with a fine inlay of circuitry running through it and a number of almost flat chips embedded into the layers.

“Where was that?”

“In the medkit – slid down between the back of the tray holding the suture gun and the outer case.”

Aswon grabbed a small bag of oats, unknotted the top and slid the bug inside, refastening the plastic bag. Moving into the front of the truck, he opened up the top hatch and then pushed himself up into the night air, hair whipping back from the wind. He waited until a truck went past them, and with unerring accuracy, threw the bag into the back of the truck, turning to watch it speed away with a combined velocity of a hundred and sixty kilometres per hour.

Down inside the truck, the mood had relaxed somewhat, and as Aswon returned and gave a thumbs up, they breathed a sigh of relief. Aswon turned to their guest.

“Sorry about that, it was nothing personal. But we knew the truck had been bugged, and couldn’t say anything until we’d found it and gotten rid of it. But you can speak now.” Teren nodded, then licked his lips.

“So, game of cards now?”

“NO! No cards!” said Kai, as he climbed into the front of the truck. Aswon shrugged and got out the deck of cards anyway, and started to play patience, aware of Teren watching over him.

“Black eight on that red seven.”

“Oh, yes, thanks….” Aswon played on, as Teren kept coaching him, smiling as his slow play drove the watching man mad. “I wish I could play poker though, or blackjack or something – I just don’t know the rules, though.”

“I could teach you? Show you… just friendly-like?” Aswon grinned at Teren, and then checked the door to the front, to make sure Kai wasn’t coming back, then gestured for Teren to squeeze around the table with him.

They drove on, and in the back the Georgian taught Aswon how to play poker. Aswon listened, learning a little, but mostly studying Teren and seeing how he acted. Shimazu sat and watched, also intrigued by the man. Strangely enough, he was a pretty good teacher, explaining lots about the strategy of the game, explaining about betting techniques, the odds, spotting tells. He went far beyond the mechanics of the game, into some pretty advanced theory. When he squeezed into the toilet to relieve himself, Shimazu leant into Aswon and whispered in his ear.

“It’s very strange. He’s trying to teach you to be a good player. I think for him, it’s not about winning money, it’s about beating the opponent. The thrill of the game. He’s not trying to con you, anyway.” Aswon nodded, agreeing with him – he’d been getting a feeling in his gut about the guy, but Shimazu’s explanation made a lot of sense. When Teren returned from the toilet, Aswon pulled out a small stash of cash, and they started to play for money. Teren was good – very good, and won fairly consistently it seemed, without any cheating they could detect. A small pile of cash started to accumulate in front of him, as he won hand after hand of one Nuyen bets.

The truck drove on through the night, following the twisting coast road to the west. It was in reasonable condition, but winding and narrow, so Marius had to keep the speed to a safe level. They drove past more hotels and guest houses, all in a similar state as those to the north – run down and feeling abandoned. A few kilometres further along, they discovered why. A huge jut of land to the north, thrust out into the sea, and perched upon it was an enormous black building. There were no lights at all, just a monstrous jumble of metal, gantries, pipes and tanks, stretching out for hundreds of metres. Not a single light was on, and the building was more seen by what of the background it occluded than anything else. Tads took a look astrally, and immediately regretted doing so. The building was a toxic wasteland, the purity of astral space rent and twisted by pollutants and despair. Currents of strong emotion cast a miasma over the whole place, and it felt like a creature made of evil had been given form and was trying to draw her in. Even at this range, looking at the state of the land made her feel sick.

Hunter threw open the top hatch, standing up as Aswon had done before, and gave a gentle sniff. The others could smell the rotting eggs on the wind and the smell of burning and decay – but as Hunter sniffed, a delicate valve opened in his nasal cavity and a small sample was diverted into a chamber. Incredibly complex and tiny machinery went to work, sampling the air and running an in-depth chemical analysis. The highly advanced and miniaturised gas spectrometer interfaced with the chemical software installed on the chip inserted in the slot on the side of his neck. Complex algorithms performed an in-depth analysis, spitting out the results as a stream of text, inserted directly into his field of vision as luminous green characters in his cybereye.

“Long chain hydrocarbons, Benzene, Sulfur Dioxide, Nitrogen Oxide, Formaldehyde, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Mercury, Hydrogen Fluoride. Yeah, that’s a refinery and chemical plant. And…” he sniffed again, “Yep – that’s a refinery that had some kind of critical fire that led to primary storage failure. Messy. Like messy enough to close ‘em down and by the looks of things, ruin the nearest fifty kilometres of beach, at a guess.”

They drove on, leaving the blackened ruins behind them, a blot on the landscape that they were glad to be passing in the blackness of night. As they drove past, leaving the twisted ruin behind, most of the team let the image slip from their minds – all apart from Tads. She sat in the seat, starting dully into the night, eyes glazed and unseeing. In her mind she saw the twisted visage of the refinery, poison leeching into the land, corrupting and destroying everything natural. She felt sullied and unclean, the psychic echo of the disaster caused by greed and corruption latching into her mind leaving a scar behind that seemed to itch without a way to scratch it. 

The pushed on through the night, and put some miles between them and the ruined coastline, and soon found themselves approaching the border. Marius spotted the raised canopy on the road ahead, at first thinking it was a fuel station. It wasn’t until they were closer that he realised it was the border checkpoint – and they were too close to stop without being seen. He warned the others, and drove on, coming to a halt under the brightly-lit roof just in front of the barrier. An elderly official emerged from the guard hut, ID badge on a chain around his neck and pistol holstered by his side. Moving stiffly, he approached the driver’s side door, looking up with his pad held expectantly. Kai moved into the front seat, then opened the door and climbed down until he was facing the guard. Just as he was reaching for the fake medical IDs that half the team had, the guard spoke quietly.

“Mr. Kulkachev says good luck.” The guard then took a step back and in a louder voice “Well, thank you sir, they all seem to be in order.” He waved at the guard house, and unseen hands hit the buttons, raising the barrier and lowering the anti-ram plate, allowing the truck to proceed upon its journey. Kai shrugged, got back into the truck and told Marius to drive on, then recounted what had happened. 

They pushed on, the kilometres rushing by as they made decent time on the almost abandoned road. They passed a few small villages, mostly agrarian places with some small fishing harbours – nothing major, though. As the clock marched on to about 3am though, they crested a low rise and saw a larger town laid out before them. Hunter pulled up the details on the map to confirm things.

“Trabzon, population shows somewhere between five hundred thousand and seven hundred and fifty thousand. Some industrial presence, a minor finance centre for Turkey mostly based on the location of the port. Used to be a key route onto the old silk road. Got a reasonable international presence. Should be good for our boy to disappear in.”

They pulled over into a layby, and just to be sure, ran the bug scanner over the vehicle one last time, being careful to check Teren and his bags carefully, too. When they opened the bags they found them full of metalworking tools – which certainly explained the weight. The scan showed nothing, so they dropped down the shallow hill and into the town, pulling up in the central area next to the main bus terminal and letting Teren out. He climbed down and they passed down the bags to him. Taking a moment to orient himself, he then started to stride across the road, carrying his three bags and a couple of hundred Nuyen won from Aswon during the journey. He got perhaps five metres away when Kai shouted to him, then threw something small at him. He dropped the bags by reflex and caught the deck of cards he’d been playing with, then nodded and waved at the team, before picking up his gear and heading onwards – towards the casino on the other side of the square.

“Let’s go folks, still a long way to go until Constantinople…” Kai ushered them back into the truck, and they pushed on westwards. The road improved slightly, and they made better time, though traffic was still very light. They encountered nothing of significance as they drove west, seeing only a few long-haul trucks and the occasional car on the road. They tried broaching the subject of contacting her dad with Nadia, but found that useful and resourceful as she was, she was still a teenager and subject to mood swings and nobody understanding her pain. After a short conversation that ended up with Nadia staring out of the window and answering only in grunts, they gave it up as a bad job. They dozed, the road twisting and turning along the coast, with Marius keeping them going at a steady speed, chewing through the distance. As they neared 06:00, Hunter yawned and keyed the map display.

“Another reasonable-sized city coming up, another port town called Samsun. Population should be around half a million. Probably a good place to stop for a few hours rest.” The yawns were matched by the rest of the team, except for Marius – but that only because there was nothing controlling his body while his consciousness was merged with the van. 

“Good call. Ok, next place you find, let’s pull over and do one more sweep – just to be safe – then we go find somewhere to crash out for a few hours. How far from Batumi, and how far to Constantinople, Hunter?”

“About five hundred kilometres down, perhaps seven hundred to go. So not quite half way, but we’ve made good time so far.”

“Right, definitely time to get a break then. Let’s see if we can find somewhere comfy and discreet then, yes?”

They ran one more sweep with the bug scanner, found nothing, and then followed the road into Samsun, along with the early bird employees heading for work, and looked around for somewhere to stop for a few hours rest.


	60. 060 - From Samsun to Constantinople

Date 30/01/2060, Location 41.26827, 36.35071

The sky to the east lightened, but it was still some time until dawn. The team sat in the vehicle, parked up in the main square of the town of Samsun, watching the early morning traffic as people headed in to set up market stalls. The team were tired, some having stayed up all of the night, some having caught a little sleep as the truck wound its way along the coast road. Tads cleared her throat.

“Everyone, I think I owe you an apology. Especially you, Nadia.”

She was greeted with silence, as they turned and looked at her.

“I said that if we needed to, I’d just go astrally and find Nadia’s father, and tell her where she was. I’ve been thinking about that, and that’s not right. It’s not what magic is for. And it’s not right to take that choice away from her. So, I’m sorry. I still think you’re wrong not talking to family – especially since you still have some, but you’d agreed with Kai to talk to your father, so it’s between you and Kai.”

The silence deepened. From the looks on their faces, it seemed that none of the others felt that strongly about it – but it was obvious Tads did, and felt some moral or ethical compulsion about it. That in turn said something about her character, and her outlook – which did affect them all. Nadia nodded at Tads – but whether that was an acceptance of the apology, or just gratitude that she wasn’t going to have her location revealed wasn’t clear.

Breaking the silence, Marius announced that he was going to get a few hours of shut eye – and looked at Hunter expectantly. He was the only other member of the team with a datajack, and as the truck had no manual controls he was the only other person who could interface with the systems and drive it. Nowhere near as well as a rigger with the deep intertwining of man and machine made possible by the vehicle control rig, but well enough.

“I’m actually a pretty good driver,” chirped Shimazu, “I’m just not putting one of those plugs in my brain. He shuddered at the thought of disturbing the delicate balance of mana and soul in his body by inserting high-tech composites into his nervous system.

“You don’t have to you know, there are ways around it. You can get a ‘trode net.” Aswon yawned, but then pulled up a picture on his tablet. The electrode net was a fiddly looking collection of wires, sensors, probes and receivers, carefully positioned over someone’s head – but the wire from the back ran in a bundle into a standard datajack port, and the superimposed image showed a vehicle driving through an obstacle course. Shimazu looked interested and Aswon described how he’d seen a mage use one to pilot an APC when he was a merc in southern Europe, without damaging his magical power.

Hunter logged onto the local matrix using a free wifi signal, and started to look for a local supplier. Despite speaking Turkish reasonably fluently – courtesy of the bioenhancement made to his brain – he was obviously not well versed with the written form. The frequent pop-up adverts from the free wireless service also distracted him, and every time he tried to close a window, it appeared two more opened. Eventually though he found a supplier, and placed an order – yet another pop up informing him that a drone would make delivery to his GPS co-ordinates shortly after 8am when the store opened.

They dozed for a bit, spreading out around the truck and finding some space wherever they could to get some rest. Window ports were opened to let some fresh air in, and a variety of gentle snores washed back and forth throughout the vehicle as they settled for forty winks. Hunter’s alarm went off at 08:05, and he climbed out of the truck, looking around and waiting for the drone to arrive. He was confused when three separate drones appeared, one after another, each dropping off a small plastic package, roughly the same size. Climbing back into the truck he checked, and found that three orders had been dispatched, and his credstick was down 1100 Nuyen… the ‘trode net was a grand, but he wasn’t sure what the other two things were.

Shimazu meanwhile had opened the first box, and was sitting with his jaw open, holding a thick pink dildo in his hand. Foam packing peanuts had fallen out of the box all over his lap, but he seemed unaware of them, holding the sex toy in one hand while he pointed at Hunter with the other.

“Why? I mean, what. Um. WHY?” He put the dildo down on the dashboard, and the suction cup on the bottom made a weird little squelchy noise. As Shimazu let go, it wobbled gently from side to side, like the strangest little bobblehead.

“Ooops. I guess one of those pop-ups must have been a link to somewhere else on the site.” Shimazu gave Hunter a telling look, but didn’t say anything else. He reached down, and grabbed the second box, opening it carefully and pulling out the ‘trode net and settling down to read the instructions. Almost fearfully Hunter grabbed the third box and opened it – revealing a larger and more elaborately carved piece of silicone, this time in a set of neon rainbow swirls.

It took Shimazu about twenty minutes to get the ‘trode net set up properly and he gingerly started up the truck by pushing an imaginary starter button on the virtual dash board that was displayed on the screen positioned just before his eyes. The others watched him as his arms and legs started to move and stamp, but the truck slowly pulled out of the square and joined the main road, driving slowly but smoothly. Watching Shimazu was like watching a small child pretend-driving. Motions were exaggerated, but his hand pulled the virtual steering wheel left and right, and his feet pushed imaginary pedals – but the truck moved, none the less. Unfamiliar with a vehicle this size, especially one with a trailer, he took it steady, and traffic started to build up behind him almost immediately.

They’d been driving for perhaps half an hour, with a small jam of traffic building up behind them, then overtaking on the few straight or wide sections of road, the local drivers all seeming to feel that anything less than a hundred kilometres per hour being unacceptable. Used to the constant beeping and tailgaters, Shimazu was paying reasonable attention to the traffic around them, and spotted a large army truck coming up behind them, approaching fast. He watched it carefully as it approached, growing with alarming quickness in the mirrors. It looked like it was going to slam into the rear of the trailer, but then pulled out sharply and roared past them. It was similar to their truck – a large green mass of metal with six huge tyres – but had at least one key difference. Whoever owned this thing had spared no expense on tuning up the engine, and it flew past them doing close to a hundred and forty kilometres per hour, the air turbulence making them rock from side to side. It pulled back in sharply in front of them, still forcing a battered old car coming the other way onto the verge with a blaring of horns and waving from the driver. The army truck continued along the road at high speed, rapidly pulling away from the team. In no more than a minute, it rounded a bend on the headland and was out of sight. By the time Shimazu had reached the same headland, the truck ahead was already cresting the next ridge, and was gone.

The continued along the route for a while, Shimazu gradually getting used to the large vehicle and the joys of driving with an ungainly trailer, slowly picking up speed and making steady progress along the route marked out. To their right, the Black Sea glittered, waves washing up against the shallow cliffs or gravelled bays, sometimes only a few metres from the road, sometimes a kilometre or more away with rich green pastureland in between the coast road and the shore. To their left was more farmland, barren and empty at the moment, but with the promise of lush greenery in the summer months. Behind the band of fields and pastures the land rose sharply, scrub and gorse covering hills that rose in a series of sharp defiles with the occasional scree slope marking a cutaway.

Along the way they passed through some small villages, mostly located around the infrequent roads that led into the interior, heading up the valleys and gradually climbing into the highlands. They were all small, sleepy affairs, with local markets set up in the village squares, mostly looking sad and forlorn with just a few die-hard stalls out on the bleak winter’s day. The going was often sluggish through the villages, as they were forced to slow down for minor traffic jams as people just stopped cars to visit shops and stalls, or farmers drove livestock from one side of the road to another. As they were going through one village, Shimazu heard shouting and screaming behind him and checked his mirrors – alarmed to see a cow sprawling on the road, sliding towards some pedestrians who had dropped their shopping in an attempt to get out of the way. He couldn’t see any blood, but it looked like he’d clipped it with the trailer, punting the five hundred kilo animal across the road.

He thought for a moment about stopping, but decided to press on. Maybe no one would notice… Distracted by the virtual dashboard beamed straight into his eyes, he never noticed Hunter sitting quietly in his seat in the rear, smirking to himself. The truck drove on, leaving the village and the angry farmer behind him, wrestling to get his herd of cows corralled back together and to their shed.

Hunter stared out of the window, still smiling at the image of a surprised cow sliding across the road on its back, all four legs kicking in the air. He watched the scenery out of the window, not really looking at anything in particular, just staring out. Suddenly, something caught his attention – up on the hill, inland from them. About a half kilometre back from the road, up a dirt trail that didn’t even qualify as a road was a green army truck – probably the one that had overtaken them earlier. He focussed on some shapes by the side of the truck – his Zeiss optical eyes applying compensation and filters automatically to cut out the glare from the low-hanging sun. The shapes resolved just in time, and he saw half a dozen people throwing themselves flat, into cover under the truck and by the low stone wall running alongside the track. In a moment, they were past, and out of sight – but he knew what he had seen, and quickly alerted the rest of the team.

He described the group of half a dozen people, clearly wearing combat fatigues and carrying assault rifles and machine guns, and how keen they had been not to be seen. They discussed for a few minutes, wondering what was going on. They had no reason to stop, or to turn back and investigate – it was likely to get them involved in something else that would distract them from their mission. So, they continued on their way, keeping their eyes peeled and looking out for anything else strange.

It was getting on for 11am when they hit the outskirts of Sinope, the road that had drifted inland a little suddenly angling down and back out towards the coastline. They were on a slight hill, and could see the town below them on an isthmus, and the road they were on curving down into the town centre. Another road emerged further north, running along the coastline and past the airport – a small regional affair at best. Several ships were at anchor in the bay, and more in the port, tied up alongside the piers. Houses were scattered along the road, and a small village lay before the main town, almost a suburb of the larger settlement, connected via the string of residences along the roadside. To the east, on the flat plain leading to the sea was a large power station, half a dozen enormous plascrete cooling towers rising up scores of metres into the air, with steam gently drifting from the top in wispy little columns.

As they descended the slope, the traffic slowed considerably, and became much thicker. They found themselves in a column of beat-up and battered cars, a mix of knock-off and local build brands, all marked with spots of rust and bare metal.

After a few minutes of crawling through steadily slowing traffic, Shimazu was forced to stamp on the virtual brake as the cars ahead of him suddenly stopped. The team that were dozing jerked awake, asking what was the matter and looking around the truck, bemused to find themselves in a sudden traffic jam. The rise in noise levels was enough to wake up the sleepers in the back of the truck, who squeezed their way through into the cab, also taking a look around. The traffic was stationary ahead of them, stretching off along the road with no sign of movement at all, but the odd car or truck was still heading out of town towards them. They were in the middle of the little village, next to the opening that passed for a village square, and could see a couple of stalls set out, with vendors plying their wares, people leaning against walls chatting, and a horde of small children that were going from car to car, banging on the doors and brandishing small bouquets of flowers that appeared hand-picked.

There was a rap on the door, very faintly – as if made by a small child suddenly finding out how painful it was to knock with bare knuckles on heavy Krupp steel. Kai leaned over and opened the door, watching the small child duck under it, swinging precariously by one hand and waving his flowers with the other. He grabbed some loose change with one hand and plucked the flowers with the other, releasing the change into the pudgy waiting fingers.

“No,” shouted Hunter and Aswon, almost simultaneously. But it was too late, and the child dropped out of reach, his hand clenched around his reward tightly. He started to shout in Turkish loudly as he zig-zagged away from the truck.

Kai looked around at the others, seeing Marius face-palm and the others staring at him.

“What?”

“You just gave him the equivalent of about forty to fifty Nuyen… that’s like a week’s wages for some of these folk. And the kid has just shouted to everyone that we’re rich. Look!”

Kai looked at the swarm of children that were now running towards the truck, abandoning their efforts to get the odd coin from the car drivers and concentrating on them instead. Within moments a number of them had climbed up the side of the truck like monkeys on crack, hanging off handles, window sills, mirror frames and any other protrusions they could find, all shouting and waving their wares at the windows, staring into the one-way glass with huge fake smiles and hope in their eyes.

“Let me sort this out,” Aswon said as he squeezed over to the door. “What’s ‘get off’ guys?” He listened as Marius spoke a word, then turned back to the door and grasped it firmly with both hands and wedged his feet into position. With no warning, he pushed the door open a few inches, then pulled it almost closed with violent suddenness, then pushed it open again. “INMEK! INMEK! INMEEEEEKKKK!!!” he bellowed. Small children went flying, quickly losing their grip and falling to the floor. The lucky ones landed on other children, bouncing and rolling away. Some sprawled on the floor, crawling away rapidly with their flowers left strewn behind them. The unlucky ones landed badly, falling on knees or faces, and several of them curled up in balls of pain, holding hands to cuts and split lips and starting to cry. Aswon looked out and assessed them quickly, then pulled the door shut.

“A few cuts and bruises, nothing serious, no lasting damage or minor injuries. No need to treat them.” He pulled the door shut with a click.

Around the square the children scattered and moved away quickly, the injured hobbling after friends and getting away from the truck. Angry glances from some of the elder bystanders were shot at the truck, and some of the stallholders shouted and raised hands against them in obviously hostile motions – but nobody approached the truck. At least, not for a few seconds. 

A woman appeared out from behind a stall, holding a large wicker basket on a sling. She was dressed in a flowing dark robe that covered her from shoulders to ankles, and wore a headscarf, but the scarf was pushed back quite far on her face, leaving it and most of her hair visible. Her complexion was a flawless olive tone, and her almond-shaped face was framed with flowing black hair. Her eyes were dark, so dark brown they appeared almost black, and were also classically shaped, framed by gently curving eyebrows and rich lustrous eyelashes. Her mouth was pulled up into a slight curve of amusement, and she wore a strong red lipstick that made her lips stand out against her skin tone. She stopped about a metre from the truck, and looked up expectantly at them. A gust of wind blew down the street, flattening the robe against her body, revealing a lithe and toned figure for a moment – but not showing any subtle signs of armour or concealed weaponry.

“That’s probably one of the kid’s mothers, come to complain about you, Aswon,” said Hunter with a grin.

“No. No, she’s not angry. She’s….. hmmm.” Both Kai and Shimazu were looking at the woman, and their brows furrowed. “She’s concealing something. But she doesn’t look hostile. More nervous.”

“Yes. Definitely. See how she keeps glancing to the left, behind us? Waiting for something? An ambush, maybe?”

There was the sound of clips being clicked, actions being worked and magazines being seated in the wells of guns, as the team readied themselves, and looked around. They waited a few moments, but nothing happened. Nothing, until the woman waved at the truck, anyway. 

Kai squeezed past the others to reach the door and with a muttered “Cover me,” opened the door and slid out of the truck. The woman backed up a few paces, and said something in Turkish, and when Kai didn’t respond, she switched to English.

“You understand me? Ahh good. Children hurt, parents angry. They discuss calling the police. I can help you?”

Kai smiled at her. “That would be good. How?”

“You give me, perhaps a hundred Nuyen. I split amongst hurt children, a little each – make up for the bruises. Children happy, adults happy. No trouble.”

“And let me guess, you get to keep a few Nuyen for yourself?” He watched her shrug, not denying it. “Ok, sure. Here, here’s some cash. You sort this out, however you feel is best.”

The woman took the proffered notes, quickly checked them and then called across the square in rapid Turkish to the children hiding behind the corners of buildings and stalls. The looks of hostility changed – still not friendly perhaps, but a lot closer to neutral.

“So, what do you sell then?”

The woman pulled open the wicker bag, revealing 4 large mason jars, with lids tightly closed. In each were a number of small black slimy shapes, clinging to the glass or the bits of bark and debris in the bottom.

“Leeches. Magical leeches. Rare creatures gathered from up in the mountains. They have special powers, curative powers. Able to take poison and disease out of the body.” Kai listened, and waved over his shoulder at Tads, beckoning her down. When she climbed out of the truck, he asked her to examine the creatures. He waited, as she took on that slightly glassy-eyed look she got when she was not using her eyes to see the physical world.

“They’re certainly magical creatures of some sort – not anything I’ve seen before though. The magic is faint, but it’s definitely there.”

“Ahh, your friend is wise, a very wise woman. Indeed, they are magical creatures. The tales through the ages tell of their healing powers. And they are a bargain – but one the people around here cannot afford. I was resting with my friend on the stall, before heading to the port. But this traffic… there is no bus. No one here can afford a thousand Nuyen for a jar, even if it would save their life.”

Kai and Tads shared a look, and Kai watched as Tads shrugged, clearly uncertain what they were worth – or if they were what the woman claimed. Then she turned and looked up into the sky, staring to the south east at something unseen, a deep frown forming on her face.

Behind her Kai haggled with the woman for a minute, eventually agreeing to pay sixteen hundred Nuyen for a pair of jars, getting six leeches in all. He used up some more of their stock of cash, and passed the jars up into the truck where they were passed from one team member to another with various looks of horror and revulsion.

He turned back towards Tads, and then paused, looking at her with concern. She had leeched of colour, looking pasty white under the pale winter sun. She didn’t have the darkest of complexions to begin with, having grown up far to the north – but even so, the colour change was noticeable. He reached out a hand, gently touching her on the shoulder. The touch startled her, and her head snapped around to face him.

“Back in the truck, now. Ritual magic!” She matched actions to words, scrambling up the steps and handholds and throwing herself into the truck, scrabbling for handholds to climb into the back. The others pulled back out of her way, their complaints at being climbed over fading as they saw how she looked, and thought about how she normally handled herself. Kai climbed in after her, slamming the door shut behind her, and the tension in the cab was palpable.

“Someone was looking. For me? Maybe for us? I’m not sure. But someone was looking for us magically. I could feel the flow of mana, searching for us. The astral was tingling, power building up. It wasn’t a spirit – I would have seen it. The only other thing I know is a ritual group. Maybe just a couple, maybe a whole tribe – all taking part and focussing their power towards their target. One of the tribe goes out as a spotter, to focus and guide the power to its destination. But it was too soon for that, the power was building.” Tads wrapped her arms around herself, clasping her arms to her side and rocking back and forth slightly. The others glanced out into the cold winter’s day, as if they might see something.

“Can you feel it now? Here in the truck?” asked Kai.

Tads rocked for a moment, then was still as she glanced astrally. Then for another moment. Then for long seconds, as she looked around carefully, not sensing anything. Ten seconds passed, then twenty, then thirty – before she blinked rapidly and shook her head.

“No. Nothing at all. They may have just got a sense of me or us or whatever, but lost the link when I was behind the ward. As long as we’re in the truck, we’re probably safe… but it’s a risk if we go outside.”

They sat in silence, watching out of the windows at the street, and up into the air. The people in the square went about their business, unaware of the worries of those nearby. The air was still, just the occasional bird flying past, wheeling down to grab a morsel of food from the road before flying up and away to a high perch. The traffic didn’t move, and the seconds ticked past, turning into minutes.

Marius poked Shimazu on the shoulder to get his attention and the two swapped places and control of the vehicle. Marius flicked a mental switch, and the speakers started to hiss, and garbled voices and snatches of music came out, as he hunted through the frequencies until he found the local radio station. They listened to a couple of tracks of Japanese Turbo-Rock, the one hundred and fifty beats per minute making the windows vibrate and the pair of dildos stuck to the dashboard wobble. At the top of the hour, the music blended into some host chit chat, and then went into local news, Marius gave a running commentary.

“There’s some kind of massive accident in town. A bus tipped over, a crash with some kind of tanker. Fuel all over the road, and more leaking, and there’s a bunch of kids trapped on the bus – so they’ve closed off the roads and stopped anyone getting nearby. There’s fear that any spark could trigger an explosion. Something about the emergency services being trapped by the accident, having to carry rescue gear in on foot. Appeals for people to avoid the town centre, massive traffic jams. That’s going to affect people heading to the airport. The local hospital is activating their emergency plan, so non-vital injuries go to their doctors… yeah, they’re moving on to other stuff now. Ok – so now we know why we’re not moving.”

They sat and waited for a few more minutes, watching as drivers got out of their vehicles nearby to go and buy food or drink from the shops, just leaving the doors of their vehicles open. Some stood in small clusters talking, arms waving in an animated fashion. Shimazu just happened to be looking to the rear, keeping an eye on things – and saw the army truck approaching. It was driving on the opposite side of the road, which had long since emptied of traffic. 

“Whoh! That army truck from earlier, coming in fast, other side of the road – heads up everyone!” The team scrambled to the side of the truck, craning for a view – except Marius who slumped in his seat as he melded with the vehicle sensors. The truck approached quickly, moving ridiculously fast down the empty road. Hunter threw open the top hatch and poked his head out, shielding his eyes with his hands to stare at the truck as it went past in a blur of green.

They saw several people dressed in para-military style, poking out of our similar hatches on the other truck, and as it went past, they saw a few people hanging off the back of the truck, on some kind of harness, swinging from side to side – but there was no mistaking the machine guns in their hands. They came past, probably still travelling at around a hundred and forty kilometres per hour. There were a couple of crunching noises as it smashed through the doors that had been left open as drivers got out of their vehicles to wander, some just slamming shut, others being ripped from their hinges and thrown down the road, impacting on other cars or sliding across the tarmac in a shower of sparks.

Ahead a small group of people were crossing the road, not paying any attention to the side out of town. The noises alerted them, and they started to react – but for some of them, there was just no time. Two adults and a child were caught in the middle of the road, unable to get out of the way in time. The speeding truck struck them, and their bodies were catapulted down the road, shreds of limbs exploding outwards. Screams and gasps of horror could be heard from both sides of the road, and several people turned away in disgust as a cloud of blood splattered across some of the cars. It wasn’t much of a mercy, but at least it was quick – the people struck died instantly from the force of the impact, and it was clear to everyone that first aid was not going to be required.

The truck did not waver, did not deviate and continued down the road without slowing. Marius played back the sensor footage frame by frame, isolating the ones that were in sharp focus and binning the rest. Now they had a good chance to look at the vehicle, they could see that a massive amount of extra armour had been welded or bolted onto the front – along with something that looked like a dozer blade or scoop. The sides and rear of the truck looked unarmoured – everything was on the front, but looked almost impregnable.

“Battering ram. Has to be.” Aswon looked around at the others and didn’t see anyone arguing with him. “But why? What the hell is going on?”

Hunter dropped through the hatch, pulling it closed behind him. “I could smell the nitrous on that thing – they weren’t holding back on that. But I also picked up a trace of AmFo.” He saw a few blank looks. “Ammonium based explosives, made from fertiliser. Home brew stuff. Like the sort of thing you use for car and truck bombs.”

Ahead of them the truck screeched and swung through a ninety degree bend in less than a truck length. It looked like an impossible manoeuver, something done with complete disregard to the laws of physics. There was no way the truck should have been able to do that – not unless there was a kick-ass rigger driving that with some state of the art kit. The guys hanging off the back at the end of the ropes were not immune to physics though, and whipped around on the end of the rope, suddenly pulling more g’s than was comfortable. But the truck finished the slide, and jets of flame shot out of the exhaust as more nitrous oxide was dumped into the engine. The burst of power helped the truck smash through the cars sitting nose to tail, and then the truck smashed into an outbuilding, sending plastic and sheet steel into the air explosively.

The team sat in stunned silence for a moment, looking at the scene of devastation ahead of them – as did the pedestrians around them. Kai looked out of the window at the square full of shopkeepers and customers.

“Can’t see that woman any more. She’s disappeared in the last few seconds.”

Aswon’s eyes suddenly went wide, and he pointed as Hunter and clicked his fingers loudly.

“Map of the area, close up if you can?” Hunter obliged and pulled up his navigation map on the roll out screen, showing the town and the area surrounding it. “Over this way, we have a guerrilla war with people fighting for independence. Up in town here, we have a bus crash full of kids that has paralysed the local law enforcement and created massive traffic. And this battering ram truck has just turned ‘bout here, and is headed this way.” He traced his finger towards the coast, and then tapped on the map at the square boxy area. “Right towards the power station. In a truck that smells of homemade explosives. Crewed by guys with guns.” I saw something like this back in ’52 – bunch of locals took out a bridge with a truck bomb, didn’t care about the local damage.”

“So, what do we do? Actually, what kind of power station is that? And more importantly, if it explodes, how far away do we need to be?” They leaned over, and looked at the map.

“No coal stores.”

“Can’t see any gas reservoirs or oil terminals or stores.”

“Definitely not solar or microwave.”

“It had cooling towers, so it’s something based off steam turbines. And if it’s not coal, gas or oil – that only leaves one option… nuclear. And if they cause a breach, then the explosion, or the poison – it won’t matter how far or fast we go, we won’t get away.”

If they thought the atmosphere was grim earlier when Tads announced the ritual tracking, it was nothing as to how they felt now. Kai blew air out of mouth in a deep sigh.

“Come on. Time to save the town. We know we’re going, because we’re the only ones around. So let’s not waste time… get moving, Marius.”

“ARE YOU MAD?” blurted Nadia. She glanced around, but saw no support from the others. Marius started the truck, and she glared at him for a moment, then climbed over the seat into the back, with Aswon moving to follow her. She grabbed her bag and went to the rear door, but just as she reached it there was a click as Marius hit the deadlock. She rattled the handle for a moment and then kicked the door and shouted his name loudly – but he didn’t respond. Instead it was Aswon that spoke.

“Look, you’re not safe out there. No safer than with us anyway. It’s probably better if you just tuck yourself into one of the bunks, and if you believe in a deity, pray.” He watched as she sullenly complied, and then grabbed two of the armoured vests and draped them over her to try and keep her safe, before grabbing some hardware and returning to the cab. He staggered a little as Marius swung the truck over and rammed a car out of the way, hearing the massive diesel engine roar and pushing the lightweight vehicle aside with ease.

Marius had a trailer to think about, but wasn’t going anywhere near as fast as the first truck, so made the turn easily, picking through the wreckage and debris with ease. The path taken by the first truck was not difficult to follow – it was an almost straight line heading east, and the truck’s massive ground clearance and all terrain tyres made easy work of it. They were behind, and had taken time to discuss and work out what was going on – but they didn’t have to make a path. The ramming truck had destroyed buildings – houses and shops, outbuildings and garages, and had carved its way through cars and trucks on the way, each of which would have cost it some speed.

They burst out of the housing estate and joined a new looking access road at a ninety degree angle, crunching over some trees. Ahead of them was a fence, several metres high that stretched off right and left. But the gatehouse and left gate that spanned the road was destroyed, and bodies lay all around in various states of dismemberment. They wore uniforms, and most of them had guns out – some in hands, some near the bodies. But everyone appeared dead, stitched with bullet impacts. A few of the bodies looked to have been sawn in half, by sustained automatic fire, legs lying apart from torsos and large pools of blood staining the ground. In the distance, they could see the truck closing on the cooling towers and huge boxy building of the power station.

Aswon staggered through the doorway from the rear of the truck, passing over the LAW to Hunter, who shouldered open the hatch whilst he was extending the tubular launcher and flipping up the sight. Marius slammed on the brakes, and the cab of the truck dipped as the speed dropped abruptly. Hunter watched the receding truck, gauging the distance between them. The LAW wasn’t a smartlinked weapon, so it didn’t integrate with his targeting system – which would normally place a virtual dot overlaid in his vision that showed him exactly where he would hit. But he didn’t have to do this the old-fashioned way either.

His built-in GPS system interfaced with the orientation processor installed at the back of his skull, feeding data accurate to half a metre to him. The grey matter added to aid his learning wasn’t the only bio-enhancement he’d received. As he mentally worked out the trajectory, the posterior parietal cortex, ventrotemporal occipital cortex, and the prefrontal cortex all exploded in a burst of activity, neurons firing as he estimated the range and the trajectory needed. All of these areas had received a complex series of treatment, expanding the gyri and convolutions of the natural growth. With the increase in surface area came a large effective increase in connections and neural networking, and numbers danced in his head as the complex series of 3d calculations fell into place. He squeezed the trigger – just as Marius hit a pile of rubble that had exploded outwards from the gatehouse, causing the truck to bounce half a degree.

The rocket flew up in an arc, motor burning bright and leaving a plume of smoke. It was a long range shot, and took a couple of seconds for the high explosive warhead to cover the distance. Reaching apogee, the warhead arced downwards and slammed towards the truck – impacting into the ground about two metres behind it. The explosion impacted the back of the truck, causing it to slew wildly, but it shot out of the smoke with only minor damage to the vehicle – though the men who had been tied to the back had not fared so well. One hung limply in his harness, and the other had been thrown away from the truck and landed on the ground limply, and lay there unmoving.

“Fuck. Reload.” Hunter dropped the tube and dangled a hand down into the cab, trusting that someone would pass him their second – and last – LAW. Aswon reached up and slapped the tube into his hand, watching him raise it up and out of the hatch, and starting to extend it again. The first shot had been at very long range – this one would be almost impossible. Hunter would have to fire up at nearly forty-five degrees to get the range to target, and the attackers knew there was someone behind them now.

“WAIT,” shouted Aswon. “Listen!” Hunter paused for a moment and the others tried to keep still, straining their ears. Once again though, Aswon’s enhanced senses let him pick up on the faint noise before anyone else could. “Chopper, sounds like the one back in the mountains. Echoing oddly though – behind the towers maybe. THERE!”

The others could follow his outstretched hand, but Hunter had to look for himself – not that it was a problem. A grey helicopter banked around the cooling towers, skimming them with almost suicidal clearance and sliding sideway through the air. They heard the intercom speakers key up almost immediately as Marius slewed his sensors skywards.

“Su83 Chopper. J or K variant – can’t tell yet. Fast, light armour, single seat with fairly basic sensor package. But it’s got a rapid autofire gun on the nose turret and normally carries a pair of Outlaw block 3’s. They will totally mess up your day… ok, getting back scatter, the chopper is lighting up the truck, Ku band radar and some targeting LIDAR – he’s locked on!”

They watched as the chopper continued to slide sideways through the air, facing the truck and circling it so it was actually approaching the team. The other truck slammed on the brakes and slewed around again, lightning fast, and twin tracers arced through the air, following the chopper. The lines of red fire got closer and closer to the chopper, the magnesium tracer rounds burning like a laser beam and helping the gunner adjust to keep up with the rapidly moving target. The tracers got closer and closer, but then the chopper pilot jinked, dropping behind a cooling tower and breaking line of sight. It saved him from the streams of fire – but also prevented him from firing his missiles at the truck. Not that it bothered the pilot of the chopper – he’d done his job, though nobody knew it yet.

Aswon cocked his head to one side. Why was there a dog growling? He glanced side to side – not seeing anyone else noticing the noise. He listened again. Hmm, not a dog. More of a low-pitched roar. Then a dark shape, a blur, appeared over the top of the station, coming towards them. Several of the team spotted it, and had just started to raise their hands to point at it.

Just off the coast, the TCG Göksu was accelerating, the gas turbines throwing up a massive wake behind the ship as the variable pitch propeller dug into the water. The general quarters gong was still sounding, and crew all over the ship were preparing their combat stations. The weapons officer didn’t hear that, though – he was rigged into the missile, controlling it with deft mental touches as delicate as anything Marius could duplicate. In the mental picture fed back from his missile sensors, guided by the targeting information initially sent back from the chopper, he reached the centre of his targeting grid and sent a mental command. The naval weapon control system gently dismounted his conscious mind from the weapon, preventing him from getting dump shock from the abrupt loss of signal – and the SLAM exploded. The explosion accelerated the ninety-three individual bomblets downwards at high speed, driving the ten kilograms of explosive penetrators downwards. The explosion covered an area roughly equivalent to a large sports field, and the explosions marched towards them in a rippling wave of devastation. The conflagration was massive, the additive effects of each explosion driving roiling gasses and flames high into the air and blanketing the site in a black smoke.

“Sweet mother of god.” Nobody remembered saying it, but nobody would disagree with the thought. That explosion might not have made it through the thick multi-layered armour on the other truck – but the sides, rear and top had all been unarmoured, and nobody had any expectation that the vehicle or any of the crew had survived.

Marius already had the truck moving, swinging around in a tight circle, and heading down the road away from the power station. Tads concentrated and wove her magic around them, struggling to overcome the pall of death and destruction caused by the massacre of the gate guards. However, she had incentive to make it work, and pulled on reserves of power and concentration, and with a ripple the truck and trailer took on the form of a battered white articulated lorry, with a dirty and grimy trailer, sporting a slogan in Turkish. Tads had no idea what it meant, but it had been written on the side of a truck she had seen earlier, and it was better than nothing.

They accelerated smoothly and headed along the road – running parallel to the main road and heading in towards the centre of town, but on the other side of the small housing estate. There was no traffic here, but they knew that at some point they would have to turn back onto the main road. Hunter was looking back along their route and trying to find a route over the highlands and the interior – it was miles out of their way, and probably slow – but better than the alternative.

Just as they approached the turn, a pair of police cars came rocketing around the turn, skidding wildly and clipping the kerb, before hammering past them and driving towards the power station.

“Brave… or stupid. Ok everyone, let’s be cool. Marius… drive casual.”

Hunter snorted and checked the magazine in his Ares Antioch, then his Alpha combat gun, and the others followed suit, checking that nothing was out of place. Behind them the black smoke dissipated from the blast scene, and the chopper nosed through the wreckage, confirming the kill to the ship. The pilot increased power and slowly turned the chopper, letting the sensors play around the area, looking for more targets. On the frigate, smoke still drifted from the vertical launch cell that had fired the first munition, but the remaining five in the set sat unused – waiting for targeting data from the spotter.

The team reached the turning, and could see the street ahead with a narrow gap where the police cars had snuck through the queuing traffic.

“Think you can make that, Marius?”

The truck rolled forward slowly, and the team held their breath.


	61. 061 - Leaving Sinop at speed

Date 30/01/2060, Location 42.00848, 35.12878

Marius looked at the gap in the traffic, where the cars had been chivvied out of the way by the police cars. He compared that to what he knew about the vehicle, and realised that he had about ten millimetres of clearance on each side. Plenty. He edged through the gap, having to make a correction half-way through when he realised that the trailer was not lined up true with the truck. He applied a flex to the suspension through, hopping the trailer to the side and squeezing through the gap – only taking off the thin layer of dust on the side.

As he was squeezing out of the gap, Tads addressed the team.

“We still don’t know who was tracking us – but I have a plan. How about if we get up into the hills somewhere, and get stopped… then we get out, one at a time, while I’m looking astrally. And I can spend a few minutes watching us, each one, to see if the tracking resumes. That way we can find out at least which one of us was being targeted, and then work out what to do about it.

“How about… can you do a spell, and cast it on everyone, and it makes them glow if they’re being targeted? Or if there’s a spell being cast on them?” Kai raised an eyebrow as he asked the shaman if it was possible, but saw her shake her head.

“It’d take me weeks to work out how to do that, and I’d have to remain awake after casting it to keep it active – and it would make it very difficult to cast other spells as I’d have to split my focus. Overall, I don’t think it would work like you want it to.”

“Do we really want to be in the middle of no-where to do this?” asked Hunter. “Surely we want to be in the middle of town, where it’s easier to hide, or they can’t throw a massive fireball at us?”

“That’s true – it’s more likely to stop people with the risk of collateral damage – if they care about such things. But in a major population centre, it’s a lot easier to get transport or assets in place,” said Aswon, “think about it – if they tracked us, and we were in somewhere like Constantinople – they can fly people into the airport quickly, or hire some mercs or a strike team. If we’re in the middle of nowhere, then their response time is hours and hours – which gives us time to prepare, or move."

Marius finished edging through the traffic, and turned into the middle of the road, sitting in the turn filter heading into town and pulling up parallel to the traffic jam.

“Marius – I thought we were heading out of town?” said Kai. His tone was restrained though – it was clearly a question, not a remonstration.

“We can try and turn, if you want. But some attention will come this way – maybe more choppers, maybe ground units. What better way to avoid attention than to be ‘stuck’ in the traffic? I mean, what terrorists would be crazy enough to hide in plain sight, right next to the event – rather than high-tail it into the hills and away as fast as they can?”

Kai and the others considered this for a moment, turning the logic over in their head and trying to think about it from the point of view of the response forces – and it did make a certain amount of sense. As long as Tads could maintain the illusion on them, it was unlikely they would be spotted as their actual vehicle type – and who would question a large cargo truck quite obviously heading in towards the incident.

“If we need to turn, I think I can do it – I’ll just drive up here on the wrong side as far as that side street up there, and then I think we can…. Stand by, chopper coming.” His voice took on a distracted tone, as he concentrated on his sensors, following the chopper through the sky as it swung overhead. “Getting active emissions from him – he’s scanning the traffic jam. Thorough sweep, full spectrum, clearly a professional.” There was a grudging tone of admiration in his voice, even rendered through the vehicle intercom.

The attack chopper drifted overhead scanning the traffic jam and the surrounding areas, flying about two hundred metres up, with the sensors covering a large cone below the heavily-armed chassis. As the pilot moved forward under minimal power, Marius focussed up onto the vehicle, and gathered more details on the layout and type of weapons, confirming that it was carrying Block III dedicated anti-vehicle missiles and a large calibre machine gun in the nose mount. The chopper was painted a dull grey colour all over, with various unit markings and blazons standing out – it was close enough that the trid sensors could zoom right in for a close look. The chopper continued to move ahead, and just as they were about to breathe a sigh of relief, they saw the tail start to turn, pushing the nose around until it was facing back towards them.

“He’s spotted something. Maybe got a twitch on a sensor for something. Definitely coming back, and the sensors are being steered – narrowing focus on the road now, coming over the vehicles. No targeting systems yet, this is all scanning… but definitely coming back for a second look. Tads, we are concealed, right?”

Tads felt the magic wrapped around the truck, checking that it was still threaded protectively around them. The illusion was still in place, making them appear as a heavy duty eighteen-wheel truck, a standard articulated trailer hooked up to a long cab, the sort of thing used to transport bulk goods hundreds of miles. It was still in place, and still just as strong, though she felt that it was perhaps not the most convincing or perfect of illusions. She called on her spirit, and asked it to conceal the truck, bargaining with the last of her power to bolster the illusion and make it more convincing.

The chopper came over again, and they watched it as best they could, craning their heads to follow it as it flew overhead and along the road. Marius watched his sensors carefully, feeling the probing tendrils of energy emitted from the various emitters on the military craft. Once again he felt the wash of power recede as the craft flew past them, and along the traffic for a few hundred metres, before once again it banked sharply and turned to face them again.

“It must be something active – I’m going dark!” They saw the lights in the cab extinguish and heard the air-con die. In the back the fridge juddered to a stop and the other electrical systems switched off one by one as Marius killed all electrical and electronic devices. The intercom system was the last to switch off, and other than the actual control electronics for the interface, they were just a black hole now. Marius held his breath, ready to re-engage systems swiftly if needed. He felt blind and isolated with his active sensors off, and all the passive sensors just displaying the “raw” take, with none of the usual enhancements and assistance.

Once more the chopper came overhead, probing and testing with its sensors. This time, between the magical protection and the lack of signals, the sensors failed to lock on to anything, and the expert system fuzzy logic in the attack computer decided that what it has seen was a “sensor anomaly”, erasing the track on the system display and clearing the pilot to move on. The chopper turned and headed away slowly, continuing to work through the traffic and classify all the contacts, looking for anything alarming as it followed the road into the centre of town.

They breathed out and relaxed for a moment, and slowly Marius started to power his systems back up, one at a time. The others continued to watch out of the windows, looking for more trouble. A few minutes passed, and then Hunter snorted, then started to giggle, barely supressing the sounds of mirth. Between giggles, he pointed down the road, into town.

As the others turned to look, they too snorted or supressed smiles – as they saw the commandeered tractor and hay trailer pootling up the road towards them, covered in policemen all with 9mm pistols. They were hanging on for dear life as they were inexpertly driven by their sergeant, and were mostly covered in muck by now as they kept being thrown about as he battled through the traffic. The tractor trundled past them and round the turning, heading towards the power station. It appeared that they’d grabbed the first vehicle they could to get past the chaos in the centre of town, and were now perhaps regretting that decision.

Aswon pushed through into the back, checking on Nadia who was still hidden under the flak jackets. She poked her head out as she heard movement, asking Aswon if it was safe to come out yet, whilst he sorted out a drink. Kai shouted through from the front that she should stay put, but Aswon just came past and slid the door shut between the front and rear of the truck, motioning her to make herself comfortable but to stay out of the way. He heard the sound of a door opening, and quickly checked, watching as Tads climbed out of the truck and stood by the side of the road looking about her.

She checked astral space carefully, spending some time feeling the flow of power through the area and trying to determine if anyone was still questing after her or the others. It took a minute or two of effort and continuous checking, but she was pretty certain that she was safe and that nothing was looking for her – in fact, there was nothing magical going on in the area at all. She opened the door of the cab and motioned for the leeches to be passed down, quickly closing the door again when she had them securely held, then repeated her checks. Once again, she found nothing amiss magically, and no strange effects on the leeches – though there was noticeably less food in the jar now. She waved to Shimazu next, going through the same routine with him, and then his sword – checking for nearly a minute on each before pronouncing them “safe” and moving on.

Kai suddenly spotted Ceyda crossing the road ahead of them, nearly fifty metres further into town. She darted across through the traffic, moving quickly – and was halfway across the road before he had a chance to say anything. He dived out of the door and ran down the road towards her, closing half the distance between them before she broke line of sight around the corner of the building. The others watched him running down the road, wondering what he had seen. In the truck, they readied weapons again, trying to ensure they were ready to back him up as required.

Kai got to the corner and peeked around, spotted Ceyda as she climbed into a battered PC-1. The car was the very definition of cheap – all lightweight and flimsy alloys, minimal trim and features and almost non-existent safety systems. The “People’s Car No.1” was a locally produced model, and was cheap and very cheerful. Behind him, Tads concentrated on his aura – taking advantage of him being out of the truck to check him for magical traces, unbeknownst to him. Kai called out to Ceyda, attracting her attention, and had the satisfaction of seeing shock on her face as she recognised him through the windscreen of the vehicle.

“Hey there. Want some help? Heading out of town?” he called out as she started the car and began to drive. The car sounded awful – it was apparently powered by a lawnmower engine, and accelerated slowly enough that Kai could just walk after it for the moment. “Come on, no need to be funny. We’ve got no issue with you. Here let me give you my number…”

Ceyda applied the brakes and held her phone up, giving Kai a very strange look, but accepting the data packet he squirted through to her from his phone. She shook her head at him, then put her foot down again, and with a “putt putt putt” noise started to drive along the clear side of the road out of town. Aswon had climbed out of the truck by now, and was watching Kai carefully as he dealt with Ceyda on the roadside, so Tads took the time to assense him as well, checking him out for any astral effects but finding him clean. It was the first time she’d really looked at him magically, and she was impressed with the magical gecko tattoos that ran down his body – the spell was not that powerful, but was firmly anchored into his soul and would be very resistant to damage or removal. That was the only thing she found on him, though – no magical trace otherwise.

Further discussion was stalled, as a couple of policemen burst out of the alleyway, led by a couple of small children – who were all pointing animatedly at where the PC-1 had been parked. The policemen crossed the road, weapons pointed up in the air but ready for action, and looked around. Then they saw a window wind down and a man lean out, calling to the policeman, getting his attention then pointing back at them – at Kai in particular. The policemen called to his colleagues and then they started to head towards the team, fixing Kai with a steely look.

As the policeman got to within a few metres of Kai, he spat out a burst of rapid fire Turkish. Kai looked at him blankly, shrugging and raising his empty hands, palm upwards. He was about to turn towards Hunter and ask him to translate for him, when the cop slipped into heavily-accented and badly-phrased English instead.

“Speak! Tell me the plan, or I will kill you all. You with the mental deficit – speak now or kick you in the crotch!”

Kai just stared at him, lost for words at the outburst. His mouth hung open, and he just stood there, which seemed to infuriate the policeman further – making him repeat the phrase louder, and waving the gun in his face.

Hunter stepped forward, his hands held open and clearly not holding a weapon, and addressed him in fluent Turkish, pointing first at Kai, then at where the car had been, then up the road behind them. The policeman listened intently, then spoke into his radio. Down the road, a second policeman spoke to the vehicle owner who had pointed at them, and they saw him nod and then point up the road behind them. There was another burst of conversation over the radio between the policemen, then one of them pulled out a phone and hit a speed-dial, making a report to some unknown party.

Kai looked from policeman to policeman, trying to get a fix on their body language, whilst Hunter listened carefully. Then with almost no warning, he fired off a quick burst of Turkish, whet his lips and made a sound...

“Pthuppp pthuppp pthuppp pthuppp pthuppp pthuppp.” He pointed back along the road to emphasise his point.

The policeman nodded at him, and then turned and gathered his colleagues, jogging back down the way they had come, and disappearing out of sight around the corner.

“What the hell was all of that about?” asked Kai.

“Well, the guy learnt his English from watching action movies by the sounds of things, so I shouldn’t worry about that – but now you know why those guys in the valley were so upset with you – that’s just what you sounded like to them. But they wanted to know about that woman. I told ‘em she was a fruit seller, and conned us out of some money for bad stock, but she’d vanished – and you were trying to get our money back. She refused, so you were trying to take a picture of her on your phone whilst she was making a getaway in her piece of shit car.”

The team all looked up in unison, as the chopper appeared overhead. It grew larger and flashed by them, nose down and travelling flat out as it headed south – in the direction that Ceyda had travelled.

“That was what the phone call was about – he was calling in to a military liaison that they had a fix on the suspect vehicle, and passed on the description of the car. At the end there I was telling them what a crap thing it was, and that it sounded like a lawnmower – and can’t be going that fast.”

Ahead of them, a police car appeared from the alleyway, and started sounding his siren, causing traffic to try and edge forwards and back up a few inches at a time, until there was enough room for it to pull out and then accelerate hard along the road, also following the PC-1. Seeing as Hunter was now out of the vehicle, Tads spent a minute watching and assensing him, making sure he was also not being tracked.

Things seemed to calm down, and everyone got on with the task of waiting. No more choppers were seen, or tractors full of policeman. Street vendors went about their business, and the kids returned to play. Seconds ticked past and turned into minutes. The radio played bad trash pop that sounded tinny and far too heavy on the treble. They sat and waited, occasionally breaking the silence to ask innocuous questions, or to check around the truck and ensure no one was observing them in particular. As time marched by, they saw some of the cars slowly manoeuver and turn around, heading back out of town. Others got out and walked about, or found someone they knew and stood and chatted. A few drivers got together and someone produced some kind of game board, and they played what looked to be a variation of draughts on the tailgate of a truck.

The hours marched by, one, then two, then three. Every now and then someone would question whether they should go back, and work their way through the hills instead. But the general consensus was that turning the truck around in the tight confines of the street would be a real pain. Secondly, it would take them potentially closer to all of the police and the military chopper that had gone after Ceyda. Finally, it was probably the best cover they had – to hide in plain sight, just another truck stuck in a massive tailback. Dusk fell, and the spirit concealing the truck vanished as the last rays of sun disappeared behind the horizon. Tads was not able to summon another – not and keep the spell disguising them up and in place, and they all agreed that the locals wouldn’t miss that transformation if it happened. Finally, at just before 7pm, the traffic ahead of them started their engines and flipped on their lights. The cars started to move away, travelling at a slow but steady speed, snaking around the corner and heading into town.

They indicated into the traffic and were quickly let in, and trundled down the road into town. As they closed on the roundabout, they saw the remains of a badly-burnt bus on the road, with liberal amounts of fire-fighting foam still washing down the street, lit with a multitude of portable lights on stands set up around it. The rotating blue lights constantly cast weird shadows around the scene, causing crazy reflections from the glass and the surrounding buildings, and casting hues from blue through purple as it refracted through the foam and slick road surface. There was a terrible smell of burning, and Marius sealed off the air conditioning and set the blowers on max to clear out the smell of crisped pork whilst they all tried not to think about what that signified.

The roundabout was shut, but it looked like a temporary road had been built between a house and some industrial unit around it. Emergency road matting was laid down, and flashing lights on cones guided the vehicles through the front garden of the house and then down the access road of the unit, then over some rough ground at the back and up a hastily-filled drainage culvert and back onto the main road. The cars scrabbled for grip in some places, but the truck managed the rough terrain easily, crunching over the tiger matting and loose gravel and then powering up the slope. Then they were back on the highway, and with a mighty roar the engine applied power, pulling away smoothly and accelerating down the two lane road that was all but deserted. Most of the other traffic continued around and across the highway, through another temporary access road and into town, heading east instead of west and following the team.

They drove for about thirty minutes, looking at the tailback on the other side of the carriage way, who were probably also heading into town or back the way they had come from – slowly starting to move forwards as they had done – but their side of the road was nearly clear. The odd car came screaming past them at top speed having been caught way back in traffic, but these easily moved around them on the near-deserted road.

Ahead of them though they saw a roadblock – two large police cruisers set up in a staggered formation that forced them to slow and move through an S-bend. They were flagged down and stopped in the middle, waiting for the ID check on the car ahead to be completed, and then rolling forwards into their place. The rest of the team hid in the back, making themselves ready to attack or respond if necessary, and leaving Marius and Shimazu in the front with their fake IDs ready to scan.

When the door was tapped on with a nightstick, Shimazu opened it carefully and gave a wave of acknowledgement, and then handed down the two IDs. The police man checked them, but they both flashed green as the portable scanner checked them and cleared their profiles quickly. Without a word, the official handed back the IDs and waved them on, and Marius was quick to comply. They pulled away from the stop and piled on the speed again, moving swiftly on the quiet road. The sides of the road were dark and quiet, no electric lights and very few houses, and the darkness stretched away both inland and out. Clouds had gathered in the last hour or so, cutting out the moonlight and only the two white beams from the headlights cut through the darkness.

Around 22:30, they arrived in Bartin – the location they had originally planned to have lunch at, and pushed through, trying to make up for lost time on their route. Leaving Bartin, the darkness swallowed them up again, and they continued to head west along the coast road. They thundered through small villages and tiny towns, mostly dark places with nothing moving at this hour, until eventually the road headed inland and uphill for a while, veering south and away from the coast. They crested a ridge and the road swung due west and descended again, and before them was a large coastal plain laid out. The town of Eregil was laid out before them, thin ribbons of housing clinging to the main road and following the major routes west then both north and south. But at the end of the road they were on, and framed by the road splitting left and right was an enormous facility, lit up like a beacon on the horizon. A vast series of huge industrial buildings, some nearly a kilometre long, ran north to south, encased in a gossamer like lattice of supports and gantries and all lit by a thousand arc lights.

They descended down the road, drawing closer to the town and speeding past quiet houses and shops, closing in on the major road junction and the entrance to the Eregil steelworks. At the centre of town, just opposite the road junction, they found a sign for a national low-budget motel, and turned into the car-park. It was moderately busy, but they found space to park the truck and woke the night porter. Over the sounds of hammering, they asked for rooms and were directed to a number of empty double bedrooms, after Marius had swiped his ID and paid for a night’s stay. Finally at around 01:00, they collapsed into bed, listening to the dull thuds of massive forge hammers working steel and other metals in the furnaces just a few hundred metres away. Occasional loud steam whistles punctured the night air, and klaxons sounded to signify some industrial process.

One by one the team tried to push pillows over their ears to drown out the noise, or turn down their hearing enhancements – both natural and cybernetic – trying to get to sleep.


	62. 062 - The Steel Mill

Date 31/01/2060, Location 41.26861, 31.4384

The team were split into two rooms – Nadia, Marius, Shimazu and Kai in one, Aswon, Tads and Hunter in the other. They’d fallen asleep on the beds, the fold-out bed and in the first room on the sofa as well – at least most of them had. Shimazu laid on his bed staring at the sky in his room, and Aswon did the same in his.

The sounds of a large industrial machine applying hundreds of tons of force echoed through the sky. Then a hiss loud enough to be heard at half a mile. A klaxon. Thump, thump, thump. While the rest of the team slept, Aswon and Shimazu were awake, having caught no more than thirty minutes of sleep the whole night. Every time there was a loud crash, they twitched involuntarily, their nervous system – and temper – on edge after a night of frustrated efforts to get to sleep. The rest of the team were curled up in various positions, many of them with their heads under pillows or with their arms curled protectively over their ears – but they’d managed to get to sleep and were resting easy now.

There was a very brief tap at the door of room two, and then the door opened almost immediately. An elderly-looking man wandered in, clad in dishevelled and stained loose fitting clothes, sweeping from right to left with a battered corn broom that was covered in grease.

Aswon sprang to his feet in a single bound, grabbing his spear and lowering it to point at the stranger, who pointedly ignored him.

“You – out – now!”

The elderly man continued to sweep from side to side, moving the grease and dust around a little. Stepping forward, he leisurely raised a hand to gently move the spear tip aside, as if parting a curtain or shooing away a fly. Aswon pulled the spear back and around the stranger’s hand, and then pushed forwards again, until the tip of the spear was mere millimetres from the man’s throat. If he stepped forwards – or even leant forwards – the razor sharp tip would puncture his flesh with ease.

“I said, get out. NOW!”

The old man looked up at Aswon, and as he did he straightened up, the back no longer bent by years of manual labour, the head held erect and proud.

“But if I get out, how will I talk to you, and tell you how you can help me?”

Realisation flooded into Aswon – it was the man from the mountain, back in Iran. He didn’t carry a yoke and wooden pails any more, instead holding the broom and a feather duster. On closer examination, the broom and duster both had thick wooden handles that were ornately carved, made out of some dark wood that exuded a sense of age.

Aswon lowered the spear and glowered at him for a moment, then snorted as the old man resumed sweeping, seeming determined to finish the little corridor section he had started. He turned and entered the bedroom area, and kicked the bottom of the bed, rousing Tads and Hunter. Once they started to lift their heads and stare at him bleary-eyed, he jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the visitor.

“Our friend is back. I’m going to go wake up the others.”

Aswon turned and hunted for something to drink to freshen his mouth before he went next door. The old man saw him, and raised a finger to him, then grabbed an empty glass and filled it from the tap in the bathroom, then handed it over to Aswon. With a dubious look, Aswon sipped at the water – expecting the taste the stale and chemical tang of a third-rate municipal supply. Instead, icy cold pure water washed over his lips, moistening and revitalising them. It tasted like meltwater from a glacier – clean, fresh and about the most wholesome thing he could ever remember. He raised the glass and let the water pour into his mouth, feeling a little shudder down his spine as the icy liquid poured down his gullet. For a moment, he could even forget that he’d had almost no sleep the night before, and he felt fresh and alive, ready to take on the world. Nodding in thanks to the old man, he strode out into the corridor and to the next room, rapping on the door until Shimazu came to open it.

Back in the other room, the old man had leaned his brush up against the wall, and was moving around with the duster, running it over the surfaces of the furniture and humming quietly to himself, whilst Tads and Hunter sat and watched him. A few minutes later, and the rest of the team had filed in, and joined them – filling the seats and beds and watching the old man with interest.

“Ahh, excellent. Well, I have something for you to do for me. Just a little simple task, nothing that will put you in danger, I’m sure.” The team sat in silence and waited, though a few sceptical looks came from Hunter, Marius and Shimazu. “It’s the right time of year for the inspection by the Ministry of Environmental and Economic Affairs, at the local steel mill. I need you to go and give them their inspection, and make sure they pass. It’s essential they pass. But I have this for you, to help you out.”

He reached into his robes and pulled out an old fashioned stamp, with a dark wood handle, and a small ink blotter, set into the same dark wood. The face of the stamp was marked in intricate detail, though it wasn’t possible to see what it said from the quick glance at the reverse image.

“So, the mill know they are about due for their annual inspection – but these things are always unannounced. Get in there, inspect the place, and give them a clean bill of compliance, and authorise their documentation with the stamp. Should be simple for people as talented as you…”

Aswon was the first to speak, though Tads looked to be a fraction of a second behind him.

“You want us to go into the cess pit, and sign them off as being environmentally compliant. You want them to be able to carry on polluting and tainting the land. Why? I mean…. Just why?” Tads nodded vigorously. She’d looked over at the steelworks as they arrived, and seen how twisted and polluted the land was. The leeching of toxins and pollutants into the soil and water, belched into the air or generated by the processes had twisted astral space almost to breaking point. It was a toxic hell-hole, which she didn’t want to enter at all, let alone encourage. Casting her spells there would be very difficult as she tried to strain pure mana that she could use from the filth of the area. She certainly didn’t want to call on the spirits of the land - it was likely that what she would get was likely to be a toxic monstrosity that she might not be able to control.

The old man just nodded, though, without a care or look of concern. Aswon stared at him for a moment then shook his head – not in defiance but in a lack of understanding. Tads folded her arms and looked rebellious – the idea of polluting the land or enabling those that did obviously stuck in her craw. The old man looked at them, and for the barest moment there was a flicker of emotion, but it vanished as soon as it had appeared.

“Sometimes a surgeon must cut, to cure. Sometimes you have to cause, or allow a little harm, to prevent a greater one.” Aswon started to speak, but the old man flicked a glance at him, then continued. “Sometimes, you need to create a dark and dirty environment, where the lice can feed and multiply freely, where they grow fat and lazy – so that when they are exposed, there is no escape, no getting away, and no turning back. When the proof of their deeds is so widespread and obvious, that it cannot be denied. Then you can kill it, rather than just driving it back, or underground.”

They didn’t appear happy – but there was at least understanding on their faces, if not acceptance. The rest of the team had been quiet to this point, letting Tads and Aswon carry the conversation – but now Kai spoke up.

“So, can you help us get in then? Do you have any IDs?” The old man sighed at him a little, then reached into his robe again, and pulled out what looked to be an old-fashioned passport, and handed it over. Hunter and Marius could read the gold leaf text on the front, the ornately-serifed text proclaiming membership of the Ministry.

“Oh, and one more thing. They’ll almost certainly offer a bribe. It’s the accepted thing… it’s the reason why there’s a problem in the first place. You should accept it – otherwise it’s out of character. Feel free to be a little greedy in fact. It should cover your costs and your time. Now, unless there’s anything else I can help you with?” he said, with a little irony inflected on the end of the sentence.

Shimazu looked up – either unware, or uncaring of the sarcasm.

“Don’t suppose you have any earplugs, do you?”

The old man smiled, and once again reached into his robes, pulling out a set of bright yellow and blue earplugs on a cord and passed them over to Shimazu, who smiled and nodded in thanks. Without giving anyone else a chance to speak, he turned and swept his way back down the corridor and out of the room, disappearing from view.

The team looked at each other, and had a quick discussion. They were on a job, on the clock already – they really didn’t want to take this job on, it was quite clearly only going to delay them and add risk. But they didn’t want to annoy the strange old man, who was quite clearly some otherworldly creature of some kind. They passed the ID over to Marius, who examined it closely, checking the weave of the paper, the embossing of the letters and the minor marks around the stamps and signatures.

“This is either a real document, or one of the most convincing fakes I’ve ever seen in my life,” the German announced. “I’ve seen a fair few forged transport orders, or doctored cargo manifests in my time – but this is… convincing.”

Someone’s stomach rumbled, reminding them all that time was marching on. Kai looked over at Marius.

“You’re good with the local lingo, let’s go find a café or restaurant or something, get some breakfast, and if it’s discreet, we can work through the plan, look at the ID, do a little thinking and research, and see what we come up with.”

They headed out of the room, stopping as they reached the door as they heard a sound like a chainsaw getting stuck in a log. Turning, they saw the form of Shimazu laid out on top of the bed, fully-clothed and with the brightly-coloured earplugs jammed into his ears, snoring like he wanted to wake the dead. They decided to leave him, and wandered out of the motel and up the road, soon finding an establishment that seemed a mix of café and restaurant. They didn’t do takeaway food, but they had plenty of seating and were otherwise empty, so the team colonised two tables shoved together and ordered a hearty breakfast. Thick and strong coffee was served to them in large cups, then “Sucklu Yumurta” was bought out – which seemed to be sausage and eggs mixed together, along with a selection of bread, jam, cheese and several varieties of hazelnut and chocolate spreads. They tucked in for several minutes, charging up on energy for the day. Once they’d satisfied their hunger, they started to pick at the problem, piggybacking their matrix connections off of Marius’ sat phone. They queued up searches on the steel mill itself, the owners and operators and started to do some research on the actual environmental code and laws surrounding pollution and industry, downloading endless dry and dull documents from the Ministry of Justice portal that went into intricate detail.

Hunter and Nadia sat for several hours in the restaurant – ordering more coffee and food and tipping well, and the staff seemed happy to just leave them be. Slowly the information searches came back, and they gathered some sense of scale on the mill. It was huge, covering several square kilometres with vast ore deposits forming small hills, and some of the production lines being a kilometre long in massive triple-storey structures. It was by far and away the largest mill in Turkey, producing over five million tons of steel each year. The town used to have a thriving fishing port, as the main source of income – but that had been long surpassed by the steel mill and the jobs dependent on that industry. They also found reference to a unit of the armed forces being based here – and with some more research found out that the Turkish armed forces pension trust had a forty-eight percent stake in the business.

Kai, Marius and Aswon went shopping, picking up some props to use in their subterfuge such as clipboards and electronics probes, along with a couple of cheap suits of Turkish manufacture. They also listened in on the local language – Aswon picking up on the structure fairly quickly using his skill with linguistics to assimilate the dialect. Kai listened and with prompting from Marius, gathered the basics. As they were wandering through the marketplace, they became aware of a group of four men trailing them, trying to be subtle but not doing a great job of it. Marius pulled out his burner phone, and called the local police, and in fluent Turkish explained that there were men in the marketplace, and he was sure he saw them with a gun hidden in their jacket.

Barely a minute later they heard sirens blaring and the sounds of angry shouting approaching them. They sped up suddenly after taking a corner, shook their pursuers and evaded, and soon heard the shouting of the police as the men were arrested and cuffed, all the while protesting their innocence.

By lunchtime Nadia and Hunter felt they had a good feel for the size and scope of the mill, some information on the processes and copious extracts from legal texts detailing pollution, safeguards, fines and punishments, and felt they were about ready. They left the restaurant and met up with the others, headed back to the motel and woke Shimazu who now felt vaguely human after six hours sleep, and checked out. They drove the truck to a piece of nearby waste ground under the elevated highway and parked up, deciding to walk up to the entrance gate – driving up to the mill in a Russian truck would cause more problems for them, and they decided to say they’d been taking samples of the air from the perimeter first, if asked.

Aswon dressed up in his tribal gear, and Tads put on her travelling clothes, whilst Nadia and everyone else put on suits. They grabbed pistols or submachine guns for some of the guys, making sure to take off their silencers to fit in more with the “bodyguard” stereotypes they were trying to fill, and when they were ready, headed out in a group toward the main entrance to the mill.

Kai led the way, mentally rehearsing the lines he and Marius had been drilling. As they walked along the wall, he concentrated for a few moments, and his skin darkened in tone as the melanin reacted to his commands. Muscles twisted and warped, and his eyes became more oval, and seemed to protrude more from his face, and his jowls and chin subtly reshaped. He no longer appeared to be eastern Asian in origin and could now pass for a native of Turkey. He marched up to the window in the guard house, rapped on it sharply and then took a step back. As the window opened, he presented the identity papers with an outstretched arm.

“Please get me the plant manager. I am here from the ministry, for your annual environmental impact assessment.” He managed to get the words out without stumbling, and then made an obvious and conspicuous movement and started the digital stopwatch on his pad, holding it so the guard could see the numbers ticking upwards.

They waited, and barely two minutes after they had arrived, Aswon heard a high pitched whine, getting louder and louder. He subtly warned the others, and they were all turned and facing towards the main building when an electrically-powered cart slid around the turn at breakneck speed and drove towards them – the driver pushing the cart to the limit of its speed. It slid to a halt and a middle-aged man climbed from the back. He was slightly shorter than average and had a pronounced squint, with thinning hair and a florid complexion. His suit looked old but well made, though it was tight-fitting around his waist.

“Good morning, I’m Bahri Pollat, the plant manager. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to meet you – we weren’t expecting you until next week?”

Kai nodded and listened, though he barely made out half of the words of rapid fire Turkish. He theatrically hit the stop button on the timer, freezing the display at 135.19 seconds. Rather than responding, he trotted out the second of his memorised lines.

“We will continue this inspection in English, in deference to our two guests. This is Doctor Ngyu Umbango from Nigeria, and this is Natalya Kaishcovsky from the Ukraine.” He switched from Turkish to English, speaking slowly and enunciating clearly. “Doctor Umbango is from the Nigerian Ministry of Mining, and is acting as a liaison for a new initiative they are working on with the Ministry of Economics, where we may be providing technical expertise and steel to assist their efforts. Ms Kaishcovsky is an environmental officer to the UN, and is here to observe our methods and audit our quality control and ensure that we receive appropriate tariff and customs discounts for maintaining our high standards.”

As he introduced them, Aswon and Tads bowed and then shook hands with the plant manager. The manager had a broad smile on his face that was no more than skin deep. He swapped to English, proving to be reasonably fluent.

“Of course, and welcome to our country. I hope that we can provide you with all the information you need.” The guard came out of the shack and passed over the ID to the plant manager, nodding at him and spoke a few words in Turkish. Bahri nodded and dismissed him absently, still starting at the group with the fake smile on his face. He called out as the guard turned to leave, asking for another cart to be bought around.

As they waited for the second vehicle, Hunter decided to add a little more pressure and up the ante somewhat. He waved the probe around, and sniffed at the air. The gas spectrometer built into his nasal cavity sampled the pollution and fed data to the analyser built into the back of his neck via the high speed router, and spat out the data onto his display link.

“Picking up high levels of Chromium Dioxide, Nitrogen Dioxide and nearly thirty-seven parts per million of class IV carcinogens."

“Really?” asked Kai. “Oh. Oh dear.” He made a series of notes on his pad, ticking several boxes and highlighting some areas in a vibrant red. “Well, I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation for this, isn’t there, Mr. Pollat. I’m sure the filters are just being changed on the air scrubbers. It’s always so hard to stop all the pollution, isn’t it? I think we’ll have to check them of course, rather than just go with the log reports from the SCADA systems, but everything will come out ok, I’m sure.”

He beamed at the plant manager with a wide smile, and saw the sickly smile return – along with a few beads of sweat forming along his hair line. They listened while Bahri stammered his way through some explanation of how they had new staff on the maintenance team – apprentices, part of the continuing effort to enhance the education of local workers – but that sometimes mistakes were made. But he would be sure to look into it, and deal with it as necessary.

A second cart arrived, and the team were loaded into the vehicles, and taken – at a much more leisurely pace – round to the office block. It was a three-storey building, made out of stark prefabricated concrete blocks, harsh and ugly – but entirely in keeping with the rest of the facility. A wide set of steps led up to triple sets of double doors, and Bahri raced up the stairs to pull open the doors and usher them into the foyer, to begin their tour…


	63. 063 - Inspection and Bribes

Date 31/01/2060, Location 41.26613, 31.43282

Kai strode up the wide stone steps and in through the central double doors, like a reigning monarch returning to his throne, with the rest of the team trailing after him in a column. Inside the reception area was a large space, filled with pictures, sculptures and seats – at some time in the past this had been designed to wow people, and display a sense of power and importance, but once the initial impression could be seen past it was noticeable that the paint was peeling in places, the pictures undusted and the carpet threadbare.

Bahri led them to a large lift and motioned them in, standing to the side and holding the door open with an outstretched arm whilst the team crammed in. It was a tight fit for the eight of them, and the lift mechanism groaned and complained slightly, barely managing the climb to the third floor. On arrival, Bahri led the way to his office – a large corner suite overlooking much of the town and highway system to the west and south. He motioned for them to take seats on the couch and chairs, and then moved to a coffee machine set against one wall

“Would anyone care for some refreshment?”

Hunter, moved over to the coffee machine, and then took a deep sniff, and made a show of connecting his tablet back to his datajack and then studying the results.

“Not from this. Water, if you don’t mind. From a sealed bottle. From out of town.”

The others started to smile, and then hid their faces, either with coughs, or in paperwork. As Bahri looked at Hunter, the others chimed in, also asking for the same. The factory manager moved to his desk, and punched in a comm code, connecting him to some flunky somewhere, and then spoke quietly, with his back to the team – for what little good it did him. In the quiet of the office, he could still be heard clearly enough.

“Get me some bottles of water. There must be some on site somewhere. I don’t care whose, just bring it. Yes, bring a whole box. Slab? Whatever, bring it!” He turned to face them, and composed himself. “Ahh, they’ll be along shortly. So sorry for the delay.”

He was ‘saved’ from the silence as the team stared at him by a tap at the door, and a tired-looking middle-aged man in a very cheap suit pushed in a trolley full of equipment. A pop-up screen was placed against the far wall, and then a powerful projector was linked to the manager’s desktop computer and set up. Moments later the title slide appeared from a presentation, and the underling from IT was dismissed from the room. Bahri moved and sat down behind the desk, and then started to give his presentation. As he worked through the material, he appeared to relax slightly, feeling at home with the familiar material.

The team watched in silence, as he worked through the first four slides, detailing the history of the plant and the importance of it to Turkey and the economy. He was interrupted again with another knock at the door, but hid his annoyance as a youngish-looking lady arrived holding a case of water wrapped in plastic. These were quickly distributed amongst the team, and after Hunter had sampled one carefully, then nodded, were opened and drunk from.

Bahri looked to be ready to continue his presentation, but Kai spoke up before he could get back into the flow.

“This is all very interesting of course, though much of this is already known to us at the Ministry. Whilst I would love to watch through your very interesting and well-prepared presentation – I fear we must actually get on with inspecting the site. Please make arrangements for the tour, so we can examine the aspects of production required to sign off on the environmental approvals.

“What? You mean you want to actually see the site?”

“Quite so.”

Bahri looked confused for a moment. Slides whizzed past on the projector as he fast forwarded through his presentation, stopping at slide 56 which showed a table of data detailing the performance of the air scrubbers over one of the furnaces - and unsurprisingly, proclaiming that everything was fine and there was no pollution to worry about.

“Normally the inspectors just want to see the data here, and sign off that we have it…”

“I’m afraid that the new regulations are in place this year, and require us to have a visual inspection of how the data is gathered too. I’m sure you understand.” Kai managed to convey a bored dis-interest while he said this, and then casually waved at Tads and Aswon. “Of course, whilst we are out on the tour, you can show the capacity and excellence of the plant to our guests from the international community. And whilst they are inspecting the ability of our industry to meet their needs, we can step aside to give them some room to contemplate, and discuss matters, privately.”

A light dawned on Bahri’s face as he added two and two, and got to about five – filling in the unsaid parts of the conversation with his own preconceived ideas. Aswon though saw where Kai was angling with this, and leant forward in his chair and added fuel to the fire.

“My country will soon start mining a number of precious ores and materials. We believe that we have found a large and very high quality deposit of Tantanite. To extract this, we will need much equipment, many thousands of tons of steel, to build rail heads and extraction equipment. We need a partner who can supply us with this. If a partner then has a market for the ore we extract – well, we already have a trade agreement in place. Shipping routes. Cordial relations. So much the better for us.”

Bahri looked at him, and you could almost see the cogs whirring, as he thought about the backhanders and tax evasion possible with a closed loop supply system like this, and managed to give a broad smile.

“Of course. Let me make a call, and we’ll happily show you the plant. We’re very proud of it.” Once more he activated his comm and gave instructions for the two buggies to be bought around to the front again, along with drivers.

He led the way out of the office, glanced at the lift, and decided instead to walk down the wide staircase that bent around the lift shafts. As he walked the party down, he continued to describe the operation of the mill, their capacity and a number of projects around Turkey that had been made possible due to their steel. The team listened, mostly in silence – happy to let him do all the work. Occasionally they asked for more information, or responded with a redirect, just to keep him talking.

They came out of the stairs into a long open-plan office, and headed to the door back into the reception area. As they walked through the room, they saw staff – a lot of staff. From the paperwork, posters and files around the place, they were obviously in the Human Resources area, but the department seemed to be huge – even for an industry that might still rely on a lot of cheap manual labour to get things done. More than that, a bunch of them appeared nervous. Several of the team noticed certain tells – dry lips suddenly licked, nervous movements of the hair, rubbing hands across the throat. They shared a look, and pressed on, out of the room without comment, and into the grand reception room.

“Oh, if we’re going on the tour, I expect we need hard hats, high-visibility clothing and scrubber masks, won’t we?” asked Hunter. Kai and several of the others stared at Bahri, with their stylus hovering over their tablets.

“Of course, I was just about to say the same. If you’ll just wait here….” He saw several of the team make conspicuous “ticking” motions, and then hustled out of the room, reaching for his portable comm as he did so – and leaving them alone for a minute.

The team had a rapid but muted conversation – keep it low-key, try to ignore things, make good noises. Don’t attract attention, be pliant. Check.

Bahri came back through the door with a pair of assistants, loaded down with safety gear – after a bit of work they were all fitted out with masks, safety glasses, hard hats and vests, and were on the way out to the waiting golf buggies outside. The drivers set off, and they drove down the length of the main building and wound their way through the mill to the massive ore heaps close to the shore.

Bahri started to describe the ore transportation process, and how the raw product was managed and contained. The team listened and nodded – apart from Tads who stared in horror at the ground and the pollution seeping into the land. Seeing the look on her face, Kai flicked a glance at Aswon and nodded down the track between massive mounds of ore.

Aswon took her gently by the elbow and pointed at a heap of ore, nearly twenty metres high and started to talk about how his country would soon exports materials like this, with the help of their new Turkish allies. He walked down that way, Marius, Shimazu and Nadia joining them and drawing attention their way. Hunter and Kai closed up on Bahri, and turned away from the rest of the team.

“Right, let’s get to business, shall we, now those international busybodies are out of the way. Of course there’s no problem with the inspection – we just have to make it look good for the foreigners. You understand our position, of course – we NEED this contract. They want hundreds of thousands of tons of steel, and will mine ores we need for our industry and economy to grow. We must impress them, and win this contract. The ministry will not forget how much you have helped us in the future… but for now, we have an arrangement in place?”

Bahri nodded, and reached into the footwell of the electric buggy, and pulled out a small tan briefcase and handed it to Kai. Kai immediately passed it over to Hunter, who returned to the cart and sat in the rear seat, popping open the top for a quick glance. The inside was roughly divided into three areas. The left was stuffed with notes of large denominations, actual honest-to-goodness cash, rather than credsticks or certified funds. The middle had a stack of what looked to be bearer bonds and government notes, and the right was full of stock certificates. He had no idea of the value or worth of the contents – so he looked at Kai and gave a serious nod, as if this was exactly what he was expecting. Kai, in turn, clapped Bahri on the shoulder with his left hand and gave him a firm handshake with the right, blasting him with a thousand watt smile at the same time. Before the factory manager could say anything, he called over to the rest of the team, telling them they needed to push on with the inspection.

They toured more of the yard, seeing the water pumping station and holding tanks, the rail head and storage yards. The pipeline bringing in slurry from some distant quarry for sand casting. As they moved around, they saw more and more signs of neglect, pollution and cost-cutting, lazy workers and poor maintenance. They passed a furnace just as a worker stumbled and spilt some liquid onto the hot floor, and watched as it burst into flame, the conflagration dancing metres high as other workers ran up with portable firefighting equipment – only half of which appeared to work. Kai made a point of “distracting” the foreigners by pointing at something, and cast a glance at Bahri, who was once more sweating profusely.

As they pushed on through the hot-rolling mill, Hunter and Marius caught sight of the clouds of dense rolling smoke up in the rafters, belching out from the machinery and furnaces full of molten steel. It roiled around the extractors on convection currents of hot air – but not into the extractors themselves. As they moved along the shed, it became clear that the anti-pollution filters were not doing their jobs, because they weren’t turned on. 

They continued, and though they had no experience with steel milling – their various skills in chemistry, engineering, logistics and management showed them that the factory was in an appalling state – corners cut everywhere, and poorly-trained and equipped staff just “making do”. They also didn’t appear to be anywhere near as well-staffed as they had expected, from the size of the Human Resources department…

Whenever they spotted something bad, they jotted a quick note into the pad, beaming it to Kai. Kai in turn “distracted” the officials, then glanced at the cause and glared at Bahri. By the time they were almost back at the main office, they’d caught employees tipping caustic chemicals straight into the drains, throwing empty containers of supplies into the furnace to avoid taking them to the bins, numerous health and safety violations and a whole string of operational issues that would affect the finished goods quality. Kai’s smile vanished, and he was soon frowning at Bahri. As they returned to the office, he moved to the side of the door and stood next to Bahri – waving the rest of the inspection team inside first. When just the two of them were outside, he whispered into his ear as he passed.

“We will be lenient, as you were not expecting an actual inspection. But this is going to cost you extra this year. Don’t disappoint us.” Kai glared at him, then swept inside, and guided the team to the lift and ushered them in. As Bahri walked towards the lift, Kai made eye contact and made a small gesture – rubbing thumb and forefinger together – hidden from the rest of the team. He let the lift door close, leaving Bahri in the reception area, and pushed the button for the third floor, letting out a breath as they started to move. He hoped he hadn’t pushed too hard.

They moved into the office, grabbed fresh water bottles and stripped off the safety gear, leaving it in a messy pile on his desk. Frantic text messages flowed between them as they worked out their next bit of plan, trying not to speak out of their assigned roles, in case the office was bugged. Bahri took nearly five minutes to get back to his office – when he returned he was holding a large rock in his hands. His shirt collar was damp and sweat trickled down his cheek – he’d certainly been exerting himself.

“Ahh, so sorry to keep you waiting. Um… ah, as you know, it’s traditional to award a memento after a visit, so we have this geode. Of no value, of course, but very pretty, and would make a lovely desk decoration in the ministry?” Kai nodded graciously, and gestured towards Hunter as his designated assistant. Bahri handed over the rock to him carefully, refusing to let go at first. Hunter looked at him with confusion, then nodded as he saw the cut through the rock – it was already split in half, and needed to be held together. He adjusted his grip, and held onto the rock tightly, keeping the two parts aligned.

Aswon spoke, half to Bahri, half to Kai – saying that he had seen the capacity of the mill and was pleased, and would recommend to his government that they commence negotiations for a half million ton contract. Kai nodded and then rose to shake his hand, and gave Bahri a smile and a nod. Whilst he was distracted, Marius made a quick call from his internal comm, calling Kai.

Kai answered, and reacted with surprise, then shock. He pitched his half of the conversation so it would carry clearly, and it soon became obvious that “there was trouble”. He hung up and explained to Bahri that there were issues with the nuclear plant to the east, and that terrorists had attempted to destroy it… and there was new information that needed to be dealt with. He pulled out the wooden stamp and ink pad, and stamped the anachronistic forms on the manager’s desk, certifying that the steel plant was all in accordance with the regulations and requirements of the Turkish government for another year.

Once more, they were escorted down the stairs and out to the waiting buggies, then driven to the entrance and the guard hut. Bahri looked around for a car, clearly expecting important ministers to be collected in a limousine or the equivalent. Sensing questions starting to rise in his mine, Kai insisted on the guard coming out, and then gave him a glowing recommendation to the factory manager for his thoroughness on checking his ID and speed of service. The guard, expecting a chewing out from the look on his face, stood at attention, and chose to say nothing, but Bahri felt it necessary to also congratulate him in front of the guests. By now the poor man didn’t know if he was coming or going – but the question of the car was no longer in the forefront of his mind.

“Now, thank you for your time – we just need to walk over to the rather dreadful motel over there to get our bags. The new regulations said we had to take air readings from the surrounding areas, so it seemed the least bad option. Our transport is parked around the back.” While Bahri struggled to process this, he shook his hand firmly and clapped him on the shoulder again, using positive body reinforcement to sell the lie, and then getting the ‘foreigners’ to do likewise, before turning and walking off at a brisk pace towards the motel. Bahri stood in the gate for perhaps thirty seconds, watching them go and trying to process what had happened, before he turned and sat in the buggy and was ferried back towards his office.

Once they were around the corner, the pace accelerated.

“I think we pushed our luck a lot there. Let’s get the hell out of this town and to Constantinople,” said Marius – and nobody disagreed. They returned to the truck and fired it up, and Marius spared no time getting them underway. The roads were relatively quiet half way through the shift, and they made good time heading west, out of the city.

As Marius was driving, they went over the briefcase with a bug scanner, finding it clean. They sorted through the contents, and found that there was about fifteen thousand Nuyen in cash, twenty thousand in bearer bonds and gilts, and another fifteen (at current prices) in share certificates. Once they had then all sorted, they bagged them up separately, and then opened the top hatch. An expert throw from Aswon catapulted the briefcase into the back of a farm truck heading the other way – just in case.

The geode was also checked over, but appeared natural. When it was split in half, a small pile of gems trickled out of the inside. 

They examined the stones, and compared them to pictures downloaded from the matrix. It looked like a few each of several types – apatite, druzy, malachite and turquoise, with a smaller number of other random stones they couldn’t identify with confidence. Tads looked over them with a critical eye, but sighed and pronounced them worthless – at least magically. They’d all been mined mechanically or with explosives, treated with industrial chemicals and whatever magical potential they may have once had, they were ruined now. They were still pretty, of course, and valuable from a mundane point of view – but no good for enchanting.

They travelled for an hour along the coast road, cutting through numerous small villages and towns. The road was, reasonably maintained and they made good progress though the light traffic. As they drove, they could often see the water to their right, sometimes no more than twenty metres away down a sandy bank covered in scrub vegetation or anti-erosion netting, sometimes two hundred metres or more, on the far side of rolling dunes or wide stretches of scrubland or gritty beaches. Approaching Karasu, the road widened and became a dual carriageway, and they picked up a little speed on the straighter sections, cutting through the middle of the town on the main road whilst feeder roads ran off to the sides.

The road angled inland a little here, with many buildings and hotels to their right between them and the sea, but they pushed on – trying to make up time and get far away just in case someone rumbled their ruse. They crossed out of town and over a bridge, and the transition was abrupt – there were almost no houses here at all beyond a very thin strip of old dwellings actually on the main road itself. Woodland built up on either side of the road, and there was no sign of agriculture or development.

They rounded a bend, and saw a large brown sign by the side of the road, which Hunter translated for them – The Acarlar Floodplain Forest, part of the municipal area of Karasu. The trees grew taller and taller, but the vegetation was strange to either side – it seemed to grow in bands, almost like a rainforest with its double or triple canopy. Whatever caused it was unknown, but even in the middle of winter it was clean and fresh, an area of natural beauty. Tads pressed her nose up against the window, almost perched on Hunter’s knees.

“How far from Constantinople are we?” asked Aswon from the front seat. Hunter struggled to access his pad, until he had to push Tads back into the centre seat to be able to access his screen, and tell Aswon they were about three to four hours from the capitol. “We should stop here, I think. Have a walk and check this place out, it looks nice.” Almost before he could finish, Marius responded over the speakers.

“Nein! We push on, enough delays already, let’s get this job done.”

“No, think about it. It’s the first really nice natural area we’ve seen that looks managed – it’s possible we might be able to go looking for stuff. If it’s only a few hours from the city, it may be that we can come back here while the IDs are being made, and go looking properly – we’re not stopping long, maybe an hour now – just to see if it’s worth coming back….”

“They did say that we’d need to be present for the scans, then just be around for a few days while they got the IDs together. That makes a certain amount of sense,” Kai chimed in, “if it helps us get some magical supplies together, that’s got to be a good thing, right?” They heard some grumbling from Marius, but Hunter was already pulling up the local map, and directed them to a small picnic area marked up as a visitor attraction. It pulled them off the main road and into the interior, but it would also put them under overhead cover and off the main road – any pursuit would probably lose their trail.

As they pulled in and stopped, it was immediately obvious that the area was closed for the winter. Sturdy benches in an extruded brown plastic with wood effect pattern were scattered around the car park, but the building was closed and storm shuttered. There was a strange aura of desolation around the area, and it was very quiet with the engine stopped.

Marius got on the phone to Andre, one of the two guys he trusted in the city. After going through the usual rigmarole of convincing him that he wasn’t dead, and answering questions to prove it, they finally got around to business. He arranged to meet him in town for lunch tomorrow, and Andre promised he’d sort out a place to stay for them – and also warned them not to go anywhere near the north bridge if they could help it.

Kai called his ID manufacturer in the Far East, Ngo Dinh Diem, chasing up the IDs he’d ordered some time ago, and was pleased to hear that they were finally ready. On hearing they were near Constantinople, she agreed to get them air-freighted over immediately.

Whilst they were making their calls, Hunter, Tads, Aswon and Shimazu wandered around the area, checking it out. Tads tried to show them the sort of things she was looking for – but it became apparent that the area immediately around the visitor centre was treated or managed in some way – the area was barren magically, though it looked natural. They found a forest trail leading south east, and started to hike along it.

The trees were mostly devoid of leaves at this time of year, and the vegetation had died back, with a thick layer of mulch covering the ground. The path was raised somewhat from the surrounding area, and gently wove its way through the woodland. Overhead they saw birds flitting from tree to tree, caught sight of insects crawling through the ground cover, and heard the scurrying of small creatures hunting them and hiding from the team as they wandered.

Once away from the visitor centre, the environment changed. Whatever pesticides or herbicides or management techniques they used, only covered the first one hundred metres from the car park. After that it got wild – and magically unspoilt. There wouldn’t be much in the way of rock or mineral telesma, but plants abounded, and it would only be a matter of time if she searched carefully enough. She pointed out the types of things she was looking for, mainly for the benefit of Aswon and Shimazu, figuring that they had a better chance to spot them with their magical sensitivity. Hunter listened carefully, though, and proved to be equally adept at spotting the types of things she would want to examine carefully.

As they were looking around, Tads felt a gaze upon her – and looked up into a pair of large unblinking luminous eyes. She blinked in surprise, then focussed on the eyes’ owner – which was a small monkey or large possum perhaps. It stood stock still in the cleft of a tree branch, staring at her. Moving slowly, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her commlink, then took a photo of the creature. Shimazu spotted what she was doing, and followed her gaze, staring at the monkey for a few moments. Reaching into his pockets, he searched around and found a small bag with some oats in the bottom, and then tipped them into his slightly cupped palm until they formed a small mound, then extended his arm outwards and towards the creature.

It considered for a moment, and then leapt – extending arms and legs out in an X shape. Thin membranes or flesh stretched, and it glided down like a Frisbee, landing with unerring accuracy on the end of his hand. It started at him with the large round eyes, still not blinking, but then moved a hand down and grabbed some oats and stuffed them into its mouth – still fixing Shimazu with a gaze. After a few moments of chewing, it spat the oats out onto the floor, and a tiny hand dug into the pile in Shimazu’s palm, conveying them into the mouth. Unsurprisingly, the second mouthful of oats was not more palatable than the first, and was spat out, too.

Still moving slowly, Tads concentrated her power and conjured forth a small handful of peanuts in their shells, and then slowly tipped them into Shimazu’s hand. The creature quivered and looked to be on the verge of fleeing as her hand moved under it, but her slow movements did not trigger a response. It moved its gaze from Shimazu to her, then grabbed a peanut and sniffed it. With dextrous fingers it twisted and turned the peanut until the shell broke. First it tried the shell, which was chewed and then promptly spat out to join the oats. Then it tried the nut – which must have been much tastier. It grabbed another nut, shelled it and then stuffed the contents into its jowls, then another, and another – working through the pile until its cheeks were bulging and there was a pile of discarded shells on the floor by Shimazu’s feet.

The creature turned on the end of Shimazu’s hand, clenched its muscles and then leapt – bounding up nearly fifteen metres in a graceful arc and landing on a tree for no more than a heartbeat whilst the legs compressed and then extended, sending it another twenty metres through the air to the next tree. It moved with surety and grace, and bounded away from them to the east, moving from tree branch to tree branch. Its speed reminded Aswon and Shimazu of the goats they had encountered in the ‘stans – but this was much smaller and certainly didn’t seem to be inclined to head-butt anything.

“I didn’t recognise the species, but it was definitely magically aware. I think we can see that it certainly has an enhanced jumping or movement power – but it could have others as well. I wonder what it was…” Tads looked thoughtful, and checked her commlink, ensuring that it had actually captured the image.

“Let’s go see if we can follow it back to a lair or nest or something,” said Aswon, and then hunted around for a path to the east. They clambered down the bank to the soft and squidgy forest floor, and started to move off. As Aswon turned to get a bearing on the route back, he spotted something odd in the tree. It was perfectly camouflaged colour wise – but it was boxy – the straight lines of the manufactured device quite clearly identified it as something “man-made” and not anything from nature.

He coughed and got everyone’s attention, and then turning away from the device, pointed back up and towards it through his body, whilst telling them what he had seen as quietly as he could. Each of them turned and “looked around”, trying to not stare directly at it, but to get an idea of what it was. They closed up into a huddle, and Hunter spoke up first.

“Looks like a sensor pod to me, probably a wireless transmitter for feeding data back using encrypted bursts. It’s got to be set with a size threshold out here, or it’d be going off all the time from the critters. But I’d bet good money that we’ve been tagged somewhere.” The others listened, and much like Marius with his knowledge of vehicles, they accepted that Hunter seemed to have a broad knowledge on sensors, reconnaissance and observation technology.

They moved back to the path, scrambling up the bank and onto the raised trail, and then moved along slowly. Now that they knew what they were looking for, they spotted a few more of the boxes – normally on the taller trees set back a few metres and facing in towards the forest. Stick to the paths, and you were fine… go off the path more than a few metres, and you’d be hard pressed to avoid passing a scanner.

As they moved along slowly, mapping out the sensors, Aswon’s enhanced hearing picked up a high pitched whine. He warned the others, and moved to the other side of the path, trying to triangulate the source. A few seconds later, the rest of the team heard it too – getting louder for sure. It wasn’t a loud noise, but the forest was so quiet, that even the faintest sound carried considerably.

Perhaps thirty seconds later, they saw the flash in the air as the microlight overflew them, the occupant looking down at them. Aswon gave a large and flamboyant cheery wave, which was returned by the pilot. They saw the aircraft circle them, once, twice, and then bank away. The pilot found a gap in the canopy and came swooping down, threading through the trees skilfully and then banking sharply onto the path. As he neared the ground, he swung his legs up and out of the bag they were in and landed at a run, slowing his progress and killing the engine. Moments later, he unstrapped and approached the group.

He introduced himself as Amal Juttamk, a local ranger who had “just happened” to be out flying and spotted them, and wondered if they were lost or in need of assistance. Aswon assured him they were not, explaining they were medical students, working with Doctors Without Borders, and were heading to Constantinople – but they were ahead of schedule, had seen the signs for the area and wanted to examine its beauty. They ignored the fiction of the ranger just happening to be anywhere, but otherwise stuck to their cover story. 

The ranger moved back to the craft and using some kind of specialist tool folded the wings back and harnessed into a long but narrow mass of material. A pair of wheels were attached at one end, and he lifted the other, placing it over his shoulder and grabbing two straps to steady it. It became clear that he meant to “accompany” them on their walk and to act as their guide seeing as “he was already here”, so they explained that they were about ready to go back to their truck anyway. He walked with them, and talked about the area to them. No matter what his other duties were with the rangers, he was a fine guide and had a good patter – clearly much of the information he was given was memorised and given as speeches to the tourists during the high season, but he had a relaxing manner and was pretty humorous.

In return, Tads engaged with him about her interests, describing her native forests to the north. She steered clear of anything that sounded like knowledge of talismongering, but she spoke with experience and passion, and it was clear that she was a fan of the natural order. Aswon and Shimazu both also pitched in and they had a good long chat on the walk back to the truck – whilst Hunter kept quiet and tried his best to blend into the background. It took them nearly an hour to get back to the truck, but the walk was pleasant and Amal really was a font of knowledge about the area. 

When they got back to the car park, the ranger gave a start on seeing the truck – but they quickly reassured him it was an ex-military vehicle, and only what they had been given, but it proved useful in getting to out of the way villages to help lend medical aid. Based on the conversation he’d already had, he seemed to accept the explanation. He moved his compressed microlight and leant it up against the wall of the visitor centre, and then hunted around a little until he found a piece of deadfall timber. With this in one hand, he moved to a bench, pulled out a knife and started to whittle, engaging in casual conversation but quite happy to just sit and work on his woodcraft – and keep the team under observation. During the chat, he mentioned that they might want to get some air filters on the truck, to cut down on the pollution from the big diesel engine.

After a few minutes when it was clear he was there for the duration, they mounted up into the truck and with another cheery wave, bid him goodbye. As they pulled out, they heard quiet crying from the back of the truck, and Tads went to investigate – but was stopped when Kai grabbed her arm and shook his head. Instead he motioned for her to shut the door and sit down. When she had, he spoke quietly.

“Marius turned off the GPS signal, and we got her to call her dad and tell him she was safe, but that she’d left home. There was angry sounds, there was crying. At some point words like ‘you don’t understand me’ and ‘it’s my life not yours’ were used. It all got a bit emotional. So might be best just to leave her be for a bit, and let her come out to us when she’s ready.” The others nodded in understanding and settled down into their usual positions. Aswon and Shimazu both fidgeted a bit, realising after a few minutes that the reason it felt weird was because there was enough room again, without Nadia being wedged in next to Marius.

They headed up the access road, checking behind in case the ranger had buddies to follow them – but they didn’t see anything. Mind you, they had the trees wired with sensors – they might be following the truck with those. They got back onto the main road, and as they turned west, Shimazu scrambled for his phone as it went off. They heard his half conversation, and had a horrible sinking feeling, which was confirmed after he hung up and turned to them.

“That was Turul. He’s just told me that his daughter has gone missing, and thinks she may have been kidnapped and mind-controlled to tell him she’s run away – she can’t have left home on her own because she was happy there… but he wants to know if I’d seen her, or knew where she was, and if I could keep my eyes and ears open, in case anyone in our circles saw her…”

The clock in the cab ticked over to 17:00, the truck sped west under the overhanging branches of the leafless trees and a quiet descended on the cab as they thought about their options. In the back, Nadia lay in the bunk, furious with herself for being upset over a row with her father, and completely unaware of the emotions of the team, only a few metres away from her.


	64. 064 - The truck has history

Date 31/01/2060, Location 41.11867, 30.49461

As the truck headed west, Shimazu explained his predicament to the team. They queried him on what Turul had said – exactly what he had said. Had he just said to keep an eye out? No, he’d asked to be informed – no tiny loophole to slip through there.

“Maybe we should just say that we’ve seen her in Constantinople, just as we’re leaving?” suggested Shimazu after a moment’s consideration.

“NO!” The shout came from several of the team, and was pretty firm.

“I wasn’t suggesting taking her back. Just saying we’d seen her. Besides, we can always explain that we don’t do people anyway. That’s right, isn’t it?”

Kai gave him an odd look, and then grudgingly nodded his head.

“That’s not quite what I think we all meant when we agreed to that, but yeah… no people-smuggling – at least not unwilling ones. Anyway, for the moment, let’s leave this discussion – we don’t know enough to make a call, and we’re not going to get anywhere with it. We’re only a few hours from the city now – let’s work out what we’re going to do with the delivery.”

“Well, why don’t we call the contact, and advise them we’re only a short distance away, but we’re planning on dropping off tomorrow, arrange a time and go hand over the box?” asked Tads. “We can park up nearby and get a cab the rest of the way, so they don’t get to even see the truck.”

“No – I don’t know why, but there’s something about this I don’t like. How about calling him ten minutes before, and then arranging to meet – that way they have very little time to set up an ambush?” said Kai, and several of the others nodded. “We go in, just a pair of us maybe to make the drop-off, with the rest waiting nearby – just in case.”

“In that case, you should go, as our negotiator, with Shimazu as your guard – he’s just better at close-in fighting from what I’ve seen. The rest of us can hang back, and be with you in a matter of moments if Marius puts his foot down, and we’ve got the range to back you up if something kicks off. I’ve got my rifle, and Hunter has his – and Tads can affect anything she can see in line of sight. So we can cover you easily.” Aswon’s contribution.

“If we turn up with a message – and the guy we’re handing it to doesn’t like it – are they likely to take it out on us?” asked Tads.

“Well, it depends – but it’s entirely possible.” Hunter spoke up, and started to tell a brief summary of a situation he’d been involved with once. “It was someone delivering a status report to a Triad boss – a message from a competitor about business in the area. The Triad boss didn’t take kindly to the message, so he killed the messenger, and sent him back – bit by bit. I mean, seriously – arms and legs hacked off with a cleaver, and put in boxes, and sent back via different rickshaws. That could be the kind of people we’re dealing with here.” Kai started to shake his head as Hunter described the incident though.

“Maybe in their back yard, but that’s pretty extreme – and I bet the messenger was in a rival triad, so that made him fair game. We’re thousands of kilometres away from major Triad operations – this is more likely to be Mafia, and they do things differently. As independents, we should be fine.”

“How about getting back in touch with the guy in the castle, and get him to check out the drop off?” said Tads, still looking a little green from the idea of people being posted back in pieces.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea – could be seen as a lack of trust or confidence. I think split into two groups, keep it low key, but not take any shit. That’s the key – calm and confident.”

They talked for a while longer, refining the plan and looking at the area of Constantinople for the drop off, working out escape routes, rendezvous locations and sniper spots, checking the day and time and local conditions to see if anything was likely to cause an issue. 

Tads summoned a watcher spirit, concentrating hard on her magics and calling forth a fairly powerful and intelligent phantasm. She slowly and carefully explained what she wanted it to do – go to the cemetery, look around, check the lie of the land. Look at the people, but don’t be seen. Check for ambushes. Report back to her, but she wouldn’t be here – she’d be further down the road. She broke off quickly and asked where they could stop in an hour or so, and Hunter pointed to a large truck stop on the main highway leading to Constantinople. She pointed to the map and then concentrated hard on her interpretation of it, feeding the information to the watcher spirit. She was quite surprised when it turned and succinctly summarised the mission to her.

“Go to the place full of buried people – check for magic, traps and ambushes. See, but don’t be seen. Meet you at the place where the trucks and cars sleep. It’s a recon mission – simple.” Tads nodded, and sent the spirit on its way, thinking that perhaps she was becoming more skilled and powerful – or had just gotten very lucky with the spirit that had answered her summons.

The truck and trailer swept on, heading inland now and away from the coastal road, following the main highway towards Korfez. It was not a direct route – but heading due west took them off the main highway and onto back routes for the last hundred kilometres and they had no idea how long it would take. Sticking to the main road they kept up a constant speed of just under one hundred kilometres per hour, on the well-maintained highway. They found themselves in a pack of heavy goods vehicles after a while, forming a convoy and eking out a marginal improvement in fuel economy as they drafted along behind the big rigs, while a mix of family cars and larger executive saloons burned past them in the outside lane.

They travelled on, until Hunter directed Marius to take the next turnoff, pointing at the signs for “Rest Stop 76”. They left the highway and drove up the access ramp into a large carpark, which at first glance appeared to be pretty full. To their right and left were a set of long parking spots, filled with articulated lorries and a couple of coaches. Further to the left was the actual car park, also nearly entirely full. In between the car park and the motorway was the large, sprawling service station itself, a concrete pre-fab monstrosity that was a legacy to the last century. Far in the distance, near the slip road back onto the motorway was a double fuel area – one with a standard-height canopy for cars, and one with a much higher roof for the trucks and coaches.

They did a tour of the car park, and looped round again, then snagged a spot that a large truck pulled out of, the heavy diesel engine belching black smoke as it pulled the large container-load of machinery up to speed. Marius slid into the spot, parking dead centre with conscious thought, and then powered down the engine. After a quick discussion, they agreed that Hunter and Marius would stay at the truck and keep an eye on things, whilst the rest of them checked out the service station.

Wandering over to the building, and dodging a few cars that seemed to think they could do the same speed in the car park as they could on the main carriageway, they entered through the double doors into the main building. A teenage flunky in a uniform sat behind a small counter, and asked them for their truck’s tag number. Somewhat startled, they stumbled through the registration number on their bar-coded number plates. They attendant sighed at them impatiently, then keyed in the number, and then threw up a low resolution and slightly grainy image onto the display, asking them if this was their truck. Kai nodded, unsure where this was going…

The young man reached under the counter and passed over a few cards, coloured bright red and with a large barcode printed down one side. In bored tones, he waved to an area on one side of the main entrance, telling them that this was the hauliers’ area, and they needed their key card to access it, and the areas beyond. They took the cards, and swiped through the turnstile into the slightly raised area, and looked around.

The hauliers’ area was quieter than the main area – full of long-distance drivers, mostly male but with a smattering of females that looked like they would take no shit from anyone. There were no kids – though a few drivers had partners with them (or cheap hookers, it was hard to tell), and it was relatively peaceful as most of the drivers seemed to be content to eat their meals and stare into space blankly. They explored a little, and found a variety of food vendors – mostly overpriced and greasy soy in various flavours – but at the back of the area was a service block. In here there were large shower cubicles, washing machines, and a shop that did small repairs to phones, computers and clothing, along with selling accessories and gadgets.

They returned to the truck and gathered a large pile of clothes, and some wash kit, and then hit the showers – revelling in being able to take a shower and actually stretch out a little. The truck shower was a tiny thing, and even the smaller team members found their shoulders brushing against the side when in use – for Shimazu and Hunter, it was only manageable if they stood on the diagonal, and was still horribly cramped and difficult to use. Aswon found he had to crouch and have his knees pressed up against the wall in the truck, though his slender frame had a bit more room to work with width-wise. However, in the service station, the cubicles were large and high, the water hot and large towels were available for a small surcharge. They immediately set to with having decent showers, and getting a load of washing on – grinning as they passed each other and realised how their day had been brightened up by the mundane processes of washing and cleaning clothes.

Back at the truck, Marius and Hunter stretched out in the cab and kept half an eye on the world, whilst they did routine maintenance on the vehicle and guns. Both of them stopped and looked up as a blue courier van slowed to a halt in front of them. It wasn’t quite abrupt enough to leave tyre tracks – but it wasn’t far off. The truck stopped there for a good thirty seconds, and then suddenly pulled away and headed for the car park.

Hunter turned and looked at Marius quizzically, but didn’t get a response – Marius had already slipped the cable back into the socket in the back of his neck. On the top of the truck, the armoured hatch slid open, and the launch rail elevated and extended. Moments later the surveillance drone was launched from the rails, the lifting bag still firming up as gas was pumped into it. The small electric motors drove it up in a tight spiral until it was about a hundred metres up in the air, with the sensors scanning down over the car park. They saw the courier van pull up into a bay and the driver jump out, a phone pressed to his ear. Marius piped the feed from the sensors into the truck displays, and he and Hunter watched the man – he seemed very agitated, and waved in their general direction several times. He was on the phone for perhaps a minute, then climbed back into his cab and closed the door. Marius engaged the drone’s station-keeping routines and killed the RAS override – giving him control of his body. He opened his eyes, blinking in the disorientation as his standard vision was overlaid with the truck’s systems and the feed from the drone – but he could look at Hunter.

“I don’t know what that was about – but he’s not happy about something. What do you think?”

“I agree – no idea what’s going on, but I’m going to call the others.” He put actions to words, and keyed up his com-link, and advising the others of what they’d seen.

Two minutes later and the others streamed back to the truck – some still with wet hair and smelling of soap. They reviewed the footage and looked at the situation. It didn’t look that threatening when viewed on the small screen, but Hunter and Marius seemed to be concerned about it – so they got their gear ready and strapped on some armour. Tads went for a quick flyby, and reported back that the truck had a very low level ward on it – just enough to stop the most casual of intruders or untrained practitioners. 

An alert flashed in the corner of Marius’ vision, and he sunk back into the link with his deck, and jumped into the surveillance drone – feeling his conscious mind floating high about the car park, his limbs suddenly feeling weak and small, but his senses magnified and sharp. He saw two large articulated lorries pulling up the slip road – both in the same blue paintwork as the smaller van. He alerted the others, who sprang into action. Aswon vaulted from the cab with his rifle in hand and sprinted to the edge of the car park, pounding up the gentle rise and then throwing himself into cover in the lower bushes. A metre below the crest, he was shielded from the housing estates on the other side, but also pretty much invisible to everyone in the car park. Shimazu jumped out the other side, and rolled under the parked vehicles on the left, and climbed into a trailer about three spaces down – hiding in the open section of a curtain-sided trailer unit. Hunter stood on the rear seat, assault rifle in hand and craned down to look out of the windscreen – seeing a pair of mid-sized vans driving the wrong way along the one-way system, towards them – also in the same deep blue of the courier company. He shouted a warning, and got ready to pop the turret hatch and moved to engage.

The others moved to windows to watch. They saw the two lorries split, and moments later one was moving down the access road to the front of them, one to the rear. They had just enough time to start to curse, but it was too late to move – and moments later they were boxed in, as the two lorries slammed on their brakes and slid to a halt, blocking them in with eighty tonnes of metal. There were a number of sharp noises as safeties were knocked off and chambers racked, loading rounds ready to fire. Tads grabbed a breather mask and slipped it over her face and put on a pair of goggles – determined to try and keep the gun smoke away from her eyes and lungs, while Nadia squeezed past Hunter into the back, crawled into the bunk and pulled some spare flak jackets over herself.

Tads concentrated and her fingers fluttered in front of her, helping her to visualise the magical energies. Moments later the Russian army truck disappeared, replaced by the same non-descript white cab and trailer disguise they had used near the nuke plant. She concentrated on the illusion, firming up the details and making it look as solid and realistic as she could.

The two mid-sized vans stopped and disgorged a couple of guys each – all in uniform. They, and the driver of the artic, formed a loose arc in front of the vehicle. The driver of the rear blocking vehicle also got out, and stood staring at the back of their trailer. For a few moments, nothing moved – then one of them turned and questioned the original van driver.

There was pointing, questioning, shouting. Hunter listened and tried to keep up a commentary from what he could hear.

“Ok, the first guy is saying that the truck was here, and we’ve not left, he swears it was this spot, in between the Hyung container, and the red curtain-sider trailer. The others are saying he must have been on the sauce. He’s denying it…. They’re saying we’re obviously not an army truck, and calling him stupid. He’s getting wound up now. Now he’s saying it bloody well is the right truck – look at the plates. He’s pulled up a scanner or sensor of some kind. Hey Tads? Have we got different tags?”

“No – I can make us look different, but I left the tags as they were.

“Oh for fu…. WHY?” he demanded.

Tads bit back an angry reply, concentrating on keeping the illusion rock steady.

“If I make them look different, they’re liable to trigger automated sensors and scanners, because they won’t be valid. It’d just be a bunch of random black lines. I don’t know enough about how they’re supposed to look to fake them up. So I’ve left them as they should be. If that’s a problem, then maybe you should find a technical solution.”

Her voice was sharp, and sounded stressed, and Hunter chose not to push the issue. Instead he continued the commentary.

“Ok, one of the others have scanned us – right, now he’s looking agitated, too. WOAH!”

At a word from the man who’d just scanned their vehicle, they all pulled jackets open and reached in, hands emerging holding short-barrelled shotguns. They looked like twelve gauge shotguns, shortened down to the absolute minimum you could get away with – pistol grips and a reduced magazine in a package about forty-five centimetres long. Their jackets all had long and custom designed holsters sewn in – it looked like a standard issue thing. Presumably they needed to be short so they were actually usable in the confines of the vehicle cab, but would give a heavy punch to anyone trying to rob them. They all raised their guns and aimed them at the truck, and started to shout and hurl abuse at them.

On the slope, Aswon saw the single man at the back also pull out his shotgun and assume a ready stance. He took three rapid and shallow breaths, and then slipped into a zen-like trance, sighting through the powerful scope on the top of his Purdey and locking in the sight picture. Adjusting slightly, he moved the aim point to be the barrel, just forward of the breech. He let out a slow breath, and then lay still, mouth open and air just gently flowing in and out of his lungs as he steadied himself.

To the front of the truck, the men continued to shout, the gestures getting more and more aggressive looking. Kai glanced at their faces, and their body language – seeing the rage and anger boiling off them. Marius, concentrating on the sensor feed, misheard the leader as he shouted out to them, and completely misconstrued what he had said.

“Kai! They’re going to attack!” Kai heard Marius’ voice blurt from the speakers and made a snap call, barking out a command.

“Tads, drop them!”

Tads took a deep breath and while part of her mind focussed on the illusion still wrapped around their vehicle, the rest called up feelings of anger and rage. Every person who’d slighted her, every corporation that had despoiled her forest, every innocent that she’d seen harmed – they drove her and focussed her feelings, and a blast of force washed out from her and drove into the arc of men facing their truck. Of the eight men standing there, six were driven to their knees by the force, eyes defocussed as the mana drove them towards unconsciousness. Two of them were made of sterner stuff – the man who appeared to be the leader, and the original driver who had made the call. They staggered to the side – affected still, but not as much. 

Of the six worst affected though, one of them stumbled and his finger reflexively snatched at the trigger. A rippling blast of energy erupted from his gun and hit the front of the vehicle – where it harmlessly bounced off the heavy grade armour. The others, hearing the blast also opened fire, and the screen and front of the cab were pelted with fire – none of it having the slightest effect whatsoever.

To the rear though, Aswon heard gunshots, and his finger tightened on the trigger within a heartbeat – and the heavyweight slug rumbled out of the barrel and flashed across the distance, smashing into the shotgun held aloft by the rear guard. The ruined and twisted gun was ripped from his hand with some force, cartwheeling through the air before impacting onto the tarmac and then sliding under a truck. The driver threw himself down onto the floor, having no idea what had happened.

There was a roar from above them, as Marius hit the starter on his vector thrust drone, and the heavyweight VTOL rocketed up the launch rail. The sound of the jets reverberated across the car park, following up on the rolling gun-shots that had driven the few people heading to or from their vehicles to the ground. As the drone thrusters propelled it up into the air, Marius was already slewing the mounted assault rifle round into firing position, and searching for targets.

Tads concentrated, and another blast of mana washed over the couriers. This time, all but the leader dropped to the ground, unconscious. The leader had thrown himself to the side, and was hiding out of her line of sight – and was completely unaffected. He crouched by the radiator of the rig, hyperventilating with the shotgun clutched to his chest, as he stared in horror at his colleagues who lay nearby – apparently dead.

Aswon rolled to his feet and ran around the berm, moving quickly to get from his position of overlooking the rear of the truck to one where he could see the front. He spied Shimazu suddenly vaulting from his position of concealment up onto the roof of the truck next to him, and then bounding from roof top to roof top, his magical abilities driving power through his legs and accelerating him to dizzying speeds. He threw himself down from the last roof, landing neatly behind the leader, and a knife moved around his throat and gently applied pressure.

“Drop it, don’t be stupid.” Shimazu said in English. He was gratified to see the man start to lower the shotgun immediately, realising that he was in a tactically suicidal position. Hunter scrambled out of the truck and ran down the side of their truck towards the rear, looking for the rear guard – but by the time he got there, he was just in time to see the door slam shut and hear the lock being thrown. He shrugged to himself – at least he wasn’t going to be a threat, locked in his cab.

Shimazu grabbed the guy by the scruff of his neck and marched him down the side of their truck, pushing him “through” the illusion and to the rear doors, where Kai was waiting.

Kai summoned power into his voice and spoke loudly and firmly at their captive in English – hoping to hell he was bilingual.

“Stop it. Just stop. Do you want to die? No? Then stop it. We’ve got no grudge with you, we have no idea who you are, or why you’ve attacked us. But if you don’t stop it, we’ll kill every last one of you, do you understand?”

The courier was still white-faced from having been thrust through the apparently solid side of a truck to have a strange Asian man bellow at him. He babbled slightly, his eyes wide and slightly unfocussed as his brain struggled to make sense of what was going on.

“But you attacked us. You killed one of our drivers. Four months ago – you attacked our company. We have sensor records. We know it was you.” Kai blinked and though about it, then quickly counted back in his head. It was only two months since they’d been captured and had stolen the truck from the Chechens.

“Oh you silly man. We stole this truck. It was probably the bandits we stole it from that attacked you. You didn’t think that maybe the truck would move on?” Kai’s hands moved to either cheek and pulled down, as he realised this was all based on a stupid case of mistaken identity. He was about to speak again, when his com-link blurted out a warning from Aswon.

“Boss! Police aerial response incoming. ETA ten seconds, moving fast, from zero eight zero.” The message was breathy and hurried, as Aswon sprinted across the car park to get into cover from the rapidly approaching drones.

The two rotor drones approached the scene and transitioned to hover flight. Their sensors were twisted and warped by the illusion – the optical scans and pattern recognition disagreeing with the radar map and thermal readings. The limited brainpower of the pilots responded by broadcasting a “Stop, you’re under arrest!” message at over a hundred decibels, whilst the guns aimed down at the heat signatures.

Marius took direct control of his vector thrust drone, and dropped into a swoop, lining up on the police drone aiming down at Kai and their hostage. He sent a mental command racing through the control network, and the twin assault rifles spat out rounds into the back of the rotordrone, ripping through the bodywork and sending it spiralling down in flames. Kai dived into the truck, and the courier screamed and dived the other way, rolling underneath the truck next to them and then crawling towards the perceived safety of a set of wheels where he took cover.

Aswon climbed into the cab of the front truck, and started it up, struggling with the huge tractor-trailer combination but managing to get it into gear after a few seconds effort. As he started to move it forward, clearing the way for their escape, a burst of warning fire from the second drone stitched the car park ahead of him. He glanced around the cab rapidly, but couldn’t see a tire iron, wrench or anything else heavy that was in reach. Muttering under his breath, he pulled out his extendable staff, and shoved the compacted tube into position, keeping the accelerator depressed, then slid out of the door and dropped to the ground, rolling and absorbing the impact as the truck sped away from him.

Seeing the truck failing to stop, the police drone drifted forwards, matching speed with the truck, and the high velocity light machine gun opened up, spitting fire into the cab. They ripped open the roof and filled the cab with fire, and then something penetrated the engine. It caught, hiccupped and died – then promptly caught fire. Within seconds, fuel from a severed line sprayed up into the cab, and a fireball erupted metres into the air. Drifting on momentum alone now, the truck steered to the left and moments later impacted onto another rig, the fire quickly starting to spread.

The police drone hovered over the scene, steadying position as the operator back at base commanded it to stop and get a good read on the situation – which was all Hunter needed. An air timed grenade blasted out of the under-barrel launcher and arced through the air, exploding next to the drone and peppering it with fragments, blasting away the outer skin. A precise three round burst hit the engine, and it plummeted down into the cab, adding its fuel to the conflagration below. 

Seeing the devastation around them, Tads concentrated and reshaped her phantasm, turning it from a hemisphere centred on the truck into a flat plane. Glancing at the sensor feed from the Condor, she saw what was, and then presented an image of a car park at rest, with nothing wrong – hoping that any more air assets deployed would be thrown off the scent.

As Aswon hurriedly grabbed unconscious bodies and dragged them out of the way, Shimazu struggled to get the ‘trode net on, and slipped the data line into the jackpoint on the dashboard, starting the truck up. Marius concentrated on bringing in the VTOL drone for a quick landing, lining up the landing mechanism with the recovery rail and dropping the drone onto the launcher with a deft touch. He checked over the scene from the blimp, looking at the fires spreading and wreckage strewn around the car park.

Shimazu pulled out of the spot, slowly at first as Aswon ran alongside the truck and made a jump for the ladder to get back onboard. Hunter braced himself and stood in the turret ring, keeping a watch out – so he quickly spotted the cop car just coming up the access road from the highway, and shouted a warning to Shimazu. Shimazu glanced in the mirror, and then drove sedately through the car park, not risking the vehicle in the tight and winding environment. The cop car slowed, and then slowed some more – apparently content to follow them at a safe distance. Of course, looking at the rear end of a heavily armoured military truck and being armed with nothing more than a pistol – it was probably the wisest thing they could do.

Marius flicked mental switches, and seconds later the jammer was being fed with power from the amplifier. He set it to broad spectrum, not having time to isolate the specific radio frequency, and just settled for hot-mike jamming. It was crude, but effective, as he pumped out two hundred megawatts of static across the radio spectrum. A number of car alarms went off as they were blocked from service, and the cop car gave a wobble as the auto-nav threw a fit from the EM blast before the driver could resume control.

The drone finished the power down sequence and the locking bolts firmly attached it to the recovery plate, and Marius triggered the hanger sequence, feeling the mechanism bringing the drone back inside the vehicle. With that he could turn his attention to the truck, and saw Shimazu still in control, heading around the fuel stop and down the slip road back to the main highway. 

A blur of colour made both Marius and Shimazu jump, as a car shot out of the petrol station, the drive completely misjudging the situation and very nearly driving under their wheels. Shimazu slewed right, whilst the other driver panicked and steered left, driving up on to the landscaped area and coming to a halt in more of the scrubby bushes planted around the area. The cop car wove from side to side for a moment, then continued to follow – maintaining visual contact with them but at a safe distance.

Marius was about to take control of the truck, when another alert flashed up from his blimp – another air target. He steered the sensors around and got a lock on it – wondering if it was a gunship or a troop bird following them – then swore. It was worse.

“News chopper, closing on our position fast.”

Tads made a gesture with her hands, as if pushing away something invisible, and overhead the trid-phantasm spell faded away, revealing them to all and sundry for a moment. Seconds later through, as she concentrated hard, first the truck, then the trailer disappeared from view, wrapped in sheathes of invisibility. She gave a little grunt of effort, and in the cab Aswon saw her Shamanic mask appear for a moment as she cast – the elongated nose, large eyes and ethereal antlers appearing over her normal features. They faded after a moment, then through gritted teeth of concentration, she spoke.

“We’re invisible – both parts. Try not to hit the dirt, and get away from their sensors. And watch out for the other traffic – none of these folk will see through this, and they may just hit us thinking the road is free.”

Marius slid over virtually, and eased the controls away from Shimazu, then accelerated hard, the truck leaping ahead and weaving through traffic quickly and surely. Shimazu sat back and rubbed his palms together, wiping the sweat from them and flexing his fingers from where they had been clenched around his virtual steering wheel. Hunter had bought up the map and was searching through the area, and called for them to take the next off ramp – only a half-kilometre up the road.

They swept up the ramp, weaving through the traffic with Marius’ fine control pushed to the limits. Behind them, the chopper and the police car swept on down the highway, searching for them visually but not getting enough of a lock on their passing to detect them. The truck hammered up the access road and leant hard as Marius pulled them around a tight sweeping bend. They roared into the residential area, and dropped speed – there being no way to travel through the densely packed streets at a hundred kilometres per hour. Even at seventy-five, the houses flashed by and they had several near misses as people moved around on the streets and cars pulled out of side turnings. Behind them they left a wake of confusion, as the globe of jamming trashed TV signals and killed phone conversations, reset alarms and emitted piercing wails of disruption from baby monitors.

Marius turned, right, then left, then second right, threading through the streets and concealing the truck from aerial view behind the multi-story houses. It looked clear, but he didn’t want to risk it just yet, so he continued to evade.

Aswon spied a large building up ahead and hit the button on his com-link, making sure Marius could hear him clearly.

“Kill the jamming, right now!” Marius did, trusting that he had a good reason and that the risk was worthwhile, confirming it was done a moment later. Aswon pointed at the building, drawing the attention of the rest of the team, and letting Marius know verbally, “Look, right side of the street – community hospital. If we’d gone past that, we’d probably have killed someone when their life support reset. It would definitely have come to official attention.

Hunter pulled up the map again, and plotted them a route out of town, sticking to the back roads and out of the way of major buildings. Tads asked for them to slow and try and slide through a back alley of some description – as they did so, she dropped the two invisibility spells and then cast a fresh illusion, and a battered and dirty turntable fire truck emerged out of the other end of the alleyway instead. They followed Hunter’s directions and soon found themselves on a tiny country road that wound up into the hills overlooking the town, snaking back and forth as it climbed higher and higher through the terraces of olive groves. The houses became cheaper and smaller, then faded away entirely, until they were clear of the city and high above it.

Aswon grabbed his phone as a thought crossed his mind, and dialled Sing Wan, quickly checking the time and working out how late it was in the evening in Hong Kong. Sing answered after a few rings though, and greeted him warmly.

“Sing, got a problem, and I need some help. Have you got any deckers either on your payroll, or available for hire, urgently?

“Sure Aswon, I got someone – though it depends on the target, and the level of ICE. Can’t go throwing some kids at a corporate glacier and expect them to get through those countermeasures.”

“No, it’s a real simple job actually. In Turkey, on the E80 highway at a place called Korfez, there’s a truck stop – Rest Stop 76 it’s called. We were there, and shit went down – and our faces are all over the CCTV. We need someone to go in there and trash the records for the last hour.”

Several of the team looked at him in surprise, then realised how much forensic evidence they’d left there – though at least all of their clothes in the washing machines should be clean… 

“Ahh, no problem my friend, sounds like an easy job – but urgent. Five hundred should cover it.”

“I’m wiring you a grand, please tell them to be thorough. And I owe you a present next time we meet. What do you want?”

“You’re in Turkey I guess… pick me up a bottle of wine, something regional.”

Aswon agreed, and hung up, then relaxed a little, staring out of the window with his phone clasped lightly in his hand. A minute later it buzzed, and he glanced at the text message displayed on the screen “Run commencing”. Thirty seconds later, the phone buzzed again, displaying a new message “Host wiped, all footage for the day deleted – was easiest option. Away clean.” He snorted and told the rest of the team that at least there was no CCTV of them in the car park or the restaurant now.

Hunter meanwhile had signed up to a site for a popular trid-game, and had paid for a year’s subscription to their modding community. He showed Tads who looked at him blankly.

“I’ve never really played computer games – not my thing.”

“No, it’s not for you to play. Look, this is a model viewer… these are all things people build and put in the game, or that are already included. If we put the key-word ‘vehicle’ in, then we can filter the database… now, see. These are all vehicles. And because there’s loads of Nerds play this, they’re all modelled on the real thing, and incredibly accurate. And if we push this button here, look, see – a 3d version, that you can spin around, and look at from all sides.”

Realisation dawned in her eyes, as she watched the model move on the small display, jerking through a revolution as the limited bandwidth struggled to handle the dataflow.

“Ahh, so whenever we need a new illusion, I can look in here to see a vehicle, and know what it should look like. Got it.” Tads took the pad from Hunter’s hand, and explored the interface, looking at the options available.

They bounced and crawled their way up the hill, the road having turned into a track more suitable for donkeys and carts now than heavy vehicles – but the off-road suspension ate up the bounces and potholes, and kept traction on the dust and gravel just fine. Reaching the top of the hill, they could see for kilometres around them, and saw the vast rows of terraces not only on their hill, but the neighbours on either side, marching away as far as they eye could see. The bimbled along the crest of the hill, and saw a spinney ahead, the trees barren and devoid of leaves at this time of year, but also the only cover for miles around. They headed down a side track and into the spinney, discovering it to be a nest of rocks and defiles that explained why it, too, wasn’t being used for olive growing. The ground was marginal, even for the truck – but they got inside the tree cover ok, and finally came to a halt. Ten minutes of hard graft from the team, and the camo nets were pulled over the vehicles, and from a distance they looked like two mossy mounds amongst the trees.

As the sun finally dropped below the horizon, they got a brew on and relaxed, pondering their next move and the route into Constantinople they would take tomorrow.


	65. 065 - A city of two tales 1

Date 01/02/2060, Location 40.79049, 29.77563

The following morning was dry but overcast, the chill air depositing a layer of hoarfrost over the truck that made their footing treacherous and the removal of the camo netting a chore. Between the seven of them they managed, and when they were all packed away, the truck started to pick its way down off the mountain and back towards the main highway leading to Constantinople. They kept their eyes peeled, looking for trouble and ready to respond to any police response at a moment’s notice.

As they descended the steeply-angled switchback roads to the west, they discussed again the issue of the personal gear they’d abandoned at the truck stop and if it was a security risk. Although it was their gear, they weren’t particularly attached to it, and it wasn’t really meaningful to them – so as far as they could establish it would make a poor component for a tracking ritual. Tads certainly indicated that she wouldn’t even attempt it with something that had so little significance. And, with the clothes having gone through a wash cycle with detergents, the forensic usefulness was also much reduced. After ten minutes of chat, they decided the risk of going back and trying to sneak in and get their stuff was far higher than just leaving it there – it probably hadn’t even been flagged as theirs, and truckers must lose stuff all the time.

They dropped down off the hillside and ran parallel to the E80 for nearly eleven kilometres on the old main road, fighting through the local traffic until they could reach the next highway junction at Hereke. Marius got them back up to speed and merged in with some of the heavy goods traffic also heading for the city, nestling in behind a couple of large articulated lorries and using them for cover. They maintained an active watch around them, checking their rear often in case of a tail. As they ate up the kilometres west, though, they saw little sign of police activity, just an increasing volume of traffic. They countryside gave way to suburbs, and the agriculture slowly vanished into a sea of concrete and bricks as they proceeded west, the greenery on the hills being pushed further and further back as the pressure on the land increased.

They passed the signs for the International Airport, still labelled as Istanbul out here, a remnant of a bygone time – so much so that there were still bullet holes in the sign, a reminder that the combined might of the Muslim armies had pushed deep into the lands to the north west during the Euro-Wars, continuing the legacy of the land as the location of international conflict derived from faith that stretched back over a thousand years. The highway here was raised, and they could stare out into the city as they drove, seeing the ranks upon ranks of houses and low-rise towers in sprawling suburbs that looked to stretch all the way down to the coast. The traffic grew more and more dense until they were forced to slow as all three lanes became nose to tail on the final approach to the free city limits.

Marius pushed through the sensor readings to the displays in the truck, and inched over to the side of the lane as much as he could, letting the sensors scan down the gap between lanes to give them an idea of what was ahead. The three lane highway split up into at least a dozen lanes, feeding into what looked like a toll booth station. The high walls and barbed wire on either side showed that whilst it might have been a toll stop originally it was now the border check point into the city. All of the lanes were full, but the traffic seemed to be moving ok – just a little stop-start. Vehicles would approach a booth, and hand over their IDs into the booth, and perhaps twenty or thirty seconds later, they were handed back, the barrier was raised and through they went.

This trigged the usual discussion about IDs, and they decided to go with their medical IDs to get them into the city. Those without the relevant chips climbed into the back of the truck and found somewhere comfortable to wait, while those with the “doctors without borders” identities spread out in the front. 

As they inched forwards one car length at a time, the picture grew clearer, and they got a closer look at the booths and the barriers, spotting the heavy armour and solid construction, the anti-ram bollards. As the picture panned over the booths, Marius spotted something, and then zoomed the sensors in further – aiming beyond the booths to the far left side and steering the picture carefully with minute touches of the controls. It wasn’t a great shot with the angle they were at, but it was unmistakeably the front end of some kind of armoured personnel carrier or light fighting vehicle – sharp angular sides and heavy armour, and a lethal-looking cannon mounted on a turret. Aswon spotted the logo and gave a gasp of surprise.

“Lionheart? Here? What the hell?” Tads and Hunter looked at him with raised eyebrows and curious expressions. “Merc outfit – English. I worked with them for a while, a few years back. Up in Germany mostly. Solid outfit, though – very competent and professional.” Tads and Hunter continued to look at him, clearly expecting more information. Aswon gave a little sigh and leant back in his chair, closed his eyes and raised his hands to his head, slowly massaging his scalp through his thick dreads as he recalled information.

“Right, ok. Lionheart. English private security company, formed in 2024 by retired Major Allistair Davies, ex Royal Marine. Set himself up a firm using some contacts in the UK government to get the necessary licences and permits to operate non-domestically, and recruited heavily from ex-servicemen. Average employee was quite old, but very experienced and often had multiple tours under their belts. Used a lot of equipment that matched current military issue, so they’ve very well equipped and familiar with the operating characteristics.”

They listened as Aswon gave a potted history of the mercenary outfit, how it had grown and worked in various hot spots and flash points across Europe, recruiting more personnel and expanding to the position it had been in three years ago, where they had at least two “companies” of troops ready to deploy or out in the field. 

“At the end of the day, they’re going to have top line and well-maintained gear, and the training to use it. Electronics and sensors will be high quality, comms will be solidly encrypted and they’ve all likely seen pitched battle at some point. Do not take liberties with these guys, as they will hand us our heads, ok?” Aswon tied up the summary and glanced at each of them for emphasis, his dark brown eyes making eye contact with each of them in turn.

They rolled closer to the booth, then closer again, watching as the cars and trucks went through one by one. Finally it was their turn, and with a deep breath the IDs were passed out through the small hatch in the window and down to the booth. A moment later the IDs were passed straight back, the booth operator glaring up at reflective window with annoyance on their face. A moment’s confusion filled the cab, as they tried to work out what the issue was… surely it couldn’t be so blatant…

The IDs were passed back, with a dozen 100 Turkish Lire notes from their stash of local currency, and the attendant swiftly detatched the notes from the bundle and pocketed them, then quickly swiped the IDs through the basic ID reader on the desk. Each came back with a reassuring green light, and the IDs were passed back up, and a stamp on the foot pedal at the bottom of the console lowered the twin bollards and raised the barrier to allow the truck through. Marius pulled away smoothly, merging in with the traffic from the other booths and giving the Lionheart vehicle a quick look over as they passed. He recognised the basic style, and had an idea of the capabilities of the class, and activated the speakers.

“That looks like a Saracen APC, though I’m not sure on the specific model. They handle pretty well, and have 6 by 6 power, so it’ll handle most terrain as well as we do. Probably not as fast as us, and won’t accelerate as well, but mainly because it’s got twice as much armour built on as we do. Forget small-arms fire, in fact anything up to a tripod mounted machine gun will probably not stand a chance against that. It looks like it’s got a variety of sensors on it as well, so it’s going to be fully effective at night. I think the basic chassis is gas-sealed, so those dispensers on top probably fire tear gas as well as smoke. Nowhere near the cargo capacity or load hauling ability as us, of course – but that’s partly because they’ve got a fully traversable turret built into the centre, and what looks like an auto-cannon fed from an internal magazine. A three round burst from that will stop us dead if they get a clean hit – and if it fires fully auto, then even a glancing hit will chew us up.”

Aswon stared at the vehicle, and his eyes glazed as memories of a previous life came flooding back to him. He remembered riding in the back of vehicles like that, running patrols, chasing down bad guys… he snorted a little and shook his head. Chasing down Shadowrunners… people like who they were now. The gamekeeper had turned poacher – but of course things were not so black and white now he was on this side of the line.

As they entered the city, they looked around them, and it was immediately noticeable that the city had changed. Although the houses were exactly the same in style and construction outside of the city as within, those inside the limits were in a much poorer state of repair. Some houses were ruins, having been burnt out or by the looks of things destroyed by gunfire, and there was a general air of slovenliness about the place. It was also distinctly obvious that the culture changed abruptly here – whereas in the surrounding suburbs men and women dressed in a fairly generic and slightly westernised fashion, inside the wall there was a much higher proportion of women wearing headcoverings – some only a hijab or dupatta, some full niqab or burkas. Equally though, the men wore thobes, ghutra and egals, and serwals – with almost none of the jeans and t-shirts that had been so common amongst the manual workers elsewhere.

As they drove along the highway, they saw signs of poverty everywhere – broken-down vehicles abandoned, potted roads, empty stores and shanty towns that had sprung up between buildings and in common areas. Gangs of people stood around major intersections, buckets of rancid water ready to wash windscreens for a handful of change, and traffic showed a tendency to older and smaller vehicles, and as with their encounters in Georgia, some were old enough to lack polarised glass.

They followed the E80 towards the centre of the city until it swept to the north at the junction with the O-4, and rather than following the large highway leading to the bridge, they dropped down into the town itself. Hunter had warned them there were very few junctions before the bridge, and they figured the traffic would be bad and would limit their options. Down at street level, the different feel of the city became even more apparent, and they saw lots of people turn to look at their vehicle as they passed, with a large number of them having clearly hostile expressions.

A motorbike erupted out of a side alley at a ridiculous speed, flashing up onto the sensors with only a few metres notice. Marius had no time to brake, no time to stop safely. A fraction of a second spent in a glance told him there was a truck on his back quarter, then he had to make a decision. The truck slewed hard to the side, smashing into the flatbed truck with a horrific crunching noise. Marius used every bit of his training to minismise the impact, turning it into a shunt rather than a ram – but it bought him just enough room. Rather than the bike rider going completely under the truck and being run over by multiple sets of wheels, the metre-high all terrain tyres instead just demolished the front wheel and steering rods of the bike, spinning it sideways and flipping it over, and sending the rider spinning across the roadway with arms and legs flailing. The thin polycotton of his thobe was shredded in an instant, and he left behind a trail of flesh and blood as the harsh concrete ripped at his body during the crash.

The engine started to rev up as Marius prepared to just bull through the traffic and leave the scene of the incident, when he noticed the distinctive shape of a Saracen rounding the corner ahead, turning their way.

“Oh shit…”

The red and blue armoured lights on top of the APC flashed into life, and the siren activated, warning people to get out of the way.

Marius slammed the brakes on, sliding to a halt and blocking the street, and frowned at the chorus of horns that sounded as he did so. The truck he’d sideswiped was half turned and had been driven into the kerb, but didn’t look badly damaged. All around them people stopped and stared, having screamed and rushed away from the sound of the crash, they now stood in a sullen mob staring at the stopped vehicle.

Slowly the driver of the truck climbed out of the cab, and wandered around his vehicle to the damaged side, to inspect the impact. Aswon pointed at him.

“I’m going to go check he’s ok, see what the damage is. Keep an eye out, yeah?” He climbed through the back of the cab and moved to the rear doors of the truck, climbing down between the truck and trailer and heading over to the angry-looking man who was pulling at twisted strips of metal around the rear wheels of his truck.

The Saracen slowed as it approached, and also turned, clearly blocking the street and preventing anyone from driving off unless they were prepared to mount the pavement and drive through the crowd. The locals pulled back from the Saracen, and gave it the same hostile looks as they did the team’s truck – clearly there was no love lost here. The turret slewed around in their general direction, and a trooper in the yellow and black Lionheart-coloured armour appeared out of the top hatch, grabbing hold of the heavy machine gun there and bringing it up to bear on their general direction. 

As Aswon approached the old man, he called out to him in English,“Hey man? Are you ok? Sorry about your truck, but the idiot on the motorbike was about to go under our wheels unless we moved.”

The man turned upon him and spat out what could only be a string of curses at him. His face was contorted with anger and he made angry gestures at Aswon before spitting on the ground in between them. The words were unknown to him, but the meaning quite clear to Aswon. Worse, the crowd seemed to sympathise with him, and angry muttering could be heard from several of them. Feeling somewhat isolated, Aswon started to walk backwards towards the truck – hands up in front of him splayed open and clearly showing he wasn’t armed – but ready to deflect anything thrown at him.

WHOOOP WHOOOP

The blast from the sirens was amplified through the PA system, and in the moment afterwards, the gunner in the turret made an obvious show of cocking the machine gun. Satisfied that the crowd had noticed, he slapped the top of the truck with the flat of his hand. A moment later a side door opened and another trooper squeezed out of the doorway carefully in a half-slither. It looked odd, but fluid, but they realised it was probably one of only a couple of ways to get out of the narrow gap without some part of the armour or webbing fouling on a doorway and getting stuck. The trooper wore a helmet with a pair of mirrored goggles, and carried a medium-sized assault rifle made out of matt-black plastic and composites. They, too, made a conspicuous and open show of cocking their weapon, and then strode over towards the team’s truck. The crowd pushed back a little, ensuring they were not too close to the trooper. Kai watched the body language, and murmured to the rest of them.

“They hate them, but they also fear them. Look at the expressions there. They’d happily attack if they thought they could get away with it – see, look at the way that group is standing, holding things from the stall like weapons – but nobody wants to go first, and whenever the trooper looks at them, they all shuffle back. There’s something going on here, these guys must throw their weight around to get that kind of reaction.” The others listened to him, but all attention was on the trooper approaching. The trooper stopped, still a metre or two from the front of the truck, with the rifle cradled in their arms. One hand released the rifle, and pointed towards Aswon, and the voice called out, the accent very definitely a distinct one that made Hunter blink and stare with renewed interest.

“Oi, you. Yes, you chummer. Come here!” A finger pointed at Aswon, and then beckoned him over. “The rest of you, piss off. Go on, get back to your business.” The second shout was greeted with sullen looks from the crowd and some shuffling, until the trooper raised his weapon to a shoulder and sighted down it to a specific member of the crowd. They turned and pushed forward, hastening to comply with the instructions. The trooper pointed at another, then another, until a few people were moving, and gently pushing the crowd with them. Aswon walked along the side of the truck, keeping his hands clearly in front of him and came to a stop next to the cab door, about two metres from the trooper.

The trooper watched him approach, and then strangely enough turned his back on him to stare back at his APC. The head tilted slightly, and one hand moved up to press the helmet against the side of his head.

“Repeat your last, sir?” A pause. “Are you sure, sir?” A pause. Then a shrug. The trooper turned back towards them, and let the rifle drop onto its sling. Hands pulled open one of the pouches on the webbing, and extracted a pack of smokes and a zippo, and then deftly shook out a cigarette and lit it. Despite the cumbersome security armour, the manoeuvre was accomplished swiftly and surely, having been practiced many times. He took a long drag on the cigarette, the end glowing a fierce red as the air was pulled through it, before blowing a cloud of smoke out of his nose. Then, moving slowly, he raised the cigarette over his head and started to lower it down towards Aswon’s fro…

“Oh, you can just piss right off!” burst from Aswon’s mouth, and a hand slapped away the trooper’s hand and cigarette. The trooper didn’t flinch, apparently expecting this kind of response, but the team were equally confused when Aswon didn’t make an attack either – despite the guy trying to stub out his cigarette on his head. A moment later, another door opened in the APC, and a second figure emerged, repeating the half-climb, half-slide move. This time, he was without a helmet, and he sauntered over towards the first trooper and Aswon.

“Aswon, you daft prick, how are you?”

“Sofi? What the hell are you doing here? And what is going on in this place?”

“Well, that’s a story that needs a few pints, and this is neither the time or place. But what happened here?”

Aswon quickly sketched out the incident, pointing at the motorcyclist who was lying at the side of the road being attended to by a few of the locals, whilst he cried and rocked in pain, then at the still angry and belligerent truck driver standing by his damaged vehicle. The new arrival, Sofi, listened without interrupting, and nodded as the description was given. When Aswon was done, he glanced up at the truck for a moment, staring at them, as if he could see straight through the polarised glass, before grabbing Aswon by the shoulder and pulling him with him towards the motorcyclist.

In the cab, Tads concentrated for a moment and extended her vision into astral space and examined the troopers. She didn’t assense them, trying to gauge their health and abilities – but just examined them passively. None of them appeared in any way magical, and she spotted no spells or effects upon them. 

Sofi walked around to the side of the road and then pointed down at the wounded rider.

“You, you daft prick. You learn how to ride a bike right, or next time you’ll be under the wheels. This man here won’t press charges, but you can get up and walk away right the fuck now, you hear me? No whining, no crying, no angry shouts from the crowd – the lot of you, disperse now and go about your business, and if I get any lip from any of you, I’ll cut you. Get away, go on, MOVE.” As he got to the end, his rifle came up one handed and pointed in their direction. Despite being held in only one hand, the end of the barrel was solid as a rock, not waving at all. The crowd scrambled to obey him and pushed back, forcing people away from them, whilst a few of them helped the wounded cyclist to his feet and supported him as he staggered away sobbing with blood dripping down his limbs from the road rash.

“Don’t feel sorry for him, they’ll patch him up. You gotta be firm with ‘em, otherwise the next thing you know, they’re chucking food at you. Then it goes to bricks, then molotovs, and it all gets serious. Gotta nip it in the bud. Right, the other guy, he looks pissed about his truck. Tough luck on him, and it looks like he didn’t do anything wrong. If you’ve got a couple of hundred, we can make this go away without raising the stakes.” He glanced at Aswon and saw him nod, then fish inside his clothing for a roll of cash. “I reckon about eight hundred will be more than enough to keep him sweet.”

They approached the truck driver, and Sofi spoke to him, being as blunt and crass as before, but in a less directed fashion. He told the driver in no uncertain terms it was the fault of the motorcyclicst, but the foreigner felt bad about his truck so had agreed to pay for all the damages which he was going to accept, get back in his truck and drive on if he knew what was good for him. As Aswon fanned out the eight hundred Nuyens worth of mixed currency, greed lit up in the man’s eyes. He continued to curse and wave his arms around, but it looked pro-forma now, and more for the crowd’s consumption than out of genuine anger. He took the notes, and gave a brusque nod to Aswon, then returned to his cab.

“Right. Let’s get out of the area for a few minutes of chat. Follow us about five blocks west, I know a place that does reasonable coffee.” Aswon nodded, hearing the unmistakable tones of an order, not a request. He climbed back into the truck and through into the cab, resuming his normal seat and told Marius to follow the APC. Whilst he was doing that, they watched both Sofi and the trooper get back to the APC and swing themselves up and in using an overhead grab-rail and an odd little hop to reverse the earlier dismount, and then the driver slowly backed up and swung hard around. The gunner on the turret traversed the gun, keeping an eye on the crowd and the team.

Back in the truck, Aswon explained the situation.

“Right, so that’s Sofi – I worked with him a few years ago. Ex-service, English, good guy to have at your side on an op. Bad person to piss off. We’re going for coffee with him a few blocks over. He’s going to be asking us some questions about why we’re here and what we’re doing, and almost certainly will have to report in to his boss – so watch what you say, but also be careful about lying to him. Actually Nadia – can you grab a bottle of that nice Vodka from the stock in the back. That’s going to cheer him and his squad up no end if we got a nice present for him. But, I’ll talk to him, and see if we can find out what is going on around here, ok?”

The others nodded, and Nadia could be heard rummaging around in the compartment behind as she dug out one of the bottles of decent quality vodka they’d purchased back east. Marius followed the APC carefully, and pulled in a few blocks later next to a café in a side street. The burnt-out wreck of a mid-terrace house had been cleared by the looks of things, and turned into an outdoor seating area with a few tables and benches scattered around. It was cold out, but dry – and far less cramped than being inside a building, and would give them the advantage of being relatively isolated.

As they pulled up, Sofi and two troopers got out of the APC, leaving one behind in the turret. All of the team climbed out of their truck, and joined him in the outdoor area, and they ordered a large carafe of coffee before pulling some extra chairs over and sitting around the largest table. The first trooper they had seen lifted his goggles up onto his helmet and nodded at Aswon, then lit up a smoke as he leant against the back wall, keeping an eye on the wider scene. The second trooper was shorter, and had her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, with no helmet visible. She had a very short SMG dangling from under her armpit in a tactical harness, and sat twirling a keycard on a small chain – presumably the driver for the APC. Sofi approached Aswon and spread his arms wide, enveloping him in a big hug.

“Man, it’s good to see you. How are you keeping? And what are you up to?”

“I’m good Sofi, and likewise, good to see you too. I’m solo contracting at the moment, this is the team I’m with. This is the boss…” Aswon introduced Sofi to the team, giving brief names and no detail to the introductions, as he worked around the table. “Oh, and we thought you and the squad might like this. Nadia, if you please?” Sofi examined the bottle and gave Aswon a punch on the shoulder.

“Nice, thanks. I’m sure that’ll go down a treat after the patrol.”

They chatted – or rather Aswon and Sofi chatted, and the rest mostly listened quietly, answering questions only when asked. In a quiet voice, Aswon informed Sofi that they were not really here for business, only passing through.

“Look, we’ve got one drop off to make, we’ve got about two weeks to hang around, then a pickup to make and take elsewhere. If we can keep it entirely quiet, we will – we’re not looking to cause any trouble, or get involved in anything. Nothing that will come to your attention. Speaking of which – what are you doing here? It looked like you were doing police duty back there, and that’s not the usual gig?”

The team listened as Sofi explained a little about the situation, covering the fallout from the Eurowars and the change of Istanbul into the free city of Constantinople, when the Turkish capital moved to Ankhara, and how following the destruction of so much following the Alliance for Allah and their ill-fated jihad, that much of Turkey had become very secular. However, the rise of Muslim fundamentalism in the eastern half of the city over the past few years, and the increasing security concerns they faced had caused the corporate council in Constantinople to bring in additional mercenary forces – now Lionheart covered the eastern side of the water, including many of the ghetto areas, while the Ten Thousand Daggers still controlled the western shore and the approaches from Europe. After he finished the potted history, he looked at the team, and then pulled out a small datapad and spun it round to show them. The screen showed details of a number of crimes – armed robberies, hit and runs and kidnappings – that the truck had been involved in.

“Well, the first thing you need to do, is get that plate changed, and probably get a new transponder. I don’t know where you’ve been hiding, but if you’re staying here, you’re going to get scanned, and as soon as someone runs a check on your plates, there’s a world of hurt waiting for you.”

Shimazu was the first to respond.

“Can you suggest anywhere we could get this fixed? Anywhere in town?” Sofi glanced at him, then returned his gaze to Aswon.

“You might want to check in with Sasha Grey - owner of Grey Automotive. Greek origins, she came here with her father nearly twenty years ago to start a new life, and they’ve built up a chain of garages across the city. She's a proper petrol head, and tweaks and customises vehicles for people – and if our intel is right, also does some ‘other’ work. I’ve marked the location on the map.” Aswon nodded his head in thanks. “So. What are you dropping off and to whom?”

There was a moment’s silence. Then Aswon spoke, even more quietly.

“We picked up a package that we need to drop off at a cemetery to the north of the city, being dropped off for a Georgian national. The Hekimbasi Mezarligi, if that means anything to you.” Aswon watched as Sofi took a sip of his coffee. “It’s a small wooden puzzle box – probably containing some intel documents or something small like that – the box is only big enough to fit a single thing in, maybe a clip of ammo tops.

“If you’re dropping off there, you’re meeting Grandfather Otto. He runs the Mafia ops to the north of the city, and is currently having issues with the fundies. Again, from what we understand, it was a Mafia drugs run that was blown up on the north bridge that took out the span. Dropped the truck and a ton of drugs into the straights – waters over a hundred metres deep just there. Since then, he’s escalated ops against them, they’re pushing back. Play it cool with him, and you should be ok. But be wary of taking any work from him – it’ll mark you as his side in the city.”

Aswon nodded in thanks again. Sofi took another sip of coffee, and then quirked an eyebrow at his friend.

“So, what are you shooting with these days?”

“You want me to show you? Here?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.” Aswon went to the truck, and came out with the Purdey, passing it over to Sofi after dropping the magazine and clearing the breach. Sofi examined it carefully, letting a finger run over the silver engraving and the polished wooden stock. Carefully he sighted down the rifle, aiming up and at a distant chimney. “Nice, very nice. Got some style. Magazine?” Aswon passed over the mag, and Sofi gave the rounds a quick glance and then slapped the mag home into the receiver, and passed the rifle back to Aswon.

“I think we’re all cool here. Want an escort most of the way to the graveyard?” Aswon smiled at him and finished his cup of coffee, and ushered the team back to the truck, making sure Kai dropped enough cash on the table to cover the bill. He and Sofi keyed their phones and swapped contact details, and they watched the security team climb up into the APC while the team returned to the truck.

“Try and keep them out of trouble. I’d hate to have to chase you.”

“I’ll try. I’d hate to have you chasing me.” They nodded, and climbed aboard their respective vehicles. Moments later the APC started up, fired up the lights and with a roar from the diesel engine, pulled away, leading them through the streets of the city to the north.

As they followed the APC north, Hunter looked over at Aswon.

“What was the deal with the gun? And the magazine?”

“He was seeing how we’re kitted out. If it had been a sniper rifle, or we’d had tungsten penetrators or maybe even hollow points – he’d have known we were here to do some work. I’m loaded with standard copper jackets though – general purpose rounds, not for assassination. He probably also figures that we’re kitted out to at least a roughly equal level – and if that’s what I’ve got, then we’re not packing auto-cannons, nerve agents or lasers or any other fancy stuff. But it also means he didn’t have to ask me outright, and risk being lied to.”

They headed north – their journey through the city very smooth with the equivalent of a police escort. As they reached the northern section of the city, the APC slowed a little and the lights turned off, then a few moments later it made a sharp right turn. The last they saw was an armoured hand thrust out of the window in their direction, with the middle finger raised in salute to them, then the APC disappeared out of sight.

Kai got on the phone, and called the number he’d been given. It connected on the third ring, and he spoke calmly into the receiver.

“Mr. Otto? We have a delivery for you from a friend to the east. We’re near your location, is it convenient to deliver? It is? Ok. Very Well. Yes, by the south side of the cemetery, in about twenty minutes then. Ok.” He hit the disconnect button, then keyed the intercom. “North side of the cemetery, please, Marius.”

The truck headed north, and Kai got Hunter to bring up the map of the area on the large display.

“Ok, we’ll enter here, on the north side at the vehicle gate. Marius and Nadia stay with the truck, keep your eyes peeled. Tads, you here as well, ready to provide magical cover, or help us escape. Aswon, you head down this way, find a perch or lookout spot, keep us covered from long range. Hunter, you up this side, medium range please – between the two of you, you should be able to keep eyes on. Shimazu, you’re with me for close support then.” They nodded and readied their weapons, then refined the plan on where they would be, examining lines of sight and escape routes, fallback positions and codewords.

A few minutes later they pulled up at the north side of the cemetery, and parked the truck. Tads did a quick scout and reported back that there was no unusual activity. Aswon and Hunter climbed out of the truck and moved towards their positions, guns carefully concealed in Hunter’s case and wrapped in a long piece of material in Aswon’s. A few minutes passed, and then Kai and Shimazu got out and headed along the gravel path, walking past row after row of headstones. They spotted Aswon leaning against a tree watching to the south on the terrace below them, and then Hunter walking slowly past a row of carved stone crosses on the terrace above them. The cemetery was deserted, with only the occasional bird flying through the cold and grey sky. As they closed on the south side, they saw a man with a rake, gathering leaves from the grass into a mound. 

They closed in on him, checking him out as they walked briskly towards him. He looked to be old, perhaps in his seventies. A white moustache was neatly trimmed, but otherwise he was clean shaven, and a grey hat covered the top of his head. Large ears glowed a bright pink in the cold winter air, but he was wearing just a check shirt on top, with a heavy jacket neatly laid over the handles of his wheelbarrow a few paces away. As they approached he glanced up at them but continued raking until they had closed to a few metres away from him, apparently unconcerned. As they stopped, he spoke in a dry and deep voice.

“You have a delivery.”

Shimazu passed the box to Kai, who held it carefully in both hands, and stepped across the distance towards him, then held it out on open palms. The man looked at him with grey and slightly rheumy eyes, then looked down at the box for a few seconds. He turned and leant the rake against a tree, then stepped close to Kai and reached out for the box.

Shimazu tensed, ready to spring into action. Behind and slightly above him, Hunter keyed his accelerators into action, and felt the world slow down. His smartlink implant mated with the electronics in the weapon held inside his coat, and he felt the gun report that it was ready to fire. Further back, and below him, Aswon pulled the fabric off the gun and draped it over his shoulder, then grasped his rifle in both hands – but kept it carefully pointing down at the ground.

The old man gently picked the box up and looked at it closely. He turned it over in his hands, looking at each face in turn, without saying a word. Turning it back upright, he held it firmly in one hand, and with the other pressed a button or protrusion of some kind on the pattern carved into the lid. There was an audible popping noise as something gave way. The old man looked up at Kai, who had taken a step back at the noise and was looking concerned.

“It is good. I accept.” With that he turned and dropped the box into the wheelbarrow, then grabbed the rake and scooped up a mass of leaves with its forks and dropped them over the top of the box. Kai and Shimazu slowly backed up a few paces, watching him carefully as he picked up and donned his jacket and then grasped the wheelbarrow handles and lifted it, before walking to the south. Shimazu and Kai turned and walked to the north, their pace quickening to a brisk walk. 

Nothing happened. No shots rang out, no cries of alarm, no pounding feet – just the pounding of their hearts as they walked away convinced that the other shoe was about to drop. They passed Hunter who was keeping a watch out, his head scanning slowly in a wide arc as he looked for anything amiss. A minute after they passed, he too turned and left, walking quickly and followed them back to the truck. Aswon saw him pass, and counted to thirty slowly in his head, whilst he too continued to scan the area. Still nothing. He grabbed the material and wrapped the rifle in it, then turned and strode back towards the waiting vehicle, joining the others in the cab. As soon as he was aboard the truck accelerated away smoothly into the traffic, heading south west.

Kai licked his lips and then breathed out deeply.

“Well, that went really smoothly – but I don’t mind telling you, I was pooping my pants there. I don’t know why, but I just felt that was going to all go horribly wrong.” The others nodded, and several of them grinned or laughed, as the stress bled off. Weapons were put on safe and returned to the racks, and they relaxed a little with every passing minute that took them away from the meet. Kai grabbed a phone and sent a text message back to Mr. Kulkachev, informing him that the delivery had been made as requested.

Marius called his contact next, using his internal phone to route the call securely. He advised Andre that the team were on the way and they’d meet him for lunch – as arranged. The team drove through the city streets, carefully following the directions that Hunter had worked out over the last few days. However, as they got closer and closer to the Bosphorus the traffic grew thicker and thicker, and they found themselves stuck in slow moving traffic as they queued to get over the southern crossing. Minutes ticked by and Marius became more and more agitated as they got closer to the appointed time. Eventually they made it onto the bridge, and started to pick up a little speed, crossing the giant suspension bridge and weaving across the three lane highway held thirty metres above the sea. Drivers honked and cursed as the truck cut them up and dived through gaps, trying to make up for lost time. By the time they reached their destination, they were nearly thirty minutes late. Marius led the party up to the table with a look of shame on his face, finding his contact halfway through his starter, with a half drunk glass of wine at his side. Andre looked up at Marius and frowned a little, then waved for the team to take their seats.

“Andre, I’m so sorry. I thought we were fine for time – the roads were clear up in the north, and we should have made it easily. But the south bridge was chaos, and the traffic was blocked up in every direction.”

“First time back since the bombing I take it?” He watched Marius nod. “No harm done, but something to bear in mind, yes? Don’t worry about it, my friend.” He waved for the waiter, and then ordered several sharing platters of food to be bought out as soon as they were ready.

“Now, as requested, I have found you somewhere to stay. I would prefer it if you not conduct business there – I am looking after it for a friend. But if you must, you must. There are other people staying there, on other floors – but they should not interfere with you or cause you any problems. I have three keycards here, and there should be more than enough room for you and your friends whilst you stay here. Here is the address, and the details.” He triggered a download from his pad whilst he delicately grabbed another slice of soy pate on his cracker and nibbled on it.

Marius took the cards, keeping one and passing the other two to Kai, then keying his display alive to look at the details. A low whistle escaped his lips as the display zoomed in on the house – or mansion more accurately. It was a huge structure, set just by the water’s edge and comprising of at least five floors. At least fifteen metres across, and more like twenty-five deep, the wooden structure was a mass of windows, towers, balconies and gently sloping rooves. It was nestled in trees and had a small lawned area around the house, separating it from the adjacent properties. 

“Thanks Andre, thanks a lot. Looks nice – we’ll work to keep it that way.”

A moment later, the first of the food arrived, and business was put to one side as they settled down to eat and make general conversation. The next half hour was spent chatting amiably and filling in their knowledge on Constantinople a little more. They were most of the way through desert when Andre was interrupted by a call. He listened carefully for a minute, then said he was on his way. Now he turned to Marius, with an apologetic look upon his face. Marius beat him to it, though.

“Don’t worry. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s important. Go. We’ll catch up with you later.” Andre nodded, and then headed out of the restaurant, already thumbing his phone on and hitting a speed-dial button.

They finished their lunch and paid the bill, then got in the truck and headed down to the house. Marius pulled the truck up onto the lawn by the side of the building, parking it right in front of a security camera, and trying his best not to rip up the grass. The swipe card opened the modern and high-tech maglock on the main door, and let them into an elegantly furnished lobby. A pair of old fashioned lifts were ahead of them, along with two wrought iron staircases that climbed up each side of the building, looking down into a large atrium area. Delicate ironwork wound around the stairs – enclosing them and making it impossible to climb out onto the surrounding floor without going through the gate on each level, whilst still letting light and the breeze through.

The got up to the top floor and found a whole series of rooms, all painted in shades of white and grey, forming a vast and airy space. A large veranda ran across the front of the house, giving them superb views of the waterway. Each room was tastefully but minimally decorated, often with nothing more than a bed and a small amount of storage – but the floors and walls were beautifully carved and painted, and the house had details everywhere that more modern buildings lacked.

Over the course of the next few hours, they slowly transferred everything from the truck up into their floor – running the bug scanners over it as it came in, just in case. Everything looked clean though, and they settled into their room, their meagre possessions looking lost amongst all of the space. Once everything was in, they headed to their rooms to get clean from the effort of unloading the van, and relax a little. Shimazu sat on the end of the bed and keyed his phone to life, and tried to call Saito – but couldn’t get through. The automated message on the line told him he’d dialled a non-existent number. He tried again, just in case, but got the same message.

Taking a deep breath, he sent a message to Turul.

“Am in Constantinople. Keeping eyes peeled, but cannot see Nadia. Have you heard anything from Saito?”

He clicked send and then laid back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling covered in fine plasterwork detail. Technically, he wasn’t lying – and he hoped that Turul wouldn’t pick up on the very specific choice of wording in the message he’d sent. He gazed up at the ceiling, not really seeing the room at all, and worried about his friend.


	66. 066 - A city of two tales 2

Date 02/02/2060, Location 41.0254, 28.98193

The team awoke with a series of grumbles and moans, silencing their alarms and climbing out of bed, bleary-eyed. Decent beds had helped, but it was not even 5 am, and they’d not got to bed particularly early. They gathered around the breakfast table in the main room, drinking black coffee and chewing on the soy-bars they’d found in the kitchen cupboards. Once everyone was on their second cup of scalding hot and strong coffee, and was feeling vaguely more alive, they discussed the plan for their stay. The morning was going to be spent at the ID manufacturers, being scanned – but after that they needed to follow up with the garage that Sofi had told them about and work on their plates, otherwise they were going to get hassled no end about the truck, it seemed. Tads explained that she wanted plenty of time to work in her lodge developing greater understanding of her spell library, but it was Aswon that stopped conversation around the table when he addressed Kai.

“I have an offer to make. We seem to have come together as a team, and some of us have formed a deeper bond. Although I am still a mercenary, I don’t feel it is appropriate to bill you for our travel time. I am here now because I choose to be, not because I am paid to be. So, I would still expect payment for combat days, but there will be no charge for non-combat time.”

Kai seemed surprised, but leant over the table and quickly shook Aswon’s hand to cement the deal. The rest of the team looked on with curiosity mostly – they knew that Aswon had SAID that he expected to be paid, but until now, he hadn’t been, as far as they knew. But this seemed to indicate that he would be paid, at some nebulous forward point.

Around five forty they filed out of the apartment and descended the stairs down to the main entrance, filing out to the truck. A few moment of work and the trailer was unhitched, and they left it behind under the watchful and unblinking gaze of the external security cameras, and headed south west. Even at this early hour, there was traffic on the roads, but it wasn’t too bad yet. After a few minutes of driving, they found themselves crossing a large inlet via the Ataturk Koprusu bridge. There was a second bridge a half kilometre to the east, but nothing to the west for three to four kilometres. Come rush hour, these bridges would be rammed, and they could only imagine how long it would take to get anywhere…

They drove down the main boulevard as far as possible, keeping an equal eye on the early morning traffic as it raced and dodged around them and the houses and shops they drove past. The buildings flanking the road were a constant stream of service businesses on the ground floors, topped with three to five floors of residential property, with narrow streets and a confusing one-way system leading off to either side of the main road.

As they neared the location on their map, they had to turn off into a maze of thin and winding side streets, crammed with cars parked on both sides of the narrow roads. The buildings were mostly three or four storey apartment blocks, crammed together and overhanging the pavements, which gave the area a claustrophobic feel. The architecture was stark and uncompromising, slabs of concrete and plasteel with narrow balconies hanging off buildings, satellite dishes festooned over the edges of rooves and signs of age everywhere. Sometimes buildings were missing, evidence of some previous trouble perhaps, and smaller hovels had been thrown together in the space between apartment blocks, exposing their sides and sloppy construction. Some of the buildings had been tiled, while most of the rest were painted a variety of light colours, which lifted the mood a little and made the streets lighter than they would otherwise have been.

Marius threaded the truck carefully through the maze, following the directions from Hunter, until they found the right street and then pulled through an incredibly tight turn into a tiny courtyard in the centre of a block. The truck scraped under the archway and ended up in the dark and secluded space at the rear of the flats. Large bins were scattered around, and a couple of stray dogs peered out of the back porch of an apartment, growling at them while their tails pointed straight out behind them. The team ignored them, and followed Marius as he lead them to a plain and battered door, and then stood waiting for a moment. They wondered why he didn’t knock – but then realised he was probably making a call from his internal com-link.

The door opened, revealing a grubby and squalid-looking kitchen, and they filed in silently, looking around them at the decrepit ground floor apartment. The lino was cracked and split, and the worktops had a layer of grime over them that looked to be years in the making. To their right, though, there was an abrupt change – the doorway led into the old dining room which had been knocked through into the lounge in a very amateur fashion. Metal props supported scaffold boards of dense plastic which held up the roof where the dividing wall had been taken out to make room for an extensive 3d scanner that was a mass of chrome and black plastic that was completely at odds to the plastic furniture and faded wallpaper of the room. Power and data cables snaked out of the scanner in various directions, to screens arrayed around the outside of the room and small control panels, and in one corner of the room a large and powerful-looking computer system hummed away with a couple of desk fans pointed at it to keep the airflow moving.

A young man in jeans and a t-shirt sat by the computer system, but didn’t even move as they entered, just sat staring blankly at the wall. As they passed him they saw the florescent orange cable emerge from under his arm and connect to the host, and realised he was fully immersed in the machine. The decker’s meat body sat in the chair, but his persona was projected via his neural interface and was running the computer systems, able to process information at speeds that manual operators could only dream of.

Once they had all filed in, and the door was closed behind them, the man spoke at last, welcoming them to his workshop. Marius introduced them to Milo, and identified the team to him one at a time. Milo was about 1.7 metres tall, with black hair and very dark brown eyes. A neatly trimmed beard and moustache covered his mouth and chin, but the sides of his face were clean shaven. A subtle datajack showed behind his ear, and he was dressed in a lightweight set of combat trousers and a large and baggy hooded top that was covered in apparently random numbers.

Milo explained the process to them – they each needed to strip down to underwear, and go through the scanner, allowing them to get a detailed set of body measurements for populating into various databases and to work up their fake medical and purchase histories for their fake IDs. They’d also be questions to ask them about their life and experience, skill sets and abilities to carry accents which would also be fed into the mixture. They’d need half a day for the initial measurements now, and another four or five half days over the next two weeks to refine the material and zero in on the perfect mix of stolen details, injected fiction and carefully crafted mistakes that would naturally creep in with any globe-spanning bureaucracy.

The team listened and nodded, and started to strip down. They cast a few glances at Marius and Nadia, wondering if there was going to be an issue from her Islamic upbringing, but she seemed happy enough to strip down to her bra and pants as the rest of the guys – it was in fact Tads that looked over at Milo and queried if it was absolutely necessary. Milo responded that it was, not even glancing at her as he moved about the equipment and calibrated the sensors. For a moment Tads looked unsure, but started to strip off her clothes just the same.

As she pulled her top over her head, Nadia let out a little gasp of surprise and horror, raising her hands to her mouth, blushing deeply as Tads looked over at her. The rest of the team looked up and stared at the shaman, and she looked back over at each of them in turn. Her lips were pursed together, and she silently watched them, her gaze flitting from one to another as she waited for one of them to speak. None of them did, though – they just stared at her torso and the mass of puckered and twisted flesh, knitted into tight whorls and patterns of stretched dermis. Tads shrugged and dropped her top, then pulled down her trousers, revealing the skin on her thighs and backs of her legs were equally scarred. Kai and Shimazu stared for a few moments, each of them examining the deep burns and scar tissue from a medical viewpoint, and thinking how lucky she must be to still be alive – the burns were deep, no doubt 3rd degree over significant parts of her body, and showed no signs of skin grafts or modern treatments. She must have been caught in a horrific fire at some point in her life, and from just above her knees to just below her collarbone was a mass of healed tissue.

Milo looked up from his scanners and caught sight of Tads.

“Oh for fucks sake. You didn’t think to mention this?” He flashed a glance at Marius, who shrugged at him.

“I didn’t know. First time I’ve seen her without clothes on.”

“There’s a reason for that, you know,” Tads muttered. Nadia looked away, embarrassed by her reaction and not able to meet her eyes, and the rest of the team went back to stripping their own clothes off, finding bits of scanning equipment to stare at.

Milo came over, and then slowly walked around Tads. She watched him, but strangely enough, she didn’t feel judged by him. His eyes flickered over her, and he took some measurements of the extents of her scarring, but he didn’t show any awareness of his attention, and he gently poked at her without any shame. It was as if his focus was entirely on how difficult it would be to find a matching ID to steal and customise, rather than her value of beauty.

“Alright. We can still do this, but it’s going to be tough on this one. But that’s why you pay for the best, yes? Right. Ok, well first one please, into the scanner…”

As they waited, Aswon thought back to the time when Kai had mis-thrown the smoke grenade which had gone off in the truck, and Tads fleeing from the vehicle in a screaming panic, and the reason for that made a lot more sense now. It was certainly something to bear in mind for the future – if they ever found themselves in a situation where fire was involved, they would have to look after her.

They got scanned, one by one, moving into the machine and standing as still as they could while the laser head spun around them on armatures, sliding slowly down the body and producing an ultra-detailed 3d model of their body. It took hours, with people fidgeting and having to be rescanned, or needing to hold arms and legs out at unnatural angles to get satisfactory readings. They each filled in an extensive questionnaire as well, not without some discomfort from a few of them at the personal and detailed nature of the questions. They took their lead from Marius though, who seemed to have complete faith in Milo.

It was just after lunchtime when they were finished, and they agreed a schedule with Milo for their return, fitting in the half days he needed them physically around for follow-up measures or photos, or to answer questions for the backgrounds. They managed to get them spread out enough so they had several two-to-three day breaks, to allow them to leave town and go talismongering, or engage in some other business as needed.

They got back into the truck and retraced their route. What had taken them about fifteen minutes early in the morning took closer to hour on their return as they inched through heavy traffic and crawled across the bridge. Eventually though they made it back to the house, and dropped off Tads, Kai and Shimazu, then headed north through the crowded city streets towards Grey Automotive. According to the matrix site, it lay in the shadow of the main crossing of the Bosphorus Straight – but according to the information from Sofi, would be able to assist them with their issues without official oversight.

They were about two thirds of the way to their destination when they heard the distinctive whoop whoop of sirens from behind them, and saw the police patrol car flashing it’s headlights at them. Marius took one look at the traffic around them, and realised that there was no way to evade, and slowed the truck, indicating over to the side of the road. The car followed them in, parking at a thirty degree angle behind them. Both doors opened and policemen appeared, weapons already drawn and aiming at the truck, ignoring the honks of traffic from angry drivers forced to detour around them. One policeman moved towards the rear of the cruiser and rested on the bodywork, aiming his pistol towards the front of the truck, covering his partner who approached cautiously.

In the truck, Aswon and Hunter climbed through into the back, and hid themselves under blankets and pillows, aware that they didn’t have IDs that would pass official muster yet, leaving Marius and Nadia in the front. A few moment later there was a sharp rap on the door as the policeman used the barrel of his pistol to grab their attention. Marius opened the door slowly and carefully and with a broad smile looked down at the policeman, before quietly speaking in fluent Turkish.

“Good morning, officer? Is there some kind of problem?” He had twisted in his seat and bought one knee up onto the seat, and had laced both hands around it – making it clear that he had nothing in his hands and couldn’t possibly make any kind of hostile movements. The officer looked up into the cab, and saw the blond man staring down at him. Clean shaven, neat and presentable, and with a young lady peering over his shoulder, with no weapon in sight or anything else that looked amiss, he lowered the barrel of his gun slightly.

“This truck has a warrant on it, for violent assault and theft. I need to see your IDs.” The policeman spoke firmly, but the edge had vanished from his voice. He took one hand from his pistol and beckoned for them to get out of the truck, and then stepped back a few paces to give them room. Marius slid over towards the door and then turned away from the policeman and climbed down from the cab, slowly and carefully, making sure to keep both hands visible during the process. When he reached the ground, he stood where he was and raised his hands above him, and helped Nadia down from the cab too, almost supporting her entire weight as she climbed out, and turning around with her. Everything was carried out slowly and surely, and he kept his face calm and composed. When Nadia reached the ground, he grabbed his jacket in his left hand, and pulled it open, and then slowly reached in with just a thumb and forefinger, to reach for his ID. He passed over the ten centimetre long tube of his “Médecins Sans Frontières” SIN to the policeman, who took it with his left hand while his right held his pistol still aimed in their general direction. Marius noted however, that his finger had moved off the trigger and was now stretched out alongside the receiver…

The policeman craned his head to look through the open door of the cab, but couldn’t see anyone else in the front of the truck. The angle made it difficult to see though, and he’d would have to climb through the door and up into the cab to do a proper search. For the moment, he turned his head towards Nadia.

“And your ID, miss?”

Nadia started to reach for her ID as well, and then froze. Thoughts flashed through her mind – if her dad had listed her as missing, there was probably a note tagged to her ID. That was back in Azerbaijan, and technically she was over the border in a separate country, but it wasn’t a chance she was willing to take. Instead she tried to mask her initial movement, and moved her hands up to Marius’ bicep and grasped him, leaning her head against his shoulder and looked up at him.

“I’m sorry officer, but it’s not with me. We had to take it in to the government after we got married, and there was some backlog or something, and they said they needed to keep it to update the name and marital status. I’m not sure why, I thought it was all on the computer, but they told me I had to leave it with them.” She checked her watch and then made an obvious ‘counting in my head’ expression, “they said it should be back with me either tomorrow or the day after. I can bring it down to the station if you need me to?”

The policeman nodded, and seemed to accept this at face value, and gave her a brief sympathetic smile at the ineptitude of the bureaucratic system. He glanced over to the car, and seeing that he was covered by his partner from behind the cruiser lowered his pistol and slid it back into the holster. Reaching behind him there was the sound of a pouch being opened, and he pulled out a small reader, which he keyed on with a thumb. A moment later the machine gave a two tone beep and he slid the ID into the port on the top and waited while the computer got to work. Two amber lights flashed rapidly on top of the device as it processed the ID and compared the checksums and ran through the integrated database of warrants and arrest orders. The lights paused for a moment, then it made a dismal ‘hannk’ noise and a red light glowed solidly on the display.

The policeman, who had been starting to relax at the friendly and compliant response he’d received so far tensed back up, and looked up at them suspiciously. Marius saw the light turn red, and fought to keep his expression under control.

“This ID is not valid. There is no record of an entry visa here. You will need to come down to the station with us.”

Marius sighed and made a little frustrated noise, raising a hand to run through his hair.

“I can’t believe this. The man at the border crossing promised me that his system was working properly! I told him that it didn’t look like it had read my ID properly, but he assured me that it had.” He turned his body to Nadia slightly and grasped both of her hands in his, “I’m sorry, I know I promised you a lovely holiday, I had no idea this would happen. First I buy a truck a month ago that someone has used for something illegal before me, and now this silly man at the border hasn’t put my entry visa on…” Nadia looked at Marius and then turned her gaze on the policeman and looked at him. For a moment she wondered if trying to cry was going to help, but thought better of it, and instead just looked at him expectantly.

Marius took a step towards the policeman and lowered his voice.

“Look officer, there’s obviously been a mistake. I obviously need to go to the Trans Caucasian League embassy and get this issue sorted out. I understand you’re just doing your job, and it’s not personal. Perhaps if I can just pay the fine for the visa not being valid, and then go and sort this out, before I get in any more trouble, and then it won’t ruin our honeymoon anymore?” He raised an eyebrow at the policeman, hoping his read of him hadn’t been wrong. The policeman looked at him for a moment and glanced at Nadia, before returning his gaze to Marius. He licked his lips and glanced back to his partner, and made a “wait” gesture to him.

“I can understand how these things happen. The fine is…. five hundred?” Marius winced internally, but nodded his head as if that was expected, and then slowly and carefully reached into his inside pocket again, and pulled out the stash of hard currency.

“Oh, you pay in cash?” The policeman looked at the sheaf of notes that Marius was fanning though. “There is a surcharge for administration. It will be six hundred.” Marius nodded and added an extra note to the bundle and passed them over, his fake smile now veneer thin. He watched the policeman turn and walk back to the cruiser, and split the bribe between them. The other cop looked at him with surprise, but pocketed the notes and shrugged a little. The first policeman looked up at him and made a shooing motion, and Marius quickly helped Nadia back into the truck and climbed up after her. As he pulled the door closed, he called out into the rear compartment.

“We have to get these plates changed – or this is going to get very expensive!” He heard movement in the back as Aswon and Hunter emerged from their hiding places, but ignored them – concentrating instead on getting jacked in and the truck moving before the policemen changed their minds.

Another kilometre down the road, fortunately without incident, bought them to Greys. It was a wide building, with three large vehicle bays set back from a shallow courtyard and a small admin office built onto the side over two floors. All three of the vehicle bays were open, and they could see cars up on the ramps, being worked on by several employees in dark grey overalls. Marius looked for somewhere to park up, but couldn’t spot anywhere that would be out of the way or not block someone in somewhere – so settled for the left hand side. By the looks of things, the clutch for that vehicle was spread out all over the floor, so it wasn’t going anywhere for a least a couple of hours.

They pulled in and stopped, and a moment later Marius killed the engine. They saw a few of the staff look over at them, and a couple of them pointed, nudging their neighbours. The four of them exchanged glances and then climbed out of the truck and waited to see what would happen next. In only a few moments, one of the workers put down his tools, grabbed some cloth and walked over to them, wiping his greasy hands on the cloth. 

“What’s up?” He glanced over at the truck, looking at the tyres and the nose of the truck. “Something broke?”

“No, nothing’s wrong with the truck. We’re hoping to see Miss Grey. A friend of ours from Lionheart recommended her for being the person to do vehicle tune-ups in Constantinople,” responded Marius.

“You got an appointment?” He saw them shake their head. “Ok. I’ll go see, but we pretty busy at the moment. You may have to come back.” He sauntered off towards the admin block, and disappeared from view for a couple of minutes. Whilst they were waiting, they watched the mechanics at work, and saw them repeatedly glancing in their direction.

The door swung open, and an attractive woman walked over towards them. She was in her mid-twenties by the looks of things, with long brown hair that reached the middle of her back and wore minimal, but very tastefully-applied makeup. She wore a pair of cargo trousers and a t-shirt that had been cut short and left little to the imagination, under a thick padded gilet – if she was bothered by the cool February day, she didn’t show it. She approached the team and gave each of them a glance over, taking in their clothing style and mix of skin tones.

“I hear you’re looking for some work on your truck? Ural 56-60, V8 Diesel by the looks of things.” She squatted down on her haunches and glanced at the ground clearance under the truck, leaning forward as she did so and apparently unconcerned about the amount of cleavage on show. “Slapped a bit of extra armour on by the looks of things as well.” She straightened up and looked back to the team. “So, what are you after?” Her English was pretty good, with just a trace of accent on some words.

Aswon stepped forward and smiled at her, then cleared his throat.

“The truck has been involved in illegal activities before we obtained it, and the licence information is compromised. I’m led to believe that you can help us obtain a transponder library, some false plates and new paperwork to disguise the origins of the vehicle?”

Sasha looked at him and raised an eyebrow, whilst Marius and Hunter both turned to Aswon with looks of shock on their faces. Nadia raised a hand to her face and quite literally face-palmed. For a moment, nobody said anything.

“Well my friend, it looks like your friend told you wrong. Certainly can’t help you with any of that – it all sounds very illegal, and I run a fine, upstanding garage and wouldn’t know anything about work of that kind.” She glanced over at Marius, who was still staring at Aswon as if he’d grown an extra head.

Marius snapped out of his surprise, and looked over at Sasha. 

“Of course not. My friend here was just joking, of course. Very funny. No, what we’re really after is a bit of an engine tune-up, to let us do some off-road races. Nothing unusual, just need to balance things up and get the most out of what we have.” Sasha folded her arms and looked at them, then grinned at them.

“Alright. Come on into the office, you lot. Not you though, Captain Boy-Scout. You can wait out here.” She pointed to Aswon as she spoke, and watched him move over to the truck with a shrug of his shoulders, then turned and led the way back to the office block. As they walked behind her, Hunter watched her lithe and sinuous figure and the sway of her hips with obvious enjoyment. He flashed a look at Marius, who was studiously looking at the back of her head, and avoiding the dirty looks from Nadia. Hunter sniggered to himself… 

They entered the building, finding themselves in a small waiting room with several sofas, a coffee machine and a stack of battered and cheap matrix access slates, mostly loaded with e-zines about cars and racing. There were no other people present, and after she had waved people to their seats, she started pouring cups of coffee for them and then perched on the end of one of the sofas and looked back at Marius.

“So. What is it that you’re after then?”

“We’ve been together for about two months, and we ‘acquired’ the truck then – but it seems before that the person we got it from had been up to some fairly ruthless things. We’ve been pulled for it since entering the city, and that’s going to get in the way of business if we’re staying around here. We don’t want to get pulled for something the previous owner did – we’ve been careful, and we’ve not done anything dodgy in the truck.”

Sasha raised an eyebrow and glanced over the three of them.

“You’ve not broken the law at all since you had the truck?” She looked back at Marius with a smile. “I find that somewhat hard to believe.”

“Well, ok. Technically you’re correct. We’ve not done anything that we’ve been caught at….” Marius returned her smile, before continuing. “So, something needs to happen about the previous history. But, it’s also pretty recognisable, which isn’t always a good thing, so we’re looking for some body kits or panels, something to change the shape and signature a little. And the last thing is that it would be really handy to be able to change the colour on the truck, so we’re looking at getting a full photo-voltaic paint system applied. For…. Advertising.”

“And you say you’re friends with someone in Lionheart?”

“Well, the guy outside is – his name is Aswon, and he knows a Captain called Sofi from way back, they used to work together. Tends to speak his mind though and speak plainly.”

“You don’t say!” Sasha interrupted with a laugh, and watched as Marius gave a little shrug.

“But I’ve got a friend here as well that will vouch for me. Ever heard of Andre Koompli?” Marius saw Sasha nod, “Well, if you call him, he’ll speak for me.”

“Hmph. Ok, wait here… I got a call to make.”

Sasha swayed out of the waiting area and into her office, moving over to the desk and grabbed a com-headset. She turned back towards them and stood watching them through the window as she dialled a com-code, and then touched the stuff at the side of the window, polarising the glass and turning it into a mirror from their side. Hunter and Marius sat back and grabbed the data slates, flicking through the information about cars and recent races, but Nadia sat still, glaring at the window.

A few minutes passed, and the Sasha returned from her office, and resumed her place on the corner of one of the sofas.

“Ok, you don’t have much of a rep, but I’ve made some calls, and you’re not working for the wrong people. So, sure – I can help you. The question is now – how’s your cred. I don’t come cheap, and you need a lot of help.”

Hunter stirred for the first time, and laid the slate down on the arm of his seat.

“We’ve got cred, it depends just how much you’re talking about of course. We’ve got a reasonable amount of hard cash, bearer bonds and other stuff if you prefer to keep things off the books.” Sasha nodded and seemed to accept his statement, at least for the moment.

Sasha started to talk with Marius about the truck, and the dialogue soon became very technical. Hunter sat back and just watched them talking, with the occasional glance at Nadia who was becoming increasingly angry as Marius focussed all of his attention on the beautiful woman sitting over from him. Marius in turn was completely oblivious, having found a kindred vehicle geek to talk specs with.

After a long period of negotiation and discussions, it was agreed – Hunter would pay fifteen thousand as a deposit, and they would leave the truck with Sasha for the moment for initial surveys, and borrow a small MPV from her for getting around the city. They’d return for the truck in a while, and use it to bring the trailer up, so the same work could be carried out on that – but they’d warned Sasha that it might well have a Shaman in the back doing some “weird magic stuff”, and she had the final say on when they could work in there, and would supervise them. Sasha would sort out some registration and ownership documents on the truck, and arrange for some new IDs, get a morphing licence plate that could adapt via computer control whilst they were on the road and would fit a small transponder library to give them a few different identities to use. They’d also measure up the truck and use some of the latest smart materials to make fairings and copings for the exterior of the truck.

Normally smart materials – advanced polymers that would change shape and form under electrical impulses were used at the design stage of hyper-cars and military grade tech, things benefitting from drive or fly-by-wire and ridiculous budgets, but could achieve superb results – it was a lot easier to corner at a hundred and eight kilometres per hour when your car would actually lean into the bend! However, they could use earlier generation and much cheaper materials, operating on a much simpler and grosser scale to provide changes to the truck’s form and silhouette quite easily, and again it could all be computer-controlled while they were on the road.

Last of all, the entire surface of the truck except the windows would be covered in a fine layer of reactive paint with a delicate layer of electrical mesh embedded inside it, then sealed with strong polymer varnish. Once connected up to the onboard systems, the operator could send commands to make the truck change colours and even display simple logos – as long as the paint hue and shapes were loaded into the library.

“I’ll have to make calls to ensure that the materials are to hand, and of course to start working on the ownership documents and the log book. I’ll call you later, to confirm the final details.”

“That’s great, Sasha, nice to be working with a professional. I’ll speak with our boss and get everything squared away on our side, and double check the arrangements with our Shaman.”

Sasha looked uncertain about having a trailer full of magical ‘stuff’ on her premises, but was assured it was fine, and not going to cause her a problem.

They climbed into the battered old brown Ford, looking at the grubby and cracked seats, the broken plugs on the stereo and the ripped carpets, clearly not expecting much. It wasn’t equipped with a rigger interface, but did have a data-jack, so Marius connected up and started the engine. It didn’t look much, but the engine was in perfect order and roared to life, and Marius carefully steered them out into traffic and headed back to the house. The journey was uneventful, but slow going – and they started to get the impression that traffic was NEVER good in Constantinople unless it was very early, or very late. 

They parked the Ford in front of the trailer, and took the lift back to the top floor. On arrival, Nadia marched off somewhere, but Marius, Hunter and Kai went to find Kai to brief him on what they’d arranged. Through it all, they kept hearing odd little shouts – not of alarm, but of exertion. After the third one, they questioned Kai.

“HAI!”

“What was that?”

“The hais? That’s Shimazu. He’s practicing some sword stuff, and apparently it requires shouting on the strike. He’s also got bits of paper all over his room, and he’s writing something, then shouting ‘HAI’ a lot, then writing some more. He’s ok though, just very absorbed in it at the moment. I’d leave him be if I were you.

“And where’s Tads? We need to talk to her about the trailer.”

“She’s out in the trailer, drawing on the floor in chalk. She’s just as absorbed as Shimazu is. When I went to see if she was ok, she didn’t seem at all happy to be disturbed. I’d wait until dinner before you interrupt her.”

They were interrupted when Marius suddenly held up a hand and his eyes glazed over as he answered his internal com-link, routing the signal directly through to his brain, and answered the call from Sasha. She’d confirmed availability of the parts, and they agreed on a price of fifty thousand for all of the work, and about ten to eleven days to complete it, with the balance remaining to be paid on completion. After he hung up, he updated the other two on their progress.

Having nothing more to do at the moment, they split up, each heading off to a different room. Hunter headed back to his large and sparse room, and took his cleaning kit and went to work on his rifle, carefully stripping it down and cleaning it meticulously.

Kai went to find Aswon, and found him throwing knives into a sheet of construction material he’d found from somewhere, which he’d leant against the wall at the end of the room.

“Ahh, Kai – I need your help. You trust me, right?” Aswon gave a big grin to his boss and waited for Kai to nod. “Excellent, can you stand against that piece of wood over there. Then stand still. Very still.”

Kai looked at him to be sure he wasn’t joking, but then went and stood against the large sheet of plastiboard, then spread his arms and legs out.

“Like this?”

“Yes, exactly, now hold still.” Aswon gave three rapid breaths, as if he was hyper-ventilating, and then breathed out explosively, emptying his lungs. At the bottom of the breath, when his lungs were empty and his diaphragm fully extended he flicked his wrist and the throwing knife flew across the room and buried itself into the material, about three centimetres from Kai’s leg. Kai looked down at the knife that quivered from the force of the impact.

“Err, Aswon?”

Aswon wasn’t listening though, and gave three rapid breaths, and another knife appeared in his hand… Kai looked at him and realised that he was almost in a trance – his concentration absolute and unrelenting. That was good, considering how close the knives were landing, but then Kai realised that Aswon was not only seeking mastery without, but also mastery within – and that he’d asked Kai specifically to help him, as a fellow member of their magical group. As Shimazu was clearly seeking to reach a greater understanding of his art and magical powers through the medium of his sword, Aswon was looking to master his body’s abilities and focus this way. 

Marius wandered along the corridor to the room that he and Nadia had claimed last night, and twisted the handle, then walked into the unmoving door, rapping his head and knee against the heavy wooden door in surprise. He muttered to himself in German, and then twisted the doorknob the other way, and tested the door again – but it still refused to open.

“Nadia?”

“GO AWAY!”

“Nadia, what’s the matter?”

“I SAID GO AWAY! Why don’t you go and talk with that slut with spanner!”

Marius sighed. He had no idea what to do, and he was in uncertain territory.

“Nadia, come on, open the door. Let’s talk about this, whatever this is.” Something hit the back of the door, but fortunately didn’t make a breaking noise. For a moment, Marius was convinced he could hear giggling from the direction of Hunter’s room, but the noise stopped before he could be sure.

“Nadia, come on, open the door – otherwise…” an idea came to him – risky, but worth a go – “otherwise you won’t have time to get ready before we go shopping. I mean, I’ll still buy you some nice new clothes, but I’m not sure the style will be exactly right.” He listened for a moment, but there was only silence from inside the room. “And there’s no way I’m going to make a guess as to what kind of shoes are going to be comfortable for you.”

He listened for a moment, and heard someone walking towards the door, and then the louder and more obvious sounds of the old-fashioned key being turned in the lock, giving him time to wipe the grin from his face and look concerned before Nadia opened the door a fraction.

“I’m still very angry with you! I don’t want you talking with that woman again, it was disgusting the way she flirted with you.”

“Why don’t we talk about it while we’re picking you out a nice new dress to wear or something?”

“And shoes.”

“Yes, and shoes. Come on.” Nadia walked past him and headed for the lift, still refusing to hold his hand or touch him, and Marius sighed. This was also probably going to be expensive. As he turned to follow her, and passed Hunter’s room, he looked in and saw the Ork concentrating on his rifle, scrubbing away industriously with a cleaning pad on the barrel.

“We’re going shopping, Hunter, see you later.” Hunter looked up, and Marius frowned at the huge smirk on his face, and declined to say anything more, and followed Nadia down the corridor and into the lift. The shopping trip proved to be just as expensive as he’d feared, and two dresses and three pairs of shoes later, diplomatic relations had been normalised to a point where they were talking and acting normally, as long as he didn’t bring up the mechanic.

The team assembled for their evening meal quite late, sending out for some takeaway food and eating around the large table in the main room, before once more spreading out. Tads grabbed a few hours of sleep and then woke up before dawn, and continued to work on her spells in the trailer. Marius spent some time with his toolkit, fitting the recoil mounts for the weapons systems to the mounting plates on the drones, and teaching Nadia the rudiments of drone operations. Shimazu continued to work on his swordsmanship and documenting his techniques, pouring his magical expertise and process into written form, and Aswon continued to throw knives at Kai in his room, gradually honing the process and getting closer and closer to his boss each time.

Around lunchtime, Sasha called Marius. Fearful of Nadia’s reaction, he redirected the call to an external handset and put her on speaker, carrying the speaker through into the Aswon’s room so he and Kai could hear as well. Sasha confirmed that they had the initial readings on the truck sorted, and needed the trailer soon, and also laid out the schedule for when they needed to do work on the interior, so they could schedule this around Tads. Marius pushed the microphone and speaker towards Kai and then stepped back, so Kai picked up on the conversation – much to Marius’s relief. Nadia frowned when she heard Sasha’s voice, but she was talking with Kai, so she didn’t get too angry.

Kai scribbled down the dates on his organiser, and then compared them to the times they had to be at Milo’s to get their IDs worked on.

“Right team, looks like we have a plan…”


	67. 067 - A city of two tales 3

Date 03/02/2060, Location 41.0254, 28.98193

Kai looked up as he finished his notes and looked for Tads. Not seeing her, he wandered down to the trailer which was parked up by the side of the house. He called out to her, and after a few moments she appeared at the back door of the trailer, a stick of chalk in one hand and a feather in the other.

“What?” She sounded distracted, rather than curt – he’d obviously disturbed her in the middle of some process that she was trying to hold in her mind.

“I just wanted to check when you would be free to go talismongering with the others – trying to get some days planned.”

“Oh. Well, if you want to go, then just give me notice. Otherwise, I don’t really have any free time – I think this is going to chew up all the time we have here, and probably more…”

“Really? Oh, well…. I..um. I guess you carry on doing what you’re doing then. If it’s stuff you need to get done.” Tads nodded at him, then disappeared back into the trailer and returned to her research. After a moment, Kai realised that was all he was going to get out of her, and made some notes in his diary. Tads, it appeared, was quite happy to self-task for as long as they were in town, but was available if required and given notice. Check.

Wandering back into the house he found the team had all returned to their training activities, and Aswon was waiting for him with his selection of throwing knives and a big grin. He shrugged and stood against the backstop, fiddling with his organiser and ignored the thudding of knives as they landed millimetres from his legs and body. After a few minutes of typing in data, he was disturbed by a message from Sasha, wanting to know how the trailer was getting up to her – Kai in turn arranged for a heavy lift tow truck to come and collect it, adding the fee to their overall bill – it seemed worth it to avoid losing an entire afternoon to the back and forth of getting the delivery sorted themselves and risking the truck being pulled again. He sent a message to Tads to let her know she’d be moving soon, then got back to reading and his own training, ignoring the quivering of the knives as they reverberated next to his body from the force of the impact.

Later that afternoon the tow truck arrived and hooked up to the trailer. It was a large vehicle, one of the heavy duty units used when coaches or heavy goods vehicles broke down, and managed the trailer easily given the light loading. Tads climbed up into the cab, still holding her stick of chalk in her right hand, and introduced herself to the driver. He turned out to be the guy who would be working on the trailer, a youngish man called Levi, with typical Turkish complexion and long hair held back with a bandanna. He was grimy, and his clothes appeared to be ripped and ill kempt, and he had a slovenly appearance overall – but he appeared to be quite competent mechanically. During the journey up to the garage, he explained what he needed to do in the trailer, and Tads explained what she was doing in turn, at least in general terms, and how much notice she would need. He appeared uncomfortable with the idea of magic, and a little nervous about the whole thing.

Back at the house the team continued to train, spread out around the house; each working in their own space. Occasional checks of the CCTV system showed little passing traffic and nobody appearing to pay them any attention, and there was little noise or interaction with the neighbours on the other floors. The afternoon turned into evening, and just as they were settling down together for an evening meal, a tired and somewhat grumpy-looking Tads turned up, having ridden down through the late evening traffic on one of the motorbikes. From her description, the lighter traffic in the evening was if anything worse to ride through than the heavy press of the traffic jams – it meant they had more time to accelerate and cut each other up…

The next day continued as before – practice, training and maintenance, research and development on techniques and work around the house and in Tads’ case in the trailer. As the light faded, Shimazu stuck his head through Hunter’s door.

“Hunter? Can you help me with something?”

“I can try, what’s up?” He looked with interest as Shimazu held up a large collection of notes, printed on actual paper rather than stored on a tablet.

“I need to find somewhere to keep these, somewhere really safe. So I’m thinking of digging a big hole and burying it. But that means I need to find something to put it in, which will keep it safe. I’m not sure what that is, though…”

“Why do you want to bury it? Don’t you need it?” Hunter looked confused.

“Um. It’s kind of weird. Ok – making this book, I’ve poured a lot of knowledge into it, and a lot of concentration. It’s helped me gain an insight into my art, and my relationship with the world. In a way it’s become a part of me. Enough that it’s tied to my Ki, and is an essential part…” Shimazu saw the look of confusion and scepticism forming on Hunter’s face as he tried to describe how the treatise on swordsmanship had actually become tied and attuned to his magical aura. He broke off and tried a new tack. “Look, I’ve made the book magical, and it gives me power – but it’s also got the equivalent of a magical homing beacon in it, like those trackers the guys in the garage tried to plant on the truck.”

“Oh, right. Well, why didn’t you start with that?” Hunter shook his head at him. “So you need to keep it safe, because if it breaks, you lose power. But you need to keep it where people won’t find it and steal it or use it to find you. Right, I understand now. How about a bank vault?” He saw the frown on Shimazu’s face at that suggestion. “Right, ok, not trusting banks. Ok, into a hole. So, you need something good for being buried, in a hole in the ground – so moisture proof, strong, rot resistant… hmm.”

Nadia was wandering past the corridor as he said this, a fresh water bottle in her hand along with a bag of sweets. She stopped as he heard that, and leant around Shimazu to look at Hunter.

“How about a telephone junction box? Or a jointing box for electric cable? They’re designed to be buried and are waterproof. What’s this for?” Hunter ignored her, having already turned to his computer and starting a search using those key terms. Shimazu briefly explained to Nadia what he was after.

“Have you thought about getting it shrink wrapped and then put it in a coffin with a body?” Shimazu looked at her strangely, wondering what she was on about. “Look, think about it. They get buried, and then left alone. People respect the dead. Nobody digs up a graveyard to build a new house on, or a road, or anything like that. As long as you’re not in the Carrib League you don’t have to worry about Voodoo, it’s the perfect hiding place.” Shimazu saw the logic in her words, but still appeared to be acutely uncomfortable with the idea of burying his work next to a decaying corpse. Nadia in turn shrugged and then took her drink and snack back into their room and returned to work with Marius on converting the drones.

It took a while to find a seller, but after a few hours Hunter had found a business that sold the junction boxes, in Constantinople, that didn’t want to negotiate a contract for hundreds of them. The downside was that it sold only to trade customers, and required someone to go with a legal SIN and perform the transaction “above board”. Shimazu thought about using his own SIN, which was technically valid – but that would place him firmly in the city, and given what had happened with Saito, he much preferred to stay out of sight of the Iranians. He decided to put the purchase back, until their new IDs were ready – there was no rush after all.

The next day continued, much the same as the previous. Tads continued to work in the trailer, and set aside an hour to supervise Levi as he slowly and laboriously installed cable runs through the trailer’s armoured sides for the new photovoltaic coating. He concentrated on his work and did appear to be remarkably competent at it for someone so young, but also appeared to be very nervous around her and the contents of the trailer – not for him the wonder and endless questions about magic, but more a deep-seated fear of the unknown and distrust of things not physical. Back at the house, the rest of the team continued with their allocated training and research. Shimazu was nearly complete with his treatise, having written many thousands of words by hand onto the sheets of handmade paper secured from an art shop. Marius and Nadia had finished fitting the heavy-duty shock absorbers to the gun mounting, and fashioning the cradle for the auto-fire weapon to sit in around the slightly unusual arrangement of recoil dampers and springs. Now they could take just about any assault rifle or machine gun and drop it in with little conversion work, and the mount would absorb a large proportion of the movement and bounce from the firing, helping to keep the fire on target.

The next morning they were up at the crack of dawn again, and made their way back to the converted house in the dense maze of streets to the south east. The body scanner had been pushed to one side, and instead the majority of the space was now taken up with camera gear and lighting positioned on mounts and frames, with the walls hung with a plain blue cloth. A rail of clothes was positioned to the side of the room, along with a box of random props. In turn, each of them were dressed and set up in the photo area, told to perform some particular action and filmed several times. Milo showed Marius some of the work, the advanced software chromakeyed into backgrounds and then filters aging and distorting the footage as appropriate for the type of camera it would have been shot on in the past. Each of the “legends” being created for them was being supported with supposed shots from store CCTV systems, snapshots taken by government agencies or scenes played out for street surveillance systems. For the non-technical members of the team it was a sobering view into the depths of control the corporations and electronic surveillance systems had into their lives.

After a busy morning of filming, including some effort in getting Tads hooked up to a fake set of medical monitors to support her “long stay in hospital after the house fire” segment, the team made their way back to the house, stopping off at the supermarket for food and supplies. Aswon was pleased to find a local store nearby that sold some self-defence gear – he passed on the pepper spray and rape alarms, but picked up a replacement extendable baton for himself. While Nadia was shopping for certain supplies, Marius cornered Kai and had a quick chat.

“Kai, I’m thinking we should get an extra mod fitted to the truck – it’s not that expensive, but very useful. But I’ll have to call Sasha to get it sorted, so let’s not mention that to Nadia, ok?” Kai nodded to him in understanding. “Well, we’re getting the truck upgraded right – wouldn’t it be useful if I could drive it using my deck, remotely. We could call it to us if we needed an extract then, for instance. The hardware’s not that expensive, and they can probably fit it in no problem – shouldn’t be more than ten to fifteen thousand?”

Kai winced a little, but then nodded.

“Let me go distract Nadia for a few minutes, make the call.” He took a deep breath and headed into the ‘feminine hygiene aisle’ and looked for Nadia, while behind him Marius fired up his com-link.

After they had finished their shopping, they loaded back up into the MPV and headed towards the house. Nadia called over to Shimazu, asking if he’d found his box to bury yet. Shimazu responded, telling her that Hunter had found somewhere, but that he needed to buy it legally so he was going to wait for their new IDs. That in turn jogged Kai’s memory, and he pulled out his phone and called Ngo in Vietnam, hoping he wasn’t too late in the day. She answered through, and told him the IDs were waiting for him, giving him the collection details.

Kai redirected them as he ended the call, sending them back to the south west. Marius grumbled as once more he got caught in traffic heading over the bridge, but they fought their way over and pulled in shortly after to Sirkeci railway station. Kai climbed out of the truck and headed in to the customer service desk, and following Ngo’s instructions informed them he had lost a brown attaché case, with gold handles and the initials KQB. The assistant quickly found the case, and informed Kai that there was a 15 Nuyen storage charge which he slotted his medical ID for. Less than a minute later he left the vaulted hall of the train station behind him and climbed back into the truck, and Marius headed for the bridge – and the traffic – once more.

Kai opened the case, and found it mostly full of crumpled plastic and waste product, but nestled inside were five cylinders, about ten centimetres long and two centimetres across – standard ID credsticks. He pulled them out and pushed the case to one side, grabbed the terminal and then slotted each in turn, checking through them.

“Ok, let’s see what we have here then. First up is a nurse, all Tads – here you are. Or rather here’s Illona Astaruu. It says here your knee was surgically rebuilt with a bunch of composites and metals following a skiing accident, and that you have a slight limp. Picture matches though, and some detail on the university and hospital you trained at in Russia.” He passed over the stick, and slotted the next in line from his hand. “Hunter – or should I say Dr Julian Barnham, qualified at St Hilda’s Oxford, as a general practitioner. Notes here about some clinical incident you were involved with that damaged your liver, meaning you need to take daily medication.” Kai leant past Tads to pass Hunter the ID then slotted the next.

“Aswon, from the picture – you’re now Dr Chege Keanjaho from Mozambique. Apparently you’re a skilled surgeon and woah. Ok – how good are you with a knife?” Aswon quirked an eyebrow at him. “According to this, you did an emergency appendix removal using a hunting knife on a tourist out in the bush, saved his life – that’s where your scholarship money came from. Hope that doesn’t come to bite us…” he passed over the stick to Aswon, shaking his head. “Ahh, here’s me – Dr Arban Erdene, from China, middle-aged…. I need to buy that lady lunch, it seems. A whole bunch of medical certificates and background, ok, looks good. Marius, this is you – another nurse…” Hunter sniggered, but got himself under control almost immediately, and Kai continued quickly before anyone could say anything. “Kleiner Kampf, registered ward nurse with a specialism in cybernetic monitoring. Oh, and you belong to something call the German National Party.” This time Hunter couldn’t supress the snigger.

“Ahh, they’ve made you a Nazi!” Kai looked alarmed, but then the speakers keyed up.

“I think you’ll find that the GNP is a right-wing party sure, but not recognised as either Nazis or national socialists!” Marius continued for another minute, describing the differences, but in the cab Hunter was too busy performing inappropriate historical salutes at the slumped body to care.

“Anyway, last one here should be for you, Shimazu. Oh look at you, Mr. fancy pants. You’re a professor – Sang Po Yi. You sound like a bowl of soup. Oh, and you’re a massive communist by the looks of things – at least you’re a member of the Red Book society, whatever that is. Sounds dodgy to me.” He handed over the credstick to Shimazu, who hesitantly accepted it, looking at the gloss black plastic as if he could determine the level of political trouble just by peering at it.” Hunter was by now having fits of the giggles and muttering under his breath about burning people at the stake just to fit in with the rest of the team.

They made it back to the house without incident, and after the mundane tasks of getting lunch and putting away their shopping, split up again and continued their tasks. Shimazu finished his thesis, having completed more than fifty thousand hand written words on the rough paper and spent the rest of the afternoon reviewing it – checking for errors and any parts that needed to be re-drafted. He sat cross-legged on the floor at the end of the bed, looking at the sheaf of notes forming a thick pamphlet in his hands. He had poured his soul into this, and he could feel the faint stirrings of magic whenever he handled the thesis, the ethereal link between his writings and his Ki. If something were to happen to this thesis, it would trigger a backlash, and potentially unbalance him – and he would have to recentre himself and reapply lessons already learnt. He looked over at the pile of spare supplies, sighed deeply and then reached for the sheets of paper and started to copy out the writings, carefully duplicating his efforts…

The following morning, having finished the conversion work on the drones and all of the recoil mountings, Marius got on the phone to Andre. After exchanging chit chat and assuring him that the house was in good shape, Marius asked him if he could be put in touch with someone local who might be able to get the team some hardware, off the books. Andre thought for a few moments, and Marius listened patiently to the quiet beeps as his fixer paged through his contacts, looking for the right person.

“Ahh, here you go. Head down to the Turkish Dessert restaurant, and after your meal ask to speak to Orhan Pamuk. I’ll give him a heads up and warn him to expect you. He should be able to get hold of whatever you’re after, providing it’s not too out there.”

Marius thanked him and disconnected, then looked up the address. It was in the eastern half of the city, so he’d have to cross the straights, and it was down to the south, just inland from the coast. The area was another tight warren of streets, and he imagined it would be like the area around Milo’s ID studio. Most of the rest of the team were still busy, so he grabbed Nadia and Hunter and told them where he was heading – and both offered to come along.

Crossing the bridge took as long as he expected, and it was approaching lunchtime anyway by the time they’d managed to cross to the eastern half of the city and thread their way through the streets and down towards the waterfront. At least the brown MPV stood out less than the truck and drew fewer hostile stares from the populous, although he also couldn’t push his way through the traffic in the same way either, so it wasn’t all good. Eventually though they pulled into the street and slowed as they searched for the restaurant.

The Turkish Dessert appeared to be four of the homes on one block that had been knocked together at some point, forming the end of one of the densely packed strips of housing that filled the area behind the waterfront. The streets were narrow and badly potted, with minimal street lighting directly attached to the second floor of the houses that ran down the sides of the narrow pavements. The cheap clay building blocks had been whitewashed, but were now stained and pitted; green algae grew in patches under badly fitting joints in the guttering, and some of the paint had an odd texture where salt from the air had crystallised and formed large flaky patches. They searched around the blocks until they found somewhere they could leave the vehicle without blocking the road, and headed back to the restaurant.

Once out of the protection of the vehicle, they found themselves being watched by the people on the street – many of them again showing signs of hostility. Nadia had a skin tone that matched the area, but had adopted a much more western dress sense since joining them, which put her sharply at odds with the local culture. Marius and Hunter were both very clearly white Europeans – hair and eye colour, dress sense, even the way they walked marked them out as strangers. They stuck together, and tried not to make eye contact, heading swiftly to the restaurant, and hoping the car wouldn’t be trashed by some angry locals. It only took them two or three minutes to reach the open door to the restaurant, but that was long enough for them to wonder if they should have bought some firepower along, just in case. Each of them gave a small sigh of relief as they ducked in through the front door of the house on the corner and their eyes adjusted to the dim lighting inside.

Inside it was just as much of a jumble as they expected. The origins as a home led to odd shaped rooms and passages, low ceilings and cramped conditions in some areas. The designers had also faced some interesting choices with load bearing walls, and there were hatches to pass food through from one area to another instead of doorways in some places. The three of them were greeted by a young man in black trousers and a white shirt, and shown to a smallish table nestled in what had once been a living room. Drinks were ordered and they browsed the menu for a moment, before deciding to go with the “chef’s recommendation” for the day. 

As they looked around, the origins of the restaurant became more and more apparent. All of the tables were different, varying in styles, colour and finish. Chairs were mismatched, the carpets changed abruptly halfway through an area where there had once been a wall, and as they watched a few of the other diners eat, they saw all the cutlery and the crockery was equally mismatched. A few people sat in lower seats around a coffee table, taking long draws on a hookah. The place seemed very relaxed and chilled and the locals inside didn’t seem bothered by their presence. 

When the food arrived, theirs too was served in a variety of bowls and plates, while their glasses of drink were equally mismatched. The food was reasonably priced and quite clearly soy based for the most part, but was very tasty – it appeared to have been cooked by someone with at least a modicum of skill and reasonable care, certainly it was all presented very carefully. They ate their fill, enjoying the meal and listened to Nadia as she described how similar the houses were here to some parts of home, and talked about the area she had lived in. The only disappointment in the meal was dessert – Hunter said he wanted to try the baklava and the others went with his recommendation, but the product that arrived was bland and fairly tasteless, and appeared to have come out of a packet rather than being cooked on site. 

Still, after the meal, they settled the bill and left a small tip, and when the waiter asked if there was anything else they were after, Marius asked to speak to Orhan Pamuk. The waiter looked surprised and asked if everything was ok with the meal, but was assured that yes, it had been fine – though for a moment it looked like Hunter was going to complain about the baklava. A minute later a swarthy and heavy-set Turkish man in his forties approached the table, wiping his hands on a cloth.

“Hello? You wish to make a complaint?”

“No no no, not a complaint. In fact we had a very nice meal thank you. But we were advised to speak to you, specifically, about getting a very special menu for a party. My friend Andre recommended your catering.”

“Ahhh. I see. A party.” The man leaned in and lowered his voice a little. “Out of the front door, and left, along to the blue gate and in.” He stood up and raised his voice again. “We will of course be happy to discuss some catering for a special occasion. Please, scan the code by the door for our mailing list and we will send you a menu.”

They left the house, following the directions given and ducking into a yard enclosed by a high wall to the rear of the property. Ohran was already there waiting for them and once the door to the street was closed, greeted Marius and Hunter with firm handshakes. He took Nadia’s hand somewhat more gently, raising it to his lips and kissing the back of her hand, winking at her as he did so.

“So, friends of Andre. What do you need?”

“Well, we’re leaving town soon, heading back out into the wilderness. We’re after some new hardware to help keep us safe – this isn’t stuff to be used locally.” Ohran nodded at them. “Right, what I’m after is a Colt Cobra TM110, with a suppressor and at least a pair of magazines… actually, make that two sets.” Ohran pulled out a small tablet and started to make notes as Marius worked through his list. “Next is a Franchi Spas 22, preferably with the fold out stock and the top mounted full length rail, and at least a couple of boxes of shells.” Marius stopped as Ohran raised a hand to him.

“Is the specific model important to you? If so, that will be harder and take longer. If you’re happy with alternatives, from reputable manufacturers, then I can make some arrangements.”

“As long as they’re decent, I’m happy with substitutions of equivalent manufacture. Ok, next down the list is a grenade launcher, preferably an MGL6 or 12, whatever you can get. Yes, I know, not exactly the usual list – we’re not after a couple of pistols to knock over a shop, we’re heading out to the Russian steppes and need to deal with bands of bandits and wild critters.” Ohran shrugged, and continued to note down the specifics of the order.

“An Ares Predator II, with the smartlink system and a pair of adjustable smart goggles, with a detachable silencer and several spare clips. A bandolier of throwing knives – if we can get them coated with Dikote or something similar, that’s great. We’re also after a couple of 300mm suppressors to be mounted on the Ares Alpha gun system, with a right hand thread. We also need one more silencer, this one sized to go on a hunting rifle – chambered in 7.5mm magnum super. Along with that lot, we need several boxes of decent grade ammunition, preferably in waterproof containers, along with a case of improved smoke and defensive grenades. If you can get any other grenades, hollow point or explosive ammo or anything like that – we’re interested.

Ohran flicked back through the list and pursed his lips. 

“Ok. Well, this is all achievable, I think. Depending on the timing. You’re in town for at least a week, yes?” He saw them nod, and scrolled again. “Yes, all should be ok. A little cost for the rush on some things, and it will not be Colt branded – that much I know. Very little of their stuff over here. And, I have a friend who has some new ammo – special stuff, fresh in the market. I think you would be interested, based on this list. I will ask him for a price and availability.

Marius and Hunter watched his body language and posture and tried to get a read on the guy. He certainly seemed sincere, and knowledgeable about the market. Marius took a breath, and decided to risk pushing things.

“There is one more thing we’re after, which is a bit harder to get and likely to be quite costly. If you’re happy to handle the enquiry, of course.” Ohran nodded slowly, one eyebrow slightly raised. “Well, we’re after a Walther M2100 sniper rifle with the full maintenance kit and a case of match grade ammo as well.” Ohran let out a tuneless whistle and stared at him for a good thirty seconds before he spoke.

“That is likely to be difficult to obtain. And expensive. Very expensive. But I can make enquiries. Nothing else though, that is everything?” He waited for Marius and Hunter to nod, then studied his list again. “Ok, I will make some calls. Can you come back in two days? I will have a list by then of what I can get, for how much.”

Marius and Hunter agreed, and with handshakes for them and another kiss to the hand for Nadia, they headed out of the yard and back towards the car. Once again they were watched, and a small group of men followed them for half a block from a discreet distance, but they reached the car ok, and got out of the area as quickly as they could. As they wound their way through the streets, Hunter and Marius shared a look. They didn’t have to say anything – they could see in each other’s expressions that this was not somewhere to be after dark. 

The following day was another trip back to the ID manufacturers – again each of them was shot in some scene that was apparently going to be slotted into their backstory or past history somewhere, and required some costume and acting under Milo’s direction. Once again though they were finished by lunchtime, and after stopping for some lunch they were back at the house where they continued to train, practice or work on personal projects.

On the 9th, Hunter Marius and Nadia prepared themselves to head back to the restaurant, again heading over in the early morning. After their previous experience they didn’t fancy trying their luck in the area after dusk, so they sat in traffic for an hour or two, working their way across the bridge and through the crowded main streets before they could dive off into the maze of side streets near the sea. As they entered the narrow streets they immediately noticed the area was quiet – deserted in fact. Nobody was on the street corners, or leaning out of the windows, nobody was moving around. In fact nobody was driving around either, and the streets were strangely empty of traffic. After their previous encounter, it was disquieting to say the least. They made quick progress with the clear roads, and were approaching the last turn towards the restaurant when they heard the massive roar of engines. Marius slowed, and then cautiously edged around the turn – grateful that he did as three Lionheart APCs trundled past them in formation. As they entered view, the trooper in the turret turned to watch them, his featureless black helmet giving no sign of his thoughts. They didn’t stop though, or check their IDs, but rumbled off to the west in convoy.

The restaurant was much the same – other than being almost empty, so they settled down and enjoyed another meal, before asking to speak to Orhan again, and being directed out and round to the yard once more. He greeted them as before, and got straight down to business.

“Welcome back my friends. I have some good news for you – I think I have everything you needed available, of a sort.” Marius raised an eyebrow, wondering what ‘of a sort’ meant to him. “Well, I can get two FN Eagle submachine guns – very similar to the Colt Cobra, but made in Belgium. I have manged to get the grenade launcher no problem, in the brand requested. I can’t get the Franchi, but I can get you a Smith and Wesson AS7 assault shotgun – that’s a nice piece of kit, by the way. No problem with the pistol and goggles, the suppressors and the silencer. Now, throwing knives I’m coming up short on – but I’ve got a line on some heavyweight throwing stars?”

Marius and Hunter exchanged a glance and shrugged. 

“Why not, I’m sure our friend will cope fine.” Orhan ticked a box next to the entry and continued.

“I have boxes of grenades and ammo as requested, and I have some of the new stuff. It’s a new penetrator round, very high speed. Superb quality, but a little pricy.” He saw Marius and Hunter exchange a look, but it was Nadia who spoke

“How much, and how many?” Orhan blinked at her, then seemed to shrug a little, and continue. “He’s got eight boxes, at a hundred and eighty per box. So eighteen Nuyen per round. Like I said, it’s good stuff, but new – there’s always a premium.”

“They’ll take them.” Nadia said firmly. Orhan smiled at her and pushed the button on his pad.

“And last of all, the big item you wanted. Good news and bad. I couldn’t get the 2100 at all – they’re pretty rare to start off with, and there’s just not enough time to work the channels. But I have found something you might be interested in. Now, I warn you first – it’s just been acquired, locally. You definitely want to take this out of the city, and not hang around, ok? Right. It’s an Enfield L99A1 rifle, with a full cold weather adaption kit and built in thermal viewing scope. Chambered for .460 long draw, comes with a bipod and all the kit. Beautiful gun, very high spec – and probably a careless but very annoyed former owner.

“How much?” This time Hunter got there first.

“Well, I can do this for you for thirty. Overall, the whole lot comes to fifty-eight for the hardware, excluding the accessories and ammo, and I’ll need about four days to get it all together.”

They haggled a little, discussing the ammo costs for the additional grenades and clips wanted, and eventually settled on sixty thousand in total, with fifty percent up front, the rest to be paid on delivery in four days time. Hunter paid him, using a variety of the hard currency they’d acquired along the way.

As they headed back to the car, and out of the area, they suddenly ran into the back of a huge crowd of people, walking slowly along the road. Several of them turned and made threatening gestures at them through the polarised glass, but it was all done in eerie silence. They backed off and tried a parallel road, but found much the same. It took them a few minutes before they realised it was a funeral procession, and it appeared to be slowly moving through the quarter. The crowd was huge and the atmosphere felt charged – Marius backed away from the crowd back the way they had come swiftly before any of the rear end of the crowd detached to come and deal with the car trying to make its way through their ceremony. Hunter pulled up the map, and they detoured wide around the area, adding miles onto their journey back – but all of them felt it was worthwhile, compared to the idea of being stuck in a densely packed area moving at a snail’s pace surrounded by people who didn’t seem to like them much.

When they got back to the house, eventually, they informed the rest of the results of their shopping trip and scheduled in the pickup. It would have to be in the afternoon, as they were due for one of their last sessions with Milo in the morning, but otherwise the day was clear. As the team quizzed them on the exact particulars of their shopping trip, they got together around the dinner table and shared their evening meal, working out what they were going to do next.


	68. 068 - A city of two tales 4

Date 10/02/2060, Location 41.0254, 28.98193

The morning of the 10th started in the now familiar pattern – the team assembled for breakfast, laying out a spread of food on the table and grazing as they discussed what they had planned for the day. Marius, having ticked off most of the things on his list, put forward the idea of poking the grapevine in the city, to see if there was any work.

“No!” It was hard to say whether Kai or Aswon was first, but they were both pretty emphatic. The rest of the team looked between them wondering which was going to explain why first, settling with Kai. Aswon’s decision was pretty much a given – he much preferred to work on a single task at a time, complete it and move on to the next, which the rest of the team understood. Kai however seemed far more “freewheeling” and irreverent, and his choice seemed to surprise most of them.

“Look, the longer we stay here, the more I realise that we’re in a totally different environment. We don’t know the people, the city or the threats, and I get the feeling that there’s far more going on here than meets the eye. And if this golem is as hot as it sounds, we really don’t want to borrow any trouble – you’ll only shout at me if we do anyway.”

“And don’t forget, we’re potentially going to have a very hot sniper rifle as well, if this deal goes down!” Aswon reminded everyone about the weapons deal they were currently working on. Marius shrugged, and grabbed himself another glass of juice.

“No problem – I just wanted to check. I’m sure I can fill my time with some reading or research on something, or keeping up to date with hardware developments.”

“You can always help Hunter with the route planning on the way back, Marius,” suggested Tads. “I’d really like to avoid that warlord’s territory for one – he seemed quite certain about his feelings, and I think he’s not someone we want to mess with.”

“Oh no. He’s on the list! He shot my truck!” The rest of the team shared smiles at the proprietary air used whenever the German spoke about the vehicle. Despite frequently expressing his desire for a helicopter as a ‘proper’ means of transport for them, he guarded the truck like a lioness guarding her cubs. Hunter raised his eyebrow at Marius, inviting further explanation. “He’s going to be dealt with, sooner or later – he shot at us, and damaged the truck. I’m not forgetting that.” Tads rolled her eyes, while the others nodded or smiled at Marius with various levels of amusement. Marius however didn’t seem to think there was anything funny about the situation and sat back grumbling to himself. 

Further conversation was interrupted by an urgent rapping on the front door of the apartment. For a moment, they froze in place, processing what was going on. Shimazu was reaching for the juice, and Aswon was midway through putting some spread on a soy-roll, whilst the others paused mid-chew – their eyes flitted to each other, but nobody had any explanation for the interruption. The rap repeated, even louder, breaking the spell. Tads took on a dreamy expression as her consciousness expanded to include astral space and she looked around for intruders or observers. Hunter reached behind him and a gun appeared in his hand, whilst the others quietly rose from their seats and headed to their rooms for weapons of their own. Shimazu looked around, shrugged and headed to the front door. There wasn’t a peep-hole, just a video screen that was linked to the camera down covering the entrance. That of course made the knock on the door even more suspicious.

Shimazu took a deep breath, feeling magic tingling through his body as he took a deeper level of control of his motor functions. He pulled the door open a few inches, and looked through the gap, his senses tingling and his muscles quivering, ready to react to an ambush or attack. Beyond the door in the hallway was a swarthy-looking man, of medium height and build. Dark eyes looked out of sunken eye sockets guarded by large bushy eyebrows, and despite it being early in the morning, there was a pronounced five o’clock shadow over his jaw. Shimazu looked at him, watching him shift from foot to foot.

“Please? Paper. I need paper, please. Is urgent.” The voice quivered slightly, and Shimazu nodded at him, then pushed the door closed. As he turned, he saw Aswon just slapping a round home in his rifle, at one end of the corridor, and saw Hunter in the main room, now taking refuge behind the furniture and steadying his assault rifle at the door. Tads was out of sight, but he assumed she was hidden away somewhere, ready to unleash magical energies if this all kicked off. He gave a little wave though, and strode down the corridor into the bathroom, grabbing a roll of paper and returning to the door, ignoring the stares of confusion from the others. Opening the door again, the man was still there, still hopping from side to side in visible distress. As he handed over the roll of paper, he extended his senses, following the training that Tads had shared with him. He felt the life-force of the man before him, the implants gathered in his head and running down his spine corrupting and diminishing his essence – the invisible cost of the enhanced performance they offered. The emotions radiating off him seemed genuine – desire, haste, discomfort – certainly nothing indicating an ambush.

He thrust the paper through the gap in the door, and the other man seized it swiftly, and said some words in a language Shimazu didn’t understand. It sounded like a thank you though, and the man hobbled down the stairs, apparently with only one thing on his mind now. Shimazu watched him go, disappearing down the first turn in the stairs and out of sight, and he didn’t appear to be slowing or acting in any way suspiciously. He eased the door closed, and wandered back into the main room.

“Who was that?” asked Kai, from behind the door.

“Neighbour I think – needed some toilet roll.” Around the flat, there were various clicks and mechanical noises as guns were safed or magazines ejected. It was entirely likely that their visitor had absolutely no idea how close his simple request had bought him to death in a variety of calibres. Even now Hunter was still looking suspicious.

Breakfast seemed pretty much finished, and people drifted away to various tasks. Hunter, though, seemed very suspicious still, and spent a while moving between the front and sides of the house, observing the grounds and the street below carefully. The others left him to it, not being bothered by the situation themselves – but happy enough to let him be paranoid for a while, just in case.

Marius was in his room, talking with Nadia and planning out the day, when one of his burner phones rang, with a call from an unknown number. He grabbed the phone and strode across the room to the door, glancing up the corridor and calling to Hunter, before answering the phone. Hunter took up position, in case it was a diversion. As Marius hit the accept button, he changed his pattern of speech and lowered his tone and changed the word patterns in use, approximating the guttural speech he’d head a few of the locals use.

“Are you trying to be funny, Marius?” They relaxed when they heard Ohmar’s voice, and Marius dropped the accent straight away.

“No, just being careful – didn’t recognise the number, and we had a visitor at the house not long ago. What can we do for you?”

“I just wanted to check with you about your team – do you have any dwarves or trolls, or anyone that needs undersized or outsized grips for their weapons. Or anything like that?” Ohmar’s voice gave a slight inflexion on the word ‘troll’ but it was minimal.

“No, regular sized stuff is fine across the board for us. Exactly as it comes out of the factory,” replied Marius. Ohmar seemed satisfied with this, and after a few pleasantries hung up. 

Things quietened down after that, and people started to relax. Aswon and Kai returned to their training, Nadia was engaged with the computer researching things on the matrix, and making notes on her pocket secretary. Marius got together with Hunter, and started to teach him the basics of electronic circuit repair and diagnostics, laying out his kit and some of their various kit to use as practical teaching aides.

When everyone was engaged, Shimazu headed to the far end of the floor and called Turul back in Baku. Turul looked a little rough, like he hadn’t slept well for a few days, and his eyes were sunken slightly into his gaunt face. After greeting him Shimazu launched straight into things, asking him if Saito had been in touch or had any news. Turul said that he’d had a few messages delivered via anonymous services, informing him that he was “ok”, but no more detail than that – and he had no idea where he was. Shimazu relaxed a little, at least his friend was still alive even if his situation was unknown.

In the pause though, Turul leant in close to the pickup for his com-link, and asked the question Shimazu had been dreading – had he seen Nadia? Fortunately dreading didn’t mean unprepared. Without a moment’s hesitation, Shimazu told him that he hadn’t seen her, but they were still keeping an eye out. More so, they were only here for a few more days, then heading back to Baku, and they would be actively looking on the way. Turul nodded, and thanked him, and Shimazu broke the connection before he had to engage him in any small talk – after all, the slightest slip of the tongue might give him away somehow.

Later that night, the team gathered together around the dinner table – at least most of them. Marius was just about to go and get Nadia, when Kai waved him back to his seat, and went to their room instead. He found Nadia still sitting cross-legged on the bed, engrossed in her research. A gentle tap at the door made her jump slightly.

“Nadia? It’s getting late – and dinner is on the table. Are you coming?”

“Really! It’s not that late…oh, yes, yes it is. Sure, let me just save this file.”

“What are you working on?” Kai raised an eyebrow and leant on the doorframe. “You looked pretty engrossed in it, whatever it was.”

“Cryptography. I never knew there was so much history to it. It’s fascinating stuff. Did you know that people have been encrypting information for over four thousand years? And it’s not just since computers were invented – there were all sorts of mechanical machines made to encrypt text and information.”

Kai smiled and nodded, and moved out into the corridor as Nadia burbled away happily to him about her knowledge of the day, following her back into the main room, and listening as she described something called an Enigma machine to him and how it had been used. They ate, chatted and planned the next day’s activities, and one by one drifted off to finish up for the day and headed off to bed.

On the morning of the 11th, Tads headed north into the city on her motorbike as she’d done the previous few days, to go and work in the trailer on designing and learning her new spells. The rest of the team were scattered around the house, studying and practicing in small teams or on their own. Shimazu, having finished the second copy of his thesis, stood at the front of the house and looked out into the streets and the people wandering by on foot, in vehicles and on the water. He wasn’t doing anything particular, just ‘observing’ and watching the world go by.

He gave a start as a small and very battered-looking lime green van rumbled past the house. At first he couldn’t quite put his finger on what bothered him so much – then he realised, it had gone past the house the same way twice in a row. Not going somewhere and coming back – but going around the block, as if conducting surveillance. His eyes narrowed in suspicion, and he moved down the stairs and out into the garden. The wind gave the air a bit of a nip, but the moderating effect of the ocean and waterway kept the temperature reasonable, and he started to work out. 

It took about an hour, and he was almost at the point of stopping – but just as he was finishing a set of training moves and stretches, he saw the same van go past again. He stared at it, catching sight of the pattern of rust on the wheel arches and the discoloured patches halfway down the side where some damage had been inexpertly repaired – yes – definitely the same truck. He entered the house and ran up the flights of stairs to the top of the building, calling out to the team to come into the main room. Once they were assembled, he outlined what he had seen to them, describing the van in detail and the movements observed so far. 

His report seemed to jog the team into gear – almost as if the few days of quiet and undisturbed peace had put them more on edge as time passed. Marius set up near the front window with his rigger deck, keeping an eye on the street and watching the take from his surveillance drone which had been quickly inflated and launched out of the back window and was now floating a few hundred metres up, with the sensors focussed down onto the streets surrounding the house. Aswon peered out of the corner window, getting a better view to the east. Nadia and Shimazu started packing boxes up and preparing the gear to move if it was required, and Hunter prepared a selection of weapons and clips of ammo – just in case.

About forty minutes later, the van puttered its way into sensor view, and the algorithms in the deck positively identified it and flashed up an alert. The team watched as it drove past the house at a middling pace, keeping in lane and doing nothing to attract attention. Aswon opened his senses though, peering at the van’s aura and astral signature. He recoiled slightly at what he saw – a lingering sense of fear and hatred, pain and despair. Something had happened in or around the van which had polluted astral space. It wasn’t terrible – but it was definitely something unwelcome. 

Marius, meanwhile, ran a full spectrum of tests against the vehicle, modelling performance against known specification of the vehicle type. In particular, he watched how it handled as it turned the corner just along the street, watching the suspension through the high-resolution cameras which were now zoomed in to maximum detail on the vehicle. He was wondering if it was a cleverly disguised high-performance vehicle, or sported concealed or hidden armour – but the way the suspension behaved and the heat bloom from the vehicle seemed to indicate that it really was a battered old panel van, well past its best.

Having now seen the van go past more than four times in the same day, the team kicked up into fully paranoid mode. Aswon got his gear together, and with his rifle wrapped in a roll of material, ran to the back corner of the garden. A quick look around him and with nobody he could spot watching him, he jumped and then swarmed up the tree. The gecko tattoos flared with magical power, and his hands and feet stuck to the rough surface of the bark as if he had climbing claws. Rapidly he rose, spiralling around the large trunk and finding a comfortable nook to settle into. Once in place, he lay along the trunk, unwrapped the rifle and then flicked the dark coloured material over his body. The lack of leaves cut down on the cover, but from anything above about twenty metres, his form just appeared to be a very large and lumpy section of branch.

Inside the house, ammo and grenades were lined up ready for a quick swap, and furniture was arranged facing the door, with sturdy boxes and material piled behind them to make firing positions. Shimazu waited with his sword near the entrance way, concealed around a corner but ready to leap into action, and the others sat in positions ready to support the more combat oriented members of the team as best they could. They settled down and waited…

The van drove past again, pursued by the surveillance drone as it puttered down the waterfront street. It drove on for half a kilometre, then pulled over at the end of the road. Marius watched as the van switched off, and a man climbed out of the passenger side and went up to a vending machine, slotting his SIN, swiping his thumb over the sensor to authorise payment and reaching down into the armoured slot, getting a drink and a news-fax. He looked local, from his skin tone and dress, and after a moment or two, climbed back into the van. The van sat for a few minutes, with Marius watching, feeding a commentary to those waiting in the house. After perhaps ten minutes of waiting, the van started up again, and turned, heading back towards the house. 

It drove past, slowing slightly as it passed according to the sensors mounted on the drone, but then accelerating away again. The drone followed it subtly, floating along on the low signature lifting balloon from several hundred metres up and trailing the van to some kind of stall. Both the driver and passenger got out, opened the side door and started to talk with the owner of the stall – apparently trading wares. Marius watched for a few minutes, but it seemed they had settled there for a while.

“Hey everyone! Just a thought…” exclaimed Hunter. “What if this is a diversion, or to keep us pinned down – and they’re making a move on Tads? Or they’re after all of us, but she’s the only one on her own?” He looked from face to face, and saw concern as they considered his idea and how isolated – and potentially surprised – Tads would be if someone attacked her. “Aswon, you and Marius can keep things nailed down here, can’t you? I’m going to head up to the garage and keep an eye on her.”

Kai and the rest nodded, and watched as Hunter packed a few spare clips and his pistol under his motorbike leathers, and then headed down the stairs. Moments later they heard the revving of the engine, and then saw him head out onto the road and accelerate hard away and take the turning up to the north, towards the garage. Marius kept an eye on the drone footage, monitoring the signal strength and fuel reserves carefully, and watching to see what the targets were up to.

Thirty minutes later, they got a call from Hunter, confirming that he was onsite with Tads, and all looked clear. They responded with their own all-clear, having kept a good eye out – they’d not seen the panel van come past again, and had further fortified their positions using the materials on hand, then settled down to wait. Marius had his drones ready to deploy and was monitoring his systems, and the rest of them had made themselves as comfortable as they could in their defensive positions.

Time marched on – the rest of the day passed uneventfully. After a while the team started to relax, as the anticipated assault failed to materialise. One by one they left their prepared positions and made themselves comfortable, or carried on with their research or training. The pale sun moved through the winter sky, and before long the shadows were lengthening and twilight fell. Back at the garage, Tads finished up for the day and emerged from the back of the trailer, locking it carefully behind her and then giving a start as she spotted Hunter sitting on a couple of tyres watching the world go by. He stretched, rose and ambled over to her, and filled her in on the details of the day’s activities.

“So, have you seen anything since you’ve been here?”

“Nope. Not a thing. But better safe than sorry.”

Tads considered for a moment, then nodded her head. He’d been concerned enough about her safety that he’d spent several hours sitting in the cold, watching her back without complaint, keeping her safe so she could concentrate on her work.

“Thanks, Hunter.” They made use of the facilities and said goodnight to the garage staff, got on the bikes and started up the engines, then pulled on their helmets and goggles, dropped into gear and serenely pulled away from the garage into the evening traffic and started to wind and weave their way through the jostling barrage of commuters that clogged up the main road.

They were about a third of the way home, and crossing a major intersection when it happened. Tads was caught completely by surprise when a non-descript car jumped the red light to her left, and rocketed across the junction. The driver of the car slammed on the brakes, but his reactions were too slow, and the speed too high to stop in time, and the car slammed into Tads and the bike, smashing them both and knocking them sideways. Hunter not only had an extra second to react, but also much faster reactions. He revved the bike and threw the handlebars sideways, and lifted a leg as Tads’ bike was shunted into him. As the bike was swept out from under him, he tucked and rolled, the reinforced plates in the motorbike leathers absorbing much of the impact, then sprang up in a smooth and fluid motion, sidestepping around a car that very nearly ran him down and watched as both bikes and Tads fell over onto the tarmac. One glance was enough to see the unusual form of her leg that indicated a break, and the cry of pain cut over the engine noise confirmed that she’d suffered serious injury. 

Traffic slid to a halt around them as people stopped to look at the accident, and a couple of metallic thuds sounded as some people were gently rear-ended in associated crashes. Hunter looked at the car, realising it was another very old model, so old in fact that it had clear glass windows rather than the more normal one-way tinted stuff. The driver looked shocked, still holding his comm-link in one hand over the top of the wheel, quite obviously having been mid-message when the incident happened. The look of shock on his face was quickly changed to one of guilt, and Hunter saw him lick his lips nervously.

“You! Out of the car now!” Hunter yelled at him in Turkish, pointing emphatically at the side of the vehicle. The driver nodded, but then moved his hands and Hunter heard the gearbox grind a little as he put it in reverse and started to back away. He looked at the man’s face, and saw something there – this guy had no intention of stopping, and was going to bolt any second. Acting automatically, his hand dived behind his back, pulling out the heavy ten millimetre pistol from where it had been concealed. 

BLAM! BLAM!

Two copper-jacketed rounds flew from the barrel, smashing into the radiator and sending a thin stream of hot water arcing into the street. The handful of drivers who had stopped and gotten out of their vehicles to check on the crash victims flinched and ducked, and ran back to their cars. Scattered around the scene, people who were craning out of windows for a better view could be seen scrambling for phones to alert the authorities. In the car which had hit them, the driver froze in horror, staring at Hunter as he raised the pistol and pointed it straight at his face. Moments later the engine died and the car shuddered as something burnt out and jammed.

Hunter glanced around at the scene, and then realised he was standing with the pistol still extended at arms-length towards the driver, a tiny wisp of gun smoke still curling up and out of the barrel of the Predator pistol. Glancing around, he spied the traffic cameras mounted on poles at each corner of the junction, and saw one of them clearly moving down to track and focus on him. He swore under his breath, raised his pistol and safed it, and tucked it back into his waistband. Once it was seated, he hit the speed-dial for the team conference on his phone and keyed it onto an open line, to relay through the earpiece inserted under his helmet.

“Guys. Got a problem. Some shithead has just jumped the lights, knocked me and Tads off the bikes. One of the bikes is definitely trashed, the other might be saveable. Tads is hurt, needs medical attention. And I may have er… fired off a few rounds into the guy’s car when he tried to get away.”

There was silence from the other end of the line while the team considered this. He could hear the sound of breathing though, and was just about to speak up when he heard Marius starting to swear in German. After a few seconds, and a noise that sounded like a forehead and palm meeting, there was a deep breath.

“Ok, we’re on our way to come and get you. What’s your exact location? And what happened?”

As Hunter relayed what had occurred, Marius and Aswon grabbed some gear and barrelled down the stairs at speed, piling into the rental SUV they’d been provided with. Just as they started to pull out of the driveway Marius exploded into another stream of profanities, and they both watched as the rusty green panel van drove past them, braking sharply and continuing down the road at a slow speed as they turned out of the driveway and headed north.

“Kai and everyone upstairs, that green van is back, just spotted us pulling out and they’ve slowed right down. Get ready, just in case!”

Upstairs, people scurried around to get into position in case they were about to be assaulted. Nadia who had been preparing the evening meal came out of the kitchen with a spray bottle full of oil and the stove lighter and set up ready to dowse invaders in burning droplets. Kai looked like he was about to remonstrate with her, but changed his mind and just checked where Shimazu was and moved to support him.

Back at the junction, Tads lay on the floor, wincing in pain and trying not to move her leg if she could help it. She saw Hunter standing over her, eyes flitting around the scene, and heard him speaking to the team. It seemed that things were getting “interesting” again. She relaxed her head and draped an arm over it, as if she was trying to block out the light. She wasn’t – but it did cover her face – and meant that as she summoned the power of Elk to her and her Shamanic mask distorted her features, it was mostly hidden from view. It was hard to control and manipulate the power with her leg throbbing and sending jolts of pain through her nervous system with every throb of her heart, but she gritted her teeth and managed to direct the power as she needed it. The invisible tendrils of magic emanated out of her in a perfectly spherical pattern, sterilising the area. The blood and sweat dropped so far became inert fluids, the markers and genetic ties that could be used by a forensics team to identify people wiped away by an invisible hand. When the spell was cast, she took a deep breath, then gathered her strength again, focussing on dissipating the magical energies that had gathered around her as she cast her spell. A minute later it was done – now there was no trace evidence. Of course, her leg was still broken, and they were lying in the middle of the road.

Moments later, her frown deepened as she heard the sound of an approaching siren. Hunter turned, and then quietly spoke to her.

“Motorbike cop, first responder. Sure he won’t be the last. Ok.”

The motorcyclist threaded his way through traffic and stopped at the edge of the junction, and stared at the scene for a moment. He could see the pale and slightly sweaty face of Tads, wincing in pain and the unnatural angle of her leg, the position of the two bikes and the location of the car – it was clear who was at fault. But he’d also had reports of “shots fired”. His hand was on his pistol and he carefully and slowly approached the scene – but he couldn’t see anyone holding a gun. Calling out, he demanded to know what was going on.

“This man jumped the lights, because he was typing on his phone, and hit me and my friend. Look, he’s broken her leg. I need medical assistance for her!” Hunter called out in fluent Turkish. The cop did a bit of a double take, clearly not expecting to hear such a clear explanation from him, and approached closer.”

“He shot my car! He had a gun, and he shot my car!!” The man started to blather, casting aspersions on Hunter, Tads, and their parentage amongst other things, until he was cut off.

“Only because you were trying to flee from the scene. I saw you, thinking you could get away with a hit and run.” Hunter responded. The cop froze, staring at Hunter as he brazenly admitted using a firearm.

“Keep your hands where I can see them, and move slowly. I need some ID from you, and your pistol permit then.” The cop’s voice was slightly muffled from his full face helmet, and his right hand eased open the flap on his holster whilst his left reached towards Hunter carefully. Moving equally carefully, Hunter delicately reached into his pocket with two finger, pulling out the SIN between them and extending them to the cop, who grabbed it and retreated back to his bike to run the SIN through his scanner. The worldwide database that comprised the System Identification Number was too vast to keep on a portable device, so the cop had to get his scanner to connect back via his station house to the main data stores. They simple-minded device ran through the basic checks, and didn’t find anything amiss with the fake ID that Hunter gave him and duly disgorged the entirely fictitious details stored on the database. Noticeable however, was the absence of a permit to carry or use a pistol.

Hunter watched him carefully, seeing him relax as the SIN came back as valid and tense again with the lack of permit. He could also see a squad car pushing its way through the traffic to get to them, bringing yet more officers.

“Guys, I’ve got one cop checking my ID, and at least two more about thirty seconds out in a patrol car. Any ideas? Hang on, wait one.” Hunter turned up his cyber ears to maximum, and filtered out the ambient noise. The signal processers went to work, and he heard the cop almost as if he was standing next to him, relaying the speech over his phone link. “Ok, he’s calling in for an ambulance for Tads, and a firearms investigation unit. Says he has a valid SIN, but no licence to carry or use, so he’s going to arrest both me and the car driver, and sort it out at the station – but not until the patrol car arrives. Nothing about arresting Tads though. He’s nodding. Reading back – confirming, there’s a sergeant in the patrol car, he’s going to take over the scene. Going quiet, he’s coming back”. Hunter put a look of concern on his face, and asked about medical assistance for Tads, and then looked relieved when he was told it was being arranged.

“Tell me the badge number or shoulder number of the policeman with you, or the car number – some kind of ID,“ Marius called out over the phone connection to Hunter. Hunter responded quietly, passing over details to Marius and wondering what he was doing. As he did so, the patrol car pulled up and two figures emerged, both wearing light body armour. The driver appeared to be the patrolman, and the passenger the sergeant, who went to speak with the motorcycle officer first. It didn’t take long, and he turned and walked towards Hunter, pulling out an evidence bag from his belt pack.

“You, I need to take your weapon. Draw it slowly and place it in the bag. Nice and easy.”

“Hunter, stall him, I will be back to you soon. Oh, and I want you to start looking up at the buildings near where you are, make it obvious, as if you’re looking for an observer or sniper.” There was a click, as Marius transferred off the conference line. Hunter frowned. Stall him? Sniper? What did he mean? He looked at the officer and pointed at Tads, repeating his earlier request for medical attention, then turned and stared up at the nearest building for a few seconds.

Back in the car, Marius used half his attention to navigate through the traffic at speed, whilst the other half looked up some numbers on the matrix. A few seconds later, the computer spat out a response to his query. He took a deep breath, then used his internal comm-link to make a call to the Police station. He waited until the call was connected with a bored-sounding despatcher, who asked him what the nature of the call was.

“Listen carefully. This is officer Shariz from the Millî İstihbarat Teşkilatı. My access code is 993-J45-T. I have a situation with two officers down, with three members of your division in attendance. Do you have officer with ID 5993 at the scene of a traffic collision at the Barbaros Boulevard junction with Yildiz Posta?” The words were relayed directly from his mind via the implanted router to the comm-link, and sent over the cellular network. In the car Aswon sat in silence, keeping an eye out for tails or trouble, and trusting Marius to navigate them safely.

At the other end of the line, the boredom vanished from the despatcher’s voice, and he stammered a demand for more information. Marius added a bit of snap to his tone.

“Pay attention! This is a matter of National Security. I have two agents investigating a terrorist ring. Kurdish fighters are supporting some Muslim radicals and are planning an operation on the eastern bank, and I have two officers caught in the middle. One officer was forced to use his firearm to disable the terrorist’s vehicle, and is now standing with your officers. It’s imperative that you capture the terrorist, but also get the officers away from the scene. It’s likely they are being observed right now. Every moment they spend in full view on the highway, adds danger!” Marius listened, and could hear frantic typing from the other end of the connection as the despatcher plugged away at their old-fashioned manual terminal. A moment passed, then he was rewarded with the muffled sound of the despatcher calling over the radio, asking the officer to corroborate the story.

Back at the junction, Hunter saw the sergeant cock his head a little, then step back and raise his hand to the radio secured on his lapel. He listened, and then responded a few times, and Hunter saw his eyes go wider, then flit around the scene. Still having no idea what Marius was up to, he followed earlier instructions – gazing up at the rooftops for a few seconds on either side of the junction, then ducking down to crouch next to Tads. He heard the officer reporting back on the radio in the affirmative – though he still didn’t really have an idea what to.

The despatcher’s voice came back on the line to Marius, clearly excited by the situation.

“Protocol requires that the agent identifies themselves. Please supply a recognition code phrase and answer?”

“Ask the male agent ‘who is the worst football team’, the response should be ‘Basictas, of course’ – not just the team name, it must include all three words.” Marius flipped back to the conference line, and spoke rapidly. “Hunter, the response is ‘Bascitas, of course’, all three words, don’t say anything else. Without waiting for acknowledgement, he flipped back, and listened in as the despatcher relayed the phrase to the sergeant.

Sure enough, a moment later the Sergeant received a call, and Hunter watched as his eyes flicked between Tads and himself, and the man in the other vehicle. The other man was still protesting in Turkish about the damage to his car, and wanting to know why they hadn’t arrested him for waving a gun in public. The Sergeant spoke to his trooper quietly and then approached Hunter, and equally quietly asked him the question. Hunter looked around and in a hoarse whisper, gave the three word reply.

The Sergeant nodded at him, then winked. Rising, he pulled a small inhaler from a sturdy loop on his belt – as did the trooper next to him. Both of them raised the inhalers to their mouths and hit the activation button, breathing in whatever mixture was in the dispenser. A split second later they burst into action, pulling their guns in the blink of an eye and raising them in a two-handed combat stance and pointing them at the driver of the car.

“GET ON THE FLOOR, ON THE FLOOR, ON THE FLOOR NOW YOU COCKSUCKING MOTHERFUCKER!!!” They advanced on the hapless driver, guns brandished at his body and spittle flew off their lips as they continued to shout at him to obey them. Fuelled by the amphetamine cocktail contained in the inhalers, their reactions – as well as their aggression – was massively increased, and they rapidly approached the driver. Caught completely unawares by the sudden change in situation, he made the fatal mistake of trying to duck down behind his car in terror. What the policemen saw was a dangerous terrorist obviously going for a gun.

The loud reports of multiple rounds fired from the pair of heavy pistols echoed across the junction, sending spectators and rubber-neckers fleeing in panic. The officers advanced, continuing to fire on the body with multiple round penetrating and perforating his torso, hitting the ground and ricocheting back upwards, making the body dance in a macabre fashion. While all three officers were solely concentrating on the “terrorist”, Hunter bent down and scooped up Tads, ignoring her little cry of pain as her leg shifted and the break twisted. Looking around, he selected the nearest corner and broke out into a jog, moving as fast as he dared. Tads whimpered in pain as the loping stride jarred her leg up and down, and tried to steady the movement as best she could, fighting back the urge to cry or yell in pain.

Back in the car, Marius shut off the phone abruptly, then disabled the cellular link entirely, turning off his GPS and all external links. He felt strange without the electronic ports providing a trickle of data directly into his brain – but it also made him untraceable via electronic means. Instead he concentrated on driving, and soon had the SUV accelerating at breakneck speeds through the crowded streets. About fifteen minutes of frantic swerving later and with considerably less wear on the tyres than when they started, they caught sight of Hunter, still carrying Tads in his arms, striding purposefully down a side street. Marius pulled up in a screech of tyres and Aswon threw the side door open and motioned for them to get in. Seconds later they pulled away sedately, Marius suddenly transformed into a Sunday driver out for a gentle amble, as he turned and headed south and back towards the safehouse.

In the back of the van, Aswon used his knife to saw away the biker leathers and reveal Tads’ leg, and gently examined it. The flow of blood from the wound had slowed now it was not being jarred, and he decided to leave it be – he’d rather get it looked at properly in the light and relative safety of the house than try to patch it up in the back of the van, even now it was moving comparatively safely. As they approached the house, Aswon called Kai, checking to make sure that there was no mischief from the green van. All seemed well though, and minutes later they were backing into the garden and gently lifting Tads out of the back and into the lift, carrying her up to the top floor.

Once they were wall back in the house, they carried her through to the dining room. The rest of the team had cleared the dining room table and had laid out a plastic sheet, and the air stunk with the scent of disinfectant. She was lifted into position, with a pillow placed under her head. Kai and Shimazu moved into position on each side of her, while the others backed away a little to give them room to work. They moved together, barely speaking but hands moving in unison as they worked their way up the leg, checking for the extent of the damage. After a few minutes they had the break isolated, and the limb position, and with a sharp wrench the bones were realigned. It took a few more minutes to dress the wound and inject a healthy dose of antibiotics, then check her vitals.

“That’s about as much as we can do. The bones are aligned, the bleeding has stopped, and the wound is cleaned. It’s just a matter of time now,” Kai said, “It’ll be some time before it can be weight bearing, without causing more damage.”

Tads snorted, and shook her head, then struggled to sit up. Hands moved in the complex pattern, and then were placed on either side of her thigh, and a golden glow started to build up. The light span and twisted in her hands, making the leg glow like the last rays of an autumn afternoon hitting the water. It pulsated and rotated as she moved her hands around the limb, for perhaps a minute. Slowly the light faded, and Tads flopped back onto the table, looking weary, but happy.

“Shows what you know,” she murmured, eyes closed and breathing shallow. She gathered her strength for a few more moments, then sat up again, peeling back the bandages that had just been placed against her. Below them, the flesh was whole, though still badly warped by scar tissue and damage. No sign of the puncture wound was to be seen, and a moment later she gingerly swung her legs over the side of the table and then slid to the floor. The leg supported her weight, and she carefully bent at the knees until she was squatting, hand ready to grab the table if it was required. It wasn’t though, and she smoothly stood up, her leg functioning entirely normally again. 

“Thanks boys, good work. Would have been almost impossible for me to fix it if you hadn’t lined it back up right and done what you had to control the wound.” Kai and Shaimazu nodded, and tidied their gear away, and slowly they all relaxed. It appeared that the green van had not done anything at all, other than slow right down, and it had motored off smoothly a few minutes after Marius and Aswon had left. They’d not seen it since, and the house had been relatively quiet – just the occasional sound of people moving around on the floor below.

They organised a guard that night, just to be safe – but the night passed without incident and dawn came with no surprises. They breakfasted together as usual, and it was decided that Marius would run both Tads and Hunter up to the garage, and leave them there for the day, then return to meet up with the rest of the team, and collect them both at the end of the day. Just in case…

They also worked out their rough plan for the next few days – they figured the truck would be ready on the 15th, but decided not to give notice that they were ready to collect the Golem parts until it was actually handed over to them – the last thing they wanted was a last-minute delay to ruin things. Marius proposed that once they had the truck, they would make the call and get the ball rolling, then load up the truck and trailer ready for departure. They’d go to visit Ohmar, get the guns and ammo, then go get the Golem and leave town straight away. Aswon suggested that they check, as Ohmar might not want to sit on the hardware, particularly if it was that hot. 

“Well, there’s one way to find out isn’t there?” asked Marius. He dialled through to Ohmar and checked, and a few minutes later sighed and nodded, informing the rest of the team that they needed to pick up the guns as soon as they were available. Aswon fiddled with his computer a bit, then managed to find a news channel he could tune into, and pipped the output to the larger rollout screen. It seemed there was fresh trouble brewing on the eastern bank, where a Mosque had been firebombed and a respected Imam and several attendants had been burnt alive, in an attack by Christian Fundamentalists. As the footage of the intense blaze played in the background and the news anchor described the fire, Tads moved back and stood, knocking her chair over in her haste, and ran from the room. A moment later, Nadia followed her, ready to comfort her. The rest of the team watched grimly, thinking more about the potential disruption might cause in their trip to go collect the weapons, and escape with the Golem.

Over the course of the day, they mostly mooched around the house. Nearly all of their tasks were complete – apart from Tads and her fever-pitched research in her lodge, the rest of the team had finished what they had intended, it seemed, and were just doing make-work now. Nadia spent some time looking for a heavily armoured Attaché case for Shimazu to use for his second thesis, while Aswon gave Sofi a call and arranged for a social meetup and a chat the following day.

It was about 21:00, just when they had finished their evening meal when they heard a noise. Hunter wandered over to the front window, and looked down to see what was going on, hands pressed up against the glass to cut down on the internal reflections and so he could see clearly into the darkness outside.

He drew his pistol quickly and racked the slide, ensuring a round was in the chamber and ready to go.

“Look lively, folks. That green van is back, and they’ve just pulled out at the front, and about half a dozen goons are piling out.”

Multiple chairs were knocked over as they scrambled for their gear and got ready – it looked like the assault they’d been waiting for was finally here.


	69. 069 - A city of two tales 5

Date 12/02/2060, Location 41.0254, 28.98193

They heard a door slam as the side entry on the green van was closed with rather more force than was probably intended…

Kai peered out of the front window into the gathering darkness. The angle was steep, and the light came in from the side of the house, casting weird shadows that made it difficult to see what was going on in the garden. After a second or two for his eyes to adjust, though, he saw the group of men striding purposefully towards the house, wearing heavy jackets or coats that could easily conceal a variety of weaponry underneath them. He turned as they approached the archway at the front of the property, dropping out of sight, and spoke quietly to the rest of the team.

“Looks like we have half a dozen men inbound, could be armed with anything up to assault rifles or auto-shotguns from the clothing. Looked all human, probably male from the bulk and body language.”

As he spoke he saw Aswon grab his rifle and pistol and then slowly pad over to the door. The tall African held one hand up to his face, pointing fingers at his eyes, and the rest of them nodded at him. As quietly as he could, he eased open the door and ghosted out onto the landing, keeping low. As he approached the railings outside their door, he dropped to the floor and eased sideways, peering with just one eye over the lip of the flooring and down into the atrium below.

The house was a huge edifice, and must have been a gratuitous show of status and wealth when originally built. Nearly thirty metres across and slightly deeper, and split over five floors there were dozens of rooms, from small pantries and servants’ single bedrooms in the attic to the grander living, dining and ballrooms to the front of the house. The house was built around an atrium, a hollow core that stretched from the ground floor all the way to the roof, with ancient glass forming a huge light well down the centre. The front of the house featured a large archway, leading into the atrium, sealed with a pair of large wrought iron gates. At some point in the last few years, the security had been upgraded to include maglocks and a CCTV system, but the gates were probably still the original design. Once into the atrium, guests walked to the far end, where a pair of lifts waited, and beyond them a double set of stairs, winding back and forth as they climbed the inside of the structure. At each level, the lifts opened up, as did the stairs, onto the balcony that wrapped around the open space. The balcony too was decorated with wrought iron grillwork, gently arcing strands of metal that had been hammered and forged into the shapes of leaves and fronds, spreading out to form a barrier between those on the balcony and the fall below them.

It was through this grillwork that Aswon peered, watching down into the atrium for the intruders. The strange design and conversion of the house meant that they’d have to travel the length of the house to reach either the lift or the stairs – climb the five floors, and then travel down the balcony back towards him to reach the front door – the only entrance into the apartment that had been created to span the entire level of the building. Of course, Aswon thought wryly, that was only if they chose to use the front door at all. The walls were made of plasterboard and ancient wooden slatboard. It had hardened with age – and probably the number of coats of paint by this point added a noticeable amount of structural strength – but a shotgun or combat axe would carve through it quickly, giving them access to the rear of the house.

Back inside the apartment, there was feverish activity as the rest of the team strapped on their armour as quickly as they could and grabbed weapons. Even through it chewed up potentially precious seconds, they all knew that the advanced composites and reinforced clothing could be the difference between being forced to take a step back from the impact of a 12mm shot, and having that same shot inflict grievous injuries upon them. Whilst they had reasonable confidence in not only the surgical prowess of some of their number, but also in the effectiveness of the healing magic they had access to – it still remained of course that being shot hurt considerably, and lucky – or unlucky, depending on your point of view – shots could still be instantly fatal. As a result, they packed on their armour, trusting to Aswon to keep a lid on things while they scrambled to get ready.

Tads sat on the floor cross-legged and concentrated, then called upon the spirits to aid her. She only tried to coalesce a moderate amount of power into the spirit, but her haste drove her to some shortcuts, and she grunted in pain as the backlash of power whipsawed through her head. It wasn’t much of a headache, though, and with a few cleansing breaths she put the pain to one side and strove to ignore it. The spirit appeared before her in the astral plane, waiting for her to command it. At first she was a little surprised – it took the form of a dustbin body, with rakes for arms and a traffic cone as the head – clearly drawing its likeness from things in the city street – but then she realised that with the transient nature of the house, it never really qualified as “home” to anyone – and thus never formed a hearth spirit. Swiftly she told the spirit to guard her body and the room, using its powers to prevent harm to any of her team within the area. It nodded in understanding and then floated up into the centre of the room, watching each of the doors into the room intently. 

With that done, Tads vaulted from her body, her astral form passing through the walls of the house with no effort at all, and descended down to the ground level. She looked at the van, checking for the presence of any magical effects or guardians bound to it. Seeing none, she started to slowly press through the skin of the vehicle, millimetre by millimetre, just in case there was a ward present – or some astral defender lying in wait for her. There was none though, just an empty space, as rusty and decrepit on the inside as it was on the outside. In astral space though, there was a taint, a legacy of emotion that made her feel slightly sick. Bad things had happened in here – not terrible – but bad. The trauma of the events had left an astral fingerprint of emotion that left a residue of fear and despair the seeped into the very fabric of the vehicle. Whatever had caused this, was deliberate and pre-meditated, that was for sure – and she felt any sympathy for what was about to happen to them drain away as she sampled the air around her. With that she headed back to her body again.

Back in the house Aswon watched as the six men climbed the staircase, three on each side. They moved with caution, obviously trying to cut down on the noise they made, though they were not creeping and making stealth their priority. As they moved up, he saw that they had drawn weapons – holding a variety of small pistols, and keeping them held up to cover their advance up the stairs. They were no experts, but neither were they street punks either. As the point man took the stair case, the middle man stopped and covered him while he advanced up the half flight of stairs, then bounded up himself when the first man stopped and covered him in turn. The last of the group covered their rear and kept a general eye on the other team. There were mistakes, and it was not the smooth practiced manoeuvre of a professional team – more that of some amateurs that knew the dance moves.

Aswon felt the door open behind him, the subtle movement still sending a draft of air over his lower legs. He remained in place, trusting that whoever it was would avoid his prone form and move around him, and a moment later he saw Shimazu moving in his peripheral vision, crouching low to keep as much of him out of sight as possible while still being able to move quickly. Having the height advantage over the intruders, the width of the floor gave him good concealment from below, and the ironwork of the landing meant that any flashes of movement they could see were still not great shots. Shimazu flattened himself against the wall and scooted down the landing, heading for the lifts as quietly as he could. As he reached the lift, an idea struck him, and he reached out carefully and pressed the call button. The ancient machinery lurched into life, and the lift started to rise ponderously from its resting place at the ground floor. Aswon watched as the intruders froze at the noise, looking around with their pistols for targets. The surprise faded though, and what appeared to be their leader whispered some harsh command and they resumed their movement, continuing to bound up the stairs. Two more sets of feet moved past Aswon’s prone position, one each way – moments later he saw Marius settle into the corner to his right and Hunter to his left – each crouching to maximise their cover and raising pistols to cover their individual approaches.

As Marius settled into his position and sighted down his pistol to cover the landing on the right side of the building, he called up his router commands with a mental flick, and activated his internal cellular link, placing a call to his friend Andre. It rang twice, then he heard the call connect, the background noise indicating that his friend was probably at home watching the trid. Marius spoke swiftly, before Andre had a chance to even say hello…

“Andre – Marius, we have a small problem here. Half a dozen armed intruders moving into the house in tactical formation, advancing on our position. We’re deploying to defend now.”

“Christ Marius, I thought you said no biz, no bother.”

“We haven’t – we’ve kept our heads down, not caused any fuss or gotten involved in anything.” A brief frown crossed his face as he thought of Hunter pulling the gun in the intersection and the trouble that had caused – but hey, it wasn’t HIM that had done that. It was all a matter of perspective…

“Ok, right. Do I need to call the fire-brigade?” Andre asked. Marius considered for a moment – wondering if he meant the actual literal fire service, considering the wooden construction of the house, or if he was referring to a team of ‘cleanup’ specialists or problem solvers.

“No, no, we should be fine. I think we can deal with them internally and contain the situation. I just wanted to let you know. We’re not even sure these jokers are here for us or someone else…” he paused as one of the people moving up the stairs paused too long on a landing and he had a partial line of sight for a moment. The pistol moved over and aimed through the ironwork at him and his finger squeezed gently, only just below the trigger force needed to send a 12mm round rumbling down range and to the target. The target moved, and he relaxed on the trigger, and continued speaking. “Or what they’re after. But we’ll try to contain things as much as we can.”

“You sound like things are getting interesting. I’ll leave it with you, call me if things go south.” With a click he disconnected, and Marius returned his attention to the tactical situation. He realised that Kai had just inched out of the apartment and was kneeling next to Aswon, also surveying the situation. He returned his full attention back to his designated area, sighting down the pistol barrel at the wooden wall at the far end of the building, just waiting for someone to stray into his sightline.

The lift shuddered and rattled its way up to the top floor and then stopped, the door sliding open with a groan. Shimazu swiftly crossed the distance into the lift, and hit the button for the ground floor – hearing the shouts as he did so. It appeared that several of the intruders had spotted him, and he moved to the corner of the lift, crouching and wondering if rounds were about to come punching through the lift body. Nothing did though, and the lift started to descend, sliding past the fourth floor without incident and rattling down towards the ground.

Kai took a deep breath, then loudly called out to the intruders in English, “Hey, you down there! What are you doing in our house?”

There was a moment of silence, and the team watching saw the intruders drop into cover, hiding behind the lift shafts and the stairwells at the far end of the building. Then one voice shouted back in heavily accented English.

“Who the frack you are?” The words were thick and difficult to make out, and it was clear that his English was not at a fluent level.

“We’re friends of the owners of this house, now who the frack are you?”

A rapid fire string of Turkish could be made out at the far end of the hall, as the intruders discussed what to do. Hunter and Marius listened carefully, but couldn’t quite make out what they were saying at first. A few moments later though, one voice was raised again, calling out in Turkish. Hunter translated for Kai, repeating back in English what was being shouted the length of the building.

“Go back inside the apartment, this is nothing to do with us, get out of the way or they will kill us.” The last statement was accompanied by a little snigger that clearly identified what Hunter rated their chances as.

During the exchange they saw the lift reach the bottom, and heard the door open – but they didn’t see Shimazu, due to the sharp angle they would have had to peer over the railings at. It appeared that the intruders didn’t want to do that either – well aware that such a move would horribly expose them to fire from above.

Kai looked between Hunter and Marius, then decided to make use of the German for his translation. Both seemed to be equally fluent in Turkish, as far as he was aware anyway – but it seemed that Marius had the edge in diplomacy and phrasing. 

He spoke quietly, pausing after each phrase to let Marius call out the translation to the intruders.

“Get out of the house now, and we’ll let you live... We have been watching you for some time… We have seen you watching the house… We followed you before – down to the newsagent on the waterfront… You bought the Chronicle, but turned straight to the sports page... You got two bottles of N R Gee, the green flavour, and drank them in your van... We followed you back to your market stall, and watched you selling your plastic bridges and tourist goods… The main question now is – do you want to die?”

As Marius called out to them, he, Aswon and Hunter all saw various of the men peering around the lift shaft or banisters, trying to get a bead on them. They looked out for a few moments, peering up and through the grillwork, trying to get a lock on their locations. Each of the team members saw the edges of their heads, shoulders, or hands as they appeared through the gaps in the grills, and drew their own bead on them, watching as they ducked back into cover. A shootout would be a chancy thing – but they had faith they could take down the intruders in short order if they needed to. The seconds ticked by, as their leader pondered on the information, and his men kept ducking in and out of cover as they tried to line up shots, without leaving themselves exposed.

Taking advantage of the noise that Marius was making, Hunter crawled forward like a snake, heading along the balcony and towards the lift and the stairs. He kept low and to the wall, concentrating on stealth rather than speed, and managed to get to the far end of the building undetected. Anyone who came up the stairs from the fourth to the fifth floor was going to get a very painful surprise now, but it also gave him options to quickly take the fight to them as well.

Shimazu meanwhile had headed out to their vehicle, and had checked it over – confirming that there were no more of the men waiting outside, and nothing of value or threat in the truck. Satisfied that there were no external threats, he headed back inside, and started to creep along the atrium towards the stairs, ready to climb up and attack from the rear.

Kai via Marius called out again.

“You should leave – now. My demolition expert has placed a C4 charge on your vehicle – but if you leave now you have enough time to get far enough away to be out of range of the detonation signal.”

Aswon and Marius both glanced at Kai and raised eyebrows at him. In turn Kai shrugged and raised his hands – clearly showing them that he was just making shit up, and hoping that something worked. There was some more muttering in Turkish from the far end of the room – but Hunter was in easy earshot now, and heard them scoffing and calling the bluff. He tapped the transmit button on his commlink a few times to get their attention, and then showed them a downward thumb, indicating that they hadn’t bought the deception.

Kai looked at Marius and smiled.

“Time for a different tack. Tell them they’ve got thirty seconds to get the hell out of here, or I’m going to attack them with my ghost, which will pluck their soul out and eat it.”

Marius turned back to the far end of the balcony and raised his voice.

“Bir kerede git ya da hayalet ruhunu yiyecek!”

It went quiet for a moment at the far end of the balcony. Hunter listened and heard a couple of the voices quietly say “Hayalet?” sounding worried. He reached back with a hand and showed a firm thumbs up position, and then got ready to spring into action. Kai saw the thumbs up and then leaned back towards the front door of the apartment, and called in to Tads.

“Time to show them the ghost moose!”

“We’re going to have a discussion about this later, you know. What’s the Turkish word for ‘leave’?” came her voice. There was a second’s pause as Marius relayed the word to her via the comlink she’d taken the time to equip, and then a soft thud as her body collapsed to the floor when her astral form left it. She flew through the door and to the far end of the atrium in a heartbeat, dropping down through the floor and surveying the intruders. All six of them were on the fourth floor stairwell, three on each side. From their positions, they were mostly concealed from the team by the lift shaft and stairwells – each side would have to move onto the stairs and either ascend or descend to make any kind of shot, and it would come down to whoever shot first. She floated up through the ceiling back to the top floor for a moment and then manifested, in front of Hunter, and held up her hand, showing five fingers, then pointed down the stairs. He nodded, and started to crawl over towards the stairs quietly, as she faded from view again and then descended back through the floor and hovered on the 4th floor landing.

In her head she counted down…2…1… go. She manifested again, and hissed “Ayrılmak!” at them. As she appeared, the men noticed her, causing gasps of fear that bordered on shrieks for two of them. One of them panicked and reflexively pulled the trigger, sending a shot her way. The slug flew through her astral form harmlessly, unable to hurt her in any way whatsoever. Of course, they were not to know that as a purely astral observer, she was also not able to hurt them in any form – in fact she was not able to interact with them, negatively or positively. They could see her as a translucent figure, but she wasn’t really there –if any of them had pointed a camera or other device at her, it would have shown nothing at all.

Once the first shot was fired though, in the heat of the moment, the rest of the intruders panicked, also firing. Within half a second multiple shots whizzed through her body, flying back and forth across the landing. She lowered herself slightly, descending until her body was floating only an inch above the landing and was rewarded with a scream as one of the men on the left shot through her, and hit his companion on the right hand side. Moments later there was another scream as another bullet found its mark and punched through clothing and into flesh.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shadow move slightly and then the edge of Hunter’s gun appear as he lay on the floor above and inched just his head and arm around the corner. She raised her arm dramatically and pointed at the man closest to her, then opened her mouth and screamed at him, a long piercing animalistic cry. Hunter keyed up his Smartlink, laid the sight over the unfortunate man’s head and then double tapped him. 

The rest of the intruders screamed in terror as the ghost raised a hand and screamed at one of their number and his head exploded over the wall, and redoubled their firing. Round after round punched through the ghostly body, and smashed into the walls, staircase and occasionally each other – but fear drove them now and none of them were thinking clearly, apart from one soul who threw down his weapon, collapsed to the floor and appeared to be praying to something to save him.

The rest of the team had risen into firing positions when the gunfire started, and were rapidly scanning the landings, trying to get a clear shot and make sure their friends weren’t being cut down – so they saw the hail of gunfire sliding through Tads’ ethereal form. They sighted carefully and waited, realising what was going on, and were soon rewarded.

Tads turned sideways on, and raised an arm to each side, pointing at different intruders in each stairwell. One backed off, sliding into view of Marius who also double tapped his target, the pair of bullets entering through the exposed shoulder and devastating his chest and throat as the round fragmented and ripped his body apart. Another threw himself down and forwards, his finger spasmodically twitched on the trigger despite the gun having locked back on an empty breach and looking like he was about to try and club the ghost with his flailing fists. A heavyweight round from Aswon’s rifle punctured his neck, tumbled through the body and exited the other side of his chest in a pineapple-sized hole, dropping his lifeless corpse to the landing at her feet.

Marius translated another line for Kai, having to bellow to be heard over the gunshots translating “The spirit demands blood! Run, run for your life,” to keep up the pressure on the terrified Turks.

Hunter swung further down the stairs and grunted in pain as he took two stray rounds in the body armour. They didn’t appear to even be aimed at him, just the effects of random fire from the terrified local as he cowered in abject fear before the ghost, pumping round after useless round through it while eyes as big as saucers stared at the horrifying image before him. The Kevlar and ceramic plates did their job through, slowing the rounds and spreading the impact force out over his chest, and he steadied himself and put another two rounds into the forehead of the man who’d just shot him. Moments later the last combat-capable intruder had also been dealt with, shot dead with a minimum of fuss and excitement. The ringing sound of gunfire faded away, and a haze of plaster dust and propellant hung over the far end of the atrium, the fine dust slowly settling and revealing sprays of blood and brain all over the walls, and deep bullet gouges in the walls. Seconds later the smell hit, the horrific smell of faecal matter from some of the corpses that had voided upon death, mixed in with the ammonia smell of urine and wafts of gunsmoke and cheap propellant. 

As Tads floated back towards her body, she noticed the door the 4th floor apartment slide open an inch, and an eye appeared at the doorway, gazing out at the scene of carnage.

“Hello there. I think these visitors were for you – they don’t seem to be anything to do with us, anyway.”

A muffled voice responded to her statement.

“No, we’re just minding our own business in here. We thought we heard a bang out here, but looking out now, I can’t see anything at all. We didn’t see anything, or hear anything, ok?” Tads shrugged, and then floated back up to the top floor to report in to Kai.

Aswon and Marius moved down the balcony to meet with Hunter, who was busily securing the single remaining intruder, who was still praying for forgiveness, deliverance and mercy in a jumble of Turkish. Once his hands were restrained with some zipties, they started to collect the weapons and ammunition strewn around the place, and policed their brass. They heard someone coming up the stairs, and weapons were levelled – then quickly dropped as Shimazu sauntered around the turn in the staircase. Once they had the live ammo collected and the weapons made safe, they realised that a major clean-up operation was needed, and headed back to the apartment to get mops, buckets, hot soapy water, and other supplies. They took their prisoner with them, who had his eyes screwed shut and was still babbling prayers to anyone that would listen.

In the apartment, they carried him through to one of the bathrooms and laid him face down in the bath – at least that way the filth leaking from his soiled trousers wouldn’t make more of a mess. Nadia was asked to keep an eye on him, while they got on with the unpleasant task of cleaning up the blood, brains and waste matter that littered the 4th floor landing. They also collected some tools, using those to scrape away at the slatboard and paint, retrieving the odd half-buried slug or round of pistol ammo, trying to remove as much forensic evidence as possible. To take his mind off of what he was doing, Marius fired up the internal phone and called Andre. The call was picked up immediately, and Andre sounded concerned

“Hello? Is everything ok?”

“Yes, yes, everything is fine. We have five dead and one in custod..

“Whoa whoa whoa! Dude, open comms line.” Marius paused for a moment then thought – sure, he had encryption software on his phone, but it wasn’t engaged – because Andre didn’t have the decryption key, or possibly even the capability on this phone. He tried a fresh tack.

“Um… we had a delivery of fruit arrive. It was nasty though – we have five rotten apples that need to go in the bin, and one apple that looks ok at the moment, but may turn soon. The basket looks a little worn, but is structurally intact, and maybe just needs a dab of paint to freshen it up. None of the neighbours seem interested in any fruit though. We thought the people on the 4th floor might have ordered the fruit basket, but they didn’t want to answer the door.” Marius heard a sigh as he said the last part.

“Right, tell your boss, that if the fruit basket was for the 4th floor, then whoever is on the 4th should be dealing with it, will you? And I’ll talk to them when I see them and sort this out with them. But for now, everyone is ok, and you’ve not eaten anything that’s gonna make you sick?” Andre listened as Marius confirmed that no, everyone was ok. “Right. I’ll arrange to speak to the guys on Fourth then, knowing them they’re probably laying low and won’t answer their phones at the moment. Yeah – get your friend to tell ‘em to sort their shit out, will you, and I’ll pick up from there.” Marius agreed, and heard Andre muttering as he disconnected the call at the other end.

Aswon entered the bathroom, and paused on his journey to the toilet, where he’d been about to pour away the effluent and blood mix that had been mopped up. He turned to look at Nadia, double-checking that he had in fact seen what he thought he had seen.

“Nadia. Is that a Molotov cocktail you’ve got there?”

“Yes. I found out how to make them from the matrix. If our prisoner tries to escape, I will burn him.” She spoke flatly, in a very matter-of-fact voice, and Aswon looked at her intently, searching her features. He guessed that she hadn’t really ever visited pain or violence on someone else, and her lack of compassion worried him slightly. He reached over and plucked the bottle from her hands.

“We’re going to have to have a good talk later, young lady. I don’t think this is the right tool for the job, either.” Nadia frowned at him, then shrugged, and left the room, and Aswon returned to his task, emptying the bucket down the toilet carefully, and then running some water into it to try and get more of the foul-smelling mixture out of the bottom. Just as he finished, Nadia returned to her stool, holding a thirty-centimetre-long carving knife from the kitchen, and resumed her observation of the prisoner.

They worked for half an hour cleaning up the landing and stairwell, and between them they managed to get the site looking pretty respectable. It stank of bleach and other cleaning fluids, wood filler used to cover some of the bullet holes and gouges in the walls, and paint which had been inexpertly slapped over the top of the still drying putty. When they were done though, Tads came and cast her spell on the area, sterilising the scene and giving them some reassurance that even if they’d missed a spot, it would not be of use in proving a case against them.

They returned to the apartment and grabbed cold drinks, relaxing after the hard work done to try and clean up after the gunfight, and discussed what to do with the bodies. The initial thought was to wrap the bodies up in plastic, and load them into the green van in the early hours of the morning, and just drive to some remote part of the city and abandon it. Otherwise, their options were a little limited – they could torch the van, but that was likely to attract the authorities sooner rather than later, or they could try and borrow or steal a boat, and drop the bodies into the ocean. At a pinch they could reach out to Andre or someone else in the city to see how much a disposal service would cost. That didn’t include what to do with their prisoner, of course…

Marius passed on the message from Andre to Kai, making it clear that he considered this to be firmly in his purview. With a sigh, Kai pushed himself to his feet, and beckoned to Shimazu to come with him. Shimazu grabbed his sword and rose silently to follow Kai, pausing as Kai stopped in the doorway. 

“Tads? Can you do your out of body thing and keep any eye on us when we’re talking to them – be good to see what’s really going on?” Seeing her nod, he continued out of the door, around the balcony and down the flight of stairs to the 4th floor, then knocked sharply on the entrance door. Above him, Tads made herself comfortable in a chair and then let her astral form slide out of her body and down through the floor, dropping down into the room below, so she could see the front door from the inside. As she dropped into the room though, she saw a watcher spirit staring at her. It looked at her for a moment longer, then darted over to a figure sitting in a chair studying a book, and started to chitter and bounce in front of him to get his attention. He glanced up and round at her, clearly seeing her astral form. A moment later Tads heard Kai knock on the door, and another man entered the room, heading towards the door. 

The mage looked at her for a moment longer, then made a shooing motion with his hands, ushering her back through the ceiling. He didn’t look particularly hostile, or even unhappy – in fact Tads thought it was more like a request than a demand. She nodded at him though, and rose back through the ceiling and returned to her body. Downstairs, the door was opened, to reveal Kai standing with a broad grin on his face, and Shimazu standing just behind and to one side of him.

“Yes?” The man looked quite swarthy, his dark complexion and heavy bushy eyebrows made his green eyes seem almost luminous. Kai wondered for a moment if they were implants or enhanced – not that it really mattered. The man stared at him, with hawk-like intensity, waiting for Kai to respond.

“There was a disturbance earlier, some people in the house. It was most….unfortunate for them, that we saw them enter. We’ve got reason to believe they were coming to see you?”

“I wouldn’t know anything about that – we don’t know anyone around here. We’re just stopping by for a few days, then moving on. We didn’t hear anything, I’m afraid.” Kai raised an eyebrow in disbelief at him. Whilst all of their team had used silencers or suppressors, the intruders most definitely had not. As Kai waited for him to speak again, he saw another dark-skinned individual move out of the side room and into the main room, through the gap in the door. Shimazu saw that it was the man that had come for toilet paper the other day – looking a lot more relaxed now than he had then.

“Ahh, no. We had the trid on quite loudly. I hope we didn’t disturb you. We were watching a police show – there was a gunfight, you see. We did think it sounded very lifelike, but thought it was just the show. We didn’t see or hear anything at all. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Kai shook his head – it was clear that they were going to stick to their story.

“In that case, please excuse me. We must pack soon, as we are leaving. I’m sure it would have been nice to get to know you, but I think we probably won’t meet again.” With that, he eased the door closed, leaving Shimazu and Kai staring at the closed door. They turned and wandered back towards the stairs. When they were about halfway along, far enough to avoid casual eavesdropping, Shimazu spoke up.

“He seemed quite happy, I think – at least that’s what his body language said to me. I think happy because they’d avoided a problem. What he said though about leaving, that seemed right. I don’t think they’re any threat to us, or mean us any harm. At least that’s my opinion on them – but I’m still studying, of course.”

They reported in to the others when they returned upstairs, and listened as Tads explained that she’d been spotted when she entered. There didn’t seem to be much else to do with the people from the floor below, so they decided to let them be – unlike their captive who’d had long enough to stew. Kai and Hunter went to the bathroom to interrogate their captive, whilst the rest of the team unwound and relaxed for a while.

Kai pulled the hood from his head, and watched as the man screwed his eyes shut against the sudden glare. Speaking slowly and calmly, and with Hunter to handle the translations, he told the man that he was in a pretty poor situation, and that he needed to tell them the truth. Because if he lied, they’d know. Well, actually, their ghost would know and would tell them – and then it would get very unpleasant indeed.

The man stumbled through a rambling explanation – his name was Emete, and he worked for Mazhar, who had organised the assault. He, and all the other men did odd jobs for Mazhar, or worked on his stall selling cheap tourist crap. Occasionally they carried packages – drugs, or guns mostly, from pickup points to safe houses or down to the docks. Mazhar was involved with some kind of smugglers, but at a very low level and was very much in the position of doing others’ bidding it seemed. Kai queried which was Mazhar, and what he looked like, and Emete described him – stumbling through the description as he recounted how the ghost had pointed at his head and made it explode.

Next Kai asked him to recount why they were here, why they were attacking the house. It turned out that the group downstairs were suspected to be smugglers – or at the very least connected with smugglers. They’d been at a café having a meeting, and after their business was concluded and the person they’d spoken with had left, they’d relaxed into their seats and had some coffee. However, the hush field built into their booth had been faulty, and their conversation had leaked into the next booth over – where Mazhar was having his dinner. With amazement he’d listened in as they described how they were going to take the bearer bonds they’d been paid with, and split it amongst the three of them, and what their plans were once they’d cashed out. Realising that not only were they not particularly security conscious, but also not that heavily armed, Mazhar had assembled a team of bully boys and thugs, and had planned to kick in their front door and rob them at gunpoint – stealing whatever negotiable bonds they had and making off.

Kai and Hunter quizzed him back and forth, asking for more details and sometimes for inconsequential facts, but his story remained constant – even after Hunter told him that the ghost had come into the room, and looked unhappy with him. From the smell and squirming, Emete certainly believed them and it took a convincing actor to deliberately lose control like that. After a while they were convinced they had everything that he knew, though there were still blank spots in the story. Kai then told Emete that he was going to be let go – in fact, he was going to be rewarded for his wise decision to give up when he was so clearly outmatched. He was to take the green van, and the possessions they had rounded up, and use his knowledge of Mazhar’s business to take over – his shop, his lockup, his van – and if he got access to his house, that as well. He was being given a chance to start over, to make something of himself and show some sense. And in the future, when they came back to town – well, they’d have to see, now wouldn’t they?

Emete quickly cottoned on that he was being given an opportunity, and agreed to do whatever Kai suggested, quite happy that there was a possibility of him living through the night. The chance to take over his ex-boss’ business was icing on the cake compared to walking and talking. Sure, he’d have to work hard to retain the contacts he knew about – but it was better than starting with nothing. After agreeing to anything and everything they demanded of him, Kai told him that their trained computer expert had already hacked his accounts and had put tracers into all of his IDs – and that by the morning their expert search routines would know everything about them.

“The porn wasn’t mine!” Emete blurted out. “The others, they used my account and bought their trid shows using my ID!” Hunter sniggered at him and cut him free telling him to have a shower and clean himself up, and pointing at a pile of generic clothes for him to wear. Certainly his original clothes would have to be destroyed…

In the kitchen, Aswon had some cooking supplies out and was busy making some food, when he smelt something… off. Carefully he inspected his batter mix, sniffing at it with caution and quickly discovering that the mix was bad. Strange… he wasn’t a great cook, but he’d made this dish before without issue, and he couldn’t work out what was going on. He followed the smell around the kitchen, and discovered that it came from the oil bottle he’d been using. After examining the bottle, he quickly realised that the oil was bad – which seemed very strange. How did oil go bad?

A few minutes of investigation revealed that not only the bottle of oil, but a number of other foodstuffs had all been tampered with or compromised. They weren’t just bad though – as in gone off, or spoiled – no, they’d been chemically altered. The oil had been mixed with some other material and had emulsified. Suddenly Aswon realised what had happened, as he cast his mind back to Nadia sitting on the stool holding her Molotov cocktail. She’d been in the kitchen earlier, and had worked out what she needed to mix together to make some very primitive naptha. The thick and gloopy paste would burn hot, and would stick to flesh or clothes, seeping into armour and equipment and would cause horrific burns. He shuddered, and made a firmer mental note to have a discussion with her. Or maybe with Kai and Marius, and leave it up to them. In the meantime, his batch of cookies went straight into the bin – there was no way he was eating anything that had been cooked on a tray greased with that evil concoction…

He walked back into the main room, into the continuing discussion about what to do with the bodies, and how best to get rid of them with the minimum risk to themselves. After nearly thirty minutes of back and forth, it was finally decided that they’d bring the bodies back inside and up to the top floor, early in the morning. With the lights out, they’d open the front window, and then Tads would use her levitate spell on them, and quickly fly them out of the window and over the water. Being on the fifth floor, they were above the street lights, and the unlit bodies would be quite hard to see – and at 3am, there would be limited people around anyway. She could float them up, as far as she could see – and then just drop the spell. If the bodies were up high enough, when they hit the water, it would be like hitting concrete, and would mangle the bodies further, helping to disguise their injuries and circumstances of their deaths. The impact force would also potentially rip their bodies open, allowing them to take on water and sink, and lessen the chances of them being found soon. Even if they didn’t sink – the busy shipping lane and strong currents would carry the bodies far away from them, and by the time they were found the team would be long away.

The disposal of the bodies went as planned, and the team relaxed, napping for a few more hours before rising again at 06:00. First of all, they sent Emete on his way, with dire warnings ringing in his ears about what would happen if he was to cause any trouble. Once he was gone and they had snacked, they got in their loaner van and headed off to go for the final session with their ID manufacturing. The session went well, tying up loose ends and getting the final bits of corroborating evidence and footage needed to shore up their new personas, and they were all done by 11:00.

They cut through the pre-lunch traffic and dropped Tads off at the garage to get a few more hours work done in her lodge – but making sure she summoned a spirit first to protect her whilst they were all away. Once she was settled, Marius called Ohmar, to check on the weapons delivery.

Ohmar sounded flustered when Marius checked with him, but confirmed that the special delivery was in fact in stock. When Marius asked if he was available for a lunchtime reservation, he agreed – but then added a response that set alarm bells ringing with them.

“If you’re coming for lunch today, then dress appropriately. To the area, I mean. It will be much better for you, if you fit in.”

Marius agreed and ended the call, and the team looked at each other with curiosity. They’d had dirty looks from the locals before, but not any actual trouble – what was the issue? Still, they decided to heed his warning, and stopped off at a stall on their way towards the bridge, purchasing a Niqab for Nadia, and some thobes for the rest of them. Nadia looked like she was about to complain for being made to cover up, until she saw that all of the rest of the team were also putting on traditional Muslim attire as well.

They resumed their journey, fighting their way through the traffic and over the bridge. The congestion was bad – easily the worst they had encountered so far, and progress was agonisingly slow. Eventually though they cleared the bridge, and started to work their way down from the main road through the side streets and towards the restaurant. As they did so, they saw a number of Lionheart APCs scattered around the area, all with the turrets manned and active. There was also a much larger than normal crowd on the streets, and throngs of people stood on street corners or near buildings, staring angrily at the security troops. There was a palpable air of hostility and tension in the air, and the tension started to rise amongst the team again, as they wound their way deeper into the side streets and the buildings and crowd started to hem them in. Already Hunter and Marius were in conversations, planning exit and evasion routes out of the area, getting ready in case the situation turned dire.


	70. 070 - A city of two tales 6

Date 13/02/2060, Location 41.02865, 29.04536

They drove into the side streets cautiously, each of the team glancing out of the tinted windows at the streets around them. Conversation died as they concentrated on their surroundings, apart from the occasional terse comment pointing out larger clumps of the locals, or another Lionheart patrol.

Marius split his attention, driving with part of his mind and pulled up the interface on his deck with the other. Aswon had described the type of equipment Lionheart had used when he’d been contracting with them, which gave him an idea of where their frequencies would lie, and he set his routines to scanning the airwaves, looking for signals. It only took a few seconds for the powerful processors to narrow down and track in on a few discreet frequencies that were blasting out apparently random static – but random static with a close source and distinct power level far in excess of the random background noise of the city. Now came the tricky part – he fired up the decryption module, and set to with trying to crack whatever cryptography they were using. His software was still pretty much up to date, and quite powerful, so he had high hopes that he could crack this.

The rest of the team continued to watch out of the windows as they navigated slowly and carefully down the side streets. Along with the larger than normal crowds of people on the streets, they noticed the area was rammed full of cars, lining the streets often on both sides. Despite that, traffic was light – whoever was here, they had arrived some time before. The team gave a start as a snippet of transmission was played over the vehicle speakers

“Alpha 1-4 to control. We’re in position at grid ref 3049.3 by 2049.1. Vehicle manned and ready, status green. Crowds are heavy and look angry, but no sign of weapons or overt action. Next check-in 20 mikes. Out.”

“Control, Alpha 1-4. Received and understood. Alpha 1-8 is your response vehicle, ETA 2 mikes, on frequency 3. Continue to monitor and advise, control clear.”

They heard another response from a vehicle as it too apparently reached its observation point, but the report cut out halfway through. Marius sighed, fiddled with his deck for a few seconds and then spoke.

“As I feared – they’re using agile comms – frequency hops every sixty to ninety seconds probably, and it looks like they have some kind of rotating encryption. Now I know what to look for, I can probably break in again – as long as they don’t up their security level. But I’ll have to keep doing it, and it takes time and concentration each time.”

“As long as you can listen in when we need to, I think that’s fine. Useful to have an ace up our sleeve,” said Kai, his face still pressing up against the glass as his eyes flicked over the people and buildings as they slowly drove past them. Kai frowned, and they looked out along his sightline, seeing a crowd of angry-looking men standing defiantly in front of a Lionheart APC, staring at the trooper manning the turret. 

They pressed on, through the narrow maze of streets and further into the area, Marius threading the needle with the vehicle, navigating between parked cars that lined both sides of the road. There didn’t seem to be much actual traffic in the area, but the streets were packed with cars and vans, as if nobody had gone to work that day. As they closed on the restaurant, like the first visit there was no parking spaces nearby – but throwing a major spanner in the works, it looked like someone had parked across the restaurant gates, blocking access to the loading dock.

Marius swore under his breath – it was obvious that he had planned to reverse into the loading area and use the bulk of the van to cover the transaction, keeping the signs outwardly fine whilst they handled the transfer. Now though, they’d have to bring out the goods from the restaurant and walk some way down the street with them – likely to cause issues. He circled the block once, and then widened the search pattern, moving out from the restaurant and trying to find a place to park that was as close as possible. Whilst he searched, he called the restaurant, but only got the busy tone, so had to settle for setting up a call-back request. It was another two minutes when he got through to him, and he heard Ohran give his introductory spiel for the business.

“Ohran? Marius. We’re in the area, just trying to park up. The area is packed.”

“Yes, I thought as much. Please tell me that you’re dressed appropriately?

“No problem, modest dress for all of us, in keeping with the area.”

“Good. I would suggest coming straight here, and not looking anyone in the face, or getting involved with anything. Tensions are a little high right now.”

“Right, we should be with you in ten minutes or so. Speak soon.” With that, he disconnected, and concentrated on finding a parking spot. A few minutes later, they found one – a space only just big enough for the vehicle. With Marius connected in via the datajack though, he manoeuvred the vehicle like it was an extension of his own body, and managed to slide the four-metre vehicle into the four-and-a-half-metre gap without issue. 

Marius killed the engine and disconnected from the control system, turning in his seat to look over at Kai. As he did, the world went mad.

The vehicle in front of them exploded violently, an actinic flash lighting up the street in a moment of pure brilliant whiteness. Fractions of a second later the white started to fade, replaced with the reds, ambers and yellows of the fireball as it exploded out of the vehicle, sending lancets of white hot metal spearing out in a sphere of devastation. Part of the truck body was consumed by the intensity of the explosion, parts were liberated by the destructive power of the bomb and sent out in a blast wave that rippled into and demolished the houses on either side of the vehicle. The blast wave hit their car, sending parts of the truck’s chassis into their engine bay like molten awls and killing it in moments. The windscreen bucked and flexed under the onslaught of the power of the explosion, then lost its uneven fight, shattering into thousands of tiny chunks and blowing backwards into the passenger area. 

With the reflexes of the magically and cyber-enhanced, most of the team managed to duck or raise an armoured limb to shield their face – all apart from Nadia. She had been leaning forwards and sideways so she could see Marius, and her face was directly towards the blast. Purely human reactions were not up to the task, and she was thrown backwards violently towards the rear of the vehicle, her face peppered with glass. Fortunately, the windscreens tempered glass was made with safety in mind, and rather than long jagged stilettos, most of the glass was in small chunks – still sharp, but with low mass and cutting power. Nadia rocked back, blood starting to ooze out of a dozen cuts in her face, but none looked that serious.

With a groan, the two houses on either side of the road started to collapse as the explosives packed into the truck’s cargo bed demolished the front walls, stripping the support for the upper floors and sending masonry and contents sliding in an avalanche out of the houses. The shockwave rebounded from the houses, making their vehicle rock from side to side, and the deep rolling explosion echoed down the street. For a moment they sat stunned – quite clearly they were lucky to be alive. It appeared that the truck had been loaded with some kind of shaped charges, as the vast majority of the destructive power had been sent out sideways, rather in a more general sphere. That in turn meant skilled opponents and determined foes rather than someone setting off twenty gallons of DERV and hoping for the best.

Aswon jumped straight on the phone and speed-dialled Sophie, “Sophie, in a situation here. We’re down on Betpe road, near the corner with Lufutuse I think – just had a truck bomb go off, pretty much in our faces.”

“Oh crap. Get out of there – get out, now, fast.”

“Would love to, but the vehicle is toast, and we’re on foot now. And um… we’re equipped. In local dress.”

“Right, see if you can find somewhere to go to ground. I’ll try and get someone to you, and get you out.”

“Cheers Sophie, will get back to you soon”

“Make sure you’re not seen as a threat. They won’t be giving anyone second chances!”

Aswon disconnected, and looked around, seeing that Kai had helped Nadia out of the wrecked car and to the rear, and was peering at her face with concern. Shimazu stood with one hand under his robe, no doubt holding his sword ready to draw. Hunter and Marius stood near the front of the car, examining the still burning wreckage of their engine, and Kai was looking around at the buildings on either side of the road.

The first of the locals to reach the scene came by, having flowed around the corners and out of buildings, converging on the collapsing wreck of the homes. They set to with desperate speed, pulling at the bricks and blocks and trying to excavate down into the wreckage. Now the rolling retort of the explosion had faded away, screams and wails replaced it, along with muffled cries coming from the houses. Who knew how many people were buried in the rubble, but it was apparent that the locals intended to dig them out by hand if necessary.

Another explosion sounded, muffled by distance and intervening buildings, somewhere to the east, then another, this time in a more northerly direction. Looking up into the air, plumes of smoke and destruction could be seen rising from those locations too – by the sounds of things further car or truck bombs. Kai started issuing orders to get an aid station set up to the rear of their vehicle, using the first aid kits and helping with anyone that got pulled out of the wreckage. Whilst people started to clear a space and grab the first aid kits, he took Nadia and tipped her head back, wiping away the blood and starting to examine her face and make sure she was going to be ok.

Marius suddenly swung his head to the south and stared through the plume of smoke and flames that marked the wreckage of the truck. 

“Gunfire?” Marius looked down the road, but couldn’t see anything through the dense black smoke still rising from the wrecked truck. The others saw him cock his head on one side, then take a side-step and cock his head the other way, trying to localise the sounds. Hunter drew his sidearm and Aswon grabbed his rifle from the back of the wrecked truck, fearing that things were about to get worse. After a few moments of peering through the smoke and debris, Hunter swarmed up on top of their wrecked MPV to see if he could get a better vantage point. Aswon turned and jogged away from the rest of the team, and found himself a niche in the corner of the block and pressed himself into the recess, keeping an eye out behind and to the flank of the team, just in case.

One of the frantically digging workers fell, collapsing onto the mound of loose dirt, with a massive hole in their chest. Blood drained from the wound, rivulets of red dropping down over the stonework and bricks, mixing with the dirt and crumbled dust to make a red paste. A second person fell, this time the back of their head exploding and sending blood and brains flying over the mound. The rest of the diggers noticed this and stopped digging, looking around them frantically for the source.

As the black cloud from the explosion started to dissipate, they saw four white males slowly walking up the street, holding assault rifles to their shoulders. They saw one of them pause, take aim and fire off another burst, killing another rescue digger. People screamed and started to scrabble down from the wreck of the house, trying to get away, and the advancing killers paused to take aim, firing off more bursts.

A grenade arced over their head, landing between the team and the attackers, and a moment later white smoke billowed out, plumes of hot particulates swiftly forming a dense cloud that started to fill the street, apart from the roiling air near the smouldering truck where the hot air forced the cloud to rise swiftly. Kai lowered his arm, pleased with the accuracy of his throw, though he suspected it was as much luck as skill.

Hunter dropped down from the roof, and they all moved into cover – aware that they were dressed as locals, and whoever the attackers were, that was a very real risk. Nadia pressed at the pads on her face that Kai had just finished applying, nodding her thanks to him as she crouched down and looked around. She spotted a woman crawling across the road, hands bleeding profusely from where she had crawled across the sharp edges of concrete, and darted out from cover to try and drag her to safety.

Aswon got on the phone, hitting the redial and praying that Sophie wasn’t on a call. Luck was with him, and the call went straight through.

“Sophie, I don’t know why, but there’s a bunch of white dudes with assault rifles, killing the locals. Marching down the street in a line, just firing off at people, women, kids, whatever.”

“Crap. Ok, get clear. I’m seeing multiple incidents called in, and heavy response teams are rolling. Stay away from those whackos if you can, and keep your phone on – I’ll try and get down to get you out.”

“Roger that.” Aswon disconnected and slid out of his cover position and round the corner, and then started to shout out in broken Turkish, beckoning for people to follow him around the corner and out of the line of fire. He held his rifle in one hand, trying to keep the weapon roughly behind him, and used his free hand to beckon to wave at people, encouraging them to run.

A second explosion rang out of the street as the remains of the fuel tank went up, and a gout of heat and flame shot out of the side of the vehicle. The waft of heat blew the smoke out of the way, and one of the attackers could see through the clear air for a moment. He raised his weapon and fired at the target he could see. It wasn’t well aimed, but it was on target – and the rounds impacted on Nadia’s left shoulder, spinning her around. She let her legs collapse underneath her as she cried out in pain, dropping to the road.

Marius saw her fall out of the corner of his eye, and his reactions kicked in without conscious thought. Adrenaline coursed through his body and the electrochemical accelerators fired, sending jolts through his nervous system. His hand pulled out the heavy pistol from the concealing folds of his outfit, his left leg took half a step backwords and turned to the side, dropping him into an l-shaped stance. The left hand came up and cradled the bottom of the right, as the gun raised up to shoulder height and he acquired the sight picture. The finger slowly clenched, applying just enough force on the trigger to send a round rumbling down-range. As the cartridge shot out of the breech and floated through the air, his finger squeezed a second time while his wrist strained to keep the muzzle pointing on target, fighting the natural tendency of the gun to climb. A second shot flew down range. Both shots hit their target, and the side of the target’s face opened up as the 12mm slugs wrecked his face, sending shattered bone flying.

Hunter caught a glimpse through the smoke of another target, and flexed his wrist. His target was obscured by smoke, barely visible – but he had a number of advantages over Marius. As he twisted the gun out of the cloth, he just bent his wrist, pointing the gun in the right direction from his waist, saving precious fractions of a second. As the gun pointed in roughly the right direction, a targeting cursor appeared in his vision, relaying the aim point from the gun to his cybernetic vision through the induction pad built into his palm. A host of calculations were run through by the built-in computer – estimated wind speed, distance, round velocity, atmospheric conditions – before spitting out a continuously updated set of vectors. The targeting display matched the vectors, and all Hunter had to do was twist his wrist a little more – the green cross turned amber as the smartlink recognised a target, then red as it locked on. The finger squeezed twice, and the rounds flew true, striking the target centre mass, though he had no idea of the damage caused as the smoke enveloped the target.

“Sophie! We are engaged with hostiles, coming under auto-fire. I need your permission to engage!” Aswon yelled into the phone as soon as it connected.

“I can’t give you permission, I’m sorry. Neither of us are authorised.” There was a pause for a moment. “Aswon, do what you have to do. Just get clear after.” The call was broken again, this time from the far end. Aswon pulled the rifle round and cycled the action, sliding a round into the breech and checked that the safety was off.

From the other side of the smoke, they heard a voice yelling:

“Incendiaries! Now!”

A couple of black objects flew through the air. One was going to land to the left of their car, near the blast-damaged house. The other arced through the air, heading straight towards where Nadia lay in the road…

Hunter, Shimazu and Marius ran forwards, under the arc of throw and charged into the smoke, disappearing quickly from view. Kai pulled back, clearing the area to the left, and headed back towards a safer area, unaware of Nadia’s position on the other side of the parked cars and the peril that she was in. Aswon looked around and saw the falling grenade, and lowered his head, legs pumping as he accelerated towards her. Just as the round was about to hit the floor, he sprang, his powerful legs propelling him through the air like a spear to land atop her.

The grenades hit, and moments later white flames erupted from them. There was an odd popping noise, then dozens of smaller bursts of white hot material burst out of the landing area and separated out into a pattern, spreading across the roadway with an eye-searing intensity. Aswon felt the impact on his back, and could smell burning as they hit his armoured duster – and just as quickly realised they weren’t standard incendiary rounds. He pushed himself upwards and off Nadia, and saw a couple of the white pellets burning through her shoes and clothing, but her torso and most of her body were clear. The bad news of course was that meant that most of the rest had hit him. He struggled to shuck off his coat, pulling it from his limbs as pain lanced through him as the burning phosphorous ate through his clothing and started to work its way through flesh and muscle. Nadia screamed in pain as the needles of burning chemical lanced through her, then coughed explosively as the hot gasses seared at her mouth and throat.

The second grenade hit too, also sending gobbets of burning phosphorous all over the street, the cars, the houses – and the back of Hunter’s legs as he headed into the smoke. The burly ork winced, but otherwise ignored the pain – he had work to do ahead of him. The thick white cloying smoke from Kai’s grenade lingered in the street. With little wind to move it, and the solid housing on either side, it hung in the air forming a thick barrier that obscured the street thoroughly, making vision useless. Regular vision, that was…

Hunter and Marius both activated the thermal vision modifications. Some hot patches glowed yellow and white in their sight – bits of burning debris from the truck bomb or gouts of fuel that had been thrown out in the explosion, but most of the street was a cool greenish-blue of the cold stonework that had barely warmed from the low lying winter sun. Ahead of them they saw their targets through clearly – reddish lumps of heat standing braced, with hot spots around the gun breeches in their hands. For Shimazu it was even easier – he dropped his vision into the astral plane, and saw grey lumps all around him showing the outlines of the man-made objects, solid, but lacking any kind of spirit. Ahead though, were the brilliant white outlines of the attackers – their bodies and spirits glowing with the essence of life. He raised his sword to a high guard position and advanced on them with purpose.

Hunter picked one target to the left, hiding in the doorway of a house at a guess, and put two more rounds into his torso. Shooting via thermo vision was always a bit less precise, so he hedged his bets and aimed for centre mass – he might not get the kill shot that would drop them instantly, but he’d definitely hit. Marius took a similar approach to the right, slowing for a moment to steady his aim and putting two rounds into the same target. Shimazu appeared from the smoke like an avenging angel, his sword slicing down from the high position and opening up a deep cut from shoulder to waist on his target, only the armoured vest the target was wearing saved him from having his internal organs spilling out of the cut and onto the street.

The two remaining targets both fired wildly into the smoke, sending rounds downrange as blind fire to try and score some hits on whatever was attacking them. Marius felt the rounds whizzing past him, so he put another two rounds back into their source, dropping the guy. Hunter was not so lucky, and got hit by the three round burst. The rifle slugs ripped through his clothing, ploughing into the armour worn underneath and driving the air from him. The poly-aramid fibres and ceramic plates did the job though, robbing the rounds of much of the impact and only a few fragments made it through into his body. His size and musculature kept him moving, and the tight fitting clothing would help keep any bleeding in check. The target grinned when he saw the rounds hit his body, punching through in a row in his sternum. The grin fell from his face as the large ork kept moving, and froze in terror as his arm finally raised, the heavy pistol held rock steady in his hands. His lips moved in silent prayer, before Hunter fired, killing him with cold precision. Shimazu, meanwhile, had let the sword stroke continue down and outside his body in a large arc, and with a grunt of effort bought it straight down from overhead. His opponent raised his rifle overhead to try and parry the blow, but the ancient blade cut through the cheap gun driven by the grunt of effort, cleaving the gun in half and then slicing into his skull. So hard was he hit that the blade sunk almost to the neck, the two halves of his head splitting down the centre and falling away from each other.

Back on the other side of the smoke, Aswon had peeled off his smouldering jacket and top layer, and was now examining Nadia. Realising that there was really nothing he could do at the moment to stop the phosphorous from continuing to burn, the best he could do was flip her over, so that the burning embers would be pulled down and out by gravity, rather than further into her body through good tissue. He pulled at burnt skin, then pulled out his knife, trying to slice away at the burnt and crisped top layers to ensure that the dead flesh wouldn’t decay later. Moments later Kai skidded to a halt next to her, and grabbed the hypo-spray and just started punching doses of Novacaine into both of them to stave off the worst of the pain around the burn sites.

On the other side of the wall of smoke, they checked over the bodies and the area – it looked clear, and the four bodies were most definitely now dead – three from gunshot wounds and one from the sword. They were all wearing fairly sturdy armoured vests with extra ceramic blocks slotted into the pouches, along with add on amour over the thighs and arms – clearly kitted out for trouble. Their guns were cheap looking AK-74s – maybe the original Russian manufacture, maybe the Chinese knock-offs. Either way they carried several magazines with them although they, too, looked cheap and of low quality. As they were examining the bodies though, Marius cocked his head and looked up.

“Can you hear that? Aerial engine of some kind. Probably small – not a plane or chopper. Probably a drone of some kind.”

“We should be fine right, as long as we have our guns hidden? Local dress, not armed, hands in the air?”

“It depends on the drones though. If they’re just using optical sensors, then yes – or they shouldn’t be too hostile. But if they’re running full suite sensors then we’re in trouble. They’ll pick up on the body armour or the guns underneath, and they’ll probably figure us as bad guys. So, depending on who it is, and what they’re running – we might be best getting off the streets entirely. With that they abandoned the bodies and the weapons, and turned to head back through the thinning smoke. 

Now that the automatic fire had died down, heads appeared out of doorways, and a large gaggle of men turned the corner, looking at the group on the ground. Several of them had guns held in their hands, and they looked angry and confused. Aswon made an effort to stand, wavering slightly as he did so from the pain. He had enough presence of mind though to make sure that his gun was clearly pointed in the air. Wincing in pain as the last of the fragments from the grenade burned themselves out in his flesh, he raised his other hand towards the group and shouted at them to hold their fire. Most of them did – but not all, and a couple at the rear just looked around their friends and saw a huge black man with enormous hair holding a large rifle. Adding two and two and getting somewhere near seven, they opened fire. Their aim was no better than the quality of their guns, but both of them scored glancing hits on Aswon. The lightweight bullets punched into his body, and he collapsed to the floor, his rifle clattering to the floor by his side, whilst several metres away his body armour continued to smoulder as the last of the willy-pete burnt out.

Shimazu, Marius and Hunter came out of the smoke and looked at the situation – Nadia was slowly picking herself up, wincing in pain from the gunshot wound and the burns, Aswon was down on the ground with his rifle just out of reach and a large group of men milling around, all obviously armed. They also could see an old man in a white thobe shuffling across the street towards Aswon, much closer to them. He stooped and grabbed Aswon under the arms, and started to drag him across the road. He was old, but appeared to be one of the older men who was made of wiry muscle and sinew, and raised Aswon’s torso up with ease, dragging him across the road and back towards his house. 

Kai and Shimazu looked at him – despite him not having said anything, they didn’t think that he was inherently hostile – his body language was relatively calm and open, and there was something about him. 

“Hunter, help with Aswon, will you? Shimazu – security. Marius – grab Nadia, let’s follow him.” Kai scooped up his first aid kit and some of their other supplies, and followed along. Hunter ran towards the old man, scooping up the rifle as he did so. A couple more shots rang out from the mass of men on seeing the large ork grab the weapon, but Hunter not only outmassed Aswon considerably, but also still had his armour on, and shrugged the shots off without breaking stride. He ignored the shooters and instead grabbed Aswon’s feet in one hand and lifted, with the rifle held in the other. 

Kai meanwhile saw the men shooting at Hunter, and saw more of them raising weapons. He took a deep breath and focussed on modulating his voice. Sticking with the simple stuff, he bellowed out “Hey! Stop shooting!” The magical energies warped his voice, giving it a distinctive timbre. The words carried through the air and affected the minds of those listening, missing out the conscious mind and making them react like a child yelled at by their mother. Guns were lowered or held behind their backs with a look of guilt, while others just looked confused or bemused. Kai nodded in satisfaction though, and hurried after the rest of the team, who in turn were following the old man who was still walking backwards with Aswon, closing in on his front door.

As they closed in on the doorway, Marius heard the pitch of the engines change and shouted at everyone the street to take cover. He hustled forwards, waving at anyone he could see and shouting whilst pointing back and up into the air.

“Aslan yürekli drone saldırısı, sokaktan çık!” Enough people heard him shouting ‘Lionheart drone attack – get out of the street’ and looked up to see the oncoming shape that his words were believed, and once a few people had turned and run, repeating his warning, the mob started to follow, splitting up and heading for any cover they could find. The team followed the old man in through the door into a small room, perhaps only three metres to a side, with a single exit. It was painted a deep turquoise colour, and all around the walls were shoe racks, up to a height of two metres. The carpet was slightly threadbare in most places, and almost worn through on the entrance and exit to the room. The old man continued straight through the room though without pause, pushing open the door with his back and continuing to drag Aswon further into the building.

The next room gave lie to the building being a normal house – much like the restaurant belonging to Ohmar it was heavily converted. A row of small rooms lined the wall with the antechamber, and otherwise it was one big, open space. A small half flight of stairs led up one side to seemingly nothing, and in the other corner was a small fountain. A massive stack of mats and cushions was next to the fountain, and otherwise the room was empty of possessions. The walls were painted a deep lustrous blue, and decorated top and bottom with a complex geometric pattern picked out in gold and bronze, and several clusters of lights hung from long flexes from the second floor ceiling.

The old man gently laid Aswon down, then grabbed a few cushions and gently lifted his head to slide a cushion underneath and to the side, trying to make him as comfortable as possible. He reached to the side of the fountain and pulled out a plain earthernware jug and scooped some water from the fountain, using it to gently wash down Aswon’s wounds and clean them. As Kai and Shimazu approached with the first aid kit, he moved out of the way and watched – and as they displayed confidence and competence with their treatment, he backed away and gave them space to work.

“Welcome my friends, to my house. Come in peace, and be safe. If you do not mind, I would ask that you remove your shoes in the entranceway, and leave any guns there. If however, you do not find that acceptable…” he shrugged his shoulders a little, seeming to give a ‘whatever’ expression. “None the less, you are welcome here. If there is anything you require, please ask.”

Kai and Shimazu were busy working on Aswon, and Nadia sat against the wall looking pained and slightly spaced out – possibly overdosing slightly on novacaine. That left Hunter and Marius to answer – but fortunately they both spoke fluent Turkish so they had no problem understanding his speech.

They exchanged a look, and headed out to the antechamber. Hunter stayed out there, keeping an eye on the hardware, and waited by the door – just in case. Marius slipped his shoes off and then returned to Nadia and Aswon. No more than thirty seconds later, Hunter heard a noise and moved over to the window to see what was going on outside – just in time to see the drone carry out what could only be described as a strafing run. Twin lines of fire traced up the street, with the heavy machine guns mounted on either side of the vector thrust drone throwing 12.7mm long nose slugs downrange at a huge rate of fire. The bullets struck the road surface, digging up pockmarks and crates about half a metre apart, following the centre of the road. It looked to him like whoever was controlling the drone was sending a signal – get out of the streets – rather than aiming for anyone in particular. He called out to the team and updated them on what he had seen, and decided to stay by the window, keeping an eye on things.

In the main room, the old man saw that they had finished treating their wounds, and everyone seemed to be dealt with. He returned back to the fountain with a number of decorated cups, and fetched some fresh clean water for everyone. Once everyone had drunk, he disappeared into one of the small rooms to the side, then came out with an armful of clothes and pillows. Most of the team politely refused the clothes, sticking with their armoured clothes with the loose thobes over the top. Aswon and Nadia accepted the clothing, thanking the old man via Marius. Marius also placed a quick call to the restaurant, advising that they will be late arriving – though from the sounds of things, the restaurant was also experiencing some excitement. Marius could hear angry raised voices in the background, and it sounded like another bomb had gone off somewhere near them.

Hunter moved over to the old man, and squatted down next to him. He offered him his hand, and the old man took it gently, grasping only the fingers of Hunter’s large hand, and shaking it gently. It was clear that he was not used to a more western style of handshake, but understood the concept and was not averse to body contact with the orc.

“Hello there. Thank you for helping us, my name is Hunter. May I know your name?”

“My name is Imam Tulur, and you are welcome in this place. Are your friends well?”

“They will recover, I think. Especially because of your help and this place.”

“That is well.” The Imam gave a grin. “I am sure that today has not turned out how any of us thought it would. The test of life is strange this day, it seems.”

Hunter just nodded, feeling that the conversation was straying into areas he wasn’t really comfortable with, and likely to make a horrible faux pas with. Instead he murmured a “thanks” and headed back to the ante-chamber and kept a watch out of the window. Kai was waiting by the entrance with his pistol drawn and a foot wedged against the bottom of the door.

Aswon pulled out his phone, frowning at the bottom corner which appeared a little melted and deformed – but still functional. He placed a call to Tads and advised her on what had happened, and where they were, giving the best directions he could. A minute later, his phone rang back, as Tads returned his call following her scouting.

“Aswon, the first thing is that the building you’re in is warded. It’s not that powerful, and I could probably get in, but you gave the impression it’s some kind of temple or holy place, so I thought I’d not do that unless I needed to.” Aswon thought about the reaction of the average Muslim to seeing an animalistic shaman spirit forcing their way into the mosque and shuddered. “The area around you is a hive of activity. There are a fair few watcher spirits around, but I was able to dodge them – they seemed to be looking for something particular, not on general overwatch. I saw the bomb site just down the road from where you are currently, and based on the feelings and emotions there, I’d say there’s another six of those bombs gone off. If you look at it from high enough, it looks like they’re in a very loose ring.”

She described the rough locations of the bombs, and Aswon marked them off on his map as best he could. There was indeed one near the restaurant, another about a quarter kilometre further to the east, then they curled round to the south. He frowned – having worked as a merc for more than a decade, he’d seen plenty of violence and evil acts committed by one set of people against another. This fitted a classic pattern – the ring of explosions would draw out the people from the neighbouring houses and businesses to help, then the armed gunmen would drive them back down the streets. With the positioning, they would be driven back into a central area, where they could be more easily gunned down by the converging attacks.

“Anyway, there’s drones zipping around all over the place, and I manifested a couple of times to check, and it looks like Lionheart APCs are on most of the major junctions now. But it looks like the locals are throwing rocks at them. The emotional taint in the air is getting pretty extreme and it feels like these people are ready to explode. There’s a lot of anger and aggression around there. So… what do you want me to do?”

“Um. Sit tight please, Tads. Thanks for the info. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to come here at the moment, but if we need you, we’ll call. If you can summon a spirit to bring with you, so you can direct it to confuse enemies or things like that, it would probably help. But otherwise, carry on with what you were doing.” Tads acknowledged and hung up, returning to her studies – but found it hard to concentrate on what she was doing, and found her thoughts kept slipping back to the rest of the team and their injuries. Her natural inclination was to get in a car or on a bike and get down there, and use her powers to heal them – but that was as likely to cause a riot as anything else, it seemed. She returned to the animal skin inscribed with a star constellation, studying the forms and patterns painstakingly inscribed upon it to glean its wisdom.

Aswon told Marius what Tads had said, and he pushed that information out via comms to the others. Shimazu looked at the front of the building and the doorway, reporting back that the ward must be keyed around the doorway, as they’d had no problem and he felt no resistance when they entered. So, as long as the door was open, Tads should be able to enter, if needed. He asked if they wanted her here, but after a quick discussion, they agreed it was best to leave her out of it. None of them were overtly magical as they sat here, though Aswon’s tattoos might cause an issue if examined closely – but they should be able to get by with the rest of them unless some potent magical user checked them out.

The team gave a start as a loud thud resonated around the entrance room. Kai pulled open the door and peered out through the gap, seeing a stunned local who had just bounced off the door, having expected it to open to his touch. At a guess, he’d come barrelling across the street at speed, trying to avoid being caught in the open. Kai smiled at him, and beckoned him inside. Unfortunately, he’d forgotten that he held his pistol in that hand.

The young man gave a cry of alarm and pulled out a gun of his own, raised it and fired, his finger snatching at the trigger and firing a pair of shots at the grinning mongol face that had appeared in the door to his mosque. Fortunately, the surprise, the residual effects of headbutting the door and a lack of training and experience sent the two shots wide, missing the top of his head by several centimetres and hitting the roof of the roof, sending a shower of plaster dust falling to the carpet. Kai sighed, and modulated his voice, being in no mood for messing around

“Get inside. Now!”

The man pushed inside like a marionette, not entirely in control of his actions as his subconscious piloted him in response to the harmonics and tendrils of power that wrapped around his speech. Inside the room he looked around in confusion, and saw Hunter – and his pistol tracked over that way, pointing at the large orc. In fairness to the young man, it was quite likely the first time he’d ever seen an orc, let along an orc in a mosque.

The Imam entered the room and looked at the young man, and a string of rapid fire Turkish assaulted him. The young man turned to face the Imam, his gun hand turning with him and Hunter reached over gently and pushed the man’s hand down, so he wasn’t pointing the barrel at the Imam. The young man didn’t really resist, so after a moment’s thought Hunter gently peeled the pistol out of his grip and made it safe, then placed it on the rack. He turned back to the window and smirked, as the Imam laid into the young man – the dressing down sounding like a parent scolding a child. The Imam took the young man by the arm and led him into the main room to show him Aswon, Nadia and Marius, and continued to describe the circumstances of their arrival.

Aswon listened to the man, and the combination of the pain, the sedatives and his limited exposure to Turkish made for an interesting translation.

“These are the people that were fighting in the street, the crusaders of evil who set off the bombs. I had led them here to recover, but when the rest of the men come, we will make an example of them, and deal with them as Allah has commanded. These invaders will feel our wrath and we will turn them into an example!”

Aswon looked around for his rifle, but it looked like someone had moved it from his side. He felt disconnected and very confused, but Marius was standing there and nodding and smiling at the young man. Hadn’t he heard? Aswon slumped back onto the pillows and took a deep breath, waiting for his head to stop spinning.

Marius listened as the Imam explained the situation to the new visitor.

“These men were in the street when the fighting started. The bomb went off, and they started to help the people, trying to dig. When the crusaders appeared and started to kill people, they responded – even though they are not our people. They fought to keep us safe, and they suffered for their efforts. When people come for prayers, I will highlight their behaviour as example of how you can do good, no matter what you believe. People know Allah in many different ways, and we will not win anyone to our cause by showing them our wrath, but by showing them our love. There is no way to peace, peace is the way.”

He strove to keep a smile on his face, and to appear unthreatening and welcoming. He didn’t really want to be “made an example of”, and didn’t hold with being involved in this guy’s religion – but if that was the price to pay to be kept safely off the street during a riot, it appeared that’s what the cost would be. He saw Aswon looking unhappy about it as well, then collapse back with a resigned look upon his face, and figured he wasn’t happy about it either. As he looked over at Aswon and the pattern of injuries on his back, legs and arms, he saw that all of the damage was to the rear half of his body. He glanced over to Nadia, to see how she was doing, and saw the burns were all cleaned and dressed now, on her hands and feet. Odd…

He looked again, and it was only now that he stood back, and could think about the situation, that he realised that she’d gotten off quite lightly, with only burns to her extremities. Why wasn’t she burnt all over? He looked over at Aswon again, and then mentally slid the silhouette of the African merc over that of Nadia, and realised why she was wasn’t badly hurt – and why Aswon was. His eyes narrowed as he thought about that, and his gaze rested on the dazed and confused African, floating on a sea of painkillers.

Marius didn’t quite know what to do about that, so he shelved the question to deal with later, and turned to the Imam.

“Do you know why those men were attacking? Or what this was about? We were surprised to see so many people on the streets….”

The Imam’s smile faded, and he looked down at the large book that lay in his lap that he had been reading. A hand traced down the page, feeling the texture of the page underneath his fingertips.

“Well, one question is easy to answer, so I will start with that. It was to be a sad day regardless, for we had gathered together for a funeral. There was a young boy, affected by a terrible disease. A tumour, growing in his brain. Such a bright boy he was, always smiling, always happy. But as the disease grew in his brain, it sapped the life from him, and destroyed him day by day. He came from a poor family, and they could not afford treatment. But, many people gathered together and we raised money, much money. Enough money to get treatment, from a fine hospital on the west bank. We had hoped that these wondrous machines and drugs developed by fine doctors would save him.” He took a deep breath and gently closed the book, holding it gently between his crossed legs. His hands continued to gently run across the spine of the book, as if the tactile contact was a comfort to him. “Alas, it seems we were too late. The disease was too far progressed, and has attacked and destroyed too much of him, and he was unable to be saved. His funeral was today, and many of our people had arranged to come to his funeral. In this boy, and our efforts to save him, many differences had been put aside, between people who think differently and behave differently. It was a cause that was common to us all, and bought us together. It is sad that it was in such circumstances, but sometimes the lessons of life are hard – and we have a duty to learn those as much as any others.”

He looked up at Marius, then glanced at Aswon and Nadia, who were both trying to follow the conversation as well.

“As to the others – we have long had difficulty with some of the people that call themselves Christians. It is sad when two people, both of the Book, attack each other. But as I revile those that claim to follow the teachings of the Prophet, Peace Be Unto Him, and then carry out despicable and vile attacks on people, so I revile those that claim to follow the teachings of Jesus, Peace Be Unto Him and do likewise. To drag down your religion and twist it by using only part of the whole to justify your actions is a Sin, and actions such as these are not worthy of someone who truly believes. But in this case, I believe that these people are from an organisation called the ‘New Templars’, and they wish to drive our people from this city and reclaim it, as they sought to many years ago.”

He reached into his robes and pulled out a battered commlink – an older model with only very basic features, but functional none the less. Shaking it from side to side to draw attention to it, he continued his story.

“I have spoken with people from the other Mosques nearby, and they report similar attacks. It appears that multiple bombs were set off, and then these Templars appeared, attacking with guns and driving our people before them, converging upon them. In other places a great many people have been killed, before the attacks stopped and they fled, before the greyshirts appeared.” He saw Marius frown in confusion and open his mouth to speak. “Lionheart – the mercenaries. They are generally referred to as the greyshirts. They are…. Not well loved or regarded amongst the people here. But now they stand on the street corners in their vehicles with their guns, and they are seen as the enemy. It was not them that killed people today, but they stand ready now – and if the people move to claim vengeance on those that committed these crimes, they will stop them. And more people will die.”

Marius didn’t have an answer to that – not one that would help the situation anyway, so he moved off to check on the others. A few minutes later, there was another sound of a body slamming into the door, and the pantomime was repeated. This time at least as Kai opened the door he had the pistol out of sight from the person in the street and was ready – shouting “don’t shoot” as soon as he was seen. Another two locals entered, one of whom had another small calibre pistol, which was left in the antechamber. A few minutes later, another few arrived, then a few more. Each time there were looks of confusion as to the presence of outsiders here, and hostility, at least until an explanation was given. This went on for some time, and it became clear that people were starting to make the journey towards the Mosque for prayers, despite the heavy drone and security presence in the streets. They were angry, many were armed and it was clear they intended to do something – they saw small groups of men standing in the corners of the room having quiet discussions and staring at them.

Hunter keyed up his link and sat in the corner of the antechamber, keeping an eye on the guns and hardware, while the rest of the team gathered in the corner of the prayer room to discuss the situation. After the better part of an hour to rest and for the drugs to work on their wounds, Nadia and Aswon were feeling better – though Aswon still moved very tenderly. He had put in a call to Sophie, who had filled in some information on the other attacks – confirming that there was a heavy death toll from both the car bombs and the shootings that followed. He’d also said that if they could hang tight, he should be able to get them collected by APC sometime later, when things had started to calm down. For the moment, all three shifts were on duty and they were keeping a heavy presence out on the streets to deter an escalation of violence and to prevent any retaliation strikes.

They discussed their plans, agreeing that they should wait a few hours, then cover the last few blocks on foot and collect the new hardware and head back to the house. That was going to present a problem of course – walking back as a group would take a while, but would have been possible – and they could have caught a taxi or public transport if they had gotten to a safe area. But there was no way they could do this with a whole bunch of illegal guns and equipment without being picked up.

“How about if we talk to the Imam, and ask him to help us? Maybe he can broker a deal with one of the locals for a second hand truck?” Marius suggested. “If we offer them a good price, something very generous, we can make it clear that we value his help and protection, and it’s our way of repaying the people a bit. But it gets us transport out of here.” The others considered his thoughts and agreed that it was probably the most sensible thing they could do.

The room had filled with people now, and they were getting more and more looks. At least, Marius was. They seemed more confused by Aswon, Shimazu and Kai who did not fit the standard view of “westerners” and thus the “great satan”, though they still got their share of dirty looks. But whilst Hunter was getting some foul looks for not only being a westerner and a filthy meta-human, the bulk of the hostility seemed to be aimed at Marius, once they had got together in the main room with like-minded people. Only the respect for the mosque and Imam seemed to be preventing anything more than harsh looks at the moment.

The Imam climbed the half flight of stairs, and cleared his throat, and the crowd fell silent. The team started to move towards the door, to leave the prayer room during the service, but the Imam called for them to stop – telling them that not only were they welcome here, to listen and observe their prayers – but in fact he wished them to be present.

“Look now, my friends, at these people who have come upon us. Observe that they are not of us, but show us respect. See how they wear no shoes – that after being caught in violence on the street, they still take the time to remove their boots to avoid soiling this place. That they wished to leave us to pray in peace and not disturb us – and despite being wounded, they seek to move and suffer pain, rather than offend us. And yes, one of them is female. Do not think I have not seen your looks. But look at her modest dress. What you cannot see is the deep burns upon her feet, from the weapons used by our attackers. The terrible wounds upon her hands. And still she tries to help another, more wounded than she, to avoid disturbing our prayers. Do you know how she came to be wounded? Did any of you think about how she came to be here, before you became angry at her presence? I will tell you, and you will listen, and think about your anger, and your thoughts. She – and all of them here – were on the streets when the bomb exploded. When they were caught in the middle of the violence bought upon us all by others. Did they run, and leave us to suffer? No they did not. They aided the people. They used their first aid kits to render aid upon the needy.”

The Imam spoke in calm, measured tones in a smooth delivery. His voice rose and fell as he described the situation, and his skill was obvious. Quoting from texts long since memorised, he pulled out choice passages to illustrate his lesson, focussing on acts of faith and charity. Skilfully, he described what the team had done, but was careful to avoid ascribing reasons why they might have done it – but none the less, it was intimated that it had been done because it was the right thing to do, even though it bought them into danger. Marius murmured a running translation as best he could to keep people advised of what was being said, and their discomfort and reaction probably underscored the Imam’s teaching in the congregation’s eyes. As his presentation continued the air of hostility in the room faded and was replaced with something far more contemplative. Some pockets of resistance still stared at them with hooded hostility – but others it appeared felt genuine guilt over their assumptions and thoughts. Either way, the overall mood lifted and the room felt less like a pressure cooker about to blow and more like a genuine meeting of prayer and faith.

The service lasted just over thirty minutes – they guessed that the Imam had seized upon events to get his point across and that things were not normally this long. As the meeting started to break up, a few people came across to either thank them, or wish them well, before heading out, and the team got ready to head to the restaurant.


	71. 071 - A city of two tales 7

Date 13/02/2060, Location 40.98304, 29.02231

Aswon sat up and winced as his burns and wounds changed position. He steadied himself for a moment, and then took three rapid breaths followed by one slow. He repeated the pattern three times, then paused for a moment, sitting absolutely still. His heart rate slowed and his eyes cleared slightly as he exerted control over his body, and the pain of the wounds diminished somewhat. It was still there – but distant, as it on the other side of a barrier. With a grunt he climbed to his feet and slowly tested the range of motion he had without causing the pain to grow to excessive levels.

Marius, meanwhile, got on the phone to the restaurant and filled in Ohmar on their current situation, but advised that they would be on their way soon.

“So you have a replacement vehicle for the goods?” Marius blinked and thought about what Ohmar had said, then mentally smacked his forehead. Of course they couldn’t just get a cab or use a bus to get back to the house – not with sixty grands worth of stolen, hot, very illegal, weaponry and explosives.

“We’re ahh, we’re working on that. But it shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll see you soon.”

He turned back to the team.

“We have a problem – we need a vehicle to get the ‘supplies’ back to the house. We can’t use a taxi or walk, or anything like that. And we can’t ask Aswon’s friend in Lionheart to give us a lift back. Not with that lot. So we need to find a replacement vehicle, and fast.”

“How about trying to get our truck back a day early – or for a few hours?” asked Kai.

“No, we don’t want to be bringing an obviously armoured Russian truck in here, given the tension in the area at the moment.” Aswon shook his head emphatically, making it clear he thought this was a really bad idea.

“What about calling that scrote from the other night – what was his name, Emete?” They looked at each other and shrugged. They weren’t sure if they could trust him, but he was known to them, and he had a van. And of course, he was terrified of their ghost…

“How about trying to buy a van off of one of the locals?” They considered this, and agreed that it might be the simplest solution. They approached the Imam and explained that they needed a vehicle, and wondered if he knew of any of his people that might have one to sell? He wandered off to speak to some people, and they waited by the side of the room. A few minutes later he returned with three men, all dressed in a similar fashion.

“I have a van, a white one. It’s quite large, but a little old. The heater is broken, so it is very cold in the morning. I could part with it for perhaps five hundred Nuyen, to put towards another vehicle?”

“I have an Isuzu Carryall. The cab seats three, so the rest of you would have to sit on the flatbed. It’s a good runner though, and I use it for work. I’d have to ask 1500 for it, but the Imam says you really need help.” The second man shrugged somewhat apologetically at them.

“Mine is not a van, but a large taxi – it’s an eight seater, but there’s still a little room in the back for gear. It’s done a lot of miles though, and things are a little worn –but it runs well. I couldn’t possibly let you have it for less than two thousand.” He stared at them defiantly.

The team looked at each other quickly and then turned to the first man, and accepted his offer, passing him five hundred Nuyen in their precious hard currency. He passed them the keys and turned away to go about his business, while the team grabbed their gear. As a result, none of them saw the sly smirk on his face.

Once they’d put their boots back on and grabbed their gear, they left the Mosque and looked around, finding the white panel van just around the first corner, double parked and already causing some congestion. It was a rust bucket – covered in holes and the tyres looked to be in dire need of replacement, being almost bald in some places. It wasn’t rigged – in fact it only had a radio in the cab, and that was broken. Marius, Kai and Aswon crammed into the front, whilst Shimazu, Nadia and Hunter climbed into the back. As they started up, the van jerked and bunny hopped a little, and Marius gave a slightly disgusted look as he fought with the manual controls. It appeared that along with the broken radio, the van also had no second gear, instead having two firsts and then maybe no third… He fought against the controls, wincing as the soft spongey brakes added to the “fun” of the driving experience and the bald tires took the turning of the steering wheel as more of a mild suggestion than a directive. Fortunately the journey to the restaurant was pretty short, and they got there in one piece – in fact Marius seemed to be getting the hang of the ‘unique driving style’ it demanded. That or the grin on his face was one of terror – it was hard to tell.

On arrival, they found the gates to the restaurant were now clear, allowing them to back up to the doors and rap loudly, then reverse in a little as they were quickly swung open. The view from the street was blocked, and they could conduct their business in peace, at least. Ohmar and a younger man swiftly bought out the supplies, opening each box to be examined one at a time before being loaded into the van.

“Ok, first box, here are the sub guns. I couldn’t get the Cobras you wanted, but these are FN Eagle 2000s.Both come with a built in suppressor and the latest smartlink interface, and three magazines in total. Right, next we have… ah, the grenade launchers. One Ares Antioch six shot, one twelve shot. Both with smarlinks of course.” The first large plastic crate was resealed and slid into the van, pushed up against the wall to the front compartment. The younger man dragged over a second crate from the storeroom and swung it round to face them, and Ohmar flipped open the catches and yanked the lid open.

“This is the…. Ah, the shotgun. Again, I couldn’t get the Franchi you asked for – not in the timeframe we have. They’re not so common over here. I do have something nice though – this is a Neostead 2100. Design originated back in South Africa, and much improved. Good handling, and quite sturdy, and handles the hot weather well. At the bottom here is the Ares Predator II and the smartgoggles and silencer accessory pack. Don’t think you need any introduction to them. Oh, and in the corner there are the throwing shurikens. They were difficult to find – there’s only twenty, but they look quite vicious.”

Aswon pulled up one of the shurikens and examined it. Made from some kind of metal, they consisted of two strips of material about fifteen centimetres long, joined together in an X shape. Each side had been sharpened, and the ends of the strips came to a vicious point. They were not quite the weighted throwing knives he’d been after, but they would be effective none the less. He nodded in approval and replaced them, the box was closed and loaded, replaced with the third crate.

“So, in here we have the silencer you requested, thirty centimetres, counter clockwise threaded, and the scribing kit and adapter. You should be able to put this on just about anything, providing you can get the weapon on the bench for a while. And these are the two suppressors for the Ares Alphas. They’re not originals, but made under licence, so they’re good stuff. There’s also the aftermarket shock pad add on – just follow the instructions carefully to make sure the glue sets properly, or when you fire the gun they’ll work loose. And this is the new ammo I was talking about.” He hefted up the box from the corner of the crate, a thin brown plastic container that flexed slightly under the weight of the contents. Pulling open the top he showed them the cartridges inside. The nine millimetre rounds pinched down at the neck much tighter than normal, and had a red band painted around the actual bullet. “Sabot rounds – high penetration, very good against body armour. Lightweight still, so won’t damage vehicles especially, but great for anti-personnel work. Eight boxes of ten rounds, as agreed.”

The third crate was loaded onto the van, and the young man struggled with a long gun case as he pulled it from its hiding place. It was over two metres long, and made of dull grey plastic, with thick reinforcing ribs running the length of the top and bottom case. He carefully lifted it, grunting slightly as he did so, and turned slightly to the side, so Ohmar could flip the catches and open the top.

“And this is the special item for your friend here.” He nodded at Aswon. “It’s a top grade, current issue military sniper rifle. Chambered in 12.7mm long.” Ohmar flipped open the case, revealing the one hundred and ninety centimetre long rifle made of sleek and deadly-looking black metal and composites. It drank in the light, apparently being covered in some non-reflective finish, and looked… mean. There was no doubting that this was something designed with a very clear purpose in mind. The last thirty centimetres of the barrel was a large suppressor, with flutes and vents along the top third, whilst the barrel was hexagonal in shape, and sunk deeply into a sturdy looking receiver with a small fold out bipod attached to the front. A magazine was inserted and two more lay next to the gun in the case – by the size they held ten rounds at the most, probably less. A large scope with multiple lenses was integrated into the top of the receiver, finished in the same matt coating as the rest of the weapon.

“Top scope is a high power thermal unit, integrated into the rangefinder and ballistic computer. The whole thing is cold weather sealed and adapted. British Army – L99A1 from Enfield. Superb reputation. And look here – see this?” He pointed at a sturdy fitting on the bottom of the suppressor.” Bayonet lug. If things get personal, it’s robust enough to use as a weapon. This is the one that is perhaps most important to get out of the city though, if you understand my meaning?”

The case was closed and sealed, and put in the van, then Ohmar pulled out a credstick reader from under his apron, and he raised his eyebrow at Kai. Kai sighed, and slotted his certified stick, and watched as another thirty thousand Nuyen flowed out to pay for the weapons. Once the transaction was complete though, Ohmar smiled and shook his hand. The team mounted up again, with those in the back sitting on the crates as makeshift seats. It also had the advantage of stopping them from moving about.

In the front, Aswon pulled out his phone and dialled Sophie. The call went through after a few rings, and he could hear the rush of wind and the noise of traffic, even over the shielded microphone – Sophie was obviously standing in the turret and driving somewhere at speed.

“Aswon, you ok?”

“Yeah Sophie, we’re fine. We’ve got wheels, of a sort, and we’re heading out of the AO. If there are checkpoints though, we could do with a kind word…”

“Ok, that I can do. Where are you, and what are you in?”

“We’re about a kilometre south of the main road, heading towards the bridge. Still in the side streets at the moment. Driving the most beat-up and rough-looking van you can imagine – a white panel van, though with the amount of rust on it, it’s fifty percent orange.”

“HEY! It’s doing ok,” Marius called over. Aswon rolled his eyes at him as Marius continued to swing the wheel left and right up to fifteen degrees while the truck sedately carried on in a straight line…

“Right, we’re in another sector – but I can put in a call. Just play it cool, and if you’re stopped mention my name.”

“Thanks Sophie – owe you one.”

“You owe me plenty – now let me make that call.”

Marius drove carefully, moving onto the main road and heading west towards the bridge. The traffic slowed to a crawl, and as they got closer to the Bosphorous, the reason why became clear. A pair of Lionheart APCs blocked the road, forcing traffic to go around them in an s-bend. Their turrets were manned, the gunners traversing back and forth with their canon ready, whilst the squad of troops conducted vehicle checks. These seemed to be relatively quick though – so the traffic was actually moving at least.

The slowly crawled to the front of the queue, but as they did so, the demeanour of the guards changed. All at once, weapons came up on both squads, pointing at the van, and both turrets tracked to point straight at them. One of the mercs took point and moved towards their van, taking care not to cross the lines of fire from the rest of his team.

“GET OUT OF THE TRUCK –NOW!”

“I’ve got this, stay cool everyone.” Aswon slipped out of the van, keeping his hands raised and clearly in view. He slid clear of the door and used his hip to nudge it closed, and called across the intervening distance

“Hey, I just got off the phone with Sophie. He said he’d warn you we were coming through.”

The Lionheart point man looked at him in surprise, then looked back over his head at his patrol leader and twitched his head. The officer came forward and joined his man, still with weapon raised.

“Says he’s the one Sophie called about, sir.” The officer looked equally surprised and stared at him.

“Hi, my name is Aswon. I’m a merc, and used to work with Sophie. We were just at a restaurant, down in the maze over there, and got caught in the troubles. Our car got totalled, and we got a little caught up in the violence, until we found somewhere to hide until your drones showed up and cleared the streets. Soon as it was clear, we purchased this… thing and tried to get clear.”

The officer smiled, then snorted. He looked for a moment like he was about to sneeze, then an enormous belly laugh erupted from him. The trooper next to him also grinned and sniggered, and Aswon could see a similar reaction on the face of the rest of the troops – at least the ones in earshot.

“You b.b.b.bought that thing? You actually paid money for it? To a person?” Aswon lowered his hands to his hips and frowned at them – judging that they were too busy laughing hysterically to shoot him.

“Yes, I did. I mean, it’s not great – but it’s better than walking, right?”

“Oh man, you’ve been had. Please don’t tell me you paid much for it. Ahh, never mind – it doesn’t matter. That you paid anything for it is enough. You have been had, good and proper my friend.” He wiped away a few tears from his eyes, and looked at Aswon, fresh laughter bubbling through him and threatening to erupt at any moment. “Whoever sold you that vehicle – well, they’re probably still laughing too. It’s a known vehicle to us – it’s a slaver van. Positively ID’d in a number of crimes, and on our wanted list. No wonder they were willing to sell it.

Aswon threw his hands up in the air in disgust, wincing at the stabs of pain from his wounds. He radiated such revulsion and annoyance that the officer and trooper lowered their weapons, followed shortly afterwards by the others. The officer closed on him and lowered his voice.

“You’ve got problems enough, it seems but I’ll offer you some advice. Get rid of this soon, like immediately after you don’t absolutely need it. Met 2000 and the local police also have this on file, and they won’t care what Captain Fairfax has to say about you.” He stepped back and raised his voice. “These aren’t the Templars, no problem here. On your way.”

Aswon had a sudden thought.

“Hey, there. Just a thought. We bought the guy’s van – and we’re fairly sure we saw him heading for his house. If you have a unit nearby, you may be able to pick him up before he vanishes into the woodwork. It wasn’t that long ago…” Aswon reeled off the address and confirmed the pickup time, and saw the officers relay the information back to their command, as he climbed back into the van.

“Let’s go, Marius – and quickly. Back to the house and don’t spare the gas. I’ll explain on the way.”

As they set up and the van laboured up the incline to the bridge, he filled the team in on the history of the van and what the Lionheart troops had said, and that they needed to ditch it quickly. Marius seemed to object, having claimed some ownership of the vehicle already – but was swiftly shouted down by the rest of them, who agreed they needed to head straight back and preferably ditch the van into the water. In the back, they heard Shimazu making disgusting noises.

“What’s up? You alright back there?”

“Meh. No. Well, yes, but it’s not nice. I just checked out the back of the vehicle for astral taint. I’d say that slaving isn’t the only thing that’s gone on back here. It tastes… horrible. A mix of fear, desperation, revulsion in places, and avarice, lust and corruption in others. Glad that Tads isn’t here… I don’t think she’d like it at all.”

They made it back to the house ok, and Marius pulled the truck into the grounds, then reversed up to the entrance way, using the body of the vehicle to cover them as they unloaded the cases and moved them into the atrium and around the corner, out of sight. As they unloaded, they saw a head watching them from the 4th floor, though it disappeared after a moment. Whilst Marius parked the van up around the rear of the house, they started to bring the new weapons upstairs. As they headed for the lift and the stairs at the back, the head appeared above them, looking over the balcony.

“Hello, my friends. Perhaps come and see me when you have your shopping put away?” He didn’t wait for an answer, and disappeared again. They shrugged, and continued to carry the stuff upstairs, struggling with the unwieldy plastic crates and their contents. Once they had everything upstairs and in as far as the main room, and Marius had returned from parking the van, Kai beckoned to Shimazu, and headed down to the fourth floor. He rapped on the door once, and watched as the door swung open under his knock. The three occupants were watching the trid, relaxing on the couches arrayed around it in a U shape. The man who had waved and shouted down to him rocked forwards and rose in a smooth motion, walking around the sofa to meet them.

“You did us a favour the other night. So, it seems only fair to return it. I thought this might be interesting to you?” He proffered a data-slate to Kai, keying the advance button as he did so. Kai watched in silence as the pictures of a car with multiple shots in the windscreen, a couple of broken bikes, a crossroads, all paraded before him. Then there was a picture of Hunter, wearing the motorbike leathers. Most of his head was obscured by the helmet, but the visor was up, and most of his face and his eyes could be seen. The quality wasn’t great – probably shot from a body camera worn by the officer. The next picture was similar, but showed Tads laid out on the floor, the shot of her face fleeting and less focussed, as the officer turned to examine her obviously broken leg. The next few shots showed longer views – with IDs showing the vehicles they had been taken from. The carousel returned to the start, rotating through the images again. Kai turned his attention to the text below, reading the APB with the descriptions of the incidents and the details they knew about the two figures – which was thankfully brief.

Glancing up, he made eye contact with the man. 

“I have never seen this man, of course. Just like we never heard a noise the other night. But I think perhaps you might know him. You might warn him, if you knew such a man, or woman. But that’s up to you of course. I hope this helps though.” Kai nodded at the swarthy guy, who recovered the data slate and cleared the display, then went back to sit on his couch and watch the trid. Kai nodded to Shimazu, and they backed out of the door, closing it gently behind them, and returned to the top floor to tell the rest.

Once they’d relayed the information, they got on the phone to Tads, and advised her to sleep in the truck for the night, and avoid the journey to and from the house – just in case. Tads didn’t seem too fussed – after all, she had a bed, toilet, food and water, and all her things – so on reflection it wasn’t that bad a deal. The rest of the team got themselves a meal sorted out and relaxed. After food, Shimazu helped Aswon by redressing his wounds, ensuring that everything was clean and properly covered, coated with anti-septic gel and with just the right mix of sedatives and compression bandages to help the wounds heal.

Aswon was pretty spaced out on the drugs by this point, and crashed, so the rest of them organised watches and relaxed for the night, each taking their turns to keep an eye on the road and the house, and be alert in case of further intruders. The night passed uneventfully though, with nothing disturbing them or raising the alarm until about half past six the next morning. Hunter was watching the trid with the sound turned down until it was almost mute, when he heard the attention bell – someone was hitting the call button at the front gate. He sprang up and crossed to the security system, and was somewhat surprised to see Milo standing there – but he buzzed him in, watching him enter through the gate and seal it shut behind him, then head for the stairs.

Hunter headed for the bedrooms, rapping on the doors one after another and calling out loudly, to rouse the sleepers, then returned to the front door in time to let Milo in. Milo greeted him with a smile, walked past him, and then flopped onto the couch, grabbed the remote and started to surf for something interesting to watch. Hunter watched him spread out on the couch, and stood watching silently, confused as to why he was actually here.

Milo looked up over his shoulder, to the watching orc, and smacked his lips together.

“Any chance of a coffee?” Hunter stared at him, and didn’t move. His eyes flicked to the right as Kai wandered into the room wearing a robe.

“Oh, hello Milo? Is everything all right? Didn’t expect to see you this morning?”

“Yes, everything’s fine. Or nearly fine. Hunter’s just not made me a coffee yet.”

“Oh, you’re making coffee? I’ll have one too then, cheers.” Hunter snorted in disgust but moved off to the kitchen, leaving Kai and Milo to exchange pleasantries. When he returned a few minutes later, the rest of the team had assembled and were sitting on the couches and chairs, yawning and wiping sleep from their eyes.

Milo looked around and asked where Tads was, and was told she was sleeping away somewhere else for the night. He pouted a little, but then shook his head as if flicking away water, then reached into his pocket for a handful of ID sticks. Each was in a slightly different case or design. He fanned them out in his hand, and plucked at them, one at a time.

“Ok, this is for Tads. Her ID is in the name of Ivana Woltchok, an environmental journalist and researcher for Pattersons. Originally born in Leningrad, she’s travelled extensively, and has permits and visas for a number of countries in her history. There’s details of how she was detained by one of the police forces in a Chinese province during an investigation, and the place got firebombed, and that’s where she picked up that scarring, and there’s notes on there about having PTSD and flashbacks in captivity, and that it can be triggered by claustrophobia.” He put the first stick on the table. It was a fairly plain metallic finish, somewhat rough and looked to be of a low to basic quality – but then it was supposed to have been issued by the Russian Federation, who were not known for their high standard of living…

“Next is for you, Kai. Or should I say Zunduin Khangal. You’re a political speechwriter and PR activist, from Ulaanbaatar – the only city worthy of the name really, but that means you’re actually a city boy. You’ve just finished a three year contract working for Yamatetsu, and according the notes on your file, you’re actually responsible for certain aspects of the PPG coming together. Now you’re on a sabbatical, touring the world and soaking up cultures while you spend your contracting fee.” He flipped the credstick over to Kai, who snatched it out of the air and examined it, seeing the Yamatetsu branding on it and examining the colour sheen impregnated into the plastic. When he clicked the button to activate the beacon built into the ID stick, the Yamatetsu colours became bright and vivid.

“This is for you, Shimazu. You’re a Yamatetsu corporate bodyguard, and have been assigned to look after Zunduin here for a period of time, following his work. According to the notes, his work on getting the Pacific Prosperity Group up and running put some noses out of joint over at Mitsuhama and Renraku, along with a host of other corps, so it was felt he needed looking after. Being the negotiator that he is, he took your services in part payment to keep him safe.” He flicked over another Yamatetsu branded stick to Shimazu, who caught it much more deftly than Kai. His was made of metal, not plastic, and looked to have a sturdy belt loop or key chain attachment made as part of the construction.

“Aswon – you’re covered as Obi Asika, a tribal elder from the western parts of Nigeria. You’ve come out into the world to look for mercenaries to employ for your village. Your SIN was issued by Zeta-Imp-Chem, who are present in some small and limited mining expeditions near you. According to the legend built up here, you often carry precious stones rather than Nuyen, as you’ve no real banking system to speak of back home. There’s various records of you having exchanged diamonds, rubies and sapphires along with lesser gems for cash, in a variety of places along the way – so people are probably going to guess you’re sitting on some gem mines and that’s why you need the mercs.” This credstick was a little shorter and fatter than the others, and finished in an iridescent material with jet black relief showing “Z-I-C”.

“Marius – we managed to get a nice one for you. Mr. Hans Schmidt, a heavy lift air freight pilot, you used to work on the north coast doing all kinds of supply runs for the various corps. It seems that you were in public air space, and a faulty defence system fired a SAM at you. The missile took down your bird, but you managed a soft landing, and avoided taking out the town centre. Of course, the corp blamed Shadowrunners, but it was too public to deny, and they had to hand over sizable compensation to you for the potentially fatal assault. As a result, you’re doing a once in a lifetime round the world walkabout on the profits, before you have to go back to work. Your SIN covers your implants and has licences that were up to date for a variety of aircraft up to about six months ago.” His SIN was a clean looking white stick, made of glossy plastic with rounded edges and was perfectly formed.

“Hunter – you’re Ernie Green, a comms specialist working for a 3rd tier company based in the UK. They have some ties to universities, and you’re on a sabbatical, travelling the remote parts of Europe and Asia and learning about atmospheric conditions, radio reception and propagation and other electromagnetic stuff.” Hunter smiled when he caught his stick, and saw that it was divided into three stripes – two wide in red and blue, and a narrower in white.

“And last but not least, this is for Nariya Hasanov, International Student in her gap year. Studying Economics and Politics, your family is moderately wealthy and operate in international law, and are funding your trip. At least that’s what the regular payments from the company in Egypt would indicate.” Nadia looked at her SIN which was a rough looking block of sandstone coloured plastic, inlaid with a complex gold design of spirals and a small version of the Egyptian flag on the end.

Milo sat back and let his gaze flit around the room from one face to another, checking that there weren’t any questions. He turned his attention back to Kai.

“So, if there’s no problems – there’s just the matter of payment.”

Kai winced and nodded, and pulled out the small collection of certified sticks, sorting through them and started to pass them over to Milo. He in turn fed them into his reader, and pulled off the funds from them – ten thousand here, thirty thousand there – until he’d received one hundred and seventy five thousand Nuyen. Nodding, he passed back the pile of sticks to Kai, and drained his coffee cup, then rose to his feet.

“Well, nice working with you all. See you around sometime. Take care, Marius… excuse me – Herr Schmidt.” He smiled broadly and headed for the door, with a chorus of voices wishing him well. Marius rose and walked to the door with him, shaking his hand firmly before he left.

The team secreted their new IDs in pockets, or on chains around their necks, and grabbed their own coffee cups, and smiled a little as they heard Aswon’s stomach rumble. The solid night of sleep had done him a world of good, it seemed, and he was much more chipper this morning, though still careful with his movements. Shimazu checked his bandages, changing one or two he wasn’t happy with and commented on how well he’d slept.

“It must be the drugs – or my body needed to rest. Very unusual. Normally I can get by on three or four hours at most in a night. Ever since the tribal shaman took me in and started my training, it’s been like that. Sometimes we would work for hours at night, hunting and working the land.” He shrugged, and watched as Shimazu tended to his wounds, watching his face to make sure he was happy with the progress. “Oh, by the way, Kai – now that we’ve paid for all these guns and these new IDs. How much money do we have left?”

“A little under fifty thousand. Enough to get on with, but we certainly need to get paid for this work.”

“And how much is this job worth to us?”

“Sixty five thousand cash, and two magical rocks. Foci things. Tads seemed happy anyway. I mean she should be – whilst we’ve been sorting things out this last week or so, she’s been relaxing in her moose lair. With some magic rocks, she should be even better.”

Aswon stared at him, and his expression didn’t look happy.

“I hope you were being flippant there. She has been working very hard, these last weeks, learning new spells and abilities to keep us all safe. If anything, she has been under more stress and tighter time schedules than any of us, and has probably given up more of herself to us, than we have to her.” There was a definite edge of challenge in his voice, and Kai raised his hands in a calming gesture.

“Relax Aswon, I didn’t mean anything by that, and yes, I wasn’t being serious. It’s just that she’s not been with us, while she’s been working.” Aswon stared at him for a moment longer, then gave a little ‘harumph’ noise and returned to his coffee.

The front door swung open, and Marius stomped back in, his face looking like a thundercloud. They hadn’t noticed him leave, and he couldn’t have been gone long… maybe he’d gone down with Milo to say goodbye.

“Some little shit has stolen our new van!”

Most of the team smiled, and Aswon and Shimazu both exclaimed “Yessss!” A moment later though, Aswon’s face fell.

“Oh crap. Crap, crap, crap – that’s bad.”

“Ah – good, you see my issue then. You can help me hunt them down and deal with them!” Marius seemed vindicated that Aswon understood the issue with someone dicking with *his* new vehicle at last.

“No – that’s the last thing we want to do. But if some local thief has stolen the van and taken it away, and they get picked up – they’re probably going to squeal to whoever gets them, as to exactly where it was stolen from, at what time. Which means we could end up with a SWAT team or a MET2000 strike force kicking down the door real soon if we’re unlucky, thinking that we’re the slavers. And we’ve just taken delivery of a haul of very illegal guns to go with our selection of otherwise very illegal gear that we’ve got stashed here.

As he described the situation, he saw the smiles fade from everyone else’s face as they followed his chain of logic.

Kai pulled out his phone and hunted for a number, then raised his eyes to the rest of the team.

“Didn’t think I’d be having to do this a for day or so…. Hey! Emete! You remember me? Of course you do. Well, we’ve been watching you… and we’re very pleased with your progress so far. No no, don’t worry. The ghost isn’t coming to get you – it’s quite pleased with you, as it happens. But we need you to do one last thing for us to prove yourself. Yes, its quite simple. No. No, we’re not calling you here to kill you – if we wanted to do that, we could do it from here. No, no. NO! Calm down, we’re not going to kill you. You are far too useful. Just get you and your van over here, to help us move some things. You’re twenty minutes away? Ok, we’ll see you in fifteen minutes, then.”

He hit the disconnect button on the phone and looked at the rest of the team.

“Ok, transport sorted. Let’s work out what order we’re getting stuff moved in.”

“I suggest the guns, and Hunter, go first, along with our explosives and other IDs and restricted items. Once Hunter is up at the truck, there’s a whole lot less here for anyone to get excited about in terms of people, and very little gear that will cause an issue.” Aswon proposed.

Kai dialled the garage, to check on the status of the truck, and listened to the voice babble a greeting in Turkish. As he tried to sort out in his head who was going first, with what kit, and what they were going to do – his mind went blank, and all the basic Turkish he’d been struggling to learn vanished from his head. A comedic look of panic crossed his face, as he moved the phone away from his ear and stared at it for a moment, then he just hit the disconnect button in panic. Hunter shook his head and grabbed the phone, hitting the speed dial and calling in to the confused worker who was just opening up the workshop. He checked and found out that Sasha wasn’t expected in until lunchtime, but the work on the truck was all but done…

Kai reclaimed the phone and called Tads, advising her of the change in plans and the fact that they might need to start putting lots of gear in the trailer in about thirty to forty-five minutes. Tads didn’t sound thrilled about the concept – but having also been told that both Hunter and herself were now wanted, she could see the need for it.

As they were getting the first boxes down to the ground floor they heard the green panel van turn up, and a very worried looking man peering out of the door at them. He was somewhat put at ease by their smiles, but remained tense. Hunter waved for him to reverse up to the gate, again using the body of the van to shield them from view.

Emete helped Hunter and Kai load the crates of guns and gear into the back of the van, grunting at the weight of some of them – but he didn’t ask any questions about what was in them. Instead he asked where they needed to go, listening as Kai described what they needed to do.

“Right – we need to get this lot up into the city, up to Grey’s Automotive. You know the place? No, don’t worry, we’ll guide you there. We unload all of this gear, then you come back here. Marius and Aswon will help you load a second lot of gear, then bring them up to the same place. Then back here again, for the third trip with Shimazu and Nadia, and all the clothing, personal gear and stuff. Clear?”

“Um… I suppose. I am worried though. I have little fuel, and that sounds like a lot of driving.”

“Don’t worry – first garage you go past, stop and we’ll fill up the tank to the brim, ok, and we’ll pay. Do this for us, and we’re out of the city sooner, and out of the way – and you can get on with your new business.” Kai watched Emete brighten up a little at the mention of his fuel being covered, and secured the last of the guns into the back. The green van looked very low on the suspension, and he cautioned Emete to drive carefully.

A few minutes later, they were on the way, while Aswon and Marius finished packing the drones, electronics gear and other spy stuff that would also cause issues. Shimazu and Nadia grumbled, but set to on the cleaning and tidying, returning the house to the state it had been in before they arrived. As Marius was carrying one of his drone kits to the lift, his internal phone rang. He answered, trying to remember not to mentally pant from the effort of lugging the box.

“Marius? I’m just calling to check that you’re ok? Haven’t heard anything for some time, and time is marching on.” He recognised the voice of Georgi, his Talislegger friend from Tbilisi.

“Hey Georgi. No, we’ve not forgotten you – don’t worry. We’ve been getting ready for work, getting some essential supplies in and such like. We’re almost ready, in fact, and were going to call you later on today. We’re in the middle of moving some stuff around as it happens – so if I can call you back in a bit, that’d be great?”

“Don’t worry my friend, no need. As long as everything is ok, I will just wait. Good hunting!”

Marius thought for a moment, then placed another call, using the number given to him by Georgi. It rang for nearly a minute before it was picked up and the voice when it answered was distorted by some kind of electronic device.

“Yes?”

“Anatoli – it’s Marius. And before you say anything – no, I’m not dead, yes, I know people thought I was. I’ve gone for a little self-employment so it’s best for the family that the old boss thinks I’m no longer around – so I’m trying to keep a low profile. I think that covers everything.” The voice at the other end of the line chuckled, the voice changer making it sound shrill and like some weird kind of Halloween effect.

“Now, Georgi told me you’d had to lay low a little yourself – we tried to meet you when we passed through Tbilisi, but we couldn’t sort that out. We’re in Constantinople at the moment, just sorting out some biz – but we should be heading east again shortly. Thought I’d give you a call to find out if there’s anything you need moving? We’re not kitted out for bulk, but we can do reasonably secure and discreet, either back to Tbilisi or somewhere else in the Trans-Caucas League.”

The voice at the other end changed, as the voice changer was removed. Instead of the weird rippling tones of the electronically adjusted pitch, a gruff sounding middle-aged voice answered.

“Good to hear your voice… have I got half a day to make some enquiries and get back to you?”

“Of course, Anatoli – we’re not due out until tomorrow, so anytime tonight should be ok. Right, I have to go – our ride is just pulling in.”

He broke the connection and watched as the green van drove back to the front gate and the doors swung open, then worked with Aswon to load the drones into the back, along with all their other gear. As they drove up to the workshop, Aswon called Sophie.

“Aswon? You gotten rid of that van?”

“Yeah, though not the way we wanted to. Some local stole it from our house overnight – could be anywhere in the city by now.” He heard Sophie inhale sharply, but continued talking, cutting him off. “Don’t worry – we’re relocating, and have abandoned the house we were staying in, so there’s no direct link. And we’re just about ready to leave the city anyway – another twelve to twenty-four hours and we’re out of here. How are things over on the east bank?”

“Still pretty crazy. The locals are all still riled up by that Templar attack, and we’re trying hard to calm things down without resorting to strikes. But they’re not really in a listening sort of mood at the moment, and there’s lots of calls from the less peaceful Imams for some fatwah against the west. Ain’t helping, let me tell you.”

“Glad we’re not having to deal with that – fun as this city has been, I think we’ll be glad to leave this stuff behind us…”

“Guess I’m going to have to wait for that drink, then?” Sophie’s voice was a mix of relief and regret – happy that his friend was safe, but regretting that they wouldn’t get to catch up on old times.

“Well, about that – how long is your tour here? And do you know where next?”

“I’ve got another three to four months here. Beyond that? I don’t know. Rank has its privileges it seems – I actually have a lot more say in my deployment zones now. I’ve got enough put by for a break if I needed it, or any one of half a dozen spots where I could be working.”

“Well, in three to four months we should be well on the way to being set up, probably somewhere east of here, in the TCL. You’re welcome to come stay for a bit, and I’ll buy you that drink, and more.”

“That’s cool, cheers Aswon. Thanks a lot – I’ll think about that.” They chatted away for a few more minutes as they drove through the bustling streets of the city, and swapped contact details for a number of matrix drop-boxes, in case they lost phone contact.

As they arrived at the garage, they met up with the others and swiftly unloaded the van, sending it back to the house to collect the last two. Tads came over and looked Aswon up and down, and without saying a word just pointed at the trailer. She followed closely behind him – prodding him gently when he stopped to speak to Kai, and climbed up into her lodge behind him, pulling the door firmly shut behind her.

In the back of the trailer, there were a lot more ‘trappings’ than the last time he’d seen it. Bits of bone hung from leather strips, and the walls were covered in chalk marks, primitive art that none the less radiated the faint tang of power. It smelt of incense and a vaguely woodland smell, like that of wet moss that had been ripped up and crumbled between the fingers, spreading rich loamy soil around.

Tads carefully peeled off the bandages that Shimazu had applied, examining each of the wounds carefully. She, too, raised her eyebrow at the pattern of wounds, looking at the placement across his back, shoulders and legs, and wondered how he’d come by them… not that it really mattered. She clapped her hands together, and the sharp retort echoed in the van – louder than it had any right to be, and lasting longer, too. She muttered under her breath, rubbing her hands together in a circular motion and then pulled them apart, a golden sphere of light forming between her palms. She moved over his back, guiding the golden light over his flesh, rolling it across the wounds.

Aswon closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He felt the magical energy roiling through him, energising him and knitting his flesh together, cleansing and purifying the burns and bonding together muscle and sinew. His arms raised from his side, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end as the sheer rush of power sent an exhilarating shudder through him. Beneath the power of the healing globe he felt something more – a wave of peace and caring, a gentle but loving caress. The bonds of their magical group tied them together like a family, and as she healed him, she in turn felt his respect and thanks washing back through their bond. No words were needed – they both knew everything they needed to. A minute later the golden light faded and vanished, and Aswon stretched and flexed, testing the movement of his arms and revelling in the lack of pain and freedom of motion from his fully healed body. 

They pottered around the garage, trying to keep out of the way and away from the road, where passing cameras might spot them. Around lunchtime, Sasha arrived in a sleek-looking sports car, and wandered into the office, spotting Kai and Hunter waiting for her there.

“Hi Sasha. Look – I’ve got to come straight to the point – the vehicle you leant to us is toast. We got caught in the troubles yesterday over the water, and were unlucky enough to be caught near a car bomb. The loaner ate most of the blast, but it was wrecked in the process. So – let us know what we owe you for the vehicle and the hassle, and we’ll square it up with you.” Kai spread his hands before him, speaking frankly and plainly. Sasha pursed her lips together and her hands dropped to her hips. She looked pissed for a moment, but then sighed, shaking her head gently.

“I guess you didn’t plan it that way, and there’s no point crying over broken cars. At least you didn’t feed me a line or make me pry it out of you. Throw an extra ten kay on the bill, and it’s dealt with. That’ll cover a vehicle and getting it clean and tidy with the local police.” Kai winced a little, but he didn’t have any choice in the matter, really.

“And, just so you know, we’re probably going to need to sleep in the truck tonight, because of the trouble. We’ll stay out of the way, but again we didn’t want to try and sneak past you.”

“Hey, I’m not looking, and I’m not listening. I’m sure I wouldn’t even notice something like that…” She winked at him and shrugged, then turned to the coffee pot and sorted herself out a drink. “So – where’s Marius? I can show him the work we’ve done on the vehicle and let him know what’s gone on.”

Hunter spoke up before Kai could respond.

“Oh, he’s over in the truck – I think he’s expecting you, in fact. Just wander on over if you like, and let yourself in – I’m sure that will be fine.” Sasha examined him for a moment, then shrugged again, grabbed her coffee and sauntered over to the truck. Kai watched as she sashayed over the forecourt, admiring the curve of her legs and ass in the tight-fitting leggings and closely-tailored top that emphasised her superb figure. Then his head flicked round to face Hunter.

“Isn’t Nadia in the truck with Marius?” He watched the grin form on Hunter’s face. “You like to walk on the line, don’t you? I don’t know who’ll hurt you more – Marius or Nadia. But I’m not getting in their way….”

Both of them drifted over towards the truck – close enough to hear, but not so close that they had to get involved. Just in case.

Sasha climbed into the truck, and saw Marius checking over some gear he was stowing in the storage locker under the map table.

“Hey there, slick. Want me to show you what I’ve done to make your baby purr?”

Marius turned to face her, a grin of welcome freezing on his face a second after it had formed as he heard a voice behind him.

“What is she doing here?”

“Nadia… it’s her garage. Of course she needs to be here.”

The conversation went downhill from there. Nadia clearly saw the garage owner as a threat to her boyfriend, and descended into a series of bitchy and cutting comments. Sasha in turn with the experience and maturity of her age, rose to the challenge with a series of cutting retorts and put-downs that only enraged Nadia further. Marius was caught between them, trying to act as the voice of reason and reconciliation, and mostly being ignored by both of them. Tempted as he was to grab their heads and bash them together, while he thought he might be physically capable, he knew he wouldn’t get away with it.

As the comments flew back and forth, Nadia looked to be closer and closer to losing her temper, and Marius wondered just what kind of shopping trip it was going to take to sort this one out. But then Sasha made a comment and appeared to over-extended slightly.

“That’s ok, dear. I can imagine why you’re so confused. After all, I doubt you know what’s even going on here, do you. You don’t even know why we’ve had to change this wiring loom for a GRPE cradle do you?” The sneer on her voice made it clear that she felt confident that Nadia had no idea what she was talking about. Of course, Sasha was unaware that Nadia had grown up working in a family that ran an extensive courier and delivery company.

“Of course I do – it’s obvious. You don’t want to be using the traditional steel-cored cradle this close to the power amp in bay 2, especially not when you’re installing photo-voltaic paints. Otherwise, whenever you’re transmitting, you’ll get a radial hue on the outside of the vehicle from the EM leak. Any fool would know that. Of course, if you were a real expert, you’d see that your monkeys have installed it upside down, and the first time we hit a hard drop, there’s a good chance the clip will work loose and the loom will go flapping around all over the place.”

Both Marius and Sasha looked at the cradle closely – only then spotting that she was entirely right. Sasha snorted, but declined to answer. Instead she turned on her heel and jumped down from the back of the truck, whilst Nadia crossed her arms in defiance behind her, challenging her to say anything further.

As Sasha walked past Kai and Hunter, she saw the grin on his face.

“I hope you sleep with one eye open, Hunter….”


	72. 072 - A city of two tales 8

Date 14/02/2060, Location 41.07049, 29.01756

Sasha headed back to her office, without a backwards look – though it seemed she put a touch more sway into her hips as she crossed the lot – just in case anyone was watching. Marius turned to speak to Nadia and found her staring at him, arms folded and lips pressed together so firmly they were a barely visible thin line. Her dark eyes appeared even darker than normal, and stared at him with gimlet ferocity. 

Kai looked in from the back door, and saw the tense situation, and decided to interject.

“Ahh, good. Marius – can you check over the truck’s systems and make sure we’re good to go. Nadia, can you help with an inventory, please? We need to get ready to ship out sometime soon, so we should be ready and make best use of the time, I think.”

Marius glanced at Kai, then back at Nadia. Deciding that this was a battle he just didn’t want at the moment, he just excused himself and instead began a thorough check of the truck’s electronics systems, updating the firmware and patch versions and calibrating the sensors – all useful stuff, but things that required his concentration and attention. Nadia glanced at Kai for a moment and glowered at him, but he just smiled at her as if he had no idea of what was going on, then turned to chat with Hunter.

Nadia stood in the truck for a moment with her arms folded still, and realised that no-one could see just how angry she was – which made it kind of pointless. Instead she decided to carry out the inventory – which was attacked with gusto, the sound of slamming doors and objects being put down forcefully carrying out of the truck front and back. The rest of the team stayed well clear…

Tads tucked herself back up in the trailer and continued her research into her spell formulae, whilst Hunter wandered off with Aswon to practice with their new throwing shurikens – finding a plastic container that seemed abandoned and drawing a rough bullseye on it before they started throwing the heavy metallic throwing stars at it. 

Shimazu, meanwhile, headed off into the town centre via a taxi, with Kai tagging along, heading for the trade counter of a business that provided telecoms and construction equipment. He pointed at the objects he wanted in the catalogue, and got by mostly with pointing and smiling and the smattering of words that Kai had managed to learn – though they did have to call Hunter once to ask for a translation when the man wanted some details for his new account setting up. Once he had some details entered through, he managed to secure the two objects he wanted, and got a cab back to the garage with the object – two heavy-duty junction boxes designed for underground cables and equipment. His plan was to use at least one of the boxes to provide a nice sealed and stable environment to bury his magical thesis – keeping it safe and sound where nobody could find it.

Once they were back at the truck they found that the ice had thawed somewhat with Nadia – either that or she was just saving up a month of trouble for the next time she was alone with Marius. Nobody wanted to poke the situation though, so they let it lie and went about their business.

Tads and Aswon both mentioned the shares they had from the Steelworks to the east to Kai, asking if he had plans to sell them – but he gave the same answer to both of them. For some reason he wanted to keep hold of them until after they had finished the golem job. They both started to argue with him, saying that they wanted to get rid of them before the shares tanked when the safety issues were revealed, but Kai was adamant that they keep hold of them for the moment. They couldn’t understand why, but it wasn’t so important to them they needed to start an argument with him, so they let it lie. Aswon checked that his new gun was safely stowed, finding that Marius had fashioned a cage made of several layers of chicken wire that allowed the gun case to be slid inside, hopefully blocking any tracking signal or locator beacon that was secreted in the mechanism.

The evening wore on, and they got some food from a local takeaway and crammed into the van to eat, getting used to being in very close proximity to each other again after nearly two weeks of living in the large apartment. They slowly wound down, agreed watches and crawled into bunks or hammocks and soon the van reverberated to a variety of snores and snuffles as the team slept.

Morning broke, and Aswon and Kai ventured out to find some food from a local shop, returning to find the rest of the team still curled up and trying to sleep – all apart from Shimazu. He sat in the front of the van with a frown on his face, looking wan and pale. 

“Wassup Shimazu, you got a cold or something?” Kai looked him over and sat next to him on the back step.

“Feel a bit rough to be honest. Cold and tired, and a bit of a headache. No shivers or temperature or anything like that – just feel like I didn’t get any sleep last night at all really.” He sat rubbing his hands, watching the flesh turn pale as he pressed on it, then very slowly turn back to a yellowy pink colour. He pressed again, harder now, and repeated his observations, before heading in to get a first aid kit. For the next five minutes he ran through the diagnostics and checked himself over physically, confirming that for some reason he was quite anaemic. He also gave himself a thorough checking over astrally, looking for anything wrong with his spirit – but thankfully finding nothing. 

Kai returned to the shopping arcade he’d found the night before, and purchased some iron tablets for Shimazu. Shimazu peered at them, then threw half a dozen of the one-a-day tablets down his neck, following up with a mug full of water, then crawled back into the large bunk over the map table, pulled the sleeping bag over his head and rolled over to try and sleep some more.

Aswon and Hunter returned to their knife-throwing practice, and in the truck Nadia keyed up the truck’s systems and started downloading patterns and shapes for the newly-installed photo-voltaic paint system. The electronically controlled smart-paint would be able to change colour to suit their needs, and display patterns and logos contained in the system – but it needed these to be coded in the proprietary format for the controller. It kept her occupied, though, while the others got on with their tasks, and allowed her to practice her computer skills. For all that the team had some strange ideas about how to do things, they were in no way sexist or restrictive on her jobs the way her uncle had been, and she was enjoying the freedom to exercise her considerable intelligence freely and learn new skills.

Kai grabbed a taxi back into the shopping area he had visited yesterday with Shimazu, and found the martial arts shop he’d spied the day before. He consulted his datapad again, and confirmed what he was after – three extendable fighting batons. He couldn’t remember who wanted them, but they were on his list. He wasn’t really sure what he was after, so he tried to explain as best he could to the shop keeper, who after a few minutes bought out a small metal baton and cautioned Kai to stand back. With a deft flick, smaller sections shot out and extended the staff, tripling its length, then another section sliding out from that, nearly doubling in length again. The shopkeeper, presumably some kind of practitioner swung the staff around him in a fancy pattern, and then rapped it on the floor, collapsing first one side and then the other, back into the handle. Kai smiled and nodded, then held up three fingers. After a few minutes in the back room, the shopkeeper bought out two more, then bagged them up for Kai, relieving him of six hundred Nuyen. Kai returned to the truck and showed the team his purchases, but looked immediately deflated when Aswon and Tads produced the extendable batons they’d bought previously in the shop they’d purchased the rest of the weapons in, back in the east. Kai scowled a little, then cleared off the entry on his slate and found somewhere to stash the extras.

By lunchtime, Nadia had programmed in the basics on the control module, and the garage engineers had finished the last of their work, replacing covers and hatches and finishing the diagnostics on all the systems. Having already paid, Kai wandered over and just gave Sasha a farewell wave, taking care to leave quickly enough that she wouldn’t find a need to come to the truck – it just wasn’t worth the aggravation with Nadia, that much he was certain of.

They rolled off the forecourt and onto the road, mixing in with the traffic and started to head east. Hunter bought up the maps and started to scroll around, highlighting the areas they had previously discussed as being good – in their opinion – to meet the team that were doing the actual steal of the golem. Marius got on the phone to his contact, sending him a message saying they were mobile and ready to proceed. A few minutes later he got a message back – and it wasn’t good news. He called out over the speakers, and relayed the message on the screens in the cab as well.

“We have co-ordinates for our meeting – apparently the other team have already chosen them, We’re to meet at 41.10371, 28.99294, at 21:00 hours tonight.”

“I’m on it, one moment,” said Hunter, entering the co-ordinates and watching the map scroll to the west and zoom in, crossing the eastern sector, the water, and some of the western sector before coming to rest by the football stadium. The cursor actually tracked into the stadium itself, coming to rest on the north eastern part of the stands. The team looked in confusion, then mounting dread at the location.

“They’ve got to be joking. We’re not going into the stands of a stadium to do a meet – that’s crazy!” exclaimed Hunter. The others nodded in agreement – thinking about the time it would take them to get to the vehicle from the stand, before they could even begin to head away. Aswon imagined the sight lines in an area like that, and how much damage he could do with a rifle and a concealed position up in the gantry-work and his expression soured.

“Let me go back to him and clarify this….” Marius fired up his comm-link, placing a voice call this time. A few minutes passed, then he activated the speakers again.

“Ok, it’s not as bad as it seemed. Apparently the meet is under the stadium. There’s a loading dock or area, underneath the bank of the stands. Open over 210 degrees with good sight lines, covered from overhead observation and in fairly deep shadow. Hunter, can you see if you can find their matrix site and pull up a picture of entrance 14, for the home fans. Apparently the covered area to the right of that is where we’ll be meeting.”

Hunter found the site and navigated through to the entry information, pulling up the gate number and displaying the image. They could see that the ground level area was overhung by the terraces, creating a large pool of shade, with concrete support pillars dotted around to provide a limited amount of cover. The area had a number of docks and service entries and looked like it was mostly used for staff and venue access. Hunter flicked through to another picture and saw the trid broadcast truck nestled in, surrounded by cables and equipment. He zoomed in on the display, blowing up the picture until it started to distort, and framed the view on the trid technician in his coveralls.

“Well, there’s our cover story. Reckon we can find some overalls in the right colour in the next few hours?” he said. The others looked at the picture and the size and shape of the truck. It wasn’t that close, all things considered – but perhaps the security staff wouldn’t care if they were in the right colour scheme and logo.

“Right Nadia, can you find us the right shade and get the logo programmed in, please?” Kai asked, then turned to Aswon “Ok, can you and Shimazu go to that trade counter and get overalls?” He looked around for a moment. “Where is Shimazu?” Aswon pointed to the rear of the truck and the top bunk, where a mound of blankets slowly undulated in time with his breathing. “Well, it’s time he was up. Let’s get some physical disguises sorted. Hunter – I’m guessing the exit routes from here are pretty good, but can you work out some exit plans from the stadium back east.” He looked around and checked everyone was happy and didn’t have any comments. “Ok, let’s go, then.”

They each got on with their tasks – Marius driving them to the trade counter to cut down on their transit time while the rest worked from the matrix connection. Aswon roused Shimazu, who was looking better than he did after another five hours of sleep, and they managed to snag a couple of sets of overalls in approximately the right shade of grey. A visit to a mall got them some blue piping, and a slipped fifty nuyen bribe to the young man at the t-shirt printing booth got the right logo printed on their overalls. Returning with the material and freshly printed coveralls, they sat down in the rear of the truck and pulled out the work table, trying to sew the blue piping down the legs and arms of the coveralls in the right place. It proved to be trickier than they first thought, and under strong light looked more than a little ropey – but hopefully a glancing look or obscured view and it would be enough.

Hunter checked out the maps, studying them carefully and noting down the routes – but no matter what, the strait proved to be a horribly limiting factor. He raised this with the team, and their conversation flowed back and forth for a bit. The ferry was suggested, but rejected. Though it was not likely to be watched as well, or subject to as much security – if they were tracked or followed, they would be completely helpless whilst onboard and at sea. That left only the bridges, and the road leading directly from the stadium crossed the damaged bridge – with the worst traffic. It was a toss up, having seen the traffic around the city, whether they would actually save time by driving south to the bridge they’d used previously, as that meant driving through the busiest part of town. In the end they decided to go with the closer bridge crossing, as it had the virtue of easiest access and shortest distance.

Marius checked back with his contact, asking him if this was likely to be a hot extraction, but was informed that “cold to warm” was the most likely description. Cold was good of course, but he was then left wondering just where the dividing line was between warm and hot. He wasn’t sure he could express that to his contact without sounding like they were too concerned about the job, so he kept his thoughts to himself.

Last of all, Aswon, Shimazu and Tads discussed the magical part of the job – just what were they going to do with the cargo and how were they going to protect it. In the end they decided that Tads and Shimazu would stay in the trailer, whilst Aswon stayed in the cab. Aswon could look around them magically, out of the windows, and hopefully detect any magical attacks or ambushes before they struck and give warning. Tads was best placed to deal with spirits or magical effects on the cargo, counteracting them with her own powers or spirits – though with the trailer being physically separate from the cab, and with there being no doorway between them, it meant that she couldn’t physically reach them unless they stopped. 

That meant no healing or spells cast against physical targets, and it also limited her ability to affect astral targets. She could divorce her spirit from the meat of her body easily enough, but her spirit could move at only two speeds – that which she could normally travel, and what the shamans of her clan called “dawnray”, the speed at which the first rays of light flooded across the landscape each dawn. Different mages had different names for it – but regardless of what it was called, it was fast – thousands of kilometres per hour. But there lay the difficulty – there was nothing in between the two speeds. She could zip ahead of the truck, and lay in wait for it – but then she had fractions of a second to merge with her body as the physical form flowed through the space where her astral spirit waited. If she missed it, she would be left floating on the road as the truck barrelled down the road without her, unable to catch it at the best normal speed she could manage, unless she flew past it in the blink of an eye at dawnray. She could do it – had done it before – but it was hard and sometimes took multiple attempts, and if she was damaged or wounded, it would be far harder.

Of course, if she did have to go out of her body to scout or deal with a threat, then that left a magically receptive, but empty, body on the floor – next to an unknown magical artefact. They hadn’t heard any stories about golems possessing people or inhabiting their bodies – but then they hadn’t really head any stories at all about them. So, Shimazu would also stay in the back, to keep an eye on things and be a reassuring second line of defence.

Hunter had finished working out a number of routes – once out of the city their options dropped significantly, and the number of viable routes was limited. Sure, they could travel cross country, but their speed of advance would be low and if they were being followed somehow, it wouldn’t be difficult to catch up with them. The thirteen hundred kilometres of distance between pickup and drop off grew to closer to seventeen hundred by the time they’d allowed for where the road diverted around hills and mountains, or headed towards cities and towns along the way. Still, unless they got the helicopter or aircraft that Marius kept wishing for, it was the best they could do.

As Shimazu was finishing their discussion on who would ride where, a sudden thought occurred to him, and he pushed himself up and over to the side of the truck. Peering at the three large jars strapped into the cupboard, he saw the diminished and pale looking leeches sitting there, with almost nothing else around them. They had apparently eaten the branches and twigs in the jars, presumably out of hunger – but the three jars were all still tightly sealed and intact. As they were still parked up at the mall, he got some money from Kai and went to the luxury food mart and purchased two large steaks – actual real meat, not flavoured soy protein. They were expensive, costing nearly fifty Nuyen each, which would keep someone going on soy products for a week. Back at the truck, he prepared one for himself and cut the other one into three, adding a piece to each jar.

Around 20:30, they pulled out of the mall, for the short journey to the stadium. Finding it was easy – it was well signposted from the highway and had a dedicated junction to deal with the match day traffic. They pulled around the sweeping bend that descended in a spiral to burrow under the highway, and drove along steadily towards the darkened stadium. They reached a junction, with the road sweeping round to the right into a car park, while the left hand fork lead to the stadium itself. This road was blocked by a simple mechanical barrier – a long arm coloured alternately red and white with a counterbalance on one end, and standing in front of it was a bored and lonely-looking security guard. As they turned towards the stadium, he perked up and turned his flashlight on, waving it at the truck.

Marius slowed the truck to a crawl and then jacked out, sliding across the seat to the door which the driver would traditionally have been sitting at. He slid open the door, nice and wide, hoping that the security guard wouldn’t consider why he didn’t wind down the window instead. He called out a friendly greeting to the security guard.

“Hi there, must be a lonely night out here!”

“Boring as hell. But stadium’s closed… are you lost?”

“No, emergency call out.” He gestured at the logo on the side of the van, clearly identifying them as being from the national telecoms company, the sponsors of the stadium. “Control room says the trid multiplexor isn’t responding properly, and they’re worried it’s on the way out. Asked us to come and run a test on it, so if it is broken they can get it replaced before the next match. Otherwise there’s going to be a lot of disappointed trid viewers.” Marius was getting warmed up with his pitch, ready to supply all kinds of technical details about what they were here to do, to convince the guard of his bona finds. He was relieved, but slightly disappointed though when the guard spoke up next.

“Yeah, no problem, I guess you know where you’re going. Can’t stop the trid broadcasts!” And with that, he moved over to the barrier, flipping it up out of the way with one hand and waving them through with the torch in the other.

They drove in, heading for the north east corner and their rendezvous. Marius had the lights off, navigating his way through the concrete pillars using the truck’s sensors, painting the area just ahead of them with ultrasonic pings and mapping the echoes into a 3d visualisation for his mind. He found a good spot, and swung the truck around, then backed it in towards a loading dock, as if it belonged there. They were in deep shadow, with the area around the truck fairly black, and with a number of pillars giving hard cover in a multitude of directions, whilst still giving generally good sight lines and options for direction.

Aswon grabbed his Purdey and scouted around the area, finding a rugged plastic ladder fixed to the wall next to a loading bay rising up to a concrete ledge just above head height. There looked to be a small service access at one end of the ledge, but it would make a great observation point for him and he swarmed up to it and made himself comfortable.

Marius and Hunter played the sensors around, mapping out the positions of the security cameras. The spot looked better and better to them as they examined the positions of the watching eyes, as they were all arranged “outwards” from just beyond their current location. Come match days there was probably a fence or line of guards that protected the team transports and trid units from interference, and the cameras were aimed at them, not the area they were guarding. So, whatever happened here would be unobserved. Mentally Marius apologised to whoever had set up the meet – the location was actually pretty good and gave them a high traffic location with excellent cover. He was willing to bet that the cameras here were currently on a loop as well, showing no traffic having arrived at all…

Up on the ledge, Aswon opened up his mind and sampled the area astrally. He blinked in surprise as a tendril of hope washed over him, followed by a lingering echo of sadness. It was quiet for a moment, then a small feeling of joy lit up the edge of his perception, and he had to stifle the urge to smile. A moment later he realised he was picking up the echoes of games gone by, the hopes and dreams of tens of thousands of fans, urging and rooting for their team, sharing the joy of games won, and the disappointment of defeat. The astral echoes floated around in waves, or tendrils of emotion. Not strong enough to cause an issue with his abilities, or to interfere with Tads’ spells, but interesting none the less.

Marius gave a little start as a text message arrived over his link, displaying straight onto his vision courtesy of the router implanted into his head. *Security code – 4173, standby for arrival*. He called out to the others to be ready, and relayed the code to them over their tactical comms. Not more than a minute later, a dark-coloured van appeared out of the shadows, coasting forwards silently. As it got close it flashed its lights once, and Marius gave an answering flash.

On the ledge, Aswon saw someone climb up onto the roof of the arriving vehicle, having climbed out of the back door by the looks of things. The figure crouched, looking around it carefully as the vehicle continued to coast to a halt nearby. As it stopped about ten metres from their vehicle, position at right angles to the truck, the figure on top called out in a quiet voice.

“Security code?”

“4173,” Aswon replied, giving away his position but also ensuring that the other team knew he was there. Hopefully there were on the level, and he was here just to keep an eye on things from a third party point of view – not because of a double cross. The figure looked up at him and nodded, and then jumped up and off the roof, going through a somersault in mid-air before landing noiselessly on the concrete. The side door and driver’s door both also opened and two more figures could be seen. The one in the side door slid out to the ground, standing in the darkness for a moment and looking around him, with his weapon ready at a moment’s notice.

The man who had leapt from the roof had a very similar build to Aswon, though he was rather more average in height. From the level of skill displayed, he too was likely a physical adept, with exceptional control over his body and some superhuman-like abilities. They had no idea what he could do, beyond apparently gymnastics to an Olympic level of smoothness, but he also carried a small club or sap at his waist in a holster – so he probably had some skill with blunt weapons.

The second figure was a heavy-set Ork, bulky and well-muscled and easily a match for Shimazu or Hunter. He cradled an assault rifle in one arm, the stock pressing against his arm, whilst the other hand kept a hold on the van door. He was dressed in dark clothing, that seemed to drink in the light around it, but his eyes burned a brilliant blue, glowing slightly in the darkness.

The last figure was a solidly-built human, who slid back and out of the driver’s door on some kind of complicated pivoting chair. As he did so the reason became clear – he too was armoured, but he was also wearing a gyro-mount harness over the top, with a large machine gun clipped into the arm. As he climbed out of the vehicle he landed on the tarmac with a solid thud, indicating the weight of all the gear he carried. He looked at the team for a moment, and they looked back at him, in silence.

Tink…. Tink…. Tink….

It took a moment for them to realise what the noise was, but then it dawned upon them – it was the barrel of the heavy machine gun, shedding excess heat into the cold night air. Whatever they’d done, they must have put a couple of hundred rounds through the gun to get it that hot – and that meant it can’t have been too far away, either. A sense of urgency overtook them, and the team moved into action.

“How heavy are the boxes… can anyone move them?”

The drive spoke, revealing a thick Russian accent.

“It depends on how strong you are. If you are puny, then no. The big box, is heavy. Very heavy. Even your big men, may take two. Puny people should hold the door open.” They exchanged looks, then closed on the van, looking at the cargo. Inside were six boxes, plastic shipping crates that looked somewhat like the boxes the guns had come in. One was about half a metre to a side, forming a cube. Four were perhaps a metre in length by half a metre to the other side, and the last was a good one metre cube. They got the small boxes moved first, struggling a little with them – imagining the huge slabs of stone that might make up a golem leg or arm inside them. The large one took several of them to move, and considerable effort, but they got it slid into the trailer with only relief on the first attempt.

As they bought each box over, Nadia ran the bug scanner over it carefully, giving each a thumbs up as she did so. The transfer took only a couple of minutes, and was done in silence, each of the teams watching the surrounding areas and each other. As the last box was loaded in, the Russian and his crew mounted up in their van and started the engine, then pulled away without a word, looping back the way they had come and vanishing swiftly into the night. Shimazu and Tads climbed into the trailer and started to secure the crates down with cargo straps, whilst the rest of the crew climbed into the truck and they, too, pulled away, heading out of the shelter of the stadium and back to the highway. Marius drove carefully to start with, taking the bends smoothly and at low speed until he received the all clear from the trailer that the cargo was secure. As soon as they confirmed that everything was strapped down and wouldn’t slide around, he accelerated hard and the truck rocketed forwards towards its top speed, the powerful diesel engine being pushed hard by the rigger.

Aswon sat by his window and looked out around them, dropping in and out of astral view and looking for any signs of pursuit, whilst Nadia watched out of her side, one hand resting against Marius’ leg. In the second row, Hunter sat with the radio and monitored frequencies, looking for network traffic around them that might indicate a pursuit. Kai looked at the route map, and watched each of the others in a pattern, ensuring that everyone was focussed on their task and glancing out of his window from time to time.

In the trailer, Shimazu started to practice what Tads had taught him, drawing a complex series of ideograms around the first of the boxes. He opened himself up to the ambient mana stream and allowed the power to trickle down through him and infuse the characters with magical potential, forming a hazy ward around the perimeter of the boxes. It wasn’t powerful, but it was something, and it was his first attempt. 

Tads meanwhile made herself comfortable and sat cross legged and stared at the box. She opened up her vision, allowing the astral plane to flood over her senses, replacing her normal sight. The real world faded away and she stared at the ethereal white realm of astral space. In the corner of her vision she spied the brilliant glow of Shimazu concentrating on his work, watching the streams of colour coalesce around his body in a shimmering spiral and be channelled through his form and down into the characters, the random colours slowly separating into ordered streams and imprinting onto the marks on the truck bed and forming a multi-coloured shimmering dome over the box. Her eyes drifted over to the box, and it felt like she’d been punched in the chest. For a moment she forgot to breathe at all, as she stared at the raw power leaking from the box.

It was hard to judge how powerful it was, there was no neat scale or measuring stick – but it felt just as powerful as the emotions she had felt near the abandoned fun-fair, or the various murder scenes she’d been near recently. But instead of feelings of hatred, despair and fear, cold and malevolent twisted emotions of the darker side of humanity – this was different. Not good, but… she struggled to order her thoughts and quantify exactly what she was feeling. It felt calm, and orderly, a feeling of oldness or history, seeping through the boxes and spreading into the trailer. Even though she had not opened the boxes or seen what was inside them, she knew that they would be old – ancient, even – with stories through the age witnessed by the form concealed. Along with that there was a reverence, a feeling of spirituality about them. Not the animalistic shamanic nature that she took for granted, this felt more ordered and linear. She remembered passing through a cathedral in southern Russia before she had met up with the team, and it reminded her a little of that – a feeling of the institution of religion, of an ordered hierarchy and system of worship.

She withdrew from the astral, the glow of power fading until she just saw six plain plastic boxes strapped down with webbing in the back of the trailer, illuminated by a couple of cold florescent tubes with Shimazu drawing Chinese characters around the perimeter of one. The dull green plastic gave no sign of the power emanating from within, no clue as to the history of the contents, and she shuddered a little at the thought of what it must be like to wander the world and be ignorant of the power of mana that surrounded them all. She got on the radio, though, and warned the rest of the team.

“Everyone? The boxes are leaking power, quite strong power with a definite religious flavour to it. It should be fine contained inside my lodge, and I can’t see it leaking out – but we should keep the door shut as much as possible so there’s not a hole in the lodge that could be easily seen through. Shimazu is doing a ward around one of the boxes now, and I’ll help him with the rest, but it’s going to take a while to do all six.”

“Maybe you should push all the boxes together “said Aswon over the comm-link. “Isn’t that how it works? If it’s only one thing, and you can do a line all around it, you can do it with one ward?”

“Does that not strike anyone else as a really bad plan? Putting the parts of the weird magic robot back together, right next to each other, so it can reanimate and go crazy and kill us all?” came the response from Marius. They exchanged looks for a moment. It wasn’t that likely… was it?

“Do you know, on second thoughts – why don’t we keep the parts far apart from each other, all separate. Just in case. Yeah – that sounds much safer.” 

The truck rumbled on towards the bridge, weaving in and out of traffic and making the best time they could manage. Hunter had the radio playing quietly on the speakers, listening in for any mention of crimes, police chases or “golem”, but there was nothing happening in the news at all. As they neared the bridge, the traffic slowed, getting closer and closer together, until they were just crawling along as part of the giant metal snake inching its way over the bridge. Even this late at night the traffic volume was still high, and they found themselves trapped in the nose to tail queue.

They crawled onto the bridge, through the mass of cones and temporary road markings, directing them over onto the “wrong” side of the bridge. They were part of a single line of traffic travelling from west to east, with a single line running from east to west separated from them by a single line of orange cones laid along the roadway, weighted down with sandbags. Another row of cones to their right cordoned off the remaining two lanes of the bridge, which stood empty for no apparent reason, as did the four lanes of traffic on the other side of the concrete dividing barrier. They continued up the slope, crawling forwards in a stop-start motion that was frustrating in the extreme, with the team looking out of the windows anxiously.

They’d driven up the shallow slope and under the first of the massive towers that anchored the bridge on the west coast, and were halfway across the strait, about seven hundred and fifty metres over before they saw the reason for the delay. The massive suspension cables to the left dipped from the peak of the tower to the midpoint of the bridge, then rose again, climbing over a hundred metres into the air to the top of the eastern tower. On the right though, the cable dipped and vanished into the darkness, the lights cut out. The roadway too vanished, swallowed by an enormous hole in the tarmac, with the sea showing through far below, a ferry sliding across the waterway lit up with festival lights as it sliced through the water. The bomb had destroyed most of the roadbed on the far side of the bridge, leaving twisted metal and structural beams exposed and slabs of concrete and tarmac twisted up in all directions. Cracks ran over the first of the lanes on this side of the bridge, with a coned off area and flashing lights surrounding them. A variety of measuring devices were positioned on each side of the crack, monitoring the situation and no doubt feeding back to a control station somewhere. Emergency steelwork had been welded onto the enormous suspension cables, reinforcing them and adding structural integrity, and they too were covered in measuring equipment.

Aswon glanced into astral space, looking around for pursuit, but was overcome with a sickening blast of hatred and malaise that washed over him as they passed through the astral vortex around the bomb site. He felt sick and despondent as the uncaring and inhuman echoes of the bombers and their lack of care for life washed over him, the astral imprint of the act tainting the air around them. Shuddering, he gritted his teeth and turned away from the sight, looking out into the darkness and searching for threats – but fortunately there were none.

In the back, Hunter looked up from his radio and then froze. Delicately and slowly he reached forwards, and gently pushed the barrel of Nadia’s gun up into the air with an outstretched finger. She scowled at him for a moment, then blurted out a cry as he hit the magazine release and worked the action to remove the live round.

“What are you doing? I need my gun, if we get attacked!”

“Yes Nadia. That may be so. But you were tapping on the trigger to the beat of the music, the safety was off, and it was pointing at Marius’s ribcage. Have you no trigger discipline?”

“No. What’s that?”

It suddenly dawned on them that they took their use of firearms for granted. But having grown up in a patriarchal environment, the most dangerous thing she’d probably handled was a knife. They’d all assumed that someone else had given her the basics on firearm safety – but it appeared that nobody actually had.

Hunter sighed and started to explain, and the others went back to looking out of the windows, as the ork explained first of all what a safety catch was, why it was a good thing, and why she should never, ever, put her finger on the trigger of a gun unless she wanted to kill something….

The vehicle crawled on through the traffic and slowly started to angle down, heading to the eastern shore. As they passed underneath the second enormous tower the road widened to two lanes and they picked up a little speed, following the road for another two hundred meters and then through a gap in the central reservation and onto the right side of the road. With four lanes now, they accelerated and started to pull past the slower lorries and heavy goods vehicles stuck in lane one, whilst they in turn were overtaken by a stream of cars being thrashed by their impatient owners. Marius soon had them up to a hundred kilometres per hour, and they stayed on the main road, heading south east and driving past the ghettos and slums of the eastern side of the city, back the way they had originally come. 

An hour passed, with no sign of pursuit or sense of alarm being raised. Shimazu finished the first ward in the back of the trailer, and Tads checked it over, smiling and nodding at him in approval of the results. They still hadn’t heard anything or seen anything that would cause them alarm, and had started to relax a little. Hunter snorted and pointed out of the window as they passed a large illuminated sign on the exit ramp that pointed towards Rest Stop 76, and they recalled the “interesting” time they’d had there on the way in to the city.

As they drove past, a truck drove down the ramp, joining the flow of traffic behind them. It drove along for a few minutes, then its headlights glowed brightly as the driver switched to full beams. Marius dimmed his rear optical sensors, and drove on, just thinking at first that the driver was being an ass, or had hit the controls by accident.

The truck closed in on them, beams still shining brightly ahead and dazzling through the darkness. Marius alerted the others, and they checked in the mirrors, squinting and trying to see past the bright lights to make out the shape of the truck. Marius narrowed the focus of his sensors, focussing on the truck now tailgating them and trying to make out the details. Switching through a variety of optical modes, he finally managed to find a setting that filtered out the intensity of the headlights and let him see at least some detail on the truck – including the logo of the courier firm.

“Oh crap. Yurtici Kargo vehicle – those jokers that thought we killed one of them. I thought we’d sorted this out!” He accelerated, but the truck behind him matched his pace, if anything closing the distance slightly. Marius still had power in the engine, but he’d have to redline a number of systems to use it, and there was a chance that something would break somewhere…

“Tads, we have a civilian truck following us,” called Aswon over the comm-link to the trailer, “can you get a spirit to distract him or drive him off or something? We don’t want to engage in combat, but we need him off our tail.”

Tads concentrated for a moment and summoned a watcher spirit. The watcher was the easiest thing she could summon – with limited powers but unlikely to drain her mentally. She sent it off to go and distract the driver and make them stop following their truck, and it bounded out of the lodge to the rear to carry out her commands. She waited a few seconds and then called to Aswon to see if it had worked.

“Nope, he’s still there. No change at all. Have you done it yet?”

She didn’t answer, but instead sighed and steadied herself, and called upon a spirit of man instead, focussing her power to summon something far more powerful. The being that answered was a strange amalgam of philosophies. With a head that looked vaguely elk like, having ethereal antlers and large brown eyes that dominated the face, it clearly favoured her tradition. Yet the body was that of a section of overhead gantry, and it had traffic cones for arms and legs, clearly drawing on the nature of its domain. She sent it back to stop the trucker, by whatever means necessary. The eyes blinked once, and then the spirit was gone, flitting through the back wall of the trailer just like the watcher. This time, she only had to wait a few seconds, then heard Aswon keying up the intercom again.

“Ok, that seems to have done it. Swerving, shit swerving hard! Nearly into the middle barrier… now over to the hard shoulder. Oh crap! What did you do?” She heard the sounds of the crash faintly through the rear of the truck, fading quickly as they zoomed away along the highway. “He continued off the hard shoulder onto the bank, tipped up and then just ploughed into the hill. Truck’s on its side, with cargo all over the place.”

“You said to stop him?” Tads shrugged. She hoped he wasn’t dead, but he shouldn’t be – not from her instructions. Behind them, the trucker in his overturned cab screamed in fear and panic as the spirit plagued his conscious thoughts with horrific scenes from the demented mind of a horror trid-show. It continued to use its powers on the hapless courier driver until it felt Tads leaving the immediate area, and popped out of existence, its service completed.

The truck swept on into the darkness, heading east at speed, with the cargo lying in the plastic crates in the back, continuing to radiate magical power.


	73. 073 - Have Golem, will travel

Date 14/02/2060, Location 40.76916, 29.83439

The truck continued its journey east, leaving the wreckage of the courier truck on the embankment behind them, and powering on through the darkness. Away from the towns, there was little to no light, just the occasional glow from a farmhouse or isolated residence, glowing in the dark February night. The further east they went and the later it got, the lighter the traffic became as people made it to their homes or turn off from the highway, or headed to truck stops or rest areas for the night. As the team headed through a tunnel carved under a spur of mountain slope, Marius toggled the settings on the new deception gear. The truck groaned slightly as the smart materials flexed and warped under the direction of the controlalers, subtly changing the outline of the vehicle. A second routine ran, and with a ripple of electricity a new colour and logo spread down their flanks. The truck that appeared out of the other end of the tunnel was similar to that which went in – but it was far enough off to throw basic sensors off their tracks.

In the back of the trailer, Tads stirred suddenly. She looked around, but could see only Shimazu working on the wards around another part of the golem box and the familiar trappings of her lodge – nothing that would alarm her. She extended her senses a little, looking into the astral. As the colour leeched away from the world, she saw the bright forms of the boxes, leaking astral energy from the contents in brilliant pulsing waves. Shimazu was a blazing bright light, the concentration and effort of his work radiating out from his aura. Around her, the brilliant tracery of fine lines ran over the surface of the truck, from one hand-drawn mark to another, encasing them in a dense web of power. But – still nothing – nothing to make her feel alarmed. No astral intruders had breached her ward. Nothing looked out of place or gave her any reason to be alarmed. So why did she suddenly feel so uneasy.

A feeling like a spill of ice cold water ran down her spine, congealing in a puddle in the bottom of her stomach. She swallowed, and looked around her again – still nothing. She’d only felt like this once before though… she leant over to the intercom and hit the button, calling out to the cab ahead.

“Um, I don’t want to alarm you – but I think we’re being magically tracked. Or at least, that’s what it feels like to me. There’s nothing here yet, but I’ve got a really bad feeling about this…” For a moment, there was silence from the front. It was broken by Kai’s voice being relayed over the communicator.

“Ok, that’s not great news – what do we need to do here? Hide? Stop moving? Go faster?” Tad considered for a moment, and then dragged through her memory, remembering what she had been taught back by her tribal elder over the years.”

“Well, this means they have a group somewhere. Probably a group anyway – there’s very few people strong enough to do a ritual with just one person. I mean, just one at their base – you always need a spotter as well. Someone astrally tracking, following the magical trace that is driven by the ritualist. I mean, you can use spirits – and sometimes they’re ok – but they’re not as flexible or reliable as a fully trained mage. So that means that there’s probably somewhere between two and six people, in a lodge or a magical circle, concentrating their power on finding us.”

“How though? I mean what are they looking for?” asked Kai.

“They could have something personal, that they’ve picked up somewhere along our journey. Some item of clothing perhaps, or a favoured gun or tool. An item of jewellery, or a picture. The more personal and important it is, the stronger the link is between it and the person they’re searching for. At the least, they need the flavour of a mage.” She heard the indrawn breath, and continued to speak, heading off the inevitable question. “Every person has a flavour to them – a unique magical taste. I’ve heard that hermetic mages refer to it as a signature – it fits in with their world view better to describe it like that. All numbers, and angles and things. But for me it’s like a subtle blend of smells and tastes. Everyone tastes very slightly different, you see. The more of your body you replace with metal and plastic though, the more taste is taken away, and you become a bland and dead thing… But if you have the taste of a mage, you can find them through that – it’s not easy, but it can be done.”

“So should we try to hide somewhere? Somewhere with a strong flavour?” Kai sounded a little uncertain on where he would look for somewhere, but willing to give it a go.

“It’s not as simple as that. Oh, find the right place magically and it can disguise or obscure your trail – sure. But the kinds of places you might do that, tend to have their own issues. That temple where we found Rocket and his team – that had a strong magical taste, and that would hide you from people looking – but then you’d be underground with that thing, whatever it was. Out of the cooking pot and into the embers, as my teacher used to say. There are some places that are ok – but most of them are not.”

“Ahh, right. Yeah – let’s not go back THERE or anywhere like it. I don’t like the sound of that at all. So, we keep driving then?”

“I would say so – unless you have somewhere good to hide, the fact that you’re still moving makes it hard to localise you. It’s not really a matter of speed either – a mage can move as fast as their mind will think. When you’re really good, you could fly from one end of the world to the other in a very short time – far faster than a plane or a something like that. But when you’re searching, it’s not really looking with your eyes… it’s. Well, it’s hard to explain. It’s a feeling of a person, and a time and a place, all tying together as one. And if we’re still moving, it creates uncertainty.”

“Uncertainty is good – at least from anyone chasing us. So, if they find us – what can they do?”

“If the tracking is successful, then generally they have two options. If there is something magically active here, a foci or trinket that is magically active and enabled, then it exists on the astral realm as well. And that means it can be attacked from there too. If they’re good enough, they can send a spell to such a thing, and make it a conduit into the real world, forcing their spell through here. The other option is that the tracking creates a trail or a link of magic between us. On one hand, we can follow that link back to them, and try to attack them – and that’s the other reason most people try that in a group, where they can defend each other and have guards to aid them. The other option is for them to send their spotter to follow the link to us, and then quickly report back our position so they can try to find us physically.”

“So, once they’ve found us, they can follow us forever, then?”

“Oh no – only for a few hours at most normally. You see, the longer the spirit is out of the body, the more the body loses the will to live. Most people can barely spend a handful of hours out of their body without their physical body starting to die. For those unfortunates who have had body parts replaced, it is even less time. But for most people, about six hours is the most you could spend out of your body, and even then it would make you feel lethargic and rough for hours afterwards. If you’ve not noticed, I try never to spend more time out of my body than I have to – and no more than an hour, unless we REALLY need to. It’s just so much easier to recover from.

“Right. So, keep the magic things off, keep moving, keep the door shut to keep the ward up. Is there anything else we can do?”

“Well, I’ve just asked my spirit to guard us as well, and extended my mental shielding to cover the trailer. Beyond that – not really. I mean, you could maybe try a sacrifice or an offering, or a spot of mediation.”

“Will it help?”

“It won’t hurt. And if something bad does happen, you’ll be much more centred and grounded when it does.”

“Oh, great. That’s NOT what I needed to hear, Tads.” Kai sounded amused under his mock anger, clearly not actually meaning it. After a few seconds he released the intercom button and turned towards Hunter.

“Tell me about our route, please?”

“We’re about here at the moment,” Hunter clicked a command the screen zoomed in, showing a highway and a section of lowland hills, the road snaking around them as it travelled mostly northwards towards the coast. “We follow this all the way to the coast again, then turn east – pretty much retracing our steps the way we came. It’s a pretty direct route, and it gives the advantage of having seen the road before and knowing roughly what to expect, which we figured was worth something. Follow this all the way back east to the border with the TCL, and then cross over and we’re not far off. We’re going to try and avoid going near that Warlord’s camp – nobody wants to get shot at again I think. Other than that – pretty easy run. Marius rested a while, so he should be good for several more hours – but after that we’re driving in shifts, keeping on going and trying to stay ahead of any pursuit or trouble.”

“Excellent. Nicely done. So, how long are we talking about?”

“Altogether, we’re talking about nineteen hundred kilometres or so, depends on any detours we might have to take. We’ve done a couple of hours so far, so we’re about two hundred and fifty klicks down. It’s going to take a while, but the tank on this is good for about fourteen hundred – so we will need to refuel, but only once.”

Kai sat back and worked out the figures in his head, and then nodded. It was going to be pricy to fill up the tank if it was nearly empty, but manageable – and if they stopped only once and kept changing drivers, they should make good time…

They rolled on through the countryside, the temperature dropping steadily as the night wore on and the traffic slowly disappearing until they were the only vehicle in sight on the road. The barren landscape flicked past in the darkness and the team looked out into the wilderness, looking for trouble but thankfully finding none. Minutes turned into hours, and the position indicator on Hunter’s map steadily tracked north towards the sea as the truck trundled on at a steady hundred kilometres per hour.

In the trailer, as the hours passed Shimazu finished the individual wards he’d scribed onto the outside of each of the boxes, and stood, cracking his spine and stretching to work out the kinks in his back. Tads checked each of them, finding the wards to be well placed and secure. Though not strong, the effect would last for some time, and she figured every little bit of extra protection was worthwhile. Besides, it was good practice, and the better Shimazu became, the more help he would be to her in keeping the team safe from magical assaults.

Up front, Marius continued to keep up a steady pace, his attention working in a cycle through activities – checking the sensor, visually examining the road, monitoring the engine temperature and fuel consumption, looking for electronic noise, making sure Hunter hadn’t uploaded a route change – round and round, constantly examining the world around them as they rumbled through it. They passed the Karasu park where they’d thought about talismongering, and as the road veered down towards the sea, a thick mist drifted in on the moisture rich night air. Slowly the road disappeared, but he never slackened his pace – instead concentrating more on his radar and other vehicle sensors to guide him unerringly through the darkness. On and on they drove, past Eregil, where the mist enveloped the steelmill in tendrils of cold, driven back around each building and furnace making them look like volcanic islands from a nether realm, the mist given a strange red hue as it reflected the molten steel. The mist lifted as they drifted inland, following the main road as it wound up into the hills, then descended upon them again like a cold grey blanket as they dropped back to the coast road on their journey east. Village after village they sped through, barely noticing some of them in the thick fog, until shortly after 3am. They’d just twisted back inland, and had passed through the small village of Denizbuku, and had slowed slightly as they climbed up a sharp bluff, the road winding back and forth in a series of sweeping turns to make the approach more manageable.

Aswon called out, having spotted a figure on the road ahead, radiating magic, whilst at the same time Marius picked up a selection of traffic cones, their radar reflective covers causing his sensor screen to ping like crazy. He slowed as the cones forced him into a tricky S-shaped curve around the already sharp bend in the road, shedding even more speed. Aswon peered at the figure, standing in the road without a care, waiting for them it seemed. His aura radiated power – he was magically active but wasn’t masking his form at all.

Kai leant forward to get a look, and they told the pair in the back what was going on. Moments later Tads hurtled forwards out of her body, speeding past the truck towards the figure, then screeching to a metaphysical halt next to him. He turned towards her, obviously aware of her presence, nodded politely and smiled at her. He didn’t seem to be particularly threatening, and he made no hostile move. She examined his aura herself, gauging his power against her, and trying to determine what abilities he may possess.

“Hello? Are you waiting for someone?”

“As a matter of fact yes, but they’re nearly here. I’d really much rather speak to all of you at once – or at least to your team leader and his escort. It’ll save repeating myself.” Tads blinked, and stared at him for a moment. His accent was cultured and refined, and he didn’t appear excited or angry – in fact he didn’t appear to have any really strong emotions. She darted back to her body, managing to meld with it relatively easily at this low speed, then fired up the intercom.

“Folks, it seems he’s waiting for us, wants to speak to the team leader. He didn’t feel particularly excited or anything at all. But he’s more powerful than I am, and I didn’t really get a feel for what he could do.”

“Well, decide what you want to do quickly, because I’m either going to have to stop, or run him over and murder him in about twenty seconds,” exclaimed Marius through the speaker.

“Stop, let’s talk, if talking is on the menu. Tads, be ready with a spirit, please. Shimazu, get ready to back us up if we need it. Hunter, covering fire.” Kai pulled on his coat as he spoke, and got ready to dismount from the vehicle.

“I will come with you, to protect you.” Aswon grabbed his coat as well, and then his Purdey and his spear. He sounded as if he wasn’t really going to listen if Kai said no, so Kai didn’t bother. Instead he turned to the others.

“If this all goes wrong – drive off and leave me if needs be. Get the job done.”

As Marius let the slope of the road bring them to a halt, they both climbed out of the truck and walked up the dark and deserted road towards the man, until they were about five metres away, then halted.

He was of middling height and fairly slender, and appeared to be in his late forties, perhaps. A short beard and moustache were dark with wisps of grey scattered through them, and he wore an old-fashioned set of spectacles – almost unheard of in the Sixth world where corrective surgery was so easily obtainable. Dressed in a dark business suit over a light blue shirt, with a tie neatly fastened at his neck, he looked like he should be discussing a corporate deal over coffee in a downtown restaurant than meeting with a team of smugglers in the dead of night on a deserted mountain road.

He bowed slightly as they looked at him, and they caught sight of the kippah placed on the back of his head.

“Good evening gentlemen. My name is Mr. Goldstein. I am aware that you have in your possession, some items that do not belong to you. However, my friends would very much like them back. Can we come to some arrangement?”

“We have a lot of stuff, and much of it doesn’t belong to us. Can you be a bit more specific?” Kai asked lightly, while he examined Mr. Goldstein closely, listening to his word choice and watching his body language. Mr. Goldstein sighed a little, then spoke again.

“A number of boxes came into your possession a few hours ago. Six of them. I am also aware, that you did not steal them, and you are not purchasing them – you are just carrying them from one place to another. And that is the reason why I am here, asking you for their return. Politely. Calmly.”

“Ahh, right. I see your problem. Well, you sound like a businessman – so perhaps we can come to an… arrangement.” Kai watched as Mr. Goldstein cocked his head slightly to one side. “We agreed to deliver our cargo – whatever it is – to a certain destination, on time. We hate letting people down – it doesn’t do our reputation any good, and it makes us disappointed in ourselves. So we really don’t want to do that. But if you were to… follow us? To wherever we stopped… once we’d handed it over, it’s not really any of our concern what happens to it from there.”

“I see. Well, I’m afraid that won’t really be possible. Much as I would perhaps like to discuss that concept further, I find myself in the position where time as a resource is very much in short order. A very precious resource. So I ask again, will you return the items to us?”

“I’d love to help you out – you are being very polite after all – but I’m sorry, we really can’t.” Kai responded equally politely, keeping his tone and inflexion light, as if he was discussing who was to have the last slice of cake at a meal.

“As I said – time is a resource that is in very short supply. However, we have other resources that are available to us. Perhaps some of those might help? I can imagine that you have accrued some expenses in your journey – perhaps fifty thousand Nuyen would go some way to offsetting those losses and any potential damage you might suffer for non-delivery?”

Kai shook his head, and the calm expression on Mr. Goldstein’s face slipped a little, as he frowned at them.

“Listen, it’s been lovely chatting with you – perhaps I could take your number, and we could call you if anything changes?”

“No.” Mr. Goldstein spoke clearly, but emphatically. “This was your chance to end this, here and now, without trouble.”

Kai let his facial features relax a moment, then he too frowned, becoming equally stern looking. He controlled his features carefully, mirroring the changes Mr Goldstein had displayed, but kept his voice light.

“You had me, all the way to ‘trouble’, my friend.” Kai turned on his heel and headed back to the truck, not looking behind him at all. Aswon started to retreat, carefully picking his way backwards and keeping a careful eye on the stranger. As they got to the truck, Aswon gave Mr. Goldstein a small bow of respect, then they both climbed up and into the cab, watching as Mr. Goldstein calmly walked to the edge of the road and pulled out a small book and began to read it. Marius started the engine and they rolled past him, picking up speed as they cornered through the cones and back out on to the straight road, accelerating hard. 

Tads called over the intercom. 

“I had a good look at him – I’m afraid I’m not really sure what he could do, but he was definitely more powerful than I am, in terms of raw ability to control magic anyway.”

“I recognised some of his abilities – I share them with him. His senses were enhanced magically – he could read in the faintest of light I would wager, and his hearing would be like that of an Owl. He also would be a hard man to surprise or creep up on, and you’re unlikely to get the drop on him. As to the rest – I don’t know.” This from Aswon.

There was a thump behind them, as Hunter collapsed back into his seat heavily. He seemed pale and tired, a slight sweat beading his brow despite the lack of physical exercise. They checked up on him, and discovered he was as wan and lethargic as Shimazu had been the other day. Suspicious, they got him a drink and gave him half a dozen of the iron tablets they’d gotten from the pharmacy in Constantinople, and watched as he leant back into his normal corner and drifted off to sleep.

“Did anyone see anyone else back there, or just the one guy in the road?” Tads called over the intercom. There was a murmur of negatives, and Aswon asked why.

“I just wondered if someone could have approached the truck from the back, and put a homing beacon or tracking thing on us, while we were distracted at the front?”

“I don’t think anyone else was there – I didn’t see anyone – but it’s a good idea to check, just in case.” Aswon looked around at the darkened road. “Do we want to pull over and check?”

“No, I think I’ve got this. I’ll ask a spirit to look over the truck, and see if it can spot anything new. Or anything stuck on with a magnet or tape. Hopefully it will find it.”

She sat down on the floor of the trailer cross-legged, letting her body sway slightly with the rocking motion of the trailer, and summoned a watcher spirit. The astral being appeared in front of her, and she gave a start and leant back in surprise. Instead of the vaguely humanoid thought forms she normally got, festooned with branches, moss, lichen and other forest growth, this spirit appeared in the form of a wizened old man, dressed in a smart black suit, with close-cropped curly brown hair and a kippah on the back of his head… She frowned and concentrated on it for a moment, checking that it was actually her spirit – it wasn’t something from outside designed to mess with her head – but it tasted just right, and was definitely hers.

She commanded it to go and search the truck and trailer for devices, and it gave a very world weary sigh, shrugged its shoulders and then wandered through the side of the truck to start clambering over the wheel arches, clinging onto the surface of the truck with only scant regards to gravity. Tads through about telling the people in the front of the truck about the strange sight, but in the end decided they probably wouldn’t understand. She sat back instead, thinking about the strange appearance of the watcher spirit and what it meant.

Up front, Kai got the number of Marius’ contact in Tbilisi, and gave him a call. It rang, and rang, and just at the point where he was about to hang up, it finally connected. A very sleepy and groggy sounding voice answered the phone

“It’s half past three, this better be good.”

“And a good morning to you, too. This is the courier company – we have your package, but there’s been a development.” The line went quiet for a moment, then the video feed flicked on, and a bleary-eyed face could be seen in the dim light of a bedside lamp. The face leant in towards the display until it filled the entire frame.

“What kind of development? Nothing bad, I hope?”

“Well, that kind of depends. We met a man on the road, middle of nowhere, said that he knew what we had, and knew where it was from, and he wanted us to hand it over to him.”

“And?”

“Well, we said no, of course. Then he offered us fifty grand to hand it over, for our troubles. So we still said no.” The face at the other end of the vid-link looked relieved.

“Well, that’s good news, then, right?”

“No, not really. They still found us, really quickly – or knew which way we were going. And he said that there was going to be trouble. So we figure they’re tracking us somehow, and plan on hitting us. So this is not a luke-warm job – it’s most definitely a hot job. And likely to get very hot indeed, if they’re hitting us at the handover point. Do you want to make other arrangements?”

“No – why didn’t you just shoot this guy in the face and be done with him.”

“We had a horrible feeling that it wouldn’t have worked. He was clearly magically active, more powerful than our mage, and happy to just stand in the road and wait for us to stop. We’re thinking that you might want to rethink this thing…”

“Just deliver it as planned. That’s what I’m paying you for, right? Right.” With that, the line disconnected, leaving Kai staring at the display as the telecoms provider started to show adverts on the screen.

“I’m not dying to deliver a box,” a very sleepy Hunter said. He sat in the corner, and his eyes were still shut, but he was apparently awake enough to follow the conversation.

“I will. I don’t want to – but I would if I had to. That’s what we’re being paid for.” Aswon said quietly, his eyes scanning outside the truck. It went quiet for a moment, before Hunter replied.

“I don’t see why we should put ourselves at risk for this, is all.”

“Then what is he paying us for? If he just wanted something sent, he’d use the postal system, or a normal courier. But he’s paying for safety, discretion, and if need be for people to fight to defend his stuff. That’s why we get paid tens of thousands for a job like this, not two hundred Nuyen for a pallet ship. It’s part of the contract – and if you don’t want the responsibility of the delivery, then you don’t get the rewards of the job.”

Kai and the others nodded, agreeing in the main with Aswon. Hunter shrugged a little, and then turned slightly, resting his head on a balled-up t-shirt and chuntered quietly to himself – quietly enough that nobody else had to listen to him at least.

“I’ve got an idea – what do you think of this?” Kai called out, pushing the button for the intercom so the two in the back could hear him as well. “We actually get the boxes shipped over, by a normal courier – well actually, by five normal couriers. One part to each of them, and one part with us as insurance?” The team considered this, but from their facial expressions and the indrawn breaths, it was obvious they weren’t keen on this as an option. The team felt on edge – wondering just what the fallout was going to be from their meeting with the mysterious Mr. Goldstein.

Marius pulled up the sensor footage, replaying the audio and video feeds captured by the truck during the encounter, and they watched through it several times, looking at the body language and mannerisms of their adversary. The second, and third, playback did nothing to lighten their mood – he seemed competent and composed, calmly laying down the options available to them and not being fazed by their responses. He also showed no fear for his personal safety – or had a cast iron backup plan. Playing through the approach again, he’d shown no fear or regard for the oncoming truck, and appeared supremely confident that it was going to stop. They played through the recording again, several times, looking for clues.

After some time spent analysing the recording, they weren’t much better off – he had an excellent grasp of English, probably gained at a University, but dressed and spoke in a style consistent with their knowledge of Israel. After Tads, Shimazu and Aswon compared notes on their read of the man, they thought that he had some abilities in common with Aswon, but a whole host of abilities that none of them had or had seen, as well as more raw power than any individual member of the team. His composure was also admirable – possibly as a result of some magical ability, possibly due to unseen snipers or backup in the darkness that none of them had seen, or possibly just due to having enormous brass balls.

“Maybe we should change route?” Aswon suggested “They found us once, sure – maybe they got lucky. But if we radically change our route, head far inland instead of following the coast road, then perhaps we can throw them off the scent?”

“I don’t like that idea – it takes us away from a lot of civilisation,” The speakers carried Marius’ accent clearly, even though he was actually speaking from a neural interface directly wired into his brain-stem. “If they’re near a well-travelled route and decide to hit us, then there’s limits to what they can get away with. If we go out into the wilderness, then the gloves can come off and they can throw all kinds of crazy stuff at us, and nobody will even hear it – let alone care about it.”

“Hmm, you have a point there. When I was on duty as a merc, we always had to be mindful about civilians and the press when engaging targets. If we’re away from the public eye, they can be a lot more indiscriminate with their attack.”

“Yeah, and if we’ve offended people with reach and power, that includes things like attack helicopters and rockets, APCs and miniguns… all of which are very bad news.”

“It doesn’t even have to be a military response, though, does it?” came Tads’ voice over the comm-link. “I mean, if they just got onto the police and pulled strings – and they reported us as being in a stolen vehicle or something…. Sure, they have someone else involved, but they get access to all those eyes and ears as well, don’t they?”

The team sank into their chairs, pondering the mission that had seemed a little simpler when they took it than it did now, looking out into the darkness and keeping their eyes opened. After a while, Aswon had an idea, and asked Nadia to go into the back for some supplies, and when she returned after a few minutes, twisted round in his seat to face her as she sat in Tads’ normal spot. Over the course of the next half hour, he slowly and patiently explained to her how to make simple demo charges from the blocks of C4 she had collected, pausing every few minutes to stare out into the darkness and look for magical presences. 

They drove on, following the coast road and heading eastwards. The dense sea fog rolled in off the water, washing out the world and gaining in density to the point that they had to slow a little as the vehicle sensors started to get the odd false echoes from the moisture in the air and the road became slick and dangerous. Fortunately they didn’t have to slow much – Marius’ skill as a driver saw to that, but none the less, their ETA ticked slowly higher as they lost a little speed as the road wound back and forth along the coast.

The black sky started to become grey with the faint light of the pre-dawn, the sun still below the horizon but the light bouncing off the atmosphere and arriving as the herald of a new day. The truck slowed significantly, and Marius roused in his seat, no longer fused mentally with the machine but now driving it like the others would have. He smacked his lips a few times and swallowed, trying to get saliva into his mouth after hours of lying with his body almost comatose, then spoke in a croaky and dry voice.

“Nadia, any chance you can sort me a coffee out? Black and strong?”

She turned and smiled at him, and reached over to touch him, flipping her hand over at the last moment to gently push against him with the back of her hand, avoiding getting the clay-like C4 that coated her fingertips into his clothes. She turned further around, and looked at Kai, staring at him until he made eye contact.

“I’d like one too, Kai, thanks. Milky for me though, no sugar. Thanks.”

Kai looked like he was going to argue for a moment, but then shrugged and threw his arms into the air.

“Whatever, sure. Coffee bitch….” He climbed through into the back, past Hunter who still lay pale and wan, but with a smirk on his face that indicated that he wasn’t quite asleep, and started to rattle around at the heater getting a round of hot drinks on the go for people.

The minutes crept by, and after drinking his coffee, Marius jacked back in fully and they picked up speed again as he pushed the truck through the mist and drizzle and around the turns of the road. The sky lightened some more, and then the first ray of sunlight arced across the land, refracting and dispersing through the mist until the entire sky to the east was a mass of roiling golden clouds.

In the trailer, Tads felt her previous spirit leave as night transitioned to day, and sat herself down in her lodge, trying to let the swaying of the vehicle wash through her as she completed her morning prayers and prepared to summon a new spirit to protect them for the challenges to come. Her eyes rolled back in her head as she opened herself up to the mana around her, drawing in power to channel into the summoning rite. She wanted a moderate amount of power, to summon a spirit of average size – something small enough not to hurt her with the backlash of power from the ritual, but large enough to be useful.

The motes of mana flowed down through the air, invisible to even those with the astral sight, flowing down towards her outstretched hands, swirling into her palms and racing through her body towards her core to be coalesced into a being of pure magic, a representation of the place imprinted with her ideals and the power granted to her by her totem. Shaped by her will, and controlled by her ego, she walked a fine path of balance between what she felt she could control with her beliefs of self and what would be ‘too much’.

The motes flowed through the air, twisting and turning – and accelerating. They formed together into chains, like a handful of beads on a thong. They jostled each other, coming thick and fast, and the presence of one increased the speed of another. More and more of them joined the headlong rush towards her astral form, sleeting down through the roof of the trailer and in through the walls, like a pipe with a burst tap, pouring uncontrollably into her. She felt the power rush into her, more and more, faster and faster; and she was unable to stop it in time.

The spirit appeared, huge and hulking – nearly twice as large as she’d been aiming for. It was her spirit – definitely a spirit of man, a creature of the road – not a twisted form like the watcher she had summoned earlier. Its immaterial form looked like large strips of tarmac dug up and formed into rough-hewn arms and legs, and the body was patterned with white lines and road markings. The head was a round blob of gravel, with two sets of cats-eyes on either side of the wide and rough face, staring at her. She had a moment to glimpse it take shape, and to bring it under her control, then the surge of power backlashed into her.

WHAM!

Blood spurted from her nose as the effort of controlling the power ruptured minor blood vessels, and she went temporarily deaf as her eardrums popped from the pressure. Her joints ached all over as blood pooled in them from a multitude of burst capillaries. The pain struck her by surprise, her head tilted back and she gave a howl of pain, sounding all the more animalistic from the sheer shock of the event. Shimazu rolled to his feet in surprise, his sword appearing into his hand as if summoned, as his reactions and abilities activated from shock and he moved like a blur. He looked around frantically, seeking that which had struck the shaman, but he could see no foe.

“It’s….. o…k…. Shimazu. Aaah. Just…. Just a bit of…. Unexpected drain, from the summoning. Ahh, ow!” She tested her joints, finding the damage widespread, and moved her fingers to her nose, holding it shut to allow the blood to clot, breathing heavily through the mouth.

Shimazu leant on the comm button, and informed the cab what was going on, and they spent a few minutes deciding what to do. Shimazu checked her over, giving a running commentary to the team in the front of the extent of her injuries – reporting that he could try and bandage up the bleeding and the obvious stuff outside, but that most of the injury was internal, and that he didn’t think that he – or any of the others – would be able to do much. He did open the tub of painkillers for her, and passed her a small mound, along with a bottle of water, and watched her swallow them gratefully. In the end, they decided to push on – it seemed that it was the best thing in the absence of being able to actually help her.

Tads sat back and realised that she didn’t have the normal mild headache she ended up with after summoning a spirit or casting a spell – the power had been enough to batter her body instead of her mind. Hmm… that opened up a different alternative.

Slowly, and very carefully this time, she opened herself up again and drew in Mana to use, shaping it into a cocoon over her body. This time the power flowed as normal, as she would expect – and she concentrated her energy on renewing the processes of her body. All around her, golden light radiated, bathing her skin in a soft, warm, golden glow. Internally, the magical energy drove the cells into a frenzy, vastly accelerating the healing process. A thousand different burst blood vessels knitted together, binding cells walls and scavenging damaged tissue, whilst red blood cells multiplied and flowed around her body, carrying away the dead tissue to the kidneys to be processed.

She pushed harder, directing the golden energy to repair the damage she’d taken, until she felt she could do no more – then braced herself as the backlash recoiled into her. Despite the painkillers, she felt the edge of the normal tension in her head…. Ahh, there it was. She relished the headache, welcoming the familiar feeling. Slowly she got up and moved around… it appeared that she had fixed most of the damage, and felt almost back to normal – almost. Just a little residual stiffness around the joints. Hmm.

She sat back down and studied the spirit she had summoned, trying to work out what had happened and why it was so powerful. She didn’t know, but her eyes kept sliding off the spirit and onto the boxes of golem parts, lying innocuously on the truck floor.

The truck pushed on through the brightening morning – once more having to slow as farmers, shoppers and commuters started to fill the road travelling from one town or village to the next, with their varying levels of skill on the slick wet roads. At around 08:00, after nearly eleven hours of travel, they drove through Samsun, emerging from the east side of the town and starting to climb up slightly and rising out of the fog like a shark emerging from the depths, heading towards the quasi border marking the edge of the Kurdish Zone.

Once more, the team studied the terrain around them and started to keep a careful watch on the area, weapons ready in case of attack.


	74. 074 - Reclamation Squad

Date 15/02/2060, Location 41.22749, 36.4818

Samsun receded into the mist behind them, and the morning traffic eased slightly. They continued to push on, following the road as it bent slightly to the south and headed inland, the mist lifting slightly as they did so. Of to the left, they saw flashing lights in the sky, descending and passing them from east to west as a small plane came in to land at Samsun airport, the main runway running almost parallel to the road some distance away.

An icon appeared in the corner of Marius’ consciousness, strobing an angry red colour as the diagnostics reported that all electrical contact had been lost with the trailer. He reached out mentally, feeling his way through the systems and trying to determine what the problem was – an electrical fault or loose cable perhaps, or maybe a stone had been flung up and had severed the connection. Moments later an additional icon appeared, also flashing an angry red as the hydraulic system reported a complete system loss. He activated the speakers, and cleared his throat.

“I think we have an issue.”

Clunk. A third icon appeared, and Marius gave a strange shudder as the trailer physically disconnected from the truck. As a rigger, it felt oddly like someone unscrewing and walking off with your left leg, leaving you standing on just the right. He started to apply the brakes, checking the external sensors and trying to figure out what the hell was going on. 

There was a loud and deep bang as the trailer slammed into the back of the truck, throwing them forward in their seats slightly. In the trailer, the effects were more noticeable. Shimazu was sat in the corner, wedged in quite tightly and escaped the worst of the damage. As the trailer slammed into the truck Tads, who had been sitting in the middle of her lodge, slid towards the wall at high speed, slamming into the armoured bulkhead hard. Fortunately, the slide across the floor gave her just enough time to raise her hands and absorb the impact, and it caused no appreciable damage.

Marius accelerated slightly, pulling away from the trailer and watched in the sensors as it slowly rumbled forwards, drifting off the side of the road and then bouncing across the scrubby grass at the side of the road. The spiny bushes that had grown over the barrier down the shoulder absorbed yet more of the impact, and the trailer slowly shed speed before coming to a graceless halt, the two wheels on the outside edge precariously close to slipping into the shallow drainage ditch that ran down the side of the tarmac. He cursed to himself, wondering what had happened with his systems and looked around.

The fog had lifted enough that he could see a fair way in either direction down the road. Ahead of them, the road was pretty clear for a while, with a tractor or some other kind of agricultural vehicle approaching in the distance. Behind them he could see a large gap and a van in the distance, driving eastwards. He threw the mental wheel over hard, guiding the truck into a tight turn and doubling back to the west, aiming to drive for a short distance then turn again, and get close to where the trailer had come to a rest. As he turned and headed down the westbound side of the road, Aswon suddenly frowned and then cocked his head to one side.

He was just starting to speak when Hunter also suddenly looked up and they both exclaimed at the same time.

“Chopper!” Looking around, they spotted the form of a large helicopter flying low over the fields to the north, coming from the direction of the airport. As they saw it, the nose suddenly dropped and the anti-collision lights switched off, and the craft built up speed towards them rapidly. There was a click as the safety came off on Hunter’s rifle, and Aswon looked at the Purdey in his hands and at the oncoming chopper for a moment, then grabbed the new rifle from the overhead stowage, slapping in a magazine and working the action.

The truck lurched again, as Marius reefed it into a tight turn, sliding in front of the trailer as tightly as he could, then slapped on the brakes and opened his door, dropping out to the ground.

“Achtung! Come on! Let’s get re-hitched and on the way, I don’t want to be a sitting duck!” Nadia slid over after him and dropped down to the ground lightly, pursuing him to the rear of the truck, while Aswon and Hunter bailed out of the other side. Kai followed Marius, looking around them and analysing the situation. As he reached the rear of the truck, Marius shouted loudly for Tads and Shimazu, hoping his voice could be heard through the armoured hull, before turning and examining the hitching post and connections. Nothing seemed to be damaged or broken – it had just come unlatched somehow. 

Hunter and Aswon landed on the other side of the truck almost simultaneously. Hunter reached out and tapped Aswon on the shoulder, then pointed a finger at himself and the road to the east, pointed to Aswon and the road to the west. Nodding in agreement, Aswon turned and he and Hunter moved swiftly to positions on either side of the truck and trailer, taking up a guard position. Instinctively they both headed to the scrub lining the side of the road, crouching down amongst the sparse and scratty growth close to the drainage ditch, seeking whatever cover they could gain. Hunter raised the rifle to his shoulder and sighted down the scope, zooming in on the large tractor that was bouncing down the road towards them. The driver sat high in the cab, visible through the unpolarised glass in the cab, and sat smiling with a strange expression upon his face. The vehicle was meandering as it drove, describing shallow curves down the road, and he could see a number of vehicles behind it, queuing up.

To the west, Aswon mirrored his actions, raising the two metre length of the rifle to his shoulder and sighting down the scope at the traffic. He gave a sharp intake of breath as he caught sight of the van approaching – it was obviously armoured, and looked analogous to a Bulldog Step-Van, a common security truck that was also favoured by fast response teams. He quickly flicked the sight over, but the next vehicle was a good kilometre further back. A tiny part of his mind marvelled at the clarity of the picture – the optical sight was of superb quality and displayed the vehicle clearly, but the majority of his thoughts confirmed that it was far enough away that it wasn’t really a threat. He flicked back to the armoured van, and watched it approach, studying it carefully as it closed in towards them. 

In between them, the rest of the team deployed to deal with the situation. Marius moved to the front of the trailer, with Nadia tagging along behind him. First he checked that there was no damage to the A-frame or interconnects, spending a few moments looking for the cause of the de-hitch. He couldn’t see any damage or issue, so he lifted the post and checked that the axel would turn, and that the air line for the brakes and the comms lines were safely out of the way and available to connect. To the rear, Shimazu, Tads and Kai got behind the trailer and started to push, applying pressure to roll the trailer off the edge of the ditch and towards the back of the truck so they could re-hitch and be on their way. With a shout from Marius, they leaned in, applying more force and slowly the trailer started to roll gently towards the truck, with grunts of exertion from all five of them.

There was a flash of motion from the closing truck, and Aswon shouted loudly, not even bothering to key up his comms.

“CONTACT!”

It wasn’t much of a warning, but it was enough to alert the team that something was going on. The side door of the van slid back and a large burly figure leant out with an assault rifle cradled in his arms, his body swinging on the end of a harness of some kind. Shimazu twisted his head and saw the figure, and the brief flash and desperately threw himself to the side. The first burst from the rifle slammed into his armour, deflected from centre mass by his sudden movement and thudding harmlessly into the reinforced Kevlar and ceramic plates. Split seconds later though, with the reactions only possible to the cyber enhanced for whom their gun was a literal extension of their body, the assailant corrected and three more rounds vomited from the gun, the advanced recoil system and the burly and well-practiced arms of the assailant keeping the muzzle on target. The three rounds headed straight for Shimazu and slammed into his body, the soft covering peeling back and the ultra-dense plasteel penetrator being driven into the armour. With a superhuman effort Shimazu twisted and flexed, dropping voluntarily to the ground. Instead of the three rounds hitting in a tight group no more than three to four centimetres apart and fracturing the protective plates, each now hit a fresh area of the armour jacket. The rounds punched through the armour, hitting at an acute angle, but they were robbed of much of their momentum doing so, and penetrated only the surface layers of flesh before running out of energy. The pain was considerable and he let out a cry – but the damage itself was superficial.

As the figure in the van fired, swinging on the safety harness in the wind, the van accelerated hard. It sank back on the rear suspension, the nose raising in the air as the driver gunned the engine. Aswon raised his front hand a minute amount, pushing up the barrel of the gun by a degree or two, then took in a deep breath and held it. He focussed on his heartbeat, and as he felt the blood pump, he gently pulled the trigger. At just under a kilo, the trigger broke and the gun surged back into his shoulder. For all the violent action displayed, the free-floating barrel driving back into the receiver before the entire gun shook and travelled, rocking him back on his legs, there was barely a sound – just a muffled snap then a louder crack as the bullet punched its way through the sound barrier. In the corner of his eye he saw the huge brass casing arcing through the air as his hand automatically cycled the action, flipping the bolt carrier up, back, forward and then down to load another of the monster 12.7 X 99mm rounds.

The round hit the radiator at the front of the vehicle, the huge bullet smashing through the reinforced metal grille. Lighter rounds, like those from an assault rifle or sub-machine gun would have been deflected easily, only a concentrated and sustained volley of fire being able to overcome the resilience of the armoured components. The heavy round from the precision rifle was in a different class though, with vastly more power and kinetic energy. After demolishing the armour, it tumbled and span, flying through the actual radiator at a near horizontal angle, tearing a huge chunk of fins and pipework in its passing. Aswon grunted in satisfaction as a jet of steam burst out of the front of the vehicle, but then frowned as it continued to head towards them. The engine was still running, that much was obvious, so it was no disabling shot – but perhaps the vehicle had a backup radiator or auxiliary power plant. Either way, he was almost certainly going to struggle to penetrate the main armour of the vehicle and hit something truly critical, so he swung the rifle over to try and get the angle on the lunatic hanging out of the door spraying fire at his team mates instead.

Aswon sighted in on the far side of the vehicle, trying to get sight of the shooter in the side door, but frustrated by the angle of approach. As he peered through the sight, trying to get a lock, he failed to notice the driver’s window wind down and a hand appear carrying some kind of machine pistol. It spat two bursts towards the trailer, this time at Kai. Like Shimazu, Kai managed to dodge the first burst of fire, which spanged into the armoured trailer harmlessly, but the second burst stitched him across the chest, throwing him back into the trailer like a rag doll. The machine pistol firing at him was light, using small rounds – but the rounds were not the standard copper-jacketed rounds most guns fired, but an advanced composite design with a slender high speed SABOT at the core, that slid through the Kevlar weave of Kai’s jacket and lanced into his side.

Hunter tensed as he heard the gunfire behind him, but kept his eyes to the east. If this was a pincer attack, then someone would be waiting for just this moment to strike. It was difficult to keep calm in a situation like this, ignoring the sounds of combat and the natural urge to turn and face the identified foe – but if this was a trap, then it would be the worst time to do so. He kept his eye on the tractor which still puttered towards him with a small jam of traffic behind it, and he saw a couple of cars edging out slightly, trying to get a view of the road ahead. His grip tightened on the grips of his rifle, and he scanned the traffic, waiting for anything to lurch forward and present itself as a target. As he heard the sound of the third and fourth burst of fire from behind him, confirming that this wasn’t just some random gang violence, one hand dipped to the pocket in his combat jacket and pulled out the magazine of armour-piercing rounds, and he quickly swapped over ammo, working the action to make sure that one of the tungsten-coated penetrator rounds was ready to fire.

Slowly, oh so slowly, the trailer rolled forward, Tads, Marius and Nadia continuing to push with all their might, conserving the momentum built up and closing the distance to the truck and the hitching post. Kai had spun with the impact of the hits and was on the corner of the vehicle and leant against it, trying to add a little extra to their efforts, whilst he examined his wound and confirmed the damage, fingers probing gently at the impact site and checking the rate of bleeding. Even now though, he didn’t draw his weapon or prepare a grenade – instead trusting that Aswon and Hunter would take care of the situation with the attackers, whilst they dealt with the truck.

The gunner strapped into the truck sighted again, and another burst of fire spat from the rifle, slamming into Kai. His body armour, already ragged from the first attack disintegrated under the impact, and three rounds penetrated his chest. They were not immediately fatal – the armour still slowed down their passage and absorbed some of the impact, but it was a serious hit. Lead bullets ripped through flesh and crashed into bone, tumbling through his body and leaving a trail of destroyed tissue behind them. Blood spurted from the wounds, and his hands fumbled at the pocket over his heart, grabbing the field dressing there and hastily slapping it over the impact site. A deep red spot appeared immediately on the pristine white bandage as the blood soaked through the pad, driven by his hammering heart, but the coagulant soaked dressing started to work, slowing down the blood flow and providing a barrier. He let his legs crumple and collapse under him, not even fighting the impact of the rounds and using the momentum to drop out of the line of sight from the gunner, and down the side of the trailer.

Aswon still couldn’t get a clear shot – the front corner of the van occluded his sight line to the assailant, and unless he dived out of cover of the ditch and ran almost into the middle of the road, he wouldn’t be able to get a clear shot. He could see the van slowing now – his shot to the radiator had been effective after all, and it was just momentum that was carrying the vehicle closer now. Instead he tracked left, lining up the shot on the centre of the windscreen in front of the driver’s position. He worked out where the driver must be, imagining one hand on the wheel and the other holding a gun, ready to lean out of the side window again for another shot. A little more left, and down a touch, allowing for the slope of the glass…. Squeeze. This time there was a sharp retort from the gun, a distinct double crack from the barrel and the round as it brutally exploded from the barrel.

Once again the heavy weapon slammed into his shoulder, driving it back with the vicious recoil as the huge round was spat downrange – but Aswon was rewarded with the sight of the windscreen smashing as the bullet punched straight through the armoured glass. Again, a lighter round would have been deflected, he suspected, but the huge rounds were large enough to punch through the lighter sections of the vehicle without too much trouble. Cracks and chips exploded out from the impact point in a crazy star, spreading out from the impact point. The van lurched visibly to the side, swinging around to its left and Aswon smiled. The gunner in the side shouldn’t be able to see the team now, and would have to move out from cover if he wanted to continue the attack.

With a grunt of effort, Marius gave a heave and the trailer slid back onto the road, rolling slowly towards the truck. Momentum alone should close the distance now, so instead he heaved on the heavy towing axle, lining up the eyelet with the towing assembly. Sweat ran down the side of his face from the effort of pulling the massive trailer, but also from the pressure of getting the trailer hooked up right. He still didn’t know how it had come unhooked – the attack indicated that it was foul play of some sort, not random happenstance, but the truck was his, his responsibility, and he intended to find out what had happened and stop it happening again. He adjusted the bar slightly, lining it up with the receiving plate as the trailer rolled ponderously closer.

A flash of movement at the corner of his eye distracted him, and he turned slightly, his hand dropping to his pistol. Shimazu scurried past him in a stoop, using the drainage ditch as cover and to lower his height, and Marius turned back to concentrate on the task at hand, lining up the tow hitch with the hook as the trailer continued to roll ever closer. Shimazu, in turn glanced behind him, and saw Kai flop round the side of the trailer, wincing in pain from the multiple gunshot wounds. As Kai leant against the trailer, letting the gentle motion pull him along the side of the road, he saw a chopper heading their way, the nose pointing firmly down as it sped across the countryside from the direction of the airport. He called out a warning to the team in a resigned voice.

“Chopper, inbound from the airport, closing fast. Could be police, could be reinforcements. Either way, it’s going to be trouble I’m sure.”

Marius stiffened slightly as he worked, his hands wrestling with the spring-loaded clip that kept the tow hitch secure and pushing home the data-connections and interlinks for the electrical systems. It felt like something was pressing in on his face, a pressure or tension that he couldn’t really define. He shook his head irately as if he was trying to dislodge a fly, then concentrated on his work, slapping home the last of the plugs into position. A few moments later, the sensation faded away, and as he completed the last of the connections he turned and checked out the chopper – a Hughes WK-2e Stallion. He spied two large protuberances on the wings and zoomed in, breathing a sigh of relief. Rather than missile or rocket pods, it looked like a pair of extended range fuel tanks. He panned around the vehicle and didn’t see any obvious external ordinance or weapon systems at all in fact, so he turned away from the chopper. The crew could still be dangerous, and easily armed with weapons that could cause them trouble – but his big fear had been a minigun or chaingun mounted on the nose, or a rocket pod or air to ground missiles – any of which would have spelt certain doom for them.

To the east, Hunter sighted down his scope, examining the farm tractor, which continued to close on their position with a queue of traffic trapped behind it. Zooming in, he spotted the driver through the unpolarised glass at the front of the cab, and worked out why he hadn’t reacted to the sounds of gunfire or the scene of the ambush. The farmer wore a glassy expression on his face along with a wide gummy smile under his bright red nose. His head wobbled back and forth as the tractor bounced along, and his body swayed from side to side. Despite the early hour, he looked… well, “wankered” was the term that came to mind for Hunter. Whether he was still drunk from the night before, or had decided a liquid breakfast was the way forward he couldn’t say – but the driver was clearly inebriated and driving along in a world all of his own. He zoomed out and keyed up his microphone to call the information out to the rest of the team.

A figure popped up from behind the security van, which had slid to a halt in the middle of the road. In one smooth flowing motion, he raised the assault rifle and braced over the front of the van, and sent three rounds down range, catching Hunter in the back. The heavy armour dented and then buckled under the impact, the rounds driving into Hunter’s muscular back and staggering him forward a few paces. His grunt of pain transmitted clearly over the comms net, and blood bubbled out of the wounds, staining the fabric around the impact site. As Hunter staggered from the impact, the shooter lost lock momentarily, and thankfully no second burst was fired.

Aswon popped up again from his position, looking towards the airport and spotted the chopper. He sighted carefully, checking the nose and the side pylons, but didn’t spot any weapons, and neither did he see any open doors that would allow a view of the crew. He panned down back towards the truck, trying to get a line of sight on whoever had just shot at Hunter, and started to back up towards the truck to try and get an angle. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of motion as Shimazu continued to work down the gutter line to try and outflank their opponent. 

Shimazu had crawled far enough round now that he could see the target, and carefully drew his blade as he studied the figure. He was large and burly-looking – easily a match for Hunter. Dressed in urban cammo fatigues, he was still wearing the safety harness around his waist and thighs – presumably that had been attached to some kind of rig in the back of the van to allow him to lean out and attack whilst the van was in motion. He carried a squat and sturdy-looking assault rifle with a cable that clearly terminated into a jackpoint into his arm – the presence of the Smartlink system explained the deadly accuracy he’d displayed so far. That also meant that at least one of his eyes was going to be a cybernetic replacement to allow for the display of the targeting cursor over his vision showing the point of aim for his weapon – but that also meant he could have a variety of vision enhancements present as well. He rocked back on his heels and got ready to charge – he would have to go flat out to cover the distance between them without giving him time to swing round and fire, or risk taking a burst of fire at point-blank range to the face…

Aswon saw Shimazu poised to attack, and swung the rifle over towards the front of the truck, lining up on the engine block and pulled the trigger again. The fifty calibre round accelerated down the barrel, emerging from the muzzle break at over nine hundred and fifty metres per second. The wave of hot exhaust gasses rocketed out behind it. The large silencer was still full of roiling hot gas from the first two shots though, and was incapable of allowing for the expansion of gasses into the spaces between the floating disks and baffles. Instead of slowing the round slightly and allowing for the dispersion of the gases that formed the gunshot, they instead amplified it. The crack was followed a microsecond later with a boom that rolled across the landscape before reflecting and echoing off walls and houses. Aswon was as surprised as anyone else – but it had the desired effect. Not only did the round punch through the side of the security van and into the engine block where it hit something with enough force to make an awful mechanical tearing noise, but the ork with the assault rifle instinctively turned away from Shimazu’s position, to sight on the threat. Behind him there was a blur of motion as Shimazu propelled himself up and out of cover and sprinted across the distance between them, one metre of deadly shining steel held with grim resolve to his side. His concentration was total, and he used his mental training to ignore the pain from his wound and concentrate on reaching and then dealing with his assailant.

The ork saw him coming at the last moment, the reflection from the window warning him and he turned with the speed of a snake, releasing his weapon to fall on the sling, as he moved to defend himself from the strike. Thirty centimetre long blades thrust out of concealed ports on his knuckles with a “snick” sound and he raised his hands to try and parry the attack. The sword flashed down, deflecting off the spurs slightly but still ripping down his chest. The top layer of clothes were sliced through cleanly, but underneath an armoured vest absorbed the strike somewhat, slowing the swing and preventing the blade from sinking too deeply. To his credit, the ork was a skilled fighter, and swung back with his knee, aiming for Shimazu’s midriff. Shimazu, though had anticipated this, and his hands flipped and reversed the direction of the sword, taking off a slice of flesh and bone from the rising leg. Shimazu recovered from the strike, taking a much more guarded position, concentrating as much on defence as attack now that the concealed weapons had been revealed.

Kai saw that Marius had finished attaching the trailer, and pulled himself up into the back of the truck, shouting out loudly as he did so, “SADDLE UP!”

He moved further in, nursing his injuries and clearing the way for the next person. Nobody followed him though, and he spun in place to see why not. In the space between the truck and trailer he spotted Marius and Nadia, both with submachines out and pointed at the floor, which seemed to be rising to meet them. The ground grew and flowed around the wheels, clogging them with earth and trapping them as the earth elementals used their powers to literally reshape the ground around the trailer. Presumably there was a mage – probably in the chopper to give him a greater line of sight. Marius depressed the trigger, firing fully automatic into the magical creatures. Comprised of the raw element, the magical bindings and nature of their composition normally protected them from mundane assaults – requiring a magical attack to be truly effective. However, the muzzle of the gun was only inches away from them – it was impossible to miss, and the transfer of energy and the muzzle blast was ferocious. It overcame their defences and large sods of earth were blasted free of the creatures, causing them to writhe in pain as they were carved into chunks with a liberal dose of firepower.

A moment later the chopper roared overhead and reefed into a tight bank, tipping over to be almost horizontal to the ground as the pilot pushed the controls to the limit to bring them back on target from the opposite direction. Hunter finished staggering into the ditch, and raised his weapon for a moment towards the ork that had shot him – but then lowered it as Shimazu flashed forwards with his sword. Instead he tracked around towards the chopper, waiting to see if a door would open and a fresh target would present itself. Kai staggered to the back door and pulled a smoke grenade out from his pocket, holding it in his hand by his face, ready to throw it in case anyone needed covering.

As he focussed on the scene, the pin worked its way loose from the grenade, and the spoon flicked up and away into the cold winters morning. Aghast for a moment, he looked at the live grenade cradled into his hand before his senses caught up with the danger and he reflexively threw it away from himself. He looked up at the banking window of the chopper with suspicion, as if through sheer willpower he could stare through the one-way glass and spot the mage who was up to no good.

Tads threw her hands towards the second elemental, her fingers twisted into claws as she mentally locked herself into combat with it, using her raw power to bind it together into a lump and squeeze it, banishing the spirit back to its home plane. She slowly squeezed, pressing the elemental together and squishing it out of existence. A moment later, Nadia jammed the barrel of her gun into the form and fired, blowing it to bits.

Shimazu swung again, once more flipping his wrists over and pulling the blade through the air with a twist from his hips, the sword singing as it sliced through the cold air. Once more his aim was true, biting deep into the armour and spilling out blood and intestines onto the road from the deep slash across the ork’s midriff. The ork threw himself back with a grunt, rolling and springing back to his feet with his rifle aimed square at Shimazu’s face.

For a moment, time stopped for Shimazu. He was off-balance from the swing, his body wanting to continue to the left from the force of the blow, and there was no way he could redirect the energy in time to close the gap that had opened up between them. He saw the hand on the grip tighten – and even though there was no finger on the trigger, he knew that mentally the command was being sent, and in a moment the gun would spit out rounds towards him. His opponent was badly wounded, bleeding profusely from the multiple wounds inflicted upon him, and the combination of pain and recoil might drive him off target – but he couldn’t count up it. He tensed, ready to throw himself to one side, to dive to the floor to avoid the stream of lead.

The ork’s head exploded in front of him in slow motion. It bulged first, then expanded, the eyes going boggly for a moment first then protruding further and further until the face just ripped apart in a gory shower of red and grey matter. The massive boom rolled around the road and fields again, and Aswon let the recoil drive his shoulder back and the barrel up as he put the large round straight through the back of the ork’s head.

Hunter saw motion and swung around, but it was just the cars behind the tractor suddenly throwing on the brakes and pulling over, trying to keep the tractor between them and the lunatic with a massive rifle. The repeat shot had confirmed that “bad things” were going on, and it looked like none of them wanted any part of it. Bizarrely enough, the tractor continued to drive down the road at approximately ten kilometres per hour, slowly closing the distance. He turned around just in time to see a flash of motion ahead of him, and take a breath to call out a warning.

The figure leapt in the air, clearing the fence along the side of the gutter with ease, tumbling through the air with the grace only possible to a well-trained physical adept or an Olympic gymnast. A small blade flashed in his right hand, which was held high as he plummeted down towards Kai and Nadia. Shimazu drew his pistol in a smooth flowing motion and fired, but the combination of fatigue and wounds sent the round tumbling past the gymnast, though the loud retort did grab his attention.

With sword in one hand and pistol in the other, Shimazu closed the distance with the new assailant, who ignored Nadia and Kai and turned to face him, moving swiftly towards him. Nadia tried to shoot at him, but discovered that what worked for elementals at point blank range didn’t apply to moving and weaving targets, and her rounds sailed past him, well wide of the mark as the gun kicked and climbed as the rounds thundered out. Once more, Shimazu took a calming breath, trying to focus on his body and ignore the sharp pain from his wounds, concentrating and centering his attention on keeping the opponent at bay with the superior reach of his sword. 

Marius had reached the front of the truck and was clambering up into the cab, manifestly heading for the controls to start up the rig and drive them out of the ambush. Up above, the side door on the chopper flipped open, and a figure leant out, long hair whipping around in the downdraft. An arm extended, ending with a single pointed finger at the back of the German’s head. Aswon was on the wrong side of the craft and couldn’t see this, so it was all up to Hunter. He raised the assault rifle to his shoulder, took a deep breath and held it, waiting for the green reticule to turn red in his cyber-enhanced vision and pulled the trigger, spitting out a long five round burst at him. He was rewarded with seeing the burst strike home, throwing the figure around like a rag doll and blood exploding out of the ribs and side of the figure, spraying out of the chopper in a fine mist. The pilot of the craft tipped to the side, flipping the chopper over on an angle and causing the limp body to flop into the craft before the door slammed shut behind him.

Either not knowing, or not caring, Marius climbed up into the cab and slid into the centre seat, thrusting the rigger jack into the slots on the back of his neck and interfacing with the vehicle controls. A moment later the massive engine rumbled into life and the gearbox gave a shudder as the gears moved into position.

Aswon saw the chopper tilt towards him, ten degrees, then twenty, then thirty. As it did so, he got to see straight on to the rotor shaft and collimators, spinning away at three hundred RPM – but for the first time, he could actually see a vital part of the machinery that made the chopper function, not covered by the body of the craft or protected by the spinning blades. The rifle came up without conscious thought, and once again the monster rifle smashed into his shoulder with a massive jolt as fifteen kilojoules of energy spat out of the front of the gun. He didn’t know what he hit, but all that mattered was that a spray of liquid came out of the top, followed a second later by a pale grey smoke that belched and billowed out, and the engines started to scream. The pilot pushed the nose down, and headed towards the field, dropping altitude quickly as he wrenched the chopper back into level flight.

The truck started to roll slowly forwards, no more than a slow walking pace, but sending a clear message to the team that it was time to go. Aswon started to sprint towards the truck, not being able to see the combat between Shimazu and the assailant on the other side of the trailer and trusting to someone else to finish the job. Tads finished her rite of banishment and jumped for the step, pulling herself up and into the trailer, moving to the side and pushing the door open with one hand to make it easier for the next person. Kai did the same at the back of the truck, shouting at the team to get on board.

Hunter moved down towards the truck, now approaching him, and saw Shimazu fending off the new attacker. Once more he raised his assault rifle and shot him, twice, seeing all six rounds hit and stagger his opponent. The figure stumbled several steps, but must have had some well-crafted body armour underneath his jacket, as he appeared still combat-capable. He couldn’t see the grimace of pain that crossed his face, the blood that welled up out of his mouth as the rounds struck and perforated his lungs – all he could see was the guy still standing. Shimazu raised his sword, ready to risk a headlong attack at him, but this time it was Nadia that came to his aid. She raised her SMG and with both hands holding on so tightly her fingers turned white, she let rip with another long burst of fire, holding the trigger down until the slide locked back on an empty chamber. The muzzle still climbed, but this actually helped a little, as the rounds impacted from his left hip and climbed up his rib cage and shoulder, ending up with the last round penetrating his left ear. He dropped to the side, another clear casualty, and Nadia turned and jumped for the rear door, Kai grabbing her and pulling her aboard.

Marius increased speed some more, the truck picking up momentum as it rumbled away from the site of the ambush. Shimazu looked at the vehicle as it accelerated past him and made a gut call, stooping long enough to grab the dagger from his assailant’s hands. It was a weird kind of weapon, a long stiletto blade attached to a H shaped frame that was held in the hand, with the blade protruding between two fingers. As he scooped up the weapon, barely managing to keep hold of it around the haft of his sword, he realised that Marius really wasn’t messing around, and was accelerating hard. He sprinted, drifting to the right as the back of the trailer passed him and gave a massive spring, landing half in the trailer, with his legs flailing around behind him. The sword, dagger and gun clattered forwards across the floor as he let go of them, fingers desperately seeking any purchase they could find – a moment later he felt Tads grab him by the waist band of his trousers and physically haul him over the edge and into the trailer, then slam the door shut behind him.

Up front, Hunter leapt for the steps welded to the front cab. As he did so, one of the rounds in his back moved, touching a nerve and his arms and legs went into spasm. He felt his fingers drift over the railing, futilely grasping at the metal bar but lacking the strength to haul him up. He stumbled, and for a moment it looked like he would fall and roll under the wheels, but he managed to push himself back on balance and ran, pounding up the side of the road with his lungs on fire, sprinting by the side of the truck. Salvation came a moment later when the truck door opened and Aswon lent out. Grabbing his rifle by the barrel, he slid the two metre long weapon down, the sling forming a big loop, and snared it around Hunter’s head and shoulder. With a grunt, he pulled forward, guiding him towards the railing and helping to heave him up the steps and into the cab.

Marius did a quick count of life signs showing in the vehicle, got to the right number, hoped it was all the team, and not missing one with a stowaway. The engine popped and cracked as he hit the Nitros and everyone slid backwards or was pushed into the seat as the truck leapt forwards like a race car. Three seconds later they passed sixty kilometres per hour, and another three saw them topping a hundred. He eased off a little then, not wanting to wreck the engine and figuring that it was going to get them out of range of the ambush, but not other vehicles – so why bother.

Kai grabbed one of their first aid kits and was trying to bandage himself up, scrabbling to apply the pressure pads to the wounds on his back but unable to get anything in the right place. Aswon appeared at the doorway from the cab, checking that everyone was ok and saw him ineffectually trying to bind his wounds.

“Shouldn’t we stop and get Tads to do some of her healing magic?”

“No. Don’t you remember – always do first aid first. I just didn’t think I was going to need this much first aid! Besides, I don’t think Marius would want to stop yet!”

Aswon nodded in agreement as Kai gave up in disgust, dropping bloody bandages all over the place and ended up sticking some to the wall of the truck and just leaning back on them, hoping they’d start to stem the blood loss. As Aswon looked over, he saw Nadia sitting in the shower tray at the back left corner of the vehicle, rocking slightly with her head buried in her hands. He moved down to check on her, but she didn’t appear wounded – more traumatised. He pulled her up and out of the shower, moving her to a bed and covering her with a blanket for the moment, then went back up front to check on Hunter and Marius.

In the rear trailer, Tads had pulled her first aid kit out and was applying compression bandages to Shimazu’s wounds, using the dermal stapler on the rips and rents in his flesh from his close combat fight. Once she’d done all that she felt she could with the physical kits, she concentrated hard, pulling in mana from around her and channelling the golden energy into his body. It took her a minute, but as she finished, the magical power had closed his wounds entirely, and the bandages covered fresh whole skin, without any trace of the wounds that had been there only a minute before.

Back at the front, Aswon checked on Hunter, who was snugged into his corner with his gun ready, keeping an eye on the road outside while his back was pressed into the seat, keeping the wounds under pressure. He didn’t seem to be actively bleeding, so Aswon left him be for the moment. He triggered the intercom, punching through the code to transmit to Marius,

“Marius, I know you’re driving us away from an ambush, and I don’t want you to stop now. But Nadia’s in a bit of a bad way back there. Physically fine, but she might be losing it mentally. I’m gonna go keep an eye on her, but this might be something better for you to do. And we probably want to stop and check on the two in the back and get some healing sometime… so whenever you think it’s safe to stop, it might be an idea.”

With that, he cut the circuit, and pushed through into the back of the vehicle to check that Kai hadn’t passed out and that Nadia wasn’t playing with her gun, as the truck drove at high speed to the east, leaving behind a scene of devastation and carnage on the highway.


	75. 075 - Escaping the ambush

Date 15/02/2060, Location 41.23738, 36.53925

As the truck sped to the west down the asphalt road, Hunter stood on the rear seat, his torso and head out of the cupola and watched the road behind them, his assault rifle held tightly in his hands. Blood oozed from the wounds on his back, being driven around his flanks like a crazy ink-blot picture, but he ignored the shooting pain from his back and concentrated on the road behind them, watching as the smoke cloud from the downed chopper receded into the distance and the road behind them remained mercifully clear.

In the rear of the truck, Kai struggled with the first aid kit, pulling at bandages impregnated with coagulants and broad spectrum antibiotics, trying to get them applied to his back and the gunshot wounds there, flinching as he twisted and writhed and pulled at the wounds. No matter how he contorted, he couldn’t apply them properly. Marius was driving, and he could see Hunter’s legs through the door, and catch the occasional word from Aswon as he checked the rear view mirrors, his massive rifle ready to back up the Englishman. With Tads and Shimazu in the trailer, that only left Nadia unaccounted for.

He looked around and saw her legs protruding from the bunk, unmoving.

“Nadia?”

“Nadia!”

“NADIA.”

She didn’t respond, but her saw her legs tremble slightly – she wasn’t asleep or unconscious. Kai frowned and sighed heavily. He was in a lot of pain, had been shot at, and wasn’t in the mood for messing around. He concentrated and modulated his voice, shaping his vocal cords to channel power into his speech.

“Look at me.” The words came out in a low pitched hiss, strange harmonics rumbling and echoing at the edge of normal perception. She looked up at him, her gaze slowly rising up from the floor of the trailer, dragging its way up his body to meet his eyes. He saw her cheeks glisten as the tears rolled down her face, and her jaw trembled. Other than the tears, her lips were dry, and he could see them quiver uncontrollably. He was about to tell her to come and help him with the dressing, but instead just draped the dressing over his back and leant back against the edge of the truck. A stab of pain told him that he was leaning more or less in the right place, but he had to trust that the pads were actually blocking up the wound and doing some good. But, for the moment, he had bigger concerns – like a member of his team about to have a complete meltdown.

“Light the gas,” “Grab the kettle,” “Fill the kettle.” Slowly he talked her through the mundane process of making a cup of tea for him, keeping the commands short and sharp. She carried them out like an automaton, tears streaming down her face, and the sound of rattling cups and spoons could be heard over the roar of the engine as her trembling hands moved them around. But, as she progressed, the trembles calmed slightly, and the tears stopped as the immediacy of the action passed, and her system returned to normal from the massive dose of adrenaline that had coursed through her veins.

Kai was just sipping on his cup of tea, trying not to move or disturb the wounds on his back whilst Nadia sat watching him from the bottom bunk, half her face hidden in shadow as she lay like a frightened animal, her large dark eyes watching him intently when the intercom chirped into life. Tads called out over the interlink, “Hey, everyone ok up there? We’re both ok back here.” Kai motioned and winced in pain, and Nadia passed him the microphone before retreating to her bunk.

“Well, I’m shot, but stable. Hunter the same, Aswon and Marius ok. It would be lovely to see you up here, actually.”

“Well, get Marius to stop, and we’ll move to the front. I’m actually thinking – it might be worth moving the boxes into the truck, just so that trick won’t work again. I mean, I don’t want to lose the trailer and the lodge. That’s mine, and I need it. But there’s no reason to attack the trailer if there’s nothing in there they need, right?”

“Out of sight, no sign of pursuit!” Hunter called down, shouting against the slipstream, then slowly and carefully climbed down after one quick look around. He moved into the back and collapsed into one of the seats, reaching for some painkillers and throwing a handful down his neck, washed down with a squeeze from his waterbottle. Aswon stuck his head through the door, and pointed at the microphone.

“Tads?” Kai nodded at him. “TADS!” He raised his voice, projecting and slowing his speech slightly. “Can you get a spirit to go check the outside of the truck? I’m thinking that last guy we fought – he must have jumped from the chopper, then leapt over the hedge and stuff to get to us. Looked like an adept. It’s possible that he managed to get something thrown onto the van to trace us.” There was a few seconds of quiet from the other end of the link

“Ok, done – got something looking now. It should let me know if it finds anything.”

Kai relayed Tads thought about moving the golem parts into the truck to Aswon and Hunter, watching them consider their options. Neither of them rejected the idea, though both looked around the cramped interior and he could see them playing a mental game of Tetris as to where everything would fit. Kai changed the settings on the intercom, pushing the connection through to Marius, and relayed the plan once more, again getting no complaints from their rigger.

“Oh, we do want to stop though, and get the other two back with us, and get some treatment done.”

“I don’t want to stop yet, still close to the ambush site. The further we are, the more chance we have of losing them.”

“Ok, I can see that – but I do want to stop soon. Like the next town.” There was a moment’s silence, then the German’s voice came back, with a sigh of resignation.

“Fine, there is a town coming up, another few kilometres away. Carsamba, it has a fuel station on the east side of the town, across the river. We can stop and refuel, which will give us more than enough to reach the handover point without stopping again, we can grab some food and transfer people over. It’s only twenty clicks from the Ambush site though, so we shouldn’t stay long. And has anyone checked us for bugs or trackers?”

Aswon rummaged around and pulled out the bug scanner, flipped it on and started to play it around him in a circle. He froze as he got a twitch, but then the signal vanished, so he went back and forth a few times, monitoring carefully and adjusting the bandwidth controls. About thirty seconds later there was another kick of the readout.

“I think we do have something on us. I’m going outside to check!” With that he stowed his rifle, and climbed up and out onto the roof of the truck. Unseen, his Gecko tattoo flared slightly, the magical power binding him to the surface and keeping him safe as he crawled over the top of the vehicle with the scanner. He gave a start as he saw a shimmer ahead of him, a distortion in the air flow that seemed out of place, and he hastily changed to his astral vision and gave a start as he saw a large spirit sitting on the roof, squatting on its haunches and staring at a spot. It waggled its bottom, and looked just like a domestic cat stalking a bit of string or something similar. He watched for a second and saw it starting to pounce, excitement and glee radiating from it – before it pulled back and resumed its position and started to watch again. The pounce was timed with another kick on his instrument, and he had an idea.

Crawling forward he moved to the spot that the spirit was staring at, and carefully shielding his face from the windstream, peered at the roof with a hand shielding his eyes. Ahh! There, he caught the faint edge of a disk of thin film. He worked at it with his nails, and slowly peeled back the fifteen centimetre diameter disk, holding it up to the light and catching sight of the faint circuitry that ran through it. It looked like a variation on an activate-on-demand tracker – but this gave off a pulse after a pre-determined period instead.

He moved back to the cab and carefully aimed, and then with a deft flick of his wrist sent the disk spinning through the air into the side of a farm vehicle passing them on the other side of the road, being rewarded with a sound like a slap as the disk stuck to the vehicle. He watched as the farmer drove off happily in the other direction, taking the homing beacon with it, then turned back to see the spirit continuing the search over their vehicle. He played the detector over the vehicle some more, but didn’t get any more twitches, so he carefully climbed back inside, heading over to the intercom.

“Your spirit was very confused. It was set to come up for one pulse every thirty seconds or so – so it probably was having a hard time deciding if it was a bug or not. Kept jumping on it then changing its mind.” Aswon shook his head as he relayed the information, wondering what it would be like to be relatively intelligent, but to have no idea or background into the world of man and the technological wonders they had produced. No wonder it was confused – and it had gotten itself into a loop trying to decide what to do about it.

They felt Marius slow slightly, as he entered the town and encountered some traffic, having to brake hard a couple of times as the locals pulled out of side streets straight onto the main carriageway, with no real regard for other traffic. A couple of minutes passed, then the outside noise changed abruptly as they crossed the bridge over the Yesilirmak Nehri river that ran through the centre of town, the rumble of town being replaced by the sound of water washing back and forth for a few moments, then changing back again as they hit the eastern shore.

“So, what do you think happened with the trailer?” asked Kai. It was Tads that answered first;

“Could have been a spirit commanded to unplug stuff. Could have been someone at range with some good quality binoculars and a powerful magical fingers spells. Those are the two most likely, I think.”

“Maybe a device planted on the vehicle when we stopped, that dropped off when the trailer unhitched,” suggested Marius. They shrugged, suspecting that they’d never know how it had been achieved specifically.

They felt the truck sway as Marius pulled into the station, and heard him clamber out of the cab to go and see to the fuelling, along with a distant slam as the trailer door opened and closed, then thirty seconds later, the trucker door opened and Shimazu and Tads peered around the opening. 

“Right then, Aswon, Nadia – come give us a hand, please. Let’s get these boxes shifted into here as quick as we can.” Nadia crawled out of the bunk space and moved quietly to assist, whilst Aswon kept an eye on her surreptitiously. It was hard work, but done in a few minutes between the four of them, finishing off around the same time as Marius finished refuelling the massive tank. 

Kai and Hunter sat back in silence, waiting for them to finish. Kai gave a little shudder as he felt a trickle of blood sliding down the bottom of his back, but it didn’t feel like much, so he left it be, waiting for the others to finish loading before he bothered them for treatment.

They’d put in just over two hundred litres of fuel, and Marius came to grab a credstick from Kai before heading into the payment area of the shop, grabbing a little plastic basket as he did so and filling it with glucose drinks and tablets and various other “pick-me-up” snacks. The cashier rang up the supplies and debited the stick for just over 2, 060 Nuyen, leaving the balance much reduced.

With everyone back on board and in the truck section, along with the cargo it became very cramped in the rear of the truck. Marius stuck his head into the rear to check that everything was ok.

“Give us another two to three minutes, please. This treatment will be much easier to do if we’re not rocking around,” Shimazu asked, already gloved up and putting on a disposable plastic apron over his clothes, the first aid kit and supplies opened up next to him. Marius frowned and stood watching – understanding the reason why, but not liking it one bit. At least the truck was concealed from overhead surveillance by the fuel stop canopy….

As Kai leaned forward to allow Shimazu access to his back, Tads and Shimazu both jumped back reflexively.

“Get back! Get away from him!”

Kai froze as they realised they were talking about him, whilst the others scrunched back swiftly, not understanding why, or what was going on. Tads grabbed a torch and shone it behind Kai, whilst Shimazu carefully peered around him, looking at his back and the black pulsating mass that was there, his eyes flitting over to the jar of leeches, then back again. Kai got a terrible sinking feeling, and tried to look round and over his shoulder.

“No Kai, keep still. It looks to have clamped onto the wounds, just keep still while we look at this.” Shimazu put a hand on his shoulder, gently leaning him forward to get a good look at the quivering mess embedded in the wounds and growing in size with every gulp of blood. “What do you use to get rid of leeches and slugs and things?”

“Fire!” announced Hunter, “Or salt. But fire is better.”

“I think we should try salt first, thank you,” said Kai, looking a little pale now. “Anytime soon is good.”

Shimazu grabbed the salt pot, and started to tip the contents onto the black glistening flesh, a steady stream of white crystals landing on the pitted surface and disappearing quickly. Kai screamed in pain as the creature seemed to go into a frenzy, and for the first time he could feel the thousands of tiny serrated teeth chomping away at his flesh as the creature tried to physically burrow into him to escape the assault. Shimazu snatched the water container from Hunter and doused the creature, trying to wash off the salt and dilute any remaining crystals or residue.

“Well, I don’t think that works. Fire might still be an option – but not inside, and outside is too obvious.” Aswon leant in with a bottle of the cheap alcohol they normally carried for bribery purposes, and poured it carefully down Kai’s back, over the leech. It didn’t seem to have an effect, even after they waited for a minute or two, so he shrugged.

“Well, it was worth a try – looks like you can’t get them drunk. At least the wound should be a bit cleaner!” Tads shook her head at him.

“Ok everyone, stand behind me and I’ll try to stun it – just like the bed lice.” Tads rolled up her sleeves and cracked her knuckles, whilst everyone else moved out of her line of sight. She blasted at both Kai and the leech with her magic, casting using a very light touch but lots of power – hoping that with her mental protection, Kai’s mind would shake off the assault but the simple mind of the creature would be overwhelmed. Both of them shook as the blast hit them, but neither fell over, so she hit them again. This time she was rewarded by the creature peeling back off and away from Kai’s spine, flopping onto the surface behind him. With obvious distaste, Shimazu grabbed it in gloved hands, and put it into a clear bag for now, to keep it contained, then changed his gloves and attended to Kai.

Shimazu went to work, tending to the wounds which were now leaking blood freely with the removal of the leech. He packed them out and applied coagulants directly into the flesh, then bandaged him up and sealed the wounds tightly. Tads took over, and a minute later the truck was filled with golden light as the mana went to work directly on the wounds. Once more the effect was remarkable, and in less than four minutes after the leech was removed, Kai was as good as new.

Now he was feeling better, Kai helped Shimazu with Hunter’s wounds, spending time rooting around and pulling out the slugs that were worryingly close to his spine, before tending to the ragged wounds and bandaging them up. Tads moved in, and the golden glow filled the truck with bright light once more. This time though, whilst the outer layers of skin closed over and looked good as new, Hunter still grimaced and winced as he moved.

“Hey, what gives? Have I upset you? Why don’t I get the full treatment?”

Tads stared at him for a moment, giving him a moment to look at her bloodshot eyes and the edge of fatigue that crept over her face.

“I’m capable of magical healing – but I’m not an engineer. Magic works on the flesh, but not on the chrome. Bits of you are more machine than man, and I can’t do anything about that. Your soul is damaged and polluted by the things inside you, and it’s hard to revitalise. That’s the best I can do.”

Hunter sniffed a moment, then nodded his head and mumbled a thanks. It looked like he wanted to argue about the relative merits of his cyberwear, but wasn’t going to do so at the moment. Instead he worked his arms and waist, flexing to see how bad the damage was. He looked to have a pretty good range of motion, and it wasn’t actually too bad – it had just surprised him that any injury remained. He hefted his gun and checked the pain levels, and figured that he should be back to normal in a day or so anyway – it felt more like a sprain now.

Kai looked around at the others, then at the leeches in the jar and bags.

“Right, strip search. Everyone, get your clothes off, now – let’s make sure that there’s no more of these things on any of us. No messing around now, let’s just get this done.”

Surprisingly enough, nobody complained – just stripped quickly and efficiently. Maybe being nearly naked in front of each other during the ID scans had been enough to get rid of any lingering body modesty. Maybe it was a sign of them starting to gel together as a team. Or maybe the threat of weird magical leeches being attached to delicate parts of their body was more pressing than any fear of being eyed up by the others. Regardless, they quickly got each other checked over, and found themselves clear of the creatures, then hurriedly got dressed again.

“Shimazu, let’s get all your leeches put into the trailer, away from us. Marius, start us up, as soon as Shimazu’s back aboard, we’ll roll out – we’ve been here long enough.” Shimazu went wide-eyed when they were announced as “his” leeches, but grabbed them and ran to the trailer, whilst Marius got them started up again. Thirty seconds later, they rolled out of the garage as Shimazu leapt back up into the truck, pulling the door shut behind him.

Shimazu started to rake through the cupboards as they pulled out, going through their supplies carefully. The others watched him with curiosity for a minute, until he held up a jar of hotdogs with a cry of exclamation.

“We got two jars off that woman. Half the leeches in each one, I think. But both jars were the same. Except the two jars I put into the trailer now – they’re different. Well, one of them is different to the other, I mean – one is like this?”

They looked around at each other, and there was a babble of voices as the each denied having had anything to do with the situation, as they looked at each other in confusion. Shimazu pulled up pictures of the two jars in the back on his phone, and showed them around, clearly identifying the slightly different styles between the two. They were all confused, and couldn’t explain why the jar didn’t match, or what it signified.

They drove on to the east, then Hunter gave a start as his pocket vibrated. He dug out his phone, raising it to his ear and answered with a non-committal “Hi.” He listened for a few moments, then relaxed.

“Oh, hi Julius. Yeah, go ahead, good to talk.” He chatted for a few minutes, then bade farewell to his caller and hung up. Kai raised an eyebrow to him, and waited for him to speak.

“That’s Julius, my mate over at Ares. He’s the guy who works in the satellite and image recon office, over in the Netherlands – the one that got us the map and the crossing points into Iran. Kai and the others nodded in understanding. “Well, he’s run into an issue with his boss, some kind of office politics. So he’s looking for some info to help out – something to get him an ‘attaboy’ and score some points. So he wants some info from us, if we can give it – something that doesn’t compromise us, but helps him out.” The team looked at each other, then to Kai.

“I don’t think that’s a problem – plenty of info we can give him about Turkey – which shouldn’t be a problem to us if we’re careful. And we’re leaving anyway…. Yeah, we can help your friend out, and keep him sweet.”

Hunter pulled out his computer, and started to tap away, creating section headings to add data to. Various members of the team leant over to offer thoughts and opinions, and the list grew: The attack on the Power plant, the Warlord on the Turkish / Trans-Caucass League border, the Mosque and the Imam that had saved them in Constantinople, the Steel Mill and their appalling safety record – and the level of bribery involved, the nature reserve they had explored – and the remarkably proficient sensor net emplaced within it, the location of the Mafia contact in the graveyard, and the link to the Mr. Kulkachev back in Batumi, that Sasha’s garage was a good place to get some “quiet” work done for Ares operatives in the city, and the level of police response that could be expected in the event of a public incident.

Whilst this was going on Shimazu kept an eye on Nadia, and wasn’t liking the look of what he saw. She was withdrawing into herself, not really communicating with anyone and not doing anything – just lost in her own thoughts. He stared at Aswon until he made eye contact, then meaningfully flicked his eyes over towards Nadia a couple of times. Aswon looked back at him and nodded, then clambered over the boxes and moved towards the rear of the truck and the tiny field kitchen, asking Nadia to come with him.

She followed him slowly, clambering over the boxes and ending up perched on the largest box, presumably holding the chest piece of the golem cargo. Aswon started to grab ingredients and started to chat with Nadia.

“Thinking after that bit of excitement, I think we deserve a treat, right? Well. Ok then, let’s see. Of course we’re a little limited with the cooking stuff here, and the cookies didn’t work so well last time. Maybe biscuits would work better. Do you know what the difference is between biscuits and cookies are? That’s always confused me.” He wittered on, drowning her in trivial questions about food, on and on, not even really giving her much of a chance to respond. The questions got more inane as he went on, the truck rumbling down the highway whilst the highly skilled mercenary rifleman got flour and chocolate chips all over his fingers. Eventually she snapped.

“I can’t believe you’re asking me about food and I shot a man in the head and killed him!” Her outburst was loud and full of emotion, and for a moment there was silence in the truck. Then the click of fingers on the keyboard resumed as Hunter started typing again, with Tads and Kai looking back at the screen. Aswon stopped, letting the dough rest for a moment and looked at her.

“Well, I’m hungry. And so are you probably. You’ve had a massive shot of adrenaline run through your system, and a period of intense physical activity, stress through the roof and now you’re at the bottom of a recovery cycle. That’s at least half the reason you’re quivering – it’s your body demanding complex carbs. Ever wondered why soldiers are so often found eating in the movies – apart from a good time for dialogue to explain the plot? It’s because that’s what they do. They have to.” Nadia stared at him, blinking hard to repress tears.

“It’s not like you really had a choice. The enemy turned up with guns, and tried to kill us. Kill or be killed. There’s not really many other options. Oh, sometimes it’s a threat, sometimes you can negotiate, and sometimes you DO have a choice – and when you do, don’t throw that away. But sometimes you have to be realistic, and realise that people will force you to make choices you don’t want to, and there’s not really time or ability to look for other options.”

“We didn’t choose to put you in that position – you chose to come with us. And being brutally honest, we’re not sure it’s the life for you. That’s why we were looking to set up a base, and were having a look at those places back east. Play to your strengths. We want you to run that base, to look after it and manage it for us. To be with us, without being on the road, running those risks. We know you can manage the logistics of that with your eyes shut. We’re not sure you want to shoot the enemy in the head. But that’s part of the work we do, the life we lead. We don’t go looking for it, but it’s there, and it happens.” Nadia blinked at him, considering her words as she listened to him. It fell silent in the truck for a moment, whilst Nadia processed what he had said, and thought about how she felt. It was the first time anyone had explicitly said anything about her not travelling with them – or managing a facility for them.

“Have you…I mean how many people have you killed?” Aswon smiled a little, but spoke quickly before Nadia could take offence.

“It’s normally the first question I get asked when I say I’m a mercenary. Nothing personal. Well, I used to keep count. And before you go to the second question – yes, I remember my first one. As, I suspect, will you. It never goes away. After a while I stopped counting. Not because I don’t care, but because it distracts you from life. Remember the dead, just don’t dwell on them and don’t let them dominate your life. But don’t forget them, or you lose sight of your moral compass, and it gets too easy.” Aswon went back to kneading the cookie mixture, thinking about his own demons for a moment, whilst Nadia watched him, studying his profile as his jaw worked, replaying something in his mind.

“How many people has…. Marius killed?” Aswon couldn’t help himself. His head snapped round to face her, to look her into the eye. He saw the look on her face – the need to know more about the man she had trusted, the man she had travelled with. The man that she had slept with. Aswon saw a gaping chasm of danger ahead of him - of being drawn into a relationship that he had no rights to be in, and of the potentially huge amount of damage he could do to. He drew in a breath, wondering how he was going to get out of this, without destroying the work he’d done over the last few minutes. It was at this moment that Shimazu spoke, arriving like the Seventh Cavalry of the old west, riding to the rescue at the last minute. 

“I’m not sure Marius actually kills people. Most of the time it’s the vehicle. It might not be much, but it’s an important distinction.” The remark was flippant, but delivered in such a deadpan voice, with impeccable timing and appropriateness. Nadia couldn’t help but snigger, a glot of tears and snot rolling around in her nose with a most disgusting noise. It broke the moment though, and by the time Nadia had found a tissue and blown her nose, Aswon was wiping dough off his fingers and trying to get cookie mixture onto the baking tray to put into the tiny burner to cook. The question remained unanswered and hopefully forgotten.

The tapping stopped, and Hunter pulled down on the screen, closing the laptop down with the report partially completed. He slid the machine back into its carrying pack and stowed it, then clambered over to Nadia, sliding onto the box she was sitting on, but facing the other way. He leaned back, placing a hand gently on her shoulder, and turned his head to face her, “It doesn’t get any easier, but you do get to live with it. If you need to talk, just ask.”

Nadia stared at him for a moment, and Hunter stared right back. It was as if she was speaking to another person, and her pupils dilated slightly as her brain processed emotions. For perhaps the first time, Hunter had let down his guard with her, and wasn’t showing her his “public face”, but seemed to be speaking from the heart. She didn’t know what to say, so she nodded mutely at him. 

He leant forwards, and the mask went back up. As he moved forwards off the box, he theatrically leant to one side, and let rip with a wet sounding fart, as if he had to excuse his moment of touching concern with some base level behaviour.

“Oh Hunter, that stinks!” Nadia exclaimed, as she moved off the box suddenly, to go stand by Aswon. Hunter just smirked at her, and shuffled back towards his perch, grabbing the computer again. Nadia looked around at the occupants of the truck – Aswon the merc, who no doubt had killed plenty of people over his decades of work, Shimazu the bodyguard, who she’d seen leap into combat and behead people without a second of thought, Hunter the Englishman, normally so brash and rude, yet capable of surprising depths. None of them had any reason to want her here, yet they’d all taken the time to look after her after the shooting. To get her back on an even keel, and to think about what she’d done. For a moment, she felt more at home with this bunch of slightly sociopathic travelling rodeo clowns than she ever had at home.

Her thoughts were disturbed by a cry of alarm from the front of the truck. A moment later the truck quivered slightly, then accelerated sharply, throwing them off balance. The speakers crackled and then Marius’ voice spoke quietly, somewhat detached as if he was concentrating hard on something else.

“Achtung! Tads has spotted a chopper following us. Checking it now. Ach, it’s the one from the ambush. Several miles back, and off our left side. Looks to be pacing us at the moment. Checking details, but you might want to gear up.”

The back of the truck erupted into action. Aswon turned and clambered over the boxes, heading for his rifle and to get into the front where he had access to the roof hatch. Hunter shoved the laptop away again, sentence half-finished and grabbed his assault rifle, quickly checking the clip. Shimazu grabbed his armour and frowned as one of the plates slid out of the massive tears and rips in it. Giving it a shake, bits of Kevlar and ceramic trickled out, and he dropped it on the floor in disgust, scavenging around for the spare he’d purchased. Nadia took a moment, and then flipped off the fuel to the burner. The cookies would be ruined – but to be fair, Aswon had probably already accomplished that – but at least the truck wouldn’t catch fire. She grabbed a first aid kit and started climbing into one of the armour vests, struggling with the straps and buckles, but determined to pull her weight.

The team loaded up, checked their weapons and donned their armour, whilst Marius worked on the sensors, refining his targeting data. A minute later he confirmed that it was definitely the chopper that had over-flown them at the ambush. Either Aswon hadn’t done as much damage as he’d thought, or they’d managed to put some temporary repairs in pretty quickly. Either way though, it seemed to have learnt its lesson, and was staying a good distance back, and gently weaving from side to side in flight, making a difficult shot almost impossible. For the moment, it just seemed to be pacing them – content to sit and watch, and follow along. It was actually out over the water, quite low and on their back left quarter, just pacing them as they drove along the road.

“It won’t have the fuel capacity to stay back there forever, but it could be vectoring other units onto us, and keeping us on a short leash until they arrive,” Marius sounded frustrated over the intercom, having no systems that he could use to strike at their pursuer.

Hunter called out to them, his fingers flying across the computer screen to examine their route. “Ok, we’ve got options. There’s three short tunnels coming up through the rough terrain ahead, between one hundred and three hundred metres long, then there’s a big beast, almost four kilometres long. If we can use the smart materials to change our signature, maybe throw up some spells?”

Kai nodded, but turned towards Tads first. “Can you do something to try and disrupt them? I mean spell-wise? Anything that would take them down.” Tads thought for a moment, but then shook her head.

“Not really. I’ve not really got any spells designed for damaging vehicles and things. Still a lot of stuff on the list to get. Unless…” she looked thoughtful for a moment. “I’ve got one thing to try…”

She moved to the window, taking the offered binoculars from Aswon. After a few seconds adjustment, she pressed her face up against the rubber eye cups and looked for the chopper, finding it after a few seconds.

“Ok, now I’m not sure how this is going to work, not tried this before….” Her voice trailed off as she concentrated, and her voice began to chant in the strange language she normally used when casting spells, her fingers fluttering as she focussed the energy. Moments later a raw onion splattered against the window of the vehicle from the inside, quickly dropping down to the floor. “Oops, sorry. Um… ok, over there is still a long way, not just at the end of the binoculars. Let’s try that again.”

The chopper seemed to stutter in the air, then banked sharply to the side as a small but steady stream of raw vegetables appeared just in front of the air intake. Fortunately for the pilot the grill stopped most of the veg entering, and anything small enough to get through was mashed by the whirling machinery. 

“Sorry, that’s about as big as I can go. Not sure it’s really stopped them.” They watched, and sure enough the chopper banked back, climbing a little higher as they entered more rugged terrain. Without warning a long discoloured patch appeared over the windscreen, about a half metre in height and covering the vehicle from left to right. They watched it carefully expecting it start dissolving the glass or bursting into flames at a moment’s notice – but no, nothing happened.

SLAM!

Three small birds plummeted down into the windscreen of the truck, killing themselves instantly. With a combined speed of about a hundred and twenty five kilometres per hour, they almost exploded on impact, but the feathers and gore stuck to the windscreen in a big splatter pattern. A moment later some more hit, then some more.

“Glue strip, and some kind of animal control spell. I guess they don’t have anything that will hurt the vehicle directly either – but that’s pretty inventive!” Tads exclaimed. “I mean it’s awful, because they’re just murdering those creatures, but if we were a normal vehicle with a driver, it’s going to pretty much force you to stop.”

Kai poked the intercom with haste. “Marius, you still good?”

“Ja, Ja – sensors are clear. I’m not looking out of the cab anyway. I can drive through this no problem.”

They burst into the first tunnel, being cut off from sight for about six seconds, then burst out into the cold winter sunlight again. Another kilometre sped past, then a slightly longer tunnel, this one taking nearly fifteen seconds to pass through. 

“Ok folks, another two klicks, then we have the long tunnel. That should give us about two minutes out of line of sight to work this through. Let’s get ready.” Hunter had the map at maximum zoom, and their position marker scrolled smoothly down the pathway marked out, edging closer to the flashing icon marking the entrance to the tunnel.


	76. 076 - Delivery time

Date 15/02/2060, Location 40.9972, 37.66739

The tunnel came into view as they drove around a bend in the road, the steep sides of the craggy rocks blurring past the truck. To their left, the rock face rose in sharp terraces, wire cages full of rocks and boulders securing the steeply-blasted side and preventing landslides down onto the tarmac below, while power lines ran parallel to the road suspended from tall and spindly plasteel towers. To their right, the slope was natural, covered in spiny bushes and other groundcover, hardy perennials that covered the ground and surrounded the bare winter trees. The pale winter sun was filtered through grey clouds leaving the scene painted with a flat and uninteresting light, muting colours and lending the horizon with a hazy finish.

As the truck rolled slightly into the curve, Tads, Aswon and Shimazu stiffened simultaneously. All three of them got a sense of change in the air, a subtle feeling as astral space rippled and warped around them. It might be another magical ritual trying to find them, or a spirit looking for them – they weren’t sure what – but there was definitely magical shenanigans afoot. The truck roared past the line of faded and moss-covered cones that diverted traffic from their side of the road back to the other carriageway. They caught a glimpse of the abandoned northern tunnel, closed and dark for some unknown reason, before they plunged into the dark concrete tunnel, the truck roaring as the engine noise reflected off the solid walls and echoing back and forth.

Inside, the tunnel rapidly grew dark, their headlights throwing light only twenty metres or so forward, though they could see the lights of other vehicles approaching them in the distance. The overhead lighting was out, as were the gantries and signs. The tunnel was square for the first thirty metres, solid slabs of smooth plascrete, perfectly straight and true. In the ceiling, a recessed channel held the light fittings, all the panels cold and dark now. But, beyond this, the tunnel changed to be more circular, the walls curving up and around overhead in the darkness. The surface was rougher, the plascrete having been sprayed over the rock walls after the hole was bored, the cheap construction leaving behind an undulating surface that wavered back and forth alongside the road. A narrow pavement, no more than a half metre wide ran down each side of the road, and they spotted mounts and brackets on the tunnel side, that at one time probably mounted rescue equipment.

Marius eased up on the throttle, lowering the speed until he was only doing about thirty kilometres per hour. The road behind them was still clear and empty of traffic, the ambush scene far behind them presumably still stopping up the flow of traffic to the east. Facing them, the first car heading westbound flew past them, the battered car shrieking as the poorly fitted fan-belt scraped along the pulleys and the high-pitched noises reverberated off the walls. He activated the computer routine, and watched the progress as the fairing and air deflector changed shape, and the hood of the truck extended forwards and developed air scoops. All over the cab the silhouette altered, sometimes radically, sometimes more subtly in response to the smart materials flexing. With a ripple the photo-voltaic paint changed the colour of the exterior, taking on a deep navy blue colour instead of the faded forest green.

“How about another of those vehicle disguise spells, Tads?” asked Kai. Tads turned to face him, and started to speak.

“I can – but I’m not sure it’s a good idea. We know there’s a mage out there – or at least we’re pretty certain. Although the spell will probably be pretty good against most people, a mage will spot it and recognise it straight away on the astral plane.” 

“Ahh, right. Ok. So he’ll spot the spell then, maybe not know what it was – but they’d see only one vehicle under a spell, and that’s really suspicious…”

“Yes, more or less, that’s probably what would happen.”

Marius slowed some more, to a crawl, then a stop. After a moment the engine died, and Marius unjacked, pulling the bundle of wires and fibre optics from the socket on the back of his neck.

“I’m going to get rid of that crap on the windscreen.” He moved into the back, grabbing a scraper and some water and cleaning supplies, then he and Nadia climbed out onto the front and started to peel off the glue and dead animals from the front of the windscreen. In the cab, a spirited discussion began amongst the rest of the team.

“Right then, Tads – should you get in the trailer, if that’s where the strongest magical defences are, to stop whatever that feeling was?” asked Kai.

“I don’t think so. Yes, that’s where my lodge is – and it’s quite strong and well defended. But in there I can’t reach any of you, and if something is coming after one of you instead of me, I’m massively limited in what I can do to defend you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if I’m physically here, and a threat appears, I can take direct action against it. And pulling mana through my body is fine – though I can get a headache if I pull too much through too quickly. But if I’m only here astrally, then there’s a whole range of magic I can’t do – anything that affects the physical world. I can channel mana through to the astral realm, but without a physical body here it’s much harder, and much more damaging to my astral form.” Tads looked at Kai, and saw that he still wasn’t clear.

“If I’m not in my body, I can only affect things in the astral realm, not the physical. And if I don’t fully channel the mana, instead of a headache, I get things like a stroke or a burst eyeball. Real, painful, physical damage that is life-threatening.” Kai’s eyes opened wider and he nodded in understanding. Aswon spoke before Kai could reply to her statement though.

“Actually, you might want to get into the trailer, just for a minute. We can perform an experiment, and this way can actually tell us some information. Magic is strange and wonderful – but it has rules, just like the rest of the world, if you can work them out. The truck is protected by a magical ward that acts as a barrier to magic trying to cross or penetrate it. Just like body armour will try and stop a bullet, a more complex ward will stop more powerful magic. If you go into the trailer, and the feeling you had stops, or slackens off – that means that whatever was targeting you was stronger than the ward here, but less powerful than the ward there….”

They considered this for a moment, then Tads climbed out of the truck and ran to the trailer, pulling herself up the steps and inside, then slamming the door behind her. A minute passed as she composed herself and checked around her, straining her senses to try and detect the feeling again. Thirty seconds after that she was back in the truck.

“Well, if that theory of yours is right – whoever was trying to affect me, is stronger than the ward on the truck, but not the one on the trailer. I’m not sure where that leaves us, but I guess we know one more thing now! And also, going into the trailer seems to have thrown off whatever it was – I can’t sense them anymore. And it does seem to be me they’re after.”

Shimazu twisted around in his seat to face them.

“So, do we push on through the tunnel and keep going, or do we turn back, and try to find another route?” He was answered almost immediately by Hunter, who had been busy with the map, and pointed to a route he had hashed out on the mapping software.

“I don’t think we want to go back – it’s going to take us close to two hundred kilometres out of our way, to try and get a route up into the mountains and around – and on top of that we’re heading much deeper into the Kurdish zone. We’ve travelled the coast road, I think we need to stay on that.”

The others peered at the route, and the wide detour down to the south, frowning at the notations – the route was a mix of national and local roads, winding through the mountains and highlands. It was possible that they’d run into all kinds of trouble from landslides to bandits.

“Well, we can’t achieve much in here. We can’t even change lanes, not that it would be worth much. I wonder how long the other tunnel has been closed for? I mean, if that chopper is hovering over the exit of the tunnel, and we’re the only traffic really heading east at the moment, even if we don’t have a spell on us to give us away, and even looking a little different – it’s going to be obvious it’s us.” Aswon waved down the tunnel as he spoke, then gestured at the large wing mirrors to either side of the cab, still showing no traffic behind them.

They heard the back door open and checked back through the hatchway, seeing Nadia and Marius climbing up and into the truck. As Nadia dealt with the bucket of goop they’d cleaned from the window, Marius climbed through into the cab and started to jack in.

“Vot is our status?”

“I think we need to get turned around, and merge in with the stream of traffic heading back west, at least for the moment.”

Marius paused, one of the fibre optic cables in hand blinking a sullen red as he turned to stare at Kai.

“You want me to turn around, in this?” His eyebrow arched as he stared at the team leader, then turned away and stared at the tunnel beyond the vehicle. As if to punctuate his concerns, a farm truck rumbled past them in the other lane, with only a metre of clearance.

“Yes, we’re the only thing heading east at the moment – if we exit the tunnel, it’s going to look far too suspicious, no matter what colour or shape we are. Besides, you keep telling me you want a helicopter. You can’t have a helicopter if you’re not even a good enough driver to turn a truck around when it’s a bit tight on space…” Kai smiled, making it clear that he wasn’t being entirely serious – but there was still a slight, subtle challenge in his voice. Marius glared at him a moment, and then rammed the connection home, pulled his restraint harness on and cinched it tight.

“Might want to hang on….” His voice faded out as he merged with the machine, his brain synchronising with the vehicle systems over the rigger network. The engine roared into life and with a lurch accelerated forwards and then hard left. Still picking up speed it drove headlong at the tunnel, the wheels locked as far to the left as they would go. The occupants of the cab grabbed at seatbelts, headrests and each other as a momentary fear overtook them. The wall of the tunnel approached rapidly and it looked like Marius was about to kill them all. The brakes bit hard – everyone and everything in the truck lurched forwards. Nadia lost her footing in the back and both she and the mix of glue, dead animals and bloody water went lurching across the floor. A couple of plates slid free of the restrains and were dashed against the armoured skin of the truck, shattering into jagged pieces. In the cab several of the team looked out of the windscreen at the tunnel – they appeared to be actually touching the wall as far as they could see, but hadn’t actually felt an impact. Marius had cut it so fine, that the truck was resting against the concrete as the suspension settled. 

There was a crunch from the gearbox and the truck lurched backwards, not quite as fast but with the engine roaring as Marius kept the power on and controlled the motion of the vehicle using the clutch and brakes to fine-tune how much power got to the drive train and the wheels. Once again they flinched as the tunnel wall approached them in the distorted view of the mirrors and once again Marius slammed the brakes on at the very last second. Then they were in forward gear again, and lurched towards the other tunnel wall again. This time their motion was accompanied by a long drawn out blast from a weak and pathetic-sounding horn. A small and battered car had slowed to a halt on their right hand side, and the driver now had his head out of the window, shouting at them. They had no idea what he was shouting, the noise from the engines was too loud for that – but from the body language, it wasn’t complimentary.

The truck lurched back and forth, swinging around slowly in the tight confines of the tunnel. Another car pulled up behind the first, then a truck. They, too, added their horns to the cacophony, as they were forced to stop by the truck and trailer sprawling across both lanes. Slowly the traffic built up to their side, unable to pass the obstruction. A few people got out of their vehicles, looking angrily at the vehicle as it edged backwards and forwards, but none approached them – content to make their displeasure known from a distance.

They reached a critical point – the truck was turned almost towards the western side of the tunnel, but the trailer still pointed to the east, slewed at an acute angle behind them. Neither could turn more without hitting the tunnel walls, or gouging chunks out of the other half of the vehicle. It looked like they were well and truly stuck. Marius edged forwards and backwards a few more times, the wheels turning full lock one way then the other, trying to get precious centimetres advantage to squeeze around – but it was not to be.

One or two of the waiting drivers now laughed, thinking the truck was stuck – and obviously not thinking through the import of this to their own journey, but their faces suddenly fell as the truck lurched – sideways. Inside the truck, everyone was flung like a rag doll to the right, several of them striking their head on the inner wall of the cab and thanking the foresight of the Russian designers for the thin quilted padding that was fixed over the crew areas. The truck suddenly dipped, the left side lowering dramatically, then with an explosive lurch the whole vehicle moved to the right again.

Horrible shrieking noises echoed down the tunnel as the trailer ground slightly against the truck with each lurch, and the vehicle wobbled alarmingly. The audience dived back into their cars, and got ready to try and swing their own vehicles around and get away from the madman driving the armoured behemoth, but found themselves trapped in place by the vehicles behind who couldn’t see what was going on. 

Marius sat in his harness, head rolling first one way and then the other as the truck lurched around him, the overrides in the rigger jack preventing him from taking any physical action whilst he was meshed with the truck. Nadia grabbed his head, holding it as still as she could manage to make sure he didn’t wrench anything during the unorthodox movement. Inside the machine, the essence of Marius grinned as his plan worked. Manipulating the air suspension, he repeatedly deflated and then explosively reflated the suspension, working the truck over in a series of hops and skips, almost physically dragging the trailer around like a massive tail. It was ruining his fuel efficiency keeping the engine working like this, and was putting hundreds of hours on the air filters, pumps and hydraulic systems – but it was working. Another two minutes, and the truck was turned enough that the front right corner of the truck was clear of the tunnel, and he could engage the gears and slowly drive forward, watching the trailer straighten out behind him. They pulled over onto the left side of the road, allowing the traffic on the right to drive past them.

As they watched the traffic jam clear, angry drivers from cars and trucks alike signalling them clear and rather explicit instructions, they had an idea. Quickly discussing it, they found a likely vehicle – a large farm truck, and moments later it rippled and twitched as Tads cast her vehicle masking illusion around it and it took on the appearance of their own vehicle. Now, if anyone was watching their end of the tunnel, they’d see a vehicle hiding under a spell, and hopefully assume it was the team – except of course it wasn’t. Tads poured power into the spell, until it glowed brightly on the astral realm and was rock solid on the physical world… it was going to take a dragon to see through that much power!

“Ok, we’re not in anyone’s way at the moment, so let’s just stay here for a bit. Let that farm truck decoy them off, if they’re actually watching this end for a bit. Given the fight we had, my guess would be that they’re calling for reinforcements rather than assaulting directly – so the further away that truck goes, the longer they’ll distract them. And if they’re at the other end of the tunnel, well, the longer we wait, the longer they’ll be convinced that they’ve missed us.” The rest of the team listened to Kai’s logic, and there were general nods of agreement.

“Ach, and of course, the longer they stay on station – the more fuel they will burn. That chopper will have good range, but even sitting still they’ll use plenty of fuel and that limits their dwell time.” Marius seems content to wait for a bit, and sat working his head around carefully, wondering why his neck was quite so painful.

A discussion began amongst them – trying to get into the heads of their pursuers and work out what they would do to catch them, and what the team could do to counter those plans. Which of course required a further layer of planning from their opponents, and then a counter, counter plan. Aswon seemed to get into the spirit of things, and was four layers deep in a double-speak plan of bluff and counterbluff when he noticed that Tads had gone slightly cross-eyed – hardly surprising when he remembered that she was also sustaining the illusion on the farm vehicle.

They waited for a minute, then another, and saw the tail end of the traffic jam they had caused with their turning manoeuvre starting to filter past. Tads saw another large farm truck, something close in size to their own vehicle, and cast a second spell, also transforming it to appear the same as themselves. The spell was not as competently cast as the first – unsurprising as she was still concentrating on that with part of her attention – but would still fool most people. Now sustaining the two spells, the effect upon her was more noticeable. She reacted a moment slower than everyone else, and was preoccupied. A bead of sweat appeared at her temple, slowly making its way down her face until she idly swiped at it with the back of her hand.

The last of the traffic was gone, and Kai looked around at the area. They spotted a vehicle heading eastbound – the first they had seen since the ambush had been sprung. It appeared that the road had either been cleared, or people were going around the scene, and traffic was resuming its eastward flow. 

“Ok, Tads, do you still have that spirit on call?” He paused, but she seemed to ignore him. “Tads?” She stared at him for a moment, and it was obvious she hadn’t heard him the first time. “Still got that spirit?”

“The big one? Yes. Still here.”

“Great, can you get it to hide the vehicle from casual sight?”

“Yes. Done.” Her responses were short and curt, her normal verbosity toned down with the effort of carrying the spells. He looked around, but couldn’t see any change in the area around the truck, but Shimazu nodded to him, apparently having spotted something.

“Ok, Marius, let’s start up and pull over to the right side of the road, and follow the traffic out. When we get out of the tunnel, everyone have a good look about, and see if you can spot the chopper, or anyone else.” The team nodded at Kai, and moved to the windows and the roof hatch, getting ready to check around them. Marius started up the truck and eased them up to speed, leaving the tunnel on the westbound side of the road.

The sky was just as grey and boring as before, the light hazy and washed out. It also didn’t hold helicopter gunships full of armed troops, or even surveillance drones though. They craned their necks, peering down the flanks of the truck, eyes quartering the sky in an effort to look for the enemy.

Nothing.

Each of them reported back to Kai – no contact, no sighting, no enemy spotted. Kai nodded, then hit the intercom, and poked Tads, ensuring he had her attention.

“Right, see the layby up there, Marius? I want you to hang a turn there, get us going back to the east, and slot into the traffic as close as you can. The second we’ve completed the turn, Tads, I want you to drop both of the spells on the farm trucks. Everyone else – knock off your phones, radios, computers – everything electronic. We go from being noisy to dark, and try to disappear into the background. Ok, here we go… standby to turn… ready… now! Drop the spells. Gear off!”

Tads sighed in relief as she let the spells dissipate, her mind clearing and becoming quicker without the effort. Around her the others switched off devices and systems, checking over their inventory and luggage. Marius swung the truck around deftly, sliding into the gap between a battered minibus and a small van, and then matched speed with them, heading once more into the maw of the tunnel. They looked around them, still scanning the skies, wondering if the first herald of a sighting would be a rocket pod or a fireball bearing down on them.

But it was all quiet. They drove into the tunnel, and travelled sedately through it, following the minibus and with the van following them, driving through the level and mostly straight tunnel for 3.almost four kilometres, before emerging once more into the grey light. Some cars and lorries had passed them, going the other way, but nothing remarkable had happened and they all looked like ordinary folk, going about their business.

Emerging from the other end, they went through the same routine. Heads craned and eyes scanned. The top hatch was cracked and people checked directly above. Nothing. Nothing but the cold winter afternoon, a pale and hazy sun, and a sense of fatigue mixed with worry. The truck pushed on, and Marius picked up the pace a little, overtaking the minibus once they were back onto dual carriageway, and slowly leaving it behind. Faster cars appeared behind them from the tunnel and were carefully watched as they reached them, overtook and continued to head off into the distance. 

They drove on, making good time down the highway. The big diesel engine grumbled away and the massive tyres made a smooth but consistent roar along the tarmac, and the kilometres disappeared beneath them. Fifteen minutes later they hit the edge of Ordu, a large town spread out along the coast. Traffic grew heavier, and Tads asked the spirit to stop concealing them – the last thing they needed was to be rammed by someone who didn’t realise they were there. Soon they were cruising through the town proper, mid-rise apartments rising up on both sides of the street along with shops, plazas and the odd view of the sea to their left. They crossed the pair of rivers that ran through the town, and as the urban sprawl started to thin on the way out of the settlement they could see the vast sprawling agri-fields, full of thin-branched and bare hazel trees, retreating off to the south in well-planned rows, rising up into the foothills.

Advancing down the road with their eyes peeled, they drove past another airport – checking the skies carefully for any choppers taking off. They saw nothing, though, and in less than an hour had arrived at Giresun – a settlement that was much smaller than Ordu, but just as long. The thin ribbon town clung to the coast road, a narrow strip of development before entering the foothills covered with more well-managed trees and plants. To their left they could see a long stretch of beachline, well protected with breakers. It would probably be nice during the summer months, but under the winter light the sea was cold and forbidding, the coarse sand grey and sad. Marius kept up the best speed he could, contending with the local traffic.

They pushed on, and with every passing kilometre with no contact, they slowly relaxed. It appeared that they had thrown off their pursuit – whether through magical concealment, by hiding in the tunnel, or even just random luck such as their enemy running low on fuel – however it had happened, they were grateful.

Another hour passed, and they arrive at Gorele, another town that had sprung up on the coast at the mouth of a river. They crossed the large concrete bridge, following the road as it flowed along the coast, past a sheltered port that seemed to be set up for cargo ships – no sign of the sheltered beaches to tempt tourists and holidaymakers here. As they drove they grabbed food and drink from their supplies, not wanting to stop at a restaurant or café alongside the road. Instead they made do with a cold lunch, and put up with the tiny cramped toilet in the truck, making the best of what they had.

“Hey, I’ve been thinking. You know how when I disguise the truck, I can change the appearance of it, slowly, over time. Is there any way to get the colour changing stuff you had painted on to do that? Rather than just changing from red to green say?” Aswon and Hunter looked at Tads with surprise for a moment, then nodded. In hindsight, it seemed like an obvious thing, and much less likely to attract attention than suddenly flipping colour.

Moments later, they’d fired the computer back up, making sure the power on the transmitters was still off, keeping them at a minimum electronic footprint. They started muttering to each other about programming in loops with rising values of RGB indexes and tonal shifts, so the rest of the team left them to their geekery – they seemed quite happy.

They drove onwards, the highway now right at the coast edge, with the water looking like it actually undercut the other carriageway in places. The grey water was choppy, a million peaks of cold and uninviting swell topped with white caps that marched in rows to the horizon, to meet the grey and low hanging cloud. To the south a series of steep terraces rose up the hillsides, with houses and plantations perched on the switchback roads, seemingly all quiet in the winter afternoon.

Something caught the attention of Nadia, and she peered ahead of the truck. The movement attracted the attention of the others, and they too looked ahead, spotting a small tailback a couple of kilometres down the road. Tads raised her binoculars and spent a moment adjusting the view, trying to get a good look at what was going on.

“Hey, guys? Looks like a roadblock ahead. Got a big green truck, sort of like ours. At least a dozen guys with guns standing around in small groups. Tailback of a few cars. Oh, another truck, I think, parked further over, making people drive through an S-bend to get round them.” Kai nudged Tads and made a beckoning motion, and she let him have a look through the binoculars to confirm what she’d just described.

“Right then, Marius, slow us down a bit please, just casual though – give us a few more seconds to get sorted here.” Kai looked around the truck, and pointed at a few of the guns and more illegal bits of electronics that were lying around. “Let’s get tided up here, and everyone break out your medical IDs. We’ll go with the doctor cover again I think, and see if a little cash helps things along. Everyone ok?” The team nodded and moved about, putting away and hiding guns and equipment. Nadia poked Kai though, her bony finger catching him in the ribs.

“Medical ID? I don’t have one of those, just this?” She held aloft the ID covering her as a student. Kai thought about it for a moment, then nodded.

“That should be fine. You’re doing a year’s practical experience working with us, for Doctors without Borders. You’re not a medical student, but its good experience, and you hope it will show character to your university. Ok?” Nadia nodded, then moved around with the others, tidying gear away. Kai pondered for a moment, then looked for Hunter.

“Hey, where’s the next place along the road that’s likely to have a hospital? Or somewhere big enough to be heading?”

“Trabzon probably…. Yeah, that’s big enough for a hospital. Or at least a large clinic. Should be two hours or so down the road. If we can slow down another minute, I can check – but we’ll have to transmit.”

“No, I think that should be safe enough. Doctors, on the way to Trabzon hospital. Ok, game faces, everyone.” The truck pulled up to a halt behind the short queue of traffic, waiting behind the three cars and a battered old farm truck. Now they were close, they could make out the details of the road block. It appeared that both the trucks were very old and had clearly seen better days, being covered in rust and with obvious welds over the chassis in places. The “soldiers” were not much better. Wielding a motley collection of AK74s and similar design guns, they mostly wore jeans and t-shirts, or tracksuits, with a rag tag collection of webbing and bags over the top. There was nothing uniform about them, and they didn’t look particularly well-trained – but balanced against that was the knowledge that they were part of a resistance movement that had claimed nearly twenty percent of the country from the Turkish Army, and successfully held onto it. While the Turkish Army might not be a top tier armed force, they did have tanks, a navy and reasonable technology – as the team could attest to.

The farm truck was waved on the way, and the next car in line pulled forwards. While most of the guerrillas hung back, spread out around the area, a few approached the car with what appeared to be the leader. They moved to the driver’s side window, chatted for a moment with the occupant, and then there was a flash of movement – a SIN was handed out and slotted into a hand-held reader for a moment. Then the hand came back out to reclaim the SIN, and in a fleeting movement, it looked like a piece of paper was exchanged as well.

The next car was much the same, and now a little closer, they saw that it was definitely a note of some kind, probably a small bribe to the “checkpoint” to cover their admin fees. As the third and final car was checked, they confirmed this – it looked like the equivalent of about twenty Nuyen passing hands. When they were waved through, it was the team’s turn, and they rolled up to the same point on the road. Rather than waiting to let them rap on the door – and discover just how armoured it was, Kai opened the door and slid down to the road. He turned towards them with his best smile.

“English?” They shook their heads at him. “Ruski?” Again they shook their heads, then babbled at him. It sounded something like some of the languages they’d heard – maybe the same roots. He bashed on the door and waved for Hunter to come down, and for Aswon to listen in, then motioned for the sergeant (or whatever rank he styled himself as) to speak again. He spoke again, the language smooth and melodious, without the guttural sounds of the Arabian languages, but spoken with much the same pacing. Hunter shrugged his shoulders at Kai, and Aswon shook his head too – they had no idea what the guy was saying.

Kai took over, and with exaggerated body language showed them their SINS, and a selection of medical tools, liberally throwing in the word “Trabzon” as well. The sergeant didn’t seem too impressed, one way or another, and just waved for his minion to bring the reader over, and started to work through the IDs. Kai waited for an opportune moment and pointed at one of the ID sticks, saying something inconsequential – but letting the two hundred Nuyen’s worth of notes folded in his hands show slightly. The sergeant made a grunt, and deftly pocketed them, and quickly worked through the rest of the IDs, apparently satisfied. At least, right up until the last one.

He peered at the screen, then at Hunter, then back to the screen. Then he snorted, and shouted something to his troops. The minion with the device sniggered, as did several of the troops nearby, and the minion held aloft the device and repeated whatever the sergeant had said. The tittering spread, and several of the soldiers started to openly laugh.

Hunter, Kai and Aswon looked confused, but after a moment, Aswon opened the door to the truck a little more and coughed. Kai and Hunter climbed aboard, and Marius started the truck up, sliding deftly around the laughing guerrillas and making tracks whilst they were in a good mood. Accelerating back up to speed, they left the checkpoint behind them, along with the confusing issue of Hunter’s apparently amusing ID.

They hit Trabzon around 15:00, another large town or small city, spread out along the coast road and with terraces and suburbs spreading up the hills into the interior. As they drove along the dual carriageway running alongside the Dead Sea, they spotted a spur of rock thrusting out over the roadway, with a short tunnel bored through it – but on top of the spur of rock was an ancient ruined keep or fort of some kind. It looked interesting, but they were on the clock with no time for sightseeing. Just past the spur the road swung sharply south, around the port area with several medium-bulk haulers tied up by the jetty taking on cargo. The road bent eastwards again, and past another of the small regional airports, its single runway running parallel to the road – once again they checked carefully for air traffic around them, but it all seemed quiet, and they continued eastwards. 

It took them another hour of driving to hit the checkpoint for the easternmost part of Turkey, and once more Kai smoothed the way with another two hundred Nuyen bribe. Nadia had to reslot her ID after it flashed up with an error the first time, but she played it cool, and after wiping the contacts on her trouser leg, replaced the ID in the reader and it flashed up with the green light. Strangely enough, when Hunter slotted his ID, again the man smiled and giggled at him, but said nothing – instead waving him through the checkpoint and on their way.

They’d been on the go for nearly twenty hours now, so Shimazu slid into the driver’s seat and placed the ‘trode net over his head, whilst Marius squeezed into the first bunk he reached in the back and relaxed. The others smiled again as Shimazu’s hands rose up to hold his virtual steering wheel, and watched as his legs jiggled up and down as he pushed the pedals with his mind and his muscles played catch up. Regardless of how stupid it looked, though, the electronics picked up his mental commands just fine, and he drove them smoothly along the highway, the sun slowly setting behind them. Traffic started to build up a little as they hit the end of the work day, and he slowed somewhat, content to just go with the flow of traffic. It didn’t really affect them much, as they were heading in against the flow of most of the commuters, and they arrived into Batumi around 18:00. It was fully dark now, and looking up ahead of them they could see the villa on top of the spire of rock, with the lights of the cable car coming down into town.

Instead of heading north, and retracing their steps the way they had first come, Shimazu instead took a south-easterly road out of town, heading inland and well away from the Warlord’s territory. The road was narrower, only a single lane in each direction, and the going was slower in a couple of places – but mostly it was their vehicle slowing other roads users down, and that didn’t bother them at all. They pushed on eastwards, the truck climbing and winding back and forth as they rose up the valley, keeping the Choroki river to their right until they hit a small settlement called Erge. Shortly after this they saw a large hydro-electric dam and the river turned abruptly south not far afterwards, whilst they continued east, rising further and further into the highlands. 

Shimazu seemed to have the measure of the vehicle now, and kept up a good speed. The huge engine coped with the grade fine, and even with the addition of all the armour, they had torque to spare and they pushed on, maintaining a steady speed as they climbed. This far up, the road had deteriorated somewhat, the surface becoming cracked and potholed, and the verges running into mud and soft soil rather than a narrow hard shoulder. Shimazu just started driving down the centre of the road though, only moving to the sides when another vehicle forced him to – and even then the cars coming the other way had to go much further over than he did. He also picked up pace around the corners as he got more and more familiar with the truck and how it handled, and the team found themselves pulling some g-forces around some of the big horseshoe bends at the tops of valleys, exchanging looks with each other. It was pitch black outside, with no spillover light from houses or settlements, and the cloud cover prevented moonlight or starlight giving any illumination. 

The large and powerful headlights swept over a turn, briefly illuminating a waiting Police car. They continued into the turn, but Shimazu was already slowing, in anticipation of being stopped. Sure enough, a few seconds later the blue lights lit up and the car pulled onto the road following them. Shimazu let the truck coast to a halt on the winding mountain road – looking around he couldn’t see anywhere sensible to stop, so he didn’t even bother trying – just stopped in the middle of the road. Kai slid out of the doorway into the cold and crisp night air, and wandered down the side of the truck to see the approaching policeman. His patent thousand watt smile was somewhat wasted, as it was too dark to see, but it at least inflected his voice into friendly tones when he greeted the officer with a hearty English hello.

The policeman responded, clearly not speaking English, and Kai winced as the policemen turned on his torch, playing the powerful beam straight into his face. He held up a hand and made a waiting motion, then backed up to the truck, coming back with Hunter. The cop’s hand dropped to his holster at the sight of the large orc and the torch beam illuminated them both. Hunter ignored the implied threat though, and put on a big smile.

“Good evening. My boss doesn’t speak Georgian, but I will translate. How can we help you?”

The Georgian flowed smoothly and fluently, and he sounded like a native, which seemed to mollify the cop somewhat. He licked his pudgy lips and then waved the torch as the wheels on the truck for a moment, before shining them back at Kai and Hunter.

“Your vehicle. It does not have…. A winter licence? Special preparations to be safe in the cold.”

Hunter bit the inside of his lip to avoid conveying his disgust as the flimsiness of the excuse. It was quite probably the worst he’d heard in his life, and he’d actually have slightly more respect for the cop if he’d just straight out asked for a bribe… none the less, he translated to Kai, watching as his eyebrows shot up in amazement, adding, “I know, I promise you, that’s what he said.” Kai rubbed his finger and thumb together, in a motion that needed no translation.

“Winter licence. It costs…… four……. Hundred…….. and fifty. Yes.” The cop spoke slowly, watching their body language and judging just what he could milk out of these foreigners. Hunter whispered under his breath, and Kai nodded, then asked the cop to wait. He strode back to the cab and climbed up, pulling the door wide open, much to the disgust of those in the warmth now subjected to a freezing blast of mountain air. 

“Right, can I have about three hundred and fifty in loose notes, put in a jar all crumpled up, like that’s all we have, and one of the bottles of Vodka, medium brand please. And I’ll close the door as soon as I’ve got them.” Many hands made light work of the task, and moments later Kai slammed the door shut and climbed back down. He made a show of counting out the notes, slowly and carefully, and looking a little sad that there was so little – and then pulled out the bottle from his coat pocket to add to the deal. 

The cop took the bottle, and with a small penknife sliced off the metal foil around the cap and took a sniff of the liquid inside, and then a tiny sip. He smacked his lips together, and took another tiny little sip, letting the fluid roll around the inside of his mouth.

“Is good. You go now.” The three of them parted ways, Hunter and Kai back to the truck, and the cop back to his battered police cruiser. Shimazu didn’t waste any time, and fired the truck back up, revving high and lurching up the hill as he let out the brakes to get the truck moving up the incline. He pushed on up the winding road, reaching Khulo at around 19:30. The town was small, but at least it was lit up, with several bars being open and even a small hotel on one side of the town square. Next to it was a small police station, probably where their recent brush with the law was based. As they drove past, jokes were made about making complaints about the quality of the bribery required, but nobody thought seriously about stopping. 

On and on they drove, climbing higher and higher into the mountains. Eventually they came to a major junction, and turned right onto the larger road – re-joining the main Tbilisi highway and picking up their previous route. After a little while, Hunter piped up, informing them all they were about two hours from the capital. Marius called ahead to his contact, and Georgi told them to head for the eastern side of town and the Tbilisi reservoir, and to go around the eastern perimeter road and he would meet them about half-way along. Agreeing, Marius hung up, and then moved back into the cab and jacked in, easing control over from Shimazu and letting him remove the trode net. It wasn’t a full night’s rest, but the four to five hours snooze and a cup of scalding hot coffee had perked him up immensely. Back on the main road and under rigger control, they picked up speed again and thundered down the blacktop towards the city. Tads looked out of the window at the passing mountains, and called a spirit to her, being careful in case it turned out to be far past her expectations again – but no, it was just a regular mountain spirit, as she had planned. She asked it to guard the truck and the occupants, and then sat back in her seat to watch the world go by.

Hunter fired up the computer and connected up the sat-link, figuring it was safe hundreds of kilometres to the east of the ambush, and dialled in the view of the area.

“Town is stretched out in an L shape, following the valley floor, with the city centre to the middle of the upright bit. Mostly follows the road from east to west, then south to north… ok, ah right, here we go – that’s where we had the meeting. So east of town, scroll, scroll…. Scroll…. There’s the reservoir. Jesus!” He felt their eyes upon him, and threw up the imagery onto a second screen, letting Kai smooth out the roll up display over the seats so they could all see. “The lake’s nearly nine klicks long, and about one and a half wide most of the way along – that’s a serious bit of water. No marking here on how deep, but we should count on that being impassable. Great sight lines, but no escape routes. Off to the east though, terraced land between one and two hundred metres from the lake edge, rising quite sharply and then hitting cultivated fields.”

Hunter leant back from his display, looking at the rest of the team.

“Not sure I like that so much – lots of opportunity for an ambush, for raiders to be pitched just back from the top, and to get into elevated sniping positions with almost no hassle. On the other hand, pretty good road to escape on north and south, and I reckon that Marius could get us up those terraces – and probably up the paths we can see in a few places pretty easily. And once you’re up and onto the farmland, it’s muddy, but clear and we can handle that all day.”

He started to sketch in escape routes and plans, and look at the topography of the area with Aswon, working out sniper perches and areas to be wary of. After thirty minutes, they were done – or as done as they could be, from the overheads, and lapsed back into silence as they closed on the town. The journey flew by, with several of them lapsing into a light doze as the long journey caught up on them, but as they hit the traffic of Tbilisi they jerked back to wakefulness. The transit through the city was reasonably smooth, following the route that Hunter had picked out for them, and they emerged onto the shores of the lake. The water was smooth and flat, looking like a piece of black glass, and the shore was gentle and clear of obstructions. There were lots of small car parks dotted to the sides of the road, and it was clearly a popular spot for visitors.

They drove down the eastern shore, until they saw a mid-size van parked in one of the car-parks, which flashed its lights on and off twice as it saw them. Georgi climbed out of the passenger seat and jammed a cigar into his mouth, lighting it up with a bright flare of flame from a powerful lighter. Marius pulled in gently, aiming to stop nearby, and the team started to climb out of the truck, looking out and around them, peering into the darkness.

Aswon paused, a strange sensation in his gut.

“Kai, I got a bad feeling!” No sooner had he spoken, than the first gunshot rang out, piercing the darkness and shattering the quiet night air…


	77. 077 - Hovercraft Assault

Date 15/02/2060, Location 41.74785, 44.86034

The gunshot was not all it seemed, however. Who it had been aimed at wasn’t clear, but it struck a plascrete post by the side of the road, one that held the broken gate that at one point could have been used to close the car park. This was clearly no normal “bullet”, though, as it struck the post and exploded violently, creating a blast of shrapnel that blew out debris for metres on either side. It put Aswon in mind of an RPG attack, and without consciously thinking about it, he took a few steps forwards, separating himself from the next nearest person. He wasn’t in any better cover, but if someone hit him, the blast radius wouldn’t affect someone else on the team either – and vice versa.

With the impact and the explosion, time seemed to slow for some of the team. Magical and technological abilities engaged, speeding up thought processes and reactions, and making it look like the rest of the team were wading through jam, their movements slow and ponderous.

In the truck, Marius remained slumped in the driver’s seat, his body limp and unmoving. His mind however, was connected to the truck via the high bandwidth fibre optic feed that connected straight to the rear of his brain, and his consciousness danced through the rigger deck, interfacing with systems like quicksilver. In response to mental commands, there was a loud “thunk” from the roof of the truck as a box popped up out of the top surface, angling up at thirty degrees. A whine emerged from the top of the vehicle as something wound up to speed, and internally Marius ran diagnostics and checks, watching gauges ramp up from cold to an emergency start up system.

Aswon slid to a halt, and raised the Purdey to his shoulder, looking out over the lake and panning from right to left. He saw some shapes on the water, about five hundred meters out, bouncing up and down on the gentle swell. At this range his thermo-senses made them out only as blobs of vague heat, warmer than the air or water, but relatively shapeless. There looked to be three smaller blobs, and one larger one towards the centre, and as he spotted them he called out to the team with his findings. 

Out on the water, a figure steadied himself against the hull of the medium-sized hovercraft, and focussed through his binoculars, studying the shoreline. He spotted the figure of Aswon, long barrelled rifle pointing straight back at him. The figure took a deep breath and concentrated his energies, and was rewarded at the sight of Aswon flinching backwards in pain and shock.

Aswon let go of the rifle, and it fell on its sling to his waist, and he rubbed furiously at his eye, where it felt for all the world like he’d just been poked with a bony finger, really hard. He grasped at his belt and pulled the smart-goggles on, adjusting them over his eyes quickly. He didn't bother attaching them to anything – but they would stop a mage from poking him with magical fingers in the soft tissue likely to be most vulnerable.

Hunter sprinted back to the van, jumping up in the air as he got inside the last two metres, grasping at the handle on the rear door. He managed to land his feet on the top of the ladder, saving himself precious seconds of climbing, and wrenched the door open, much to the surprise of Nadia who was crouched down next to Marius.

“Need my Ares rifle!”

“Isn’t that your Ares rifle?”

“No, I need my OTHER Ares rifle!” Hunter dropped his rifle and started to tug at the gift from Rocket, pulling it free of the webbing that held it in place on the roof of the cab.

Back on the hovercraft, there was a loud “ker-klack” as the charging handles were racked, and the machine gun sighted. The gunner took account of the motion of the hovercraft over the waves, and the depressed the firing spades. A long stream of fire spat from the medium machine gun, the tracer rounds loaded every third round leaving the barrel with a fiery trail that etched into the night sky. The rounds spat across the distance to the shore, aiming to the left of the truck, straight towards Georgi, caught halfway between his van and the team’s truck. Alerted by Aswon’s shout, he threw himself to the floor as the tracers flew overhead, rolling backwards towards the cover of his van. The first two rounds punctured the collar of his jacket as he dropped, but the rest didn’t track down quickly enough to cause him any harm.

Kai span on his heel, and moved towards the side of the truck, trying to get into some semblance of cover – but he faced away from the water. His eyes flitted over the bluffs and rises of the edge of the reservoir as he looked for a second team or the rest of the ambush. All was quiet and dark though, and he called out to the rest of the team

“Clear to the rear at the moment!” He continued to search the dark escarpment, just in case, his eyes searching for movement and odd shapes that stood out. His hand scrabbled with his holster and he pulled out his taser, clutching it tightly in hand.

Tads stared out over the water and squinted in the direction that Aswon had indicated. A momentary break in the clouds allowed a small scrap of moonlight to bounce off the turret mount, but it was enough to guide her in on the shape, and as she targeted her spell on that point of the craft, she let rip with a ball of power. She focussed plenty of power into the attack, but it wasn’t an all-out assault – she had no intention of crippling herself this early in the fight with magical backlash. She felt the power hit, the ball of mana administering a massive slam of power to the living spirits of everyone in a wide area around the hovercraft – but at this range, she had no idea how effective it was.

The three smaller craft fired then, having aimed carefully and pulling the triggers as their craft were neutrally balanced between swells. Cannons fixed to the hulls bloomed, and 105mm shells smashed through the air, striking Georgi’s van one after another. The first almost certainly disabled it, but the second and third finished the job for sure, sending parts of the engine and controls slicing into the back of the vehicle.

The armed henchmen that had accompanied Georgi spun out and fired into the darkness, furious that they had been attacked. Their shotguns had no chance of reaching out to the attackers on the lake, but most of them were too enraged to realise this, fuelled by adrenaline and pain from the disintegrating van, they had to attack regardless. A long string of angry Georgian filled the night air, punctuated by the booming of the shotguns as they fired at the shapes on the lake, slowly turning from half shadows into the shapes of vehicles as they got closer. 

On top of the van, the sleek nose of the Dalmation vector thrust drone slammed up from the vehicle mount to mate with the slide launcher, the launching rail extending out of the main housing. The articulated wings snapped up into position, and the tiny jet turbine engines started to howl as they spun up to speed, the rail quivering with tension as the clamps held the drone back until the turbines hit the correct speed. During this process, he steered the radar and vehicle sensors out into a cone over the water, playing over the reported area of the hostile targets. Range data trickled in first, followed by heat blooms, and the start of some detailed sensor readings. More importantly though, he had a lock on their signatures now, and knew exactly where they were – even if he didn’t know what they were.

To his right, Aswon stood still, taking slow shallow breaths and calming his heartrate. He looked through the scope once more, carefully aligning the optics with the goggles now protecting his eyes. He watched as the driver’s head, visible behind the shallow windscreen on the hovercraft, bounced up and down as the craft powered across the surface of the lake. He got into the rhythm, timing the shot to match with the cresting of a wave, gently squeezing the trigger. The large round punched through the air, hitting the target on the side of the neck and punching through the flesh to explode out of the back of the neck. The pilot must have seen the flash and flinched slightly, as it struck the side of his head rather than the centre – and instead of immolating his windpipe or jugular, it ripped out a mass of muscle and sinew instead, still horrifically painful but not immediately life-threatening. Almost immediately, the craft started to turn, crabbing away from his position and back towards the far shore of the lake.

On the far side of the team’s truck, Shimazu glanced around him, and couldn’t see anyone or anything remotely in range for him to attack. With sword in one hand and pistol in the other, he flattened himself against the back of Georgi’s van, trying to keep out of sight and kept his eyes peeled, looking into the darkness in case anyone else joined the assault.

The top hatch of the truck flipped open and Hunter rose into view like a demented and very lethal jack-in-a-box. The prototype Ares combat gun was clutched into his hands, and he was already raising it to his shoulder, snugging it into his frame tightly. He sighted on the hovercraft, and applied a little pressure on the trigger, locking the target into the designator. Immediately his smart-link went to work, interfacing with the weapon, computing trajectory and firing arcs. Normally at this point, a green crosshair would appear on screen, showing where his weapon was actually aiming, and he’d adjust until it changed to a solid red. This time though – there was no crosshair. He blinked, and caught sight of something right at the edge of his vision… and slowly raised his left hand, elevating the front of the weapon. From the very bottom of the edge of his vision the green crosshair appeared. He raised the front of the weapon, more and more, raising the gun until he was point up at nearly a sixty degree angle. The green cursor changed to a yellow, pulsing slowly as the computer worked overtime to zero in on the shot. With the fast moving target and random action of the waves, he was struggling to get more than a 60% chance for shot on target it seemed. He steadied himself, leaning against the edge of the roof hatch, and slowed his breathing, biding his time. The cursor started to firm up, edging from orange towards red…

Marius flicked a mental switch, and his consciousness jumped into the drone, leaving behind the van and its reassuring solidity. He shed the feeling of armoured solidity, the slow and ponderous body of the truck with the six massive wheels that would grind through most terrain. Instead he became a quivering engine, his metallic body unarmoured and fragile. The turbines raced and the thrust increased, crossing the safety line and he released the clamps, accelerating up and away from the truck. The turbines drove him along the launch ramp in less than a second and up into the night sky. He felt the wind rush past him, and with the slightest of twitches of his metallic arms or legs he felt the drone swoop through the sky. Instead of the bulk of the massive multi-tonne truck, now he was a skyborne predator, winged death slicing through the night on twin jets of flame. With another thought, the targeting cursors appeared in his view, the underslung assault rifles keying active in his systems.

To the right of the truck, Aswon twisted at his hip, keeping his feet planted in exactly the same place. One breath in. One breath out. Select target. Shoot. The round punched through the air, slicing through the body armour of the driver of the next hovercraft over, entering his ribcage about a handsbreadth above his heart. Almost immediately the round started to tumble, ripping through the soft flesh and tissue. The round nicked a bit of sinew and flipped, rising up and spinning until it exploded out of the top of the shoulder, with a flicker of blood and gore spinning into the cold night air in a dynamic curve. Again, the hovercraft swung almost immediately as the driver tried to flinch and steer out of the line of sight of the rifleman. For a moment Aswon thought he was going to flip the craft, but he backed off the throttle and it settled back onto the skirts and slowed into a gentle arc, turning away from the team.

In the truck, Hunter still had the rifle aimed up at an extreme angle, designed to lob the grenade out to the maximum possible range. He kept his sight locked onto the largest target, watching as the range dropped quickly. The hovercraft was being driven at high speed – in this case he thought it might have been as much as two hundred kilometres per hour – but that just meant they would be in range of his weapon that much sooner… the cursor hung over the centre of the craft, about a metre above the spot between the driver and co-driver’s position, and continued to darken second by second as the data was refined by the ballistics computers.

Shimazu popped his head out from his concealed position, and dropped into astral view. The darkness of the night sky was swapped for the faint grey of the astral plane, the sky a wash of a single colour. The lake sparkled and glowed, ripples and eddies of wild colour moving and flowing back and forth as a result of the millions of bacteria, fungi, fish and animals making up the complex ecosystem. The truck was a stark contrast, as was the van he hid behind – dull grey boxes with no real details. Astrally dead, they were boxy and uninteresting, revealing nothing of their nature to his magical sight. A flash out of the lake caught his attention though, a sudden flash of intense white light. He peered into the distance, trying to refine the data and caught it again. A shape, metahuman – flapping around by the side of the flat grey parts of the target vehicle. He saw the target waver back and forth again, and realised it was a mage, being thrown around by the action of the waves, sliding in and out of view around the superstructure of the hovercraft.

“Mage, large target, left side midships. Watch out for spells!”

Maybe it was bad luck. Maybe the mage had seen him, too. Whatever it was, it was close. Shimazu sprang back into cover as a long string of fire stitched across the gravel of the carpark towards him, the tracers guiding the fire towards the target. Rounds ricocheted off the gravel, sending slivers of rock flying in all directions whilst Shimazu hunkered down, trying to get out of line of sight.

The light hovercraft fired at the truck with the monster cannon strapped down the centre line, but the pilot misjudged his speed over the chop, and the shell whistled over Hunter’s head by a good fifteen to twenty centimetres. 

Up above, the Dalmation vector thrust drone dove down at a shallow angle. With the advantage of height, the last of the smaller hovercraft crept into effective range for the standard weight ammunition, and Marius gave a mental smile. Barely a microsecond later, the twin assault rifles opened up, firing fully automatic bursts down out of the darkness towards the target. The rounds sparked and flashed as they hit the armoured hull, dancing across the top plate of the craft and creeping towards the driver’s seat. Individually the 5.56mm ammunition was light and unlikely to do major damage to the vehicle. The two long bursts from the twin linked weapons, though, put lots of rounds in the air, and some of them found weak points or vulnerable areas. A couple penetrated the armour and hit something vital, and a thin plume of smoke escaped from under a cover at high pressure, blasting high into the air. The hovercraft lurched, and the pitch of the propellers dropped audibly. Like his companions, the pilot swung the craft around, turning it in the darkness to break off from the action.

With the three smaller craft now bugging out, Aswon turned his attention to the larger vehicle. He swung his gun over, looking through the optical sight for a target – aware that this was likely to be the location of the mage that had tried to poke his eyes out. He couldn’t spot him from this angle, being on the far side of the truck to Shimazu, but he could see something nearly as good – the gunner. He was protected by a blast shield, two thick slabs of armour on either side of the gun. There was a narrow slit down the centre, allowing the gunner to peer through and sight on his targets, following the tracers to adjust his aim – it was only perhaps fifteen centimetres apart. Aswon snugged in the gun, and took a deep breath, and then as he breathed out, for just a moment, stopped his heartbeat. In the calm moment of stillness, he squeezed the trigger. The gun thundered, driving back into his shoulder and his heartbeat resumed, pushing blood around his system once more. The round hurtled towards the target at over nine hundred and forty metres per second, and struck the gunner in the sternum. The round tumbled and slapped him, driving the body away from the gun to flail backwards with the force of the impact, held in place only by the stabilising harness. Blood exploded out of the back of the target, having defeated the body armour worn on both the way in, and the way out.

It was at this moment, that the range had finally dropped enough, and almost without conscious thought, Hunter squeezed the secondary trigger. There was a “thonk” as the grenade launched from the stubby tube mounted underneath his Ares rifle. It sailed through the air, reached apogee and then started its descent towards the earth, plummeting faster and faster. The time spent aiming was justified, as the grenade tumbled through the air until it was directly above the centre of the hovercraft, a perfect example of three dimensional mathematical convergences. The grenade exploded, the high density charge turning the casing into thousands of shards of randomly twisted sharp metal, flying outwards on the blast wave. The lethal tide of destruction was propelled downwards in a cone over the top of the hovercraft, peppering the hull with fragments and sounding like a bag of ball bearings dropped onto a large drum. Whilst the fragments bounced off the armour, the crew proved to be softer and more absorbent, and both the crew up front in the driving positions, as well as all the passengers in the rear troop area found themselves being savagely beaten and scoured with the fragments. Body armour helped deflect some of it, but not enough, and screams perforated the night sky.

Not to be outdone by the shouting on the water, Kai shouted at Georgi:

“Get in the truck, NOW!” His voice had an unmistakable air of command, and also made a lot of sense, and Georgi hustled towards their truck, trying to get out of the open air. Tads hid in the lee of one of the massive front wheels, and waved him closer. On the far side of the truck, Aswon scanned around the area, also dropping into his astral vision to look for life signs and magical threats – just in time to see the group of elementals released by the mage streaking across the water’s surface towards them.

“Elementals inbound!” Shimazu bought his sword up into a guard position and pushed himself away from the vehicle, giving himself room to fight and be most effective, whilst on the top of the truck Hunter jacked the slide on his rifle to the limit and back, popping out the expended grenade cartridge and loading another from the small magazine feed. The hot case bounced off the roof, and rolled down to the ground, landing on the gravel with a metallic tinkle.

The spirits crossed the three hundred metres in a flash, creatures of pure magical energy driven by their master to attack the team physically. The elementals appeared in the physical world, coalescing into their material forms – there were two large water elementals, swirling vortices of tumultuous water, rippling eddies and surges constantly in motion around their vaguely humanoid shapes, and two large earth elementals made from piles of rocks and boulders bound together with tendrils of magical energy. One of the water elementals appeared in front of Hunter, the other next to Kai, whilst the earth elementals moved to attack Tads and Georgi.

Aswon saw the movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned his head to see what was going on. As he took in the details of the creatures he broke into a spring, his long legs devouring the distance between himself and the truck and just like Hunter, propelling him up in a prodigious jump to meet the top of the ladder and the door into the cab. One thought dominated his mind – to get his spear. The magical nature of the weapon would be proof against any defences the creatures had, and would strike them to the core of their being.

Shimazu, finding himself unengaged, moved swiftly to an outflanking position and dived into combat with the earth elemental moving to attack Tads. He drove forward and swung the sword hard, driving the blade through the air with a slicing motion that impacted the elemental just below its waist area, cleanly severing the legs. Rocks scattered where they fell away from the body, and a small trail of earthy remains leaked out like blood from a severed limb. 

Over the water, Marius circled the Dalmation, looking down at the carnage below. He saw movement in the craft, and fired another long burst from his paired guns, raking the craft from stem to stern. It did superficial damage, if any – but it kept everyone on the boat distracted and with their heads down, and that was valuable in its own right.

On top of the vehicle, Hunter gave a start as the elemental appeared in front of him at point blank range. Almost by reflex, he pulled the trigger, firing a three round burst directly into the creature, then another. The creature was a being of magic, and normally resistant to mundane weapons of man – but there was a difference between resistant and immune. One that was apparently lost on the mage, and the creature itself. The odd round, or a single pistol should could be safely ignored, being unlikely to carry the power needed to penetrate its defences. But a burst fired at point blank range, well, that was another thing. The rippling explosions of air drove into the watery body, whilst the elemental flashes of fire from the gunpowder ripped at the water. It would have been physically impossible for Hunter to miss at this distance, and the rounds slammed into the elemental, savaging it and greatly weakening it.

Tads smiled at the spirit approaching her, and then blasted it with magical power, engaging it in a contest of pure will and magical power that it was never going to win. She moved her hands to help focus her mind, and as she made motions to squeeze it, the spirit grew smaller and more constrained in the mental power she projected.

Georgi backpedalled furiously, sliding down the side of the truck while he fought off the elemental as it attempted to pummel him. The creature’s long and powerful arms wrapped around his guard a few times, punching him in the head and driving the wind out of him with a blow to his midriff, but his backwards movement robbed most of the force from the attempt and he wasn’t that badly hurt.

The spirit on top of the truck swung at Hunter, trying to engulf him and batter at his flesh, but the pounding it had taken had robbed it of much of its coherency and Hunter was able to fight it off with ease – though he himself was not able to damage it in return.

Kai aimed his taser at the chest – or what looked like the chest – of his opponent and shot it, the twin darts flying, trying and lodging into the surface of the creature. The massive capacitors whined and a bolt of power flew down the twin lines and arced across the surface of the creature, which roared in pain and flexed, trying to pull out the metallic prongs from its flesh. Whilst it did so, Kai fired again, catching it lower down now and giving it another unhealthy dose of electricity to deal with. The twin blasts were too much for it, and disrupted its form, and the creature collapsed in on itself, losing its shape and structure.

Out on the water, Marius swung around behind the larger hovercraft, sighting in on the engine and fired two more long bursts. Most of the rounds sparked and whined through the air, ricocheting off the armour and heavyweight engine, but a few got through and a cloud of smoke started to rumble out of the engine and the speed of the craft dropped noticeably.

Back on land, almost simultaneously, Aswon appeared out of the hatch, squeezing past the orc and Shimazu moved in behind the elemental attacking Georgi. Hunter leant over a little to make room, and Aswon thrust with the spear. The magically attuned weapon ripped through the elemental, destroying it, and the tall merc rode the momentum, rolling into a ball and sliding out of the hatch and down the windscreen, onto the engine cover, ready to spring off to the ground. Shimazu took a few steps forward, but had to reach to catch up with the fast-moving spirit – but his blow opened up a large and deep wound all across its back, rewarding him with a guttural cry of pain. The spirit moved to the side, turning to face the truck so it could just about see both Georgi and Shimazu at the limits of its vision.

A second later, Aswon rolled off the truck and stabbed at the earth elemental with his spear. It dodged wildly to the side with unthinking reactions – as fast as it could go. It managed to dodge the spear almost entirely. Unfortunately, it mostly dodged by impaling itself onto Shimazu’s blade, driving the blade deep inside itself and effectively killing itself on his sword.

“Totally counts as my kill,” Shimazu muttered, just loudly enough for Aswon to hear him. Behind them, Tads finished compressing her spirit to a tiny point of light that vanished with a faint pop, leaving her standing victorious in the cold night air. They looked around for any more foes to fight, but it was all quiet for a second, with nothing moving. Then there was another “thock”, as Hunter fired another grenade, perfectly timed to burst just above the hovercraft and rain down a cone of anti-personnel flechettes. After the smoke cleared, nothing could be seen moving on the hovercraft at all, and it started to wallow in the gentle swell, smoke pouring from the damaged engines, while Marius orbited it from a safe height.

“Well done my friends! You fought them off!” Georgi let out a cry of excitement, and spoke loudly and quickly, apparently coming down from an adrenaline high. “Excellent work. I don’t think they ever really stood a chance. Let me go and get your payment!” He moved to the back of the truck, and reached in for a bag, wiping it clean as best he could, then opened it and removed a credstick terminal, returning to Kai.

“Now, let’s get you paid and get the goods transferred shall we…”


	78. 078 - All your base

Date 15/02/2060, Location 41.74785, 44.86034

Georgi pulled out his phone and hit a speed dial button.

“Yeah, it’s me. I got a problem with the truck, it’s trashed. I need you to bring yours in from the south road. No, no, that’s not a problem. Yeah, right now. Ok, see you soon. “ He turned towards the team and smiled. “Ok, is all good. Now, let me see….”

He keyed the credstick terminal alive, and then held out his hand to Kai, waiting for him to pass over one of the certified credsticks. When Kai passed over a plain silver stick, he flicked the protective cap off the end and put it into the machine, then put his own credstick into the other slot, and keyed in the amount.

“So, we agreed sixty-five for the job, you got twenty up front and five in cash for the bribes, so that’s another forty I owe you. Four, oh, oh, oh, oh, confirm.” The machine made a musical chime, and the display lit up, showing an animated transfer of coins from his stick to the team’s. “There. All done!” Kai raised an eyebrow at him.

“I believe there was some mention of some magical goods as a bonus, if there was a hot encounter.” He looked over his shoulder at the lake, theatrically, then back to Georgi. “I think this probably counts…”

“Of course, of course, no problem. Let me sort that for you now.” He returned to the ruins of his truck and rooted around in the bag, pulling out a small plastic box and bringing that back with him as he sought out Tads.

“I believe that these are for you?” He popped open the top of the box, and then passed over the two items inside. Tads took them carefully, holding them up to study them by the light spilling from the cab of their truck through the open door. The first was a tiny salt crystal suspended in a lump of clear resin with a nickel chain large enough to fit around a neck. The second was a thin piece of metal, beaten into the shape of a leaf with a delicate pin on the back. Both appeared to be hand crafted by someone with a little skill but plenty to learn still. As she drifted into the astral to examine them, she felt the flow of mana around them. The salt crystal was very low force, only able to hold a basic spell in place, but the leaf was actually stronger, able to hold more power inside. She snapped back to reality and nodded at Georgi, accepting them as payment.

A set of headlights appeared on the road to the south, bouncing their way along the rough road and approaching quickly. Aswon and Hunter moved away from the truck into the underbrush and cover to the side, disappearing into concealment and the sound of their weapons cocking was clearly audible in the quiet night air. Shimazu closed up to Kai and placed a hand on his sword hilt, and the others moved closer to the protection of the truck. Georgi seemed unconcerned though, as did his shotgun-wielding accomplices. 

A minute later, the vehicle arrived, pulling into the car park behind Georgi’s wrecked vehicle. The driver got out and greeted Georgi with a handshake and muttered to himself as he got sight of the wrecked vehicle. Georgi turned to the team though, clapping his hands together.

“Ok, let’s get the cargo transferred and get out of here!”

Aswon and Hunter emerged from concealment, and the team moved to the truck, opening it up and sliding the boxes to the rear of the load bay, where Georgi’s men could get at them and carry them over to the new vehicle. They started to stack the boxes together in the back of their van, and several of the team exchanged meaningful glances, but then shrugged their shoulders…. As each box was moved to the back of the truck, Shimazu scuffed at the marks he had painstakingly inscribed on them, breaking his wards.

As Hunter watched the men struggling with the heavy boxes, a flash of movement caught his eye. He raised the rifle to his shoulder and peered through the scope to confirm it, the quietly called out, “Folks, movement on the water, looks like one of the hovercraft is coming back.”

They sprang into action. Hunter and Aswon moved out a little, then raised their weapons and trained them out to the west over the water, sighting in on the craft. Tads climbed rapidly up into the truck and threw herself onto the seat, then projected out of her body and flew across the water. Up ahead, the drone which had been heading back over to the car park to cover the team circled and dipped its nose, powering back out onto the water to close on the targets.

Tads arrived first, and hovered over the craft. Looking down she could see two occupants in the crew area, both of them keeping low. They both had a raggedness to their aura, their essence strained and disrupted. She manifested above them, and saw the wounds with fresh bandages applied, and realised they were the ones that Aswon had been shooting at. One was in the driver’s seat, and was nursing the hovercraft forwards carefully, keeping the speed low and trying to steer with just occasional glances above the hull. The other was struggling with a large four-pointed hook, trying to tie a length of rope onto the eyebolt in the middle of the hook.

“Hello! What are you doing?” she spoke loudly, almost shouting, to be heard over the sound of the engine. Both of the occupants gave a start and flinched, expecting her to attack – but she just floated in mid-air above them, keeping pace with the hovercraft as it bobbed across the water.

“We just want to get to the other craft, and save them from drowning.” Tads listened, then nodded, and in a blink of an eye was back to her body. She opened her eyes and looked out to where Kai was watching the water from behind Kai and Aswon.

“Kai, two of them, both wounded. One has a grappling hook. They say they just want to rescue their friends.” Kai looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Sounded like the truth, but no promises.” He nodded, then keyed up his radio.

“Hold fire for the moment, keep them under observation, but leave them be for the moment, let’s see what they do.” He heard a few grumbles, but got acknowledgement from the rest, and then stared out to the water, watching with interest.

Tads looked over at the lake, and started to conjure, calling a lake spirit to aid her. The spirit appeared in the astral realm in front of her, a swirling and ephemeral mass of water, waiting for instructions. She bade it to go out to the hovercraft and help them in their attempted rescue of their comrades, in fact to help them however it could – provided they didn’t try to attack anyone. The spirit dove into the water, and she watched as a magical v-wake spread behind it as it surged across the reservoir towards them.

The unloading continued without incident, and just as the last box was being moved, Marius called over the radio, “I can see them approaching the larger craft now. They’ve managed to get the hook on board, and they’re lashing them both together. Ok, starting to tow the larger craft westwards now, back to shore. No sign of hostile intent.” Tads closed her eyes once more and pushed out of her body, zipping across the water and then manifesting again just above the rescuers.

“So, who are you, and why were you attacking us, then?”

“You are thieves, despoilers of our religion, and abominations in the sight of God! You meddle with antiquities and powerful holy relics, and we have nothing but contempt and pity for you.” He spat the words at her, and his aura blazed with indignation and fury – he felt strongly about what he was saying, of that there was no doubt. While he was speaking, she could see him trying to bandage the wound on his neck, wrapping dressings around it and fighting to tie the chemical soaked pad in place. Even with the steadying effect of the lake spirit on his craft, his trembling hands and the pain from the wound made it difficult enough that he couldn’t complete the task, and she watched as blood oozed from under the pad, dripping down his neck. He didn’t seem to care though, staring at her with obvious hostility. Tads didn’t think she’d get much more from him than that, so she glanced over at the larger craft, and the carnage there. Blood soaked the bottom of the crew compartment, sloshing back and forth with brass shells rolling around in the slick red mess. She quickly assensed each of the bodies that she could see, and spotted both the physical adept and the mage from ambush back near the airport amongst them. They, along with everyone else, were in a very bad way – bad enough that she didn’t think they’d make it back to shore alive. Shaking her head, she realised there was nothing else for her to do here, so she headed back to her body, and reported on the situation to Kai.

“So Georgi…. Our visitors over there. What do you want doing about them?” asked Kai. He kept his voice neutral, trying not to lead the conversation in any particular direction.

“I think, I think I want them very much not to be chasing my Golem. Yes, not to be chasing at all.”

“Well, we can arrange that, if that’s what you want. You just need to say the word.”

“This is a deep lake. I think they would be much better at the bottom of it.” Georgi glanced over at the guys pushing the last crate through the door on the second van, and made a swirling ‘wind it up’ motion to them. “Is that clear enough for you?”

“Yes, that’s clear enough for me.” He reached up to his radio and pushed the button, paused for a moment and then spoke clearly. “Marius, take them out.” There was a moment’s pause, then they heard the German’s voice come back over the radio.

“Confirm, you want me to take out both targets?”

“That’s correct, sink them both please.” Kai’s voice was cold and emotionless, and didn’t seem to show any remorse over what he had just ordered. A moment later the sounds of automatic gunfire ripped through the sky, as the drone started to strafe the hovercraft. A single long burst took out the wounded driver and grappler in the small hovercraft. Another burst riddled the deck of the medium hovercraft, finally rupturing the hull with the impact. Another long burst did the same to the smaller hovercraft, and they both started to take on water, getting lower and lower in the lake as Marius watched through the sensors.

Aswon and Hunter had both switched up their optics to the highest magnification on hearing the exchange and were sweeping the far shoreline, looking for a crew, transport or reinforcements. They couldn’t see anything though – the shoreline looked deserted. They reported in that they couldn’t see anywhere the hovercraft had launched from or been transported from.

“Marius, can you get your spotter drone up please, have a look around?” Marius responded to Kai with a swift acknowledgement, and they heard the whine of electric engines from the top of the truck as the second drone started to power up.

Georgi turned to the van, and told the driver to pull out, heading to the delivery point and not to waste any time. The driver started the engine, and turned the van around, pulling out and heading north along the edge of the water, the way the team had come from, and accelerating hard into the darkness. As soon as they were clear, Georgi pulled out his phone again, and called another number.

“Ivan? It’s Georgi. I need a lift, if you’re sober. I’m out on the lake, on the far side, and some scum just blew up my truck. Yea, properly dead. No, I’ll tell you over a drink. Wait, hang on a minute…” he keyed the hold button and looked up at Kai, who was waving to get his attention.

“We can drop you in town – that’s no bother. Plenty of room.” Georgi checked that he really meant it, then thanked him and took the call off hold.

“Ivan, never mind, I got a lift back to town. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow, at the warehouse.” He hung up, and thanked Kai again.

“Ok Marius, let’s get your gun drone heading back while the scout does a recon. The rest of you, let’s get our kit packed up and ready to leave.”

The team started to tidy up – collecting spent cases and grenades, checking for other easy forensics and cleaning up as best they could after the encounter. It wasn’t a professional job, but they figured that the harder they made it, the better.

They were just getting to the end of the clear up, when Marius informed them that he had done a quick scan down the far side of the lake and found nothing – that probably meant that the hovercraft had come from somewhere in the town itself, maybe a warehouse or staging area – so Kai told him to head back. Once again, they were interrupted by a set of headlights approaching from the south, bouncing and weaving as they progressed up the road. 

“Georgi – is this one of yours?” 

“No Kai, all my men are with the golem.” He looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook his head.

“This was supposed to be a nice simple exchange. Right, Tads, can you go see who and what is in that vehicle?” The shaman nodded, sat down and strapped in to her seat and then went limp. “Everyone else, mount up, let’s get on the road.”

“What about my drones?”

“If they can make it back in time, Marius, get them docked. In fact no – let’s keep them out for air support, as long as they have fuel. But let’s be on our way back towards the city to buy some time.”

Tads flew through the air, and then waited on the road just in front of the approaching truck. It was tricky – she could go at her normal walking or running pace, or at the speed of thought – but nothing in between. So to get onto the vehicle, she had to wait in front of it, let it ram through her body, which was still an unnerving activity, and then ‘jump’ into the truck, trying to synchronise her location with the truck, rather than the earth, to pick up its speed and make herself relative to the vehicle not the ground. She waited, waited – and then jumped! Her timing was a little off, and instead of landing in the cab, she appeared in the rear compartment. In the back were two rows of four people, one down each wall of the van. They were carrying grey blobs in their arms that looked suspiciously like weapons, and as she got a quick taste of their auras, felt them gearing up for trouble. She jumped out of the back of the van, hovering in mid-air once more whilst she got her bearings, and then flitted back to her body.

“Kai, we got at least eight soldiers in the back, armed and looking for a fight!” The words tumbled out of her mouth, and as she opened her eyes she felt the truck start to move and realised that everyone else was now aboard and the truck was just pulling out. She gave a bit of a start as Hunter was standing right in front of her, legs on either side of hers which unfortunately put his groin at her face height. Trying to ignore his crotch, she focussed her attention on the rocky escarpment to their right, and called forth a rocky spirit, asking it to go and damage the truck chasing them, to throw them off their track. Glancing around the cab, she saw Georgi sitting where Aswon normally did. She looked back over her shoulder into the rear of the truck, but couldn’t see him there either….

Up on the roof, Aswon was crouched low, one leg tucked under him and the rifle held steady, aiming behind them. His tattoo glowed steadily under his clothes, and he stuck to the rooftop in an unerring fashion as the truck swayed and tilted around the corners. Hunter couldn’t really see clearly behind the truck, due to the height of the living accommodation behind the cab, but he could loft grenades over the top indirectly quite happily – and that also kept him out of the return line of fire, of course. Overhead the two drones kept pace with the truck easily, the blimp looking down on the scene and transmitting a detailed sensor feed of the truck chasing them. It recorded the sudden slip of rocks that tumbled onto the road, and under the passenger side wheels, the tipping of the vehicle as it swerved around them, and the frantic corrections by the driver to avoid driving off the road onto the lake. But still they came on, driving fast and slowly catching up to the truck.

They watched them close for a few minutes, creeping up on them, then strangely enough they started to flash their lights at them, in a clear bid to make them pull over. Kai frowned and turned to Tads.

“Go see what these jokers want, will you?” Tads nodded, then sagged as once more she projected from her body and stood in the roadway. Right… this time she needed to count to one, not two… the truck drove into her astral form and she flexed and jumped, and just managed to synchronise her aura with that of the truck, appearing in the cab, halfway through the back of the seat between the driver and passenger. Slowly she manifested, causing a cry of alarm from both the dark swarthy man in the passenger seat and the driver as they caught sight of her. 

“GET OUT!” the passenger yelled, brandishing a pistol at her. Tads didn’t care too much, though she noticed with a grim sense of humour that if he fired, the bullet would probably hit the driver square in the ear.

“Who are you, and what do you want? Why are you following us?”

“We are here for Georgi! Now get out of my truck!”

“Georgi? Who are you, then?”

“I am Sergei!” He slapped his chest with his pistol, proclaiming the fact proudly.

“Well, if you’re after Georgi, then what’s the password?”

“Password? Password! Pah, there is no password.”

Tads dematerialised and flitted back to her body. At least it was easier to land with all of the rear of their truck to use as a landing spot. She returned to her body, and told the team what she had found out. As she mentioned the name ‘Sergei’ she heard a slap as Georgi’s head and hands met in dismay.

“Something you want to tell us?”

“I think we had better stop, Kai, the longer he chases us, the more upset and belligerent he’ll be.” They exchanged looks, then with a sigh, Kai asked Marius to pull over somewhere safe. They slowed and pulled off the road onto a wide patch of shingle near a bend, and waited for the other vehicle to approach. It pulled up on the road behind them, and the heavy-set swarthy man climbed out and wandered towards the truck. The driver reached out through the open window and slapped his open hand on the panel behind him and a moment later the back doors opened and disgorged bodies from the rear of the truck.

They were carrying AK series weapons, but they looked old and battered – in a lot of ways, they were similar to the Kurdish road block they had bribed their way past. Mismatching kit was everywhere, old and battered load bearing harnesses warn over jeans or tracksuits, at least five different cammo patterns of smocks in various states of disrepair. If any of them had been in the army – any army, they would have earned enough ire from their sergeant major to do a lifetime of punishment duties for daring to turn up like that. Still, they fell in to what might charitably have been called parade formation, two ragged rows of four, facing the truck, with weapons at some semblance of port arms.

The heavy-set individual from the front, Sergei, had closed the distance and was now standing by the side of the truck, waiting. Georgi had climbed out and round the front of the truck, and approached him.

“GEORGI! We come, as promised! Look, I bring soldiers to defend you!”

“Sergei, you were supposed to be here two hours ago.” Sergei belched, and looked at Georgi with somewhat bleary eyes, then checked his watch, moving his arm back and forth until he could bring it into focus. He tapped it a few times, then shrugged.

“Georgi, let’s not argue. Sergei and his commandos are here now, ready to defend you. We are ready to fight! We shall punish anyone that stands against us!”

Various snorts could be heard from the team at the description of this sorry and bedraggled rabble of individuals being referred to as “commandos” and at the idea of this drunken buffoon protecting anyone. Shimazu was watching his body language carefully though, and keyed up his microphone, speaking quietly to the rest of the team.

“He’s drunk, but he’s also angry. Probably embarrassed about being late. He’s looking for a fight or an excuse, something to give him a reason to go on the offensive. And he looks drunk enough that he won’t be entirely rational to deal with.” The team looked over at him, and really examined him carefully, spotting the vague outline of some kind of weapon under his heavy jacket, and took notice of his stance – widely spaced feet, turned slightly outwards, hands both hunched in front of himself, ready to attack or defend his core. And while the gaggle of eight troops behind him didn’t look trained or competent even, spraying auto-fire from this range would riddle Georgi, and could do anyone outside the vehicle a deadly injury as much by luck as planning.

“So, we are here to protect you, and all is good, yes? And soon you will pay us for protecting you.”

“Sergei, no! You’re late. You missed the ambush. These guys had to look after me, and fight off the attackers. If anyone is going to get paid, it’s them.” Sergei shook his head, and his lips thinned, while his cheeks took on a ruddy colour.

“Georgi, Georgi why you do this? Why you upset me like this? I thought we were friends. Now you say Sergei’s men are no good? Not fit to protect you? Why do you spit on them? You don’t pay them? Why Georgi? They have to eat, to stay strong? Why you wanna hurt them?” Several of the men started to frown, staring at Georgi with anger in their eyes – willing to follow their “leader’s” chain of logic.

Marius lowered the drone a little, getting ready to fire at the troops if they looked like causing trouble – but for once, his engineering excellent worked against him. The drone was quiet and subtle – so subtle in fact that none of the troops noticed it and looked up into the twin barrels of the rifles mounted on its vector thrust chassis. It was still ready to fire, but its intimidation value was lost upon them.

“If they want to eat, I know where they can get some oats!” They sniggered a little at Hunter’s quip, but kept an eye on the situation outside. Tads squeezed to the edge of the cab until she could see Sergei directly, and started to move her hands a little, shaping the mana as she reached towards his mind. He was surprisingly resilient to her attempt to influence his thought patterns – until she realised that it was probably because he was so drunk. She pressed on, trying to get him to see reason and be amenable to some kind of compromise. She whispered under her breath that she was trying to magically calm him, but that it was hard work. Kai climbed over her, momentarily putting all his weight on her legs as he clambered to the door and breaking her concentration. She grumbled, but then started again, trying a slightly different approach this time, sliding into his thoughts and redirecting his anger elsewhere.

As Kai clambered down the steps he called out loudly.

“Georgi? Is this the solider you were telling me about? The master tactician?” Georgi looked at him in confusion for a moment, lost for words. Sergei turned towards Kai, and looked ready to spit insults at him, until the words started to penetrate the drunken fug and a wide smile formed on his lips, displaying green and rotting teeth by the lights of the truck. “Ahh, the famous Sergei. So tell me, how much was Georgi going to pay you?” Sergei belched, and then mumbled.

“Five hundred for troops, another one hundred for elite commander Sergei.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of money – but for elite troops, not surprising. Just let me get something from the truck, will you?” Kai clambered up the ladder to the rear door of the cab, then lowered his voice. “Two of the bottles of Vodka please, the really cheap nasty stuff.” He waited for them to be passed forward and then clambered down the ladder again, moving slowly with just one hand to grab the rails, whilst the other held the two bottles by the neck.

“Who is this man, Georgi? Sergei does not know him?” Kai shook his head at Georgi a little, hoping he’d get the message, then continued his conversation with the “elite commander”.

“Now then Sergei, we’re a little low on funds right now, as we had to spend a lot on ammo, you see, fighting off that ambush a little while back. So how about we do you a deal. We still pay you a hundred, because you are the boss, after all. And we put in two hundred for the troops. And alongside that, there’s one bottle of excellent quality special label Vodka for you, and another for your troops, so you can all celebrate your victory?” The words oozed out of him, and his body language was a strange mix – non-challenging and non-confrontational, and yet with a surety and sense of confidence that brooked no argument. 

Tads’ spell took effect, and between the subtle programming of Kai’s language and body, and the influence of her spell, Sergei nodded, slowly at first then with more and more enthusiasm. He took the cred and the bottles, and turned to his troops to pay them, forgetting Georgi and these other people. Kai nodded in satisfaction, then ushered Georgi back to the truck, and they remounted and got on their way, before anything else happened. Tads worked to dissipate her spell signature as they pulled away and Hunter and Aswon stayed on top of the truck until they were out of sight, watching as Sergei addressed his men and split out the small bundle of notes between them, and passed over the bottle.

“Thanks Kai, everyone. As you probably gathered, he was supposed to be there much earlier, and I figured he’d just turned into a no-show, that I was going to have to deal with later. I guess they went and spent their up-front money on a case of Vodka by the looks of things…”

“Don’t worry about it, Georgi. And if you want to blow off steam about it, you can – we’ll quite happily listen to you, as you tell us all about it over dinner, in a nice restaurant, in the nice hotel that we’re all staying in tonight.” Georgi smiled. “Which you’re paying for.” The smile froze in place, and he looked around the cab, but saw no sympathy for his position at all.

“Ahh right. Ok.” He sighed heavily. “Head for the place where we met for dinner the first time, the hotel on the other corner is pretty good. And I know the owner, I’m sure I can get us some rooms…”

They drove into town quickly, and without incident, and headed for the centre of the city, pulling up in the large city square. There were some people still moving around, heading to or from nightclubs or bars, but it was quiet enough that there was no issue getting there. A quick word from Georgi and a small cash consideration and it was agreed that the truck could stay outside in the square for the night. They checked in, and headed to the restaurant grabbing a quick meal and talking about mostly inconsequential stuff, blowing off steam and not having to pay attention to who might be listening.

After they’d eaten, Marius suggested that he and Nadia should go to a nightclub – but she instead wanted to go to their room to talk, seeming quite insistent. Marius shrugged and headed up with her, finding their small double room easily enough, and settling down with her. She started to pour out her heart to him, describing how she felt during the ambush, afterwards. What was going through her head when she thought she’d killed someone. How she felt. Marius nodded, made sympathetic noises at what he thought was the right time, and tried to look like this was important to him – but Nadia got more and more frustrated with him, getting snappy and snarky at his continued lack of understanding. After a while, Marius held up his hands in a sign of surrender, and said that he was going to go and get a drink, and when he came back, perhaps they could try again.

He slipped out of the room, and headed to the bar, grabbed a bottle of wine and a few glasses and headed back to his room. But, along the way, he fired up his sat-link, locked it on, and paired it with his datajack, feeding the signal through to his display link built into his cyberware. A bit of quick searching as he waited for the lift, and he found a couple of matrix nodes that listed trauma counselling advice, along with a bunch of relationship advice primers. Back in the room, he settled Nadia down with a drink, keyed up the first article and started to talk to her again. This time, with his secret weapon in hand, things seemed to go much better, and he and Nadia talked things through for several hours.

Aswon and Hunter made their excuses and headed off not long after Nadia and Marius, each heading back to their rooms and treating themselves to long hot baths, and then a relatively early night in a decent bed. Tads was not far behind them, though she ended up curled up into a ball, like normal, in one quarter of her bed. Kai stayed up the latest, chatting with Georgi. As the night got late, and people drifted out from the restaurant, Kai gave Georgi a full run down of their pickup of the Golem, and their trip back, including a detailed series of events around the capture team. He also advised Georgi to make enquiries about the warlord up to the north west of Tbilisi and strike some kind of deal with him. Eventually, they too headed off to bed, Kai just tucking in to bed as the clock in the square struck two.

They all slept well, rising in the morning refreshed and feeling a lot better, and certainly cleaner – though the hotel staff would surely be cursing their names when they came to clean their rooms later. But, by 9am they had breakfasted and got back into the truck, threading their way out of the city and heading south east, driving against the morning traffic.

The journey down the E60 went smoothly, leading them across the Trans Caucasus League into former Azerbaijan. As they travelled, they discussed their plans, working out what they were going to do for the new few weeks. Kai raised that he really wanted to set down some roots, perhaps start on a base of operations, and how they’d need to get someone competent and trustworthy to manage it – listing a whole bunch of criteria for skills and talents that Nadia had demonstrated. He talked for a while, trying to lay the seeds in her, and everyone else’s minds that it would need a full time manager to keep things running along smoothly, and watched her carefully to see her reaction.

Satisfied that the pump was primed, Kai suggested that they head to the Estara Horse Ranch, just north of Shirvan. The folks there seemed nice, and it was remote and had plenty of space – and while it was a little way from Baku, that made it much safer for Nadia and meant she was unlikely to run into her family. Hunter plotted the route, and they rumbled down the highways, making pretty good time and arrived at the ranch a little after dinnertime. 

When they arrived, Rusudan was out working in the field to one side of the driveway. He spotted the truck, and greeted them with an enthusiastic wave, breaking out into a jog and heading to the house, shouting for his wife and children to come out. As Marius pulled the truck around, they lined up on the veranda, like the staff of the house greeting the returning lord of the manor. 

They broke the ice with Rusudan, and found that he, his wife Naena, daughter Eteri and son Vardo were all reasonably well. They glossed over how they were doing, quickly, declining to say what they’d been up to recently. In chatting, they found that while Rusudan had originally been left alone for a week after the team had dealt with the mafia protection racket, since then they’d had a few people nosing around – Rusudan wondered if they were planning on staying?

“Do you know what, Rusudan? I think we might stay for a while around here. Why don’t we see if we can sort this little problem out for you, and after that, we’ll talk.” Kai beamed at him, whilst Hunter translated his speech into Azerbaijani.


	79. 079 - Securing the Ranch

Date 16/02/2060, Location 40.02419, 48.95808

The team settled down on the comfortable chairs in the large open plan living room, and relaxed while Rusudan stoked up the fire and threw a couple of scoops of fuel on the fire and Naena and the children organised drinks for everyone. Kai asked Rusudan to tell them about what had happened…

“Well, after you came and saved us from the men, it all went quiet. For a week or so we thought it was done with, and we could go back to our normal lives. But I think it was around the 8th, we saw a car drive up the road towards the house, then just stop. It sat there for a few minutes, then drove in, around the house and back down the road – just eyeing the place up. They came back the day after, and stopped by the end of the road, I was down there working on the fence.”

Rusudan slurped at his tea, smiling his thanks at Naena and looking around to make sure everyone was happy with their drinks, before continuing.

“There were two men, older men, but with a mean look about them. They wanted to know if I’d seen the other men from the week before. I told them no, shook my head. They went away. But they came back the next day, and said that someone had seen the men come in, and why would I lie? I told them again that I didn’t know anything about them being here. They went away… But they came back a few days later, and wanted money again. Just a little to start with, but instead of a week, it was only a few days and they came back wanting more. And it’s been like that since – they come back every few days, demand food and drink, and money. I see the guns in their belts, and the knives – and there’s normally at least three or four of them now.”

Rusudan sat hunched over, his body tense and knotted, clearly feeling rage and aggression towards the people who threatened his family, but unable to deal with the threat himself. Kai nodded to him as he finished speaking, reassuring him that it would be taken care of. Kai sat back and sipped at his tea, looking at the rest of the team while Hunter quietly translated what he’d said. He didn’t see any argument or dissent in any of their faces.

“Right, plan time. Let’s sort these idiots out properly, and get them to leave our friend here alone.”

The started to hatch a plan, Marius and Hunter initially suggesting that they could go into Shirvan and purchase some components, and use that to make tracking devices – they could be attached to the cars that came to visit. Rusudan interrupted timidly, and told them they would need to order in supplies from somewhere like Baku. He went on to describe Shirvan a little more:

“Shirvan used to be big for oil and gas exploration. Much in the way of manufacturing there, lots of steel and shapers, big hammering machines and things that make pipes. There is a large river, and in bad weather parts of the town can flood. There is also a rail line – lots of heavy trains used to come here, now, not so much. They grow food now, and make things from metal or plascrete in the factories, still much large construction. But most is not high tech, very few computers or new things, no electronics and such like. For things like that, then Baku is what you need.”

“Ok, thanks for that, Rusudan. Can we use your matrix connection to order some things in?” Rusudan nodded at Hunter, and passed over his phone. Hunter looked confused for a moment, then queried him, hiding his sigh of exasperation as Rusudan revealed that he had a very slim data connection on his phone, but other than that the house had NO matrix connection at all. Hunter opened up a new document on his pocket secretary and started a list of ‘things needed at the house’, adding wide band matrix access at the number one spot.

At the other end of the open plan lounge, Shimazu had bought out the dagger seized from the physical adept that had attacked them on the road, and asked Tads to have a look at it. She carefully examined it visually at first – it was about 300mm long, and fairly broad bladed, reaching about 100mm wide at the base of the blade, at the handguard. A wooden handle made of two slender carved wood pieces attached to a metal plate were gripped by the hands, and this was joined to two long and thickish metal bars, making a H shape with the blade. She picked it up carefully, folding her fingers around the handgrip, and looked at the bars, as they guarded each side of her forearm. The blade was held in direct line with her arm, and would favour a slashing or thrusting motion, but would require significant practice with to get around a person’s guard.

She dropped into astral space next, probing at the dagger and its magical link. She saw the lines of mana radiating off the blade, dissipating into the ether slowly and without form. She probed at it, and confirmed that there was no magical link evident in the manafield of the weapon. That meant that the previous owner was definitely dead – and wouldn’t be coming looking for them. She spent a few more minutes looking at it, and could detect no special abilities or odd magical taints about it.

“Right Shimazu, it looks to be a fairly low force magical dagger – it should be relatively easy to attune and bond to your aura, but it will only provide limited assistance in magical combat – though it will help. Of course, being a magical weapon, it does mean that any spirit or magical creature is going to get hurt by it – their magical defences against normal weapons won’t be proof against this, so in that terms it’s very valuable. It’s not particularly special beyond that – you can see that it’s been hand made, and it looks to have been by an enchanter who was also a blacksmith, rather than a blacksmith who was also an enchanter, if you take my meaning.” Shimazu nodded, and thanked her, then posed a question.

“So, if we melted this down, in a forge or something, can we use it to make a more powerful weapon? Or as materials to make my sword magical?”

“Well, you could, but it wouldn’t really help, I’m afraid. The process doesn’t work like that. Unless you were trying to craft a weapon that say had an enchantment on that broke other weapons, so melting one down or sacrificing it symbolically was a thing, it’s not going to add any power or materials to a new weapon. You’re as well, if you’re not going to use this, to try and sell it and use the money to get other magical gear. In fact, you’re probably going to get a better rate on it if you just try and swap it for other gear.” Shimazu nodded in understanding, then wrapped the dagger up in a cloth, and got up to leave the room.

At the dining room table, Kai and Aswon were engaged in a separate discussion.

“So, you have your old rifle, from Germaine, and that’s a pretty nice hunting rifle. But this new one – it looks pretty potent. Can we use it against vehicles and such like, I take it?”

“Indeed, it’s a good rifle, very sturdy. But there are limits. I was certainly a little lucky, as well as being a good shot.” Aswon spoke in a matter of fact way, not boasting, but sure of his own skills and talents. “The chopper was a security equipped version of a civilian model, upgraded with some armour and guns, rather than designed from the ground up as a gunship. That makes a lot of difference.” Kai frowned at him, so Aswon sat back and thought for a moment.

“Ok, guns are designed to kill people, mainly. And to defeat personal body armour. Ok, right. So, that’s our base for assessment. Now, if you shoot at something like a car, or a helicopter, a lot of guns are going to find their rounds stopped by the structure of the vehicle. Although you’ll punch into them, the sheer weight, or mass – or hardness of their construction – stops a lot of damage. So you either need a much bigger bullet, or a lot of them. Most of the time, that means an automatic weapon, like Hunter’s Ares combat gun. Still with me?” Kai nodded in understanding.

“Now, as soon as you start slapping armour onto a vehicle, the equation moves a lot. Vehicle armour is so much thicker, and tougher than the stuff we wear – vehicles don’t need to bend, and they’re designed to carry the weight. It’s just a whole ‘nother level we’re talking about. If you get a military vehicle, an APC or gunship, you can put so much armour on that even this won’t get through reliably.” He pulled out one of the 50 calibre rounds, holding the round between thumb and forefinger, shaking it slightly from side to side. 13mm across and nearly 100mm long, it was a significant size and weight.

“What I did was aim for a point where the armour was pretty much non-existent – on the central shaft from the engine to the rotor housing. Even then, the round did some pretty nasty damage, but the pilot still managed to set her down safely. If you want to take out a target like that, then you need one of two things. The first is a heavy machine gun, where you hit the target with a burst of 10 of these at once. The second is to get some special rounds – HESH or ADCAP, APFSDS or something like that.” He saw Kai going slightly cross-eyed again, and wound it back. “Look, you need military grade, high tech stuff. It’s very expensive, but more important it’s really hard to get hold of, as the military don’t like anyone having their toys…” Kai nodded – that much he could understand, no problem.

“So, my rifle is really good – against any civilian vehicle, no problem. Against an armoured civilian vehicle – something like a valuables transfer vehicle, then I need to aim for the weakspots inherent in the design. Against a security vehicle, I may find some vulnerable points, where the armour is thinner. But, against a proper military vehicle, we need the special ammo, or I’m not going to do much other than make a lot of noise and scare the crap out of the driver – who has to assume I do have HESH loaded!” Kai nodded in understanding, and reached out for the round, hefting it in his hands.

“If you ever see any of those with black tips, red tips with a silver ring or amber sides - just buy them. Black tips are the armour piercing, red tips are incendiary normally, but with the silver ring are armour piercing variants, and the amber coloured ones are saboted light armour penetrators. To be frank though, unless they look to have been painted as a gimmick or a con, if you see any of these rounds with any colour tips – just buy them, it’s probably worth it, given how rare they are going to be.

Hunter and Marius had finished their initial discussion, and got Eteri to take them for a quick tour around the back. She let them out by the back door onto the veranda, and then down onto the gravel surface that surrounded the house in all directions. She led them across to the long barn that lay parallel to the house, about 15m away from the back wall. She angled towards the northern end and slid open the heavy door about halfway, ushering the two of them in after her and sliding it shut again behind them. Inside they could feel a gentle wash of warm air blowing around, helping to take the chill off the air, and understood why Eteri was keen to get the door closed behind them.

The barn was a tall single story building, made out of extruded plastic beams with a wood-grain effect printed onto them, slotted into a framework. It was quite tall, higher than a normal single story building, but not as high as the two-storey house. Large stable bays lay to either side of them, opening onto a three metre wide walkway down the centre of the barn, from north to south. They could hear the gentle snuffling of horses, and saw at least two come up to the barred doors, showing interest in them – though possibly wondering if they were a source of food as much as anything else. Eteri explained that these two were all they had managed to obtain since the fire, and were more work horses than for riding.

As they moved down the barn, Hunter and Marius saw the amount of fire damage increase, with several of the construction elements twisted and deformed. They could see where the family had been scrubbing and cleaning at the structure, trying to remove the soot and burnt remnants of the fire in what was an ongoing operation. Unseen by Eteri, they exchanged hard-eyed looks. Neither were particularly animal lovers – but the type of people who were willing to burn animals alive to prove a point were not going to get much sympathy from either of them.

As they got to the other end, they found a couple of smaller stables, clearly designed for a single horse rather than a pair, and then the room opened out slightly. To the west was a large sealed room, in a white plastic rather than the “rustic brown” of the rest of the barn. Looking more closely, it appeared to be an isolation room, or for use by a vet – the walls, ceiling and floor were designed to be steam cleaned or blasted and bleached to keep them hygienic, and the door was solid rather than barred, so it was easier to keep anything in here separate from the rest of the barn. On the east wall was a high room holding a wide selection of tack and gear for the horses, and then a small forge area, presumably for a smith to shoe the horses at. They had a poke around, checking out the structure and the facilities. Hunter made several notes about bits that definitely needed replacing due to the fire damage, adding them to his list, before they slipped out by the south door, back into the cold winter day.

From here they followed the gravel road round the corner and to the east, down towards the garages. This was another long building, taller than the barn, and probably the same height at the apex as the house. Instead of a central ridge though, it sloped from the front to the back as one piece, dropping at a twelve degree angle. There were three large garage bays, each one easily big enough for the truck or trailer to park in, and have room to work around. With careful parking, they could probably get the truck in and squeeze a car down the side, but they’d have trouble loading them up, let alone working on them then. But, still it gave room for the truck and trailer, and room for a car or van and some motorbikes in the rest if they needed them.

Marius saw the selection of rusty tools, bent equipment and battered supplies and stopped dead, halfway across the floor, his mouth opening slightly in horror. Hunter smirked at him a little, but then sighed, and started to add tools to the ever growing list on his p-sec.

Back inside the house, Aswon and Kai had come over to Rusudan and were asking about his business – and clarifying what they thought they’d heard from Hunter.

Rusudan worked through the settings on his phone, and pulled up their matrix site. It was pretty basic, clearly designed using an off-the-shelf kit and was hosted as part of his phone package, with his provider’s branding all over it. It described the Estara horse ranch as being a great place to get away from modern city life, and would be an ideal holiday to destress and live the cowboy lifestyle. Several stock images of horses, cowboys and what looked more like the great plains of America were clumsily framed by the text, along with contact information and pricing, and a widget to allow online bookings.

“I get messages on my phone, if people book. Or they call, for details. During the summer we do good business normally, in winter is time to fix the ranch, and do maintenance. Sometimes people come for the quiet, or for business meetings – but not so much the horses. But mostly quiet. So this is all the matrix I need. But you want more matrix?” He looked to Aswon as he started to speak.

“Yes, for what we have in mind, we’ll need a lot more matrix connection. A lot more. Reliable stuff too, from a cable.” 

“Ahh, then I will get more matrix. I have a package for the phone, but I can get a ground line as well. It will be done.”

“That’s not what I meant, I mean WE can get the matrix in. It’s us that wants it. You don’t have to do it.”

“But you need it. And you saved our lives, you are …” at this point he said something that defied translation, some local term or colloquialism. Aswon and Kai exchanged looks, equally baffled. “There is a life debt, so just say what you need, and it will be done.”

Aswon got up from his chair, and put a hand on Kais shoulder, bending low to whisper in his ear.

“This is so your department ‘Boss’,” then straightened up and turned away before Kai could respond, leaving the Mongolian to explain things to their host.

Hunter and Marius drove the truck and trailer down to the garage and carefully backed the trailer into the far end bay, then swung the truck around and parked it next to the row of garages, tucked away discreetly but still ready to drive off quickly. Hunter spent a little time downloading some agricultural data and set the photovoltaic paints to a pattern mimicking a grain truck. It wouldn’t do for anything more than a cursory glance, but it might help a little. Tads, Aswon and Shimazu came out to meet them, heading into the truck and started work on the ward, seeking to strengthen its power and defences with some of the magical supplies they had left. 

While they were working in the truck, Marius recovered some bits from his toolkit and the roll-out screen and Hunter grabbed his computer, and they headed into the house. Using some spare cable, they ran a small aerial from the eaves of the house down and into the living room, and Marius crimped the end, adding in a connector and testing it with the cable from his sat phone. A bit of wiggling and repositioning, and he soon had the aerial pointing at one of the geosynchronous com-sats, giving a nice strong signal. They hooked the phone to the computer, and ran the output to the screen, and finally got a nice big display the size of the coffee table, with the cables neatly routed and laid in. With the sat phone closed up and connected to the computer, it would be very easy to scoop them both up and be ready to dash if they needed to, without having to go through the hassle of breaking the system down.

From there, Hunter and Marius started a thorough investigation into agricultural pre-fabricated buildings, looking at styles, costs, availability, construction methods, shipping costs, permits to build and a whole host of other things. Along the way the search meandered into some more specialist areas, like explosive blast proof shipping containers, used in quarries to hold dangerous and sensitive blasting compounds – but equally good for being a secure gun safe. They found that none of the pre-fab buildings they were looking at were suitable for living in, and that trying to get living accommodation involved a whole bunch of different suppliers and permits – but that static caravans were available just as easily and without the paperwork.

Slowly they sketched out a list of requirements and buildings that would meet those needs, drawing rough plans onto the satellite view of the ranch and sizing up ground space and visibility, working out access requirements and defensive implications. Alongside the stables and the garage, a cluster of buildings took virtual shape – a workshop for working on the vehicles, an enchanting area with a forge, a secure arms locker, sleeping accommodation for the team in two 8-berth static caravans with room to stretch out and relax, a building large enough for a second lodge, training rooms, a computer training room or briefing room. As they got carried away with their plans, the base grew larger and large and the price tally climbed up and up as they added on additional features and items on their wish list.

As the day wore on, whilst the guys were in the house working on the plans for the base, the magical trio finished the improvements to the ward in the truck. Tads asked Aswon and Shimazu to stay behind, and come with her to the lodge. She led the way in and pulled the door shut behind them, with Aswon raising a curious eyebrow at her.

“I think I’m ready to do a little meditation, and to call on my totem to renew my link with him, to further pledge myself to the path of my people. If Elk feels I'm ready, and judges me worthy to walk down the path, then I’ll hopefully gain a deeper understanding of magic and become more powerful. But, I want to try and learn specifically how to hide my magical nature from others – so I want to show them you, and say that I want that, too.” Aswon nodded in understanding, but still looked slightly doubtful. Shimazu had his normal blank expression on his face – what she thought of as his “professional bodyguard look” – she was sure he had thoughts about this, but he wasn’t letting them show.

“Well, I’ll help if I can, but I’m not sure what I can do – I’m not even a follower of your path, so I don’t see how it’ll make much difference.” Aswon moved to stand behind her in the circle, and waved for Shimazu to stand on her other side, so that she was at the apex of the formation.

“Excuse the phrase, but you’re my herd. You, the rest of the fighting … er… bucks in the herd can ‘hide’, but I can’t, so I want to explain to Elk that if all the magical combatants in the herd can hide, pretend to be mundane, the whole herd is safer, stronger, and we’re better able to protect the ‘weaker’, non-magical … er… does, so to speak, because I’m not dragging danger back with me if I can ‘hide’ too. ” She shrugged a little. “It made more sense in Nenet.”

Tads settled herself down cross-legged in the middle of her circle, and started to pull out small bags of coloured sand and dirt, pouring them in front of her in basic patterns, making a simple picture. First some dark material for the earth, then some green for the hills and the trees, a bit of blue for a lake, some golden yellow sand for the sun. It was crude, like a picture drawn by a child, yet it hummed with magical power as Tads opened herself up to the spirit realm. Aswon stayed quiet, kneeling on the ground behind her and giving her plenty of space to work. Shimazu knelt also, facing slightly outwards and with one hand resting lightly on the hilt of his sword.

After a few minutes, the picture rippled and a large Elk appeared in it, sliding out from behind a tree like a stop-motion animation. It turned its head towards them, simplistic features blurring and shifting as the sands and coloured earth moved around without any visible force. Then there was a lurch, a sudden shift of power, and somehow they were all “in” the picture, in some far off distant forest, in a world of blocky colours and crude textures. The truck was gone, and they were surrounded by trees and forest, made up of blocks of coloured earth and sand. Aswon stood behind her, spear gripped tightly in his hands but not seeming to be too alarmed. Shimazu took a step in towards them, turning to face outwards so he could cover both of their rears, and there was a quiet whisper of steel as his sword was drawn. Although he’d never been on an astral quest, or a metaplane, he’d heard about them and figured this was something her totem was doing – or something to do with their magical link formed when they set up their group.

The elk approached, staring at Tads, and then glanced at Aswon and Shimazu, pawing at the ground a little. The body language was hard to read, and he wasn’t sure if it looked frightened and about to run away, or angry and about to attack. Unsure either way, they stayed still and tried not to tip things one way or the other, and let Tads do the talking. She addressed the Elk, and talked to it – or rather at it, since it didn’t reply physically. She wove a tale of their deeds over the recent past, talking about foes hidden from and spells cast, deeds undertaken and risks run. Along the way she highlighted that both Aswon and Shimazu had the power to hide their magical signatures, to pass amongst people unnoticed except by careful and deliberate concentration, and that was useful – but without a magical ability to do the same, she was not only at risk herself, but also bought risk to them, and the rest of the team.

Elk circled them, large liquid eyes staring at Aswon and Shimazu in turn, pawing at the ground and hot moist air rolling over them as the ethereal avatar sniffed at them and sampled their auras. They stayed still, trying to support Tads without causing problems for her. The Elk circled, sniffing and considering them, the unnatural quiet of the picture forest giving them nothing to listen to except the sound of the ancient creature. It looked at Tads again, then lowered its head and suddenly lunged forward, smashing into her with its bony head. A split second later the wide antlers hit Aswon and Shimazu, and all three of them were flung through the air, the wind driven from them. The background blurred, and as they drew in a deep breath to replace the air knocked out of them they refocussed on the walls of the truck around them. None of them were damaged or hurt, and there was no sign of the forest or the elk. 

Tads looked down at the magical supplies, and found that all of the sand and earth was mixed together into a large muddy mess, no clear elements any more – except for a single, large, hoofprint right in the middle, along with a strange sense of satisfaction.

“Look at me please, magically?” She concentrated on looking small and inoffensive, and heard a slight intake of breath from each of them as they peered at her astrally. Aswon gave a big beaming smile, and Shimazu nodded his head in satisfaction. He looked down at his hands, still gripping his sword, then his eyes flared wide in alarm. The others felt the change in his aura and stopped what they were about to say, waiting for him to speak. He didn’t say anything though, instead just rolling his wrist over and showing them the time – and that over an hour had passed since they entered the lodge. Aswon and Tads shrugged, and Tads drew a breath.

“That’s actually not so bad. I’ve heard of people who’ve been gone for days for something like this – though that’s the longest I’ve ever heard. But still, we should probably head back and see what the rest are up to.” They nodded at her, and all three of them headed back to the house, into the living area to see what the rest of the team had accomplished.

Inside they found the plans for the base had expanded in several stages. The first phase appeared to be an 8 berth caravan to live in, along with two steel framed buildings with plastic filler walls, each about ten by twenty metres, to be used for enchanting and as a vehicle workshop, along with the armoured storage container – which was pushing for about sixty thousand Nuyen all told. There was details for phases two and three, with more buildings, sensor posts, pop up sentry guns and computer labs, but the figures for these ran into the hundreds of thousands and then millions – clearly long-term dreams. 

Once they’d gone over the plans, Kai got them all sat down, and told them what he’d been up to while they were working on plans and magical adventures. He took a sip of coffee and then sat back on the sofa, waving for the others to relax in a similar fashion.

“I think this is going to work out nicely. We’ve got a good opportunity here. So, Rusudan has no family beyond the wife and kids in the area – they moved a fair way across the country to come here, so there’s no one local that’s likely to pop in to come and see them. He’s been running the business for a few years, and makes a small profit – enough to keep them going and live somewhat comfortably, at least until some idiots set fire to their horses.”

Tads shifted uncomfortably on her seat and her eyes stared across the room, clearly thinking about whatever events had scarred her in the past. A moment later she felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder as Shimazu reached over to her, his self-study in psychology starting to pay dividends. She smiled at him and nodded slightly, but didn’t say anything to avoid interrupting Kai.

“The family got a pretty good deal on the land a good few years back – it’s much bigger than I thought it was. They’ve only got a field on either side of the drive, running alongside the main road – this is the more fertile area you see, and the farmers north and south of us actually grow some crops. But once you get a quarter klick back, and it starts hitting the uplands, the ground is broken and almost impossible to farm, and as such has a pretty low value to them. The ranch covers most of the escarpment and ridges back that way for a good few kilometres, and all told they’ve got about 50 square kilometres of land they own entirely.” Several of the team exchanged looks of surprise at this news, then leant forward to examine the screen as Kai bought up the map of the area, showing the extents of their land. 

“So, they got the house, with guest quarters, built the stables, got some riding horses and set up a matrix site, and have been doing authentic cowboy holidays and ranch breaks since. Get families coming, and sometimes corporate types, wanting a break or a chance to unwind, they get them out on the trails and criss-cross the hills, riding for half a day and doing some outdoors stuff with them as well, tire them out, then bring them back here. That’s why they’ve got this big open plan area – it’s the main guest area where they can mingle with the others and relax after a day of riding. The family does all the cooking and cleaning, and then they head to bed exhausted and happy after a day of fresh air.”

“That means that there’s already an established pattern of people coming and going from the ranch, with suitcases and stuff, in a variety of transports, every few days – perfect cover for us. People coming in all kinds of vehicles too, including corporate limos. One of the ‘features’ they had was their limited matrix presence, so nothing to disturb you – we’ll have to have matrix of course, but we can hide it from the guests. It also means we want to keep things visually low key, and make it look like part of the ranch with whatever we set up, so we may end up digging and going down a little.” Hunter and Marius turned to face each other, and there was a smile on both their faces for a moment until Kai raised his voice a little in mock anger, “but we are NOT building a secret volcano lair, you two – so don’t even go there!”

“Now, I’ve chatted with both of the kids, and they’re pretty happy here. Both like the outdoor life, and are happy working on the ranch. They’d like some better education – Eteri mentioned she’d like to be a vet one day to help look after the horses, and Vardo seems quite handy with his little welding set, so there’s plenty of scope to help them out and keep them happy and productive, as well as keeping the ranch ticking along. They manage quite happily with the number of guests they get on a normal basis. On that note, let me tell you about the house…” Kai shifted round a little on the settee, so had his back to the front of the house, and started to point and use his arms to describe the tour he’d been given earlier.

“As you come in the front door, there’s the open area over there, the tables and chairs and stuff. To the right is the main office where Rusudan does his accounts and paperwork and such like. Then there’s a pair of toilets, a cupboard with the cleaning stuff, then the second office – they let corporate types hold meetings in there when they book the place out. Coming the other way, you come into the lounge area, where we are now of course, and this is used for general socialising and relaxing and the table over there for main meals. The kitchen is through the door there and runs down to the back door next to the office.” He watched to make sure everyone was keeping up with the description.

“If we go up the main stairs near the front door, that brings you up near the south side of the house. There’s the four main guest rooms, each a double room, a triple at a push, with two rooms on the east side of the landing, and two on the west. There’s a bathroom on each side of the landing, shared between the two rooms, and a separate toilet. Past the guest rooms, there’s a linen room, then Vardo’s bedroom, Eteri on the corner, then round to Rusudan and Naena’s room which has an en-suite. That brings you back towards the middle of the house, and there’s a large drying cupboard and another store room, then down the other set of stairs, which brings you down over there, behind the dining table. So normally, they’d have a max of 8 guests or so, and they can manage that load between them quite happily.”

“I think we don’t want to take any of the guest quarters up – although they’ll be comfy, and warm and all the rest of it – it’s going to stop the primary business, and that not only kills the lifestyle, it also stops the cover working as well. So we definitely want to get separate places for us to sleep.” He looked around and saw general nods of agreement.

“Now, they started to have problems with this mafia bunch a little while back – first it was scoping the place out, then a few visits and poking around, then some comments about how isolated they are here, how it would be a shame if anything was to happen – we all know how this works, right? Well, after we dealt with that bunch, it bought them a week or two of quiet, then some new guys turned up – cautious to start off with, asking questions about the first lot. Rusudan said he’d never seen them, but then they started again. This time they’ve been quicker to escalate, and now they’re trying to hit him up for cash pretty hard and fast. So, I think we need to nip this in the bud, pretty sharp.”

“Now, we’ve got a shopping list for the place to get some upgrades, what else do we have on the cards?” Kai looked around the group, stopping at Tads as she lifted a hand.

“Well, one of the things we should do is get two hoops or metal bands put up or something. Like a doorway with no door.” She could see the others looking at her blankly. “I don’t know what the English is, but you have two big posts upright, then a bar across the top, going over the road.”

“Archway?” suggested Hunter

“Um maybe. But we want one of those over the driveway, because then we can put a ward on it. It has to be an enclosed line you see, to mark the boundary. So if we can get something over the roadway, we can ward it – and if anyone ever comes in with a magic spell up, or a weapon or something – it will set the ward off. Spirits and other creatures and stuff will just fly over, or go around – but it will catch anyone actively magical in a car.”

“Ok, excellent – that’s really cheap. In fact we can probably just get that done with stuff we have onsite now. Nice one.”

“And also, if we find out what they eat, I can stock up their pantry for them, to make their funds go further.”

“Ok, that’s great, let’s see if you can do that this evening – I think they’re running low right now. Anyone else?” He looked around, but nobody seemed to have anything to say, so they broke up and moved around the house, finding somewhere to be.

Tads called Aslik Mustafan, the talismonger who lived in the nearby woods, asking if she could sell the spell formulas back to him that she had already learned. He didn’t appear thrilled by the idea, intimating that they were ‘used’ now, and that they were somehow soiled by being second hand. Sensing that she wasn’t going to get much for them, instead she changed tack asking him if he had any spell formula for sale that would improve her quickness and reaction in combat. Here he was a lot more forthcoming, indicating that he had something like that available and ready for sale. Tads asked him to hold onto it for her for a day or two – reasoning that as she now had a sustaining foci from the golem delivery she might as well have a good spell to go with it that would enhance her combat ability. Last of all she told him that she needed a large amount of lodge and warding materials again, and asked him to start collecting those together.

After her call, she moved into the kitchen, working through the cupboards and looking for the raw materials she could magically fabricate, and went to work, replenishing supplies.

Shimazu headed out to the truck and found his waterproof cable box, and spent several hours inscribing runes and sigils on the inside of the case, slowly building up the magical protections on it to a point where he felt he could hide his treatise safely within it.

Hunter unpacked several key items from the truck and headed out into the field to the south of the house. Once in the middle of the field, he scouted round a little, finding a natural depression and then settled himself down into it, pulling one of Aswons ‘Wild Hunt’ cammo jackets over his shoulders and back. The jacket was far too small for him to wear, but it did more or less cover him when he lay on the floor. After that he teased some camo net over the top, settling himself down on his padded jacket with his assault rifle lying just in front of him along with a small squeeze pouch of water, some chocolate bars and a pair of binoculars. Moving slowly, he keyed his microphone and checked the encrypted radio was working fine, listening as Marius confirmed a good signal. Then, he settled down into the ground and waited, his eyes flitting from the driveway onto the main road, the field to the left, the field to the right, then back, over and over.

The rest of the team settled down and relaxed, climbing into their hammocks or bunks in the truck, or using the empty guest rooms in the main house. Just before midnight, Marius called out to Hunter on the comms.

“Hunter, it’s midnight. When are you coming in?”

“I’m going to stay out tonight, I’ve just got a feeling. I’ll come back in for breakfast. See you at dawn.” Marius looked down at the radio, then shrugged. He grabbed another of the radios and set it to open mike, then took it to the room he had grabbed and settled down into bed with Nadia.

The night passed uneventfully, the clear night sky letting temperatures drop sharply and a thick frost formed on the ground. Hunter remained on watch all night, chilly – but functional, his high tech clothing keeping him warm enough to stay marginally comfortable all night. At dawn he headed into the house, and the toilet. With the most important and pressing need taken care of, he aimed for the kitchen and a pot of hot tea. Entering the large kitchen quietly, he found Rusudan and Naena at the kitchen table, illuminated by a soft yellow light from the cooker hood and the first faint rays of light from the eastern sky as the sun rose beyond the hills. They both jumped in alarm as he coughed quietly, having made no noise as he entered – but at least they both recognised him, as he’d already taken all the camo gear off and stowed the rifle while he attended to the call of nature. 

“What’s up, Rusudan?” he asked, gesturing at the table packed full of plastic boxes and containers.

“The foods in these boxes – we don’t understand where they came from. Most of these were nearly empty yesterday!”

“Ahh, you need to talk to Kai about that – but I think he made arrangements.” Hunter didn’t explain any further, but saw the husband and wife exchange looks and give bemused shrugs. He grabbed a mug and started to look around for tea, but was then quickly ushered out of the kitchen and told to go and relax, and that they would bring him a drink through. Sure enough, a few minutes later a piping hot cup of tea was served to him, along with some bread and jam.

He waited until Tads showed up, fresh from her dawn prayers and told her of the encounter in the kitchen and the otherwise uneventful night, then set down his empty cup and plate, and headed back to the truck, rolling into his sleeping bag and falling asleep almost before his head hit the pillow.

Tads listened to Rusudan and Neana as they explained the mystery of the appearing breakfast produce, and decided to go and get Kai to explain. Kai, of course, then had to get Aswon up to translate for him, as this was not something that could be handled without care.

“So, you’re well aware that magic exists in the world. Well, as it happens, we have some magic available to us. And some of that magic allows us to create food. Not all kinds of food – it has to be simple. But things like rice, and oats, and basic ingredients we can make. So, while we are here, we try to help out with the food, to make your supplies go further, so you don’t run out.”

“That’s…. that’s amazing. How does it work?” Kai looked at the two of them and saw no fear or hostility in their expression, just amazement and wonder. Clearly they didn’t have the knee-jerk reaction to magic that some had. He decided to go for broke, and called Tads in, and pushed an empty bowl over her way, nodding for her to do a demonstration.

Tads concentrated for a moment, manipulating the mana field around her and bending it to her will. Her fingers twitched a little by her side, and for a moment her eyes grew darker – but then a mound of dried oats appeared in the bowl. Naena gave a gasp of delight and reached out to grab an oat flake, examining it closely and then tentatively putting in on the end of her tongue and tasting it.

“It’s so real!” Rusudan grabbed some too, and also checked them out.

“Of course they taste real – they ARE real. Just made to appear here, with magic.” I have to have seen the food to understand it, and be able to recreate it. And the spell I know is not that powerful, so it’s limited in what it can make – very basic stuff mostly. But I can…” Tads paused as another empty bowl was pushed in front of her, and both of them watched her expectantly. “…make a variety of things. Rice?” They nodded, and moments later were rewarded with a kilo of long-grain white rice. “However, it takes some effort to cast, and doing it while tired or injured, or drained from other magical work could lead to nosebleeds, spasms, fainting or worse – so it’s not a tap that can be just turned on.”

She headed back into the common room, and settled down on the sofa, curling up into a small ball and watched as the kids set the table for breakfast. Soon enough Nadia and Marius came downstairs, along with Shimazu and they found seats, settling in for a variety of oatcakes and porridge with preserves.

After breakfast had been cleared away, with the family insisting that the team relaxed and didn’t do any of the clearing up, they had a brief chat about the mafia and the current situation. It wasn’t exactly a detailed plan, as they lacked much in the way of information – but they figured they were more than a match for any local mafia goons. They had the training and equipment to run rings around them, and the firepower and armour to run straight through them if they needed to. So the plan was to grab someone at the bottom, and just question them firmly – very firmly – to get the next person up in the chain. And just work up until they hit the top dog, or someone that could be dealt with at a business level, and told to leave the ranch alone if they valued their lives. Until they had some more information, that was about the depth of it…

After the meeting broke up, Shimazu grabbed his sword and slung it over his back, and then headed out of the house, and jogged down the gravelled area past the garage, heading towards the escarpment. Along with wanting to go for a run to stretch his legs and keep fit, he also wanted to look for somewhere he could set up a quiet little shrine, well away from the others, where he could have some peace and tranquillity. He covered the two hundred and fifty metres to the edge of the hill quickly, and then started to head up the gullies and ridges, pushing hard to maintain his pace and climbed the slopes quickly.

Back at the house, Aswon slung his rifle over his back, unconsciously mirroring Shimazu. With a quick look around, he swarmed up the side of the house, his Gecko tattoo glowing under his clothes. The rough panels gave him plenty of grip and he made the climb quickly, padding up and over the gutter and up to the ridgeline of the roof. He headed to the north end, and crouched down by the large chimney leading up from the common room, settling down to watch in the shallow shadows of the structure.

He heard a noise a few minutes later and glanced back over his shoulder, watching as Eteri led Nadia to the stables. Shortly afterwards, he heard them bring one of the horses out, and half listened as Eteri taught Nadia how to brush the horse down, and described life on the ranch to her. Nadia seemed fascinated with the horse, and soaked up the information, spending quite some time with Eteri helping her muck out the stables, clean the tack and feed them. Once that was all done, Eteri saddled one of the horses up, and taught Nadia how to climb into the saddle, and led her around the yard a few times, giving her a quick lesson in riding. From the excited squeals, it sounded like Nadia thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Shimazu returned from his jog at about ten, looking pleased with himself. He’d worked up a good sweat, and took advantage of the bathrooms in the house, enjoying a shower that allowed him to stretch out and turn around without his shoulders catching on the walls. Hunter was still sound asleep, and the rest were relaxing, browsing catalogues, planning buildings or doing little bits of maintenance, when a buzz over the radio interrupted them.

“Got a car turning into the driveway, heading down slowly. Older car, but has polarised windows – looks like a Lada of some kind. Not very powerful anyway, no sign of arms or armour. Definitely not just turning around, they’re coming down the drive. No, wait… they’ve stopped.” The rest of the team scrambled to pick up their guns and gear, struggling into armour and moving to concealed positions all around the ground floor while Aswon ran through the report. “They’ve still stopped. I can’t see how they would have seen me, but they seem spooked. No, they’re rolling again, moving slowly though. Suggest we remain out of sight and listen in. Ok, closing on the house, I’m about to lose line of sight to them….. yeah, they’ve parked up just in front of the veranda.”

A moment later, they heard a knock at the door, and Rusudan moved to answer it, swinging the door open wide, but standing on the threshold and blocking the doorway, his arms folded in defiance. The team listened as the two thugs talked to Rusudan, trying to extort money from him, while he in turn told them how poor he was, and that he had nothing more to give. They sounded irate, and angry, and as Rusudan reasoned with them calmly and apparently with more vigour than normal, their voices raised and became more belligerent. Rusudan kept his cool though, standing his ground – trying not to give the game away.

Kai whispered to Naena, and then pushed her out of the kitchen, into view. She tottered for a few steps, and then gathered herself and walked up to the front door.

“Rusudan! Why not tell them?” The team heard him stop, and could imagine the look of confusion on his face. “Tell them about the visitors you have tomorrow. The rich corporate types from the city. We will have money to pay them tomorrow, when the guests arrive at midday.” Rusudan spluttered at her a little, but the two goons took over the conversation, informing Rusudan and Naena that they’d be back at midday tomorrow – and that they’d better have the money, before turning and crunching their way across the gravel and back to their car. They drove half way down the track back to the main road, then paused for nearly thirty seconds, before continuing on their way.

Tads summoned a sky spirit, and gave it a series of complex instructions on following the car back to town, and to watch if they got out of the car and into a house, but only for more than 10 minutes, unless they came back out with other people and went elsewhere in which case it was to follow them there, until it was sure they’d stopped, and then to come back and tell her and lead her to that spot. The spirit looked as confused as the rest of the team, but vanished in a gust of wind, streaking out of view from the house to follow the rusty old Lada. Marius, meanwhile, had pulled out his deck, warmed up the drone and launched the stealthy blimp, sending the Condor up high and locking onto the car whilst it was parked at the front of the house, and programming the drone to follow it and keep it under surveillance.

“Kai, why did you get Naena to tell them to come back tomorrow?”

“Well, now we know exactly where they’ll be at twelve tomorrow. And they don’t know that we know. So it’s up to us to make sure it’s a pleasant surprise….”

The team set to work on plans for the ambush.


	80. 080 - The Mammadova Clan

Date 17/02/2060, Location 40.02419, 48.95808

Marius kept an eye on the drone – fortunately it never went more than five kilometres from the ranch, so it was well within active control range. The truck toured around the town, stopping at various houses where the occupants would get out, enter the house, stay for a minute, then return to the truck. Sometimes they had food, or clothing in their hands, sometimes nothing. The truck toured the town making a dozen stops, then headed towards the railway and stopped at a larger than average house and the two men parked up by the side of the house, entered, and did not emerge. After ten minutes of monitoring, the spirit followed its instructions and reported back to Tads, confirming what Marius could see from the drone.

“Kai – we think we’ve found their base or headquarters. It’s a large house on the further side of town, a little way from the railway. It’s in a residential area… well, actually, the whole town looks mostly residential – we’ve hardly seen any industry worthy of the name, and other than a couple of shops, it’s mostly a sprawling suburb. But anyway, the two men we encountered there have returned and spent a significant amount of time there now, and show no sign of coming out.”

“Good work, Marius, and you too, Tads. Can you pull up a map, and show us the area?” Hunter got to work with his computer, and Marius shunted the picture from the drone over to him, so he could sync up his long distance satellite shot of the area with what the drone was seeing. Once he’d got the location mapped out, Hunter started highlighting areas of the map, detailing what he had found out.

“Ok, this town is Hajigabul, population about fifteen thousand or so. It’s apparently named after the lake to the south. Main thing to note is the rail station, which is on the Baku-Tbilisi line, so they get a fair few trains running through the area, including some heavy freight by the looks of things. Very little industry, as Marius said, most of what there is seems to be light manufacturing of local items. Not much commercial activity either – small rural town type stuff, like a post office and a branch of a bank. Seems to be a good bus link to Shirvan, and along with the railroad I suspect there’s a large amount of traffic into the main city twice a day. The main highway curves around the town, and by the looks of things the main road used to run straight through the middle, so it looks like that’s drawn a lot of traffic away from the place, and probably killed a lot of trade.” Hunter zoomed in a little, then continued his speech.

“The house they’ve gone into is here, between Hamidoc and Vahid roads or streets – the map isn’t clear on the names, and it looks like it’s not been updated for years. The general area is fully residential until you reach the railroad, and most of the houses look to be the same – set on open plots of ground, some small gardens or patches of green stuff. Houses tend to be single story and simple construction – nearly all of them are straight designs, boxes with simple pitched rooves. Means they’re probably cheap and all made of the same materials, probably local bricks and clay tiles. So, not likely to be armoured or heavily reinforced. If we kick in the front door of one of these, be careful, the door frame may give way as much as the door…” That was enough to get a smile out of several of them, along with some muttering from Marius about third-world construction. They knew better than to poke him by now, as that would only start a long lecture on the advantages of superior construction using traditional German techniques and materials.

“I’ve had a good look around, and I can’t see a police station anywhere in the town. Definitely found the one in Shirvan, but nothing here. So, I suspect that they have a converted house, or they’ve got some of the locals deputised to act as local law-enforcement. Either way, there’s no more than a couple, probably, or if it comes to a fight, they’ll be poorly-trained and equipped, and if we hit them fast and hard, they’ll not even have a chance to call for help. No sign of fire service here either, and only one tiny clinic I can see.”

Tads leaned back in her seat, made herself comfortable and then astrally projected, her spirit crossing the kilometres between the ranch and the house in a few seconds. She slowed, and looked down at the area, looking at it carefully. It was a strange mix – the area wasn’t that badly polluted, compared to a lot of places, and the carefully-tended gardens from a lot of the houses were actually quite pleasant – the love and care of the people tending their little vegetable patches bringing little spots of welcome joy to the astral plane. Despite that though, the town overall seemed depressed and a little sad, feeling much like the off-season seaside towns they had driven through. Slowly she circled and descended, zeroing in on the target property, keeping a careful eye open.

Detecting not a single magical presence anywhere, she flitted into the house, preparing herself to stop suddenly if she found a ward, lodge or magical circle of any kind, or any kind of defences. There was nothing, though – just a completely normal house. She pressed on, quickly scouting through the house and then flitted back to her body, carefully checking for astral pursuit as she did so, before diving back into her own body. She opened her eyes, and found the others watching her, all staring in silence.

“No wards, no spirit, no defences of any kind – which seemed odd, but maybe they just don’t have anyone available. Either way, the house feels normal, as does the area around it. In the house at the moment, there’s six people, all clustered together into one room, that one there, the one that looks like a separate building – it’s not, it’s joined onto the main house by a narrow corridor, next to this doorway.” She gestured at the map, and Hunter used his controls to annotate the map, building up an interior picture as she described what she’d seen.”

“What are they doing in there? The six of them,” asked Kai. He watched as her body slumped again, and sighed, wishing she’d waited before going back to scout again. She was only gone for about twenty seconds though, before her body stirred again.

“I think they’re playing a card game. They’re all sat around a round table, and they’re doing things with small things on the table, pushing things around. It looked just like when you and that guy we transported were playing cards anyway,” she said as she looked at Aswon. He mimed dealing, shuffling and then flipping cards, and Tads nodded emphatically at him. “I can’t really make out what they’re saying, and I’m not sure if I can remember the noises they were making, but they sounded like a couple of guys just sitting round at the end of the work day relaxing. No hostility or alarm, or anything like that. A few of them had tiny amounts of cyberware when I looked, but nothing major – I think just things like datajacks, or replacement fingers or joints – medical stuff, rather than enhancements.”

They considered that for a moment, then Kai looked around the team, nodding in satisfaction.

“Ok, good work so far. Now, I think we need to get a bit closer, and do some more recon work. Problem is of course, that Tads doesn’t speak the language, so that’s a bit more difficult, and you don’t either, do you, Shimazu?” He watched him shake his head. “No matter, we know that Hunter is pretty sneaky, so it sounds like you’re up again. I’m thinking if we head into the area in the truck, do a drive by and drop you off to find a covert perch and then you can monitor again, and we’ll check the area out and be close by in case we need to come back you up, or you find something interesting?” He looked around, seeing agreement from their faces. “Right – let’s go find out some stuff, and then kick the crap out of this organisation, and put an end to this.” For a moment, there was a change in his voice, a visceral, emotional quality that they’d not heard before. They weren’t sure if they’d really heard it, or if it was imagined – but he actually sounded personally involved for some reason.

The team broke up and got organised, checking and preparing weapons and body armour, restocking medkits and checking charge levels of radios and communications gear. Kai had a quick chat with Rusudan, telling him they were heading off into the town to go and investigate.

“So, Rusudan – you said earlier that you could get us into Shirvan to go shopping. So I’d like to borrow your farm vehicle, rather than taking the truck into town – much less conspicuous.”

“I shall get the horses ready and bring the trap out of the barn at once!”

“What?”

“The horses, I shall prepare them at once. It will only take a few minutes.”

“Horse and cart? Um. I thought you had a truck of some kind.

“We did, but it was taken. Mafia scum.” Rusudan frowned and his fists clenched by his side. His eyes dropped and he stared down at Kai’s feet, feeling shame at being unable to defend himself and his family from the depredations of the mafia. Kai reached over and patted his shoulder.

“No, no, leave the horses where they are. We’ll take the truck, and we’ll deal with this problem. I think we need now perhaps not to be so subtle any more, and send a message. A very clear message.” He patted Rusudan again, and then went and found each of the team members, letting them know about the slight change in plans. Tads in particular he spoke to, asking for some more information.

She curled up on the settee again, and once more vaulted into the evening air, flying across the distance in the blink of an eye. This time instead of studying the target house, she probed each of the buildings around it in a two-plot radius, sampling the auras of the people she found there and checking out the buildings. It took her twenty minutes to complete her search, but then she returned and reported in.

“Everyone surrounding the house is a normal family, as far as I can see. A mix, some old people, some young, some houses more cramped than others, some with just a widow in them. Nothing unusual or worrying, no defences or magical threats. The only thing I did pick up was a sense of fear from one of them, as he was looking at the target house. I think they know who lives there, and they don’t like them, at all.” Kai nodded, and smiled grimly at the end of her report. 

The team saddled up, and got on the road. As they pulled out of the ranch, Tads took a deep breath and reached out to touch Hunter lightly on the shoulder, pulling in mana and shaping it to her will. With a suddenness and silence that made it quite surreal, he vanished completely. Aswon, and Shimazu extended their sight into the astral for a moment, and saw his form sitting exactly where it should be, surrounded by a powerful magical field. Dropping back into the physical plane, the seat was empty – even “knowing” he was there, they couldn’t see through Tads’ powerful illusion.

With a look of concentration, Tads raised her hand and touched the truck, then concentrated once more. In the wing mirrors, the shape and style rippled for a moment, before settling to look like a badly rusted and battered heavy agricultural lorry, of indeterminate age. Again, the illusion was thoroughly convincing and compelling. With both cast, Tads sat back in her chair, breathing quietly and with her eyes closed.

“Alright everyone, I can keep those up without a problem, but don’t expect much else from me while I am.” She laid her head back against the headrest with her eyes closed, concentrating on keeping the spells intact and at full effectiveness.

Marius drove with his normal skill and threaded the heavy truck through the narrow streets with a grace that defied expectations. It helped that perhaps only one in five houses had a car or vehicle of their own, and even with the atrocious parking that was common here, that wasn’t enough to impede their path. Most of the houses had glows of light emanating from the windows, and they realised that most of the houses here used old fashioned glass, rather than the polarized stuff seen in more modern buildings. Curtains were firmly shut, blocking line of sight into them, though that could be as much to keep the warmth in as to prevent spying.

Now they were on the ground, rather than relying on overhead satellite shots, they could see there were actually a lot more businesses than originally thought, operating out of sheds and garages, lean-to shacks or even the front part of the houses. The industries were of the low-tech varieties, pottery, painting and basic metalworking, but it appeared that a lot more of the people were probably employed locally than they originally thought – not that it really made much of a difference to their plans. They worked their way to the far side of the town, and slowed as they passed the end of the block. The back left door of the truck opened quietly for a few seconds, and then closed again. Watching in astral, Aswon confirmed when he saw Hunter dismount safely, and Marius picked up speed a little.

Hunter moved quickly out of the road and to the shadows – he had faith in Tads’ magic to keep him hidden, but he also had no desire to tempt fate. Padding quietly down the edge of the building, he started to work his way through to the corner of the house, from which he should have a good view of the target property. Around the back he found a crazy quilt pattern of small vegetable plots, tin huts, outbuildings and broken and rusty old equipment abandoned in the middle of the plot. As he passed one of the outbuildings, he head the quiet noises of chickens roosting and made an effort to move even slower and more quietly – the last thing he needed was a chicken coop thinking there was a predator nearby and kicking up a fuss. Soon enough though, he was in position, and settled down in the deep shadows at the rear of the building, playing his laser microphone over the window of the target house.

The rest of the team drove further away, circling the area and getting a good look around them. Their experience entering town had reinforced that overhead views were one thing, but that sometimes things looked very different on the ground. As they reached the end of one plot, they saw a supermarket down the street to the side, with a small queue at the door – it looked sufficiently unusual that Kai got Marius to go around the next block and drive past for a closer look.

The supermarket looked to be built along similar styles to the houses, a single low structure with a pitched roof – but instead of a front wall, there were larger windows on either side of brick piers. Inside the lights illuminated the shelves, showing a variety of products, mostly of budget brands and simple goods. A number of people were inside with baskets or trollies, shopping as normal. But, there was still a small queue at the door. As they drove past they could see two large and burly men, one with a simple dataslate who was checking details of some kind, and the other standing with his hands on his hips, staring at the queue. Nobody in the queue met his gaze, instead standing sullenly with their attention on the floor – but they all held their ID in hand. With the man’s hands on his hips, his jacket was rucked slightly, and they caught a glimpse of a pistol of some kind in a shoulder holster. As they were pulling away, they saw the person at the front of the queue being pushed away from the door, out of the queue – refused entry for some reason. 

They found a secluded place to pull over, a couple of blocks away from the Mafia house, and powered down the truck, sitting in silence for a moment and wondering what the hell they had just seen at the supermarket. Marius broke the silence first, activating the drone rack and beginning flight preparations. In the roof space of the truck, the lifting balloon of the Condor drone inflated and the drone body disconnected from the internal power. Small robotic arms attached it to the launch mechanism, and it was fired up the launching rail and into the night air, quickly rising to become invisible in the darkness above. The second drone took a little longer to prepare – at least going by the book, which was always his favoured option – as the fuel tanks were charged and the weapons loaded. But, a minute later, the gun drone was prepped on the launch rail, ready to join the surveillance drone. Marius held the launch though – it was nowhere near as quiet, or fuel efficient as the Condor, and they didn’t have a huge stockpile of jet fuel to refill the tanks. Besides, with the speed of the small jet turbines, it wouldn’t take long to get into position. 

Back at the corner of the house, Hunter had been sat in the shadows listening to the take from his laser-microphone. With a single pane of thin glass to act as a resonator, he was getting perfect audio reception, and could easily listen to the conversation, easily distinguishing different voices. In his head he started to assign random names to the voices, building up a picture of what they were up to. Bill and Ben were crude, and seemed to come back to the number of women they’d had sex with, or the number of women they were going to have sex with as their favourite conversations. Unless they were real studs, the implication was that they’d perhaps accepted services in lieu of payments for some of their ‘work’. Tom and Bob seemed more financially motivated, talking about who was the richest in town, or who paid them the most on collection day – and also seemed to be the most fiscally conservative when it came to whatever gambling game they were playing. Fred and Jack seemed to tell tales of the looks on the faces of those they threatened most, and appeared to be bullies plain and simple, enjoying the spread of fear and the exercise of power. He listened to them play for a while, getting a little idea on them, but nothing really of interest. 

Then he heard a noise – the sound of a door being pulled open, and somebody entering the room. There was a general murmur of greetings, and someone asked how he was doing that day. The new person seemed disappointed – not really angry, but definitely not happy with the low returns on his efforts that day, bemoaning how poor the people of the town were, and how little money he’d gained from them. He was invited to pull up a chair and join the game, and Hunter heard the scrape of chair legs as they shuffled around the table to make room for the newcomer. As he listened to the audio feed his eyes were flitting around the area, taking in details and plotting routes to and from the doorway and various windows that would avoid debris and animal enclosures and he noticed something odd – he couldn’t see any telephone cables anywhere. Not on the target house, not on the house he was hiding by – not anywhere on the street – no phone lines or data lines at all.

He waited, listening to the conversation flow back and forth, gathering data. Every few minutes he sent a brief message to the team, giving them an all clear and a few details. The team in turn waited quietly, watching the streets which were quiet and mostly empty, the odd car or pedestrian heading home to the warmth, out of the cold and bitter night air.

It was 19:17 when Hunter heard a car drive past the house slowly, then stop and reverse in by the side, pulling back until the passenger door was level with the back of the house. He couldn’t see the ID plate from the angle that he was at, but the vehicle was an old land cruiser type – an extended cab and then a large flat-bed load area. It looked like it had done a lot of miles, and the bodywork was very old fashioned – but after touring the area as they had done over the last month, he knew these vehicles could run for decades with a bit of ingenuity. He sent a brief heads up to the team, and changed position slightly, making sure his legs were tucked under him in case he needed to move.

He heard the door open, and saw three people get out of the truck, slamming the doors behind them, and then the driver getting out, following along. The four of them walked along the back of the house, entering via the back door – making Hunter realise that the last guy to join must have come through the front, on the other side of the building. A second later he also realised they’d used no key or maglock swipe card – the door was simply unlocked. He shook his head at them, thinking about how complacent they must be to take security that laxly.

When they entered the back room, the game stopped immediately, and he heard chair legs scrape across the floor as the occupants all stood up. A moment later he heard the one he had named ‘Jack’ speak.

“Good evening Mr. Mammadova. Would you like a seat?”

“No, you play on, we’re just going to relax a little. So, how is everyone doing today?”

He heard people sitting, chairs moving back under the table, and one by one they reported in on their activities. Hunter listened carefully, as they described their actions going door to door around the town, extorting money from people, getting ‘fire insurance’ premiums, or various bullshit taxes on everyday things. This seemed to irritate the newcomer somewhat, and there was a grunt of effort as he rose from a low seat somewhere in the back of the room.

“These people! PAH! We will teach them. We will make them understand. WE are in control here, this is OUR town. These tiny little people with their dull and dreary lives. They are like ants to us, puny and worthless. We will squeeze them until they have acknowledged that we are their masters, and that their very lives are in our hands. We will make them understand that they are nothing, worthless peons and they live, or die, at our whim. We will own this fucking town, and make it clear to them that WE are the only ones that matter!”

There were murmurs of approval and quiet little cheers – Hunter wasn’t sure if they were actual full blooded approval or people just kissing ass, but the speaker, the Mr. Mammadova, seemed entirely serious in his little speech. He got the audio file of his little speech, compressed it and slugged it over his commlink to the team for them to listen to.

In the truck, Marius played back the file over the speakers, letting them all hear the man ranting. When the clip finished, there was a moment of quiet as they exchanged looks. The sound quality was top notch, and they could almost see the flecks of spittle on his lips and the flushing of his cheeks as he addressed his men.

“We should strike now. This man is obviously the leader, and there are nearly a dozen of them in the place, where they consider themselves safe, but that is actually very vulnerable. We should take advantage of their concentration.” Aswon spoke quietly but firmly and with authority. “In the merc community, this would be seen as a golden opportunity to take out a cell or an enemy stronghold. We should not lose this chance.”

“I agree. It was something we were constantly warned against, as bodyguards, as it is so easy to do. You cannot afford to become complacent back at your base of operations. To do so invites failure from a suitably determined opponent.” The others nodded at Shimazu’s words, and as Kai looked around he saw Marius launching the vector thrust gun platform, hearing the little rumble from the engines as it vaulted into the night air.

Kai sent back a brief message to Hunter – ‘stand by to assault’. A moment later Aswon got an alert on his comm from Hunter – ‘bring my rifle with you, please’. Aswon grinned, and grabbed both Ares assault rifles. He wasn’t sure which one Hunter meant, and if he took both, he could use the other one, then – after all, it would be a shame not to use it if it was there….

Shimazu slipped out of the door, scabbard in hand, and then started to jog down the street, closing on the building with surprising quietness for such a heavily-built man. Aswon and Kai followed in his wake at a more sedate pace, weapons tucked under jackets to obscure them.

Hunter wasted no time in looking around him, and found an old sack lying by the side of the building, half buried under some rubbish. He carefully pulled this out, rolling it into a tube and stealthily worked his way over to the land cruiser, shoving the impromptu bung up the exhaust pipe in a hope that it would stop anyone getting far in the vehicle if they managed to escape the assault.

As Kai approached, he concentrated on his appearance, using his strange gifts to subtly alter the shape of his face, shifting the shape of his eyes and roundness of his face to make him appear more Japanese and less Mongolian. He checked his appearance in his commlink whilst Aswon handed over one of the assault rifles to Hunter, along with a handful of grenades, then checked that everyone was ready.

“Marius, situation please?”

“Kai, I have you, Shimazu and Aswon on the south west side, in the lee of the house there. Tads and Hunter are moving around to the north east now. No sign of hostiles, no sign of activity. Surrounding area is quiet for a two block radius.”

“Excellent. Tads, can you stun everyone in the room?”

“I will have to drop the spells I’m carrying to do that well, and I need to see them to affect them.”

“Don’t worry, I can arrange that,” came the distinctive English voice over the comms. 

“Ok, standby, we’re heading to the door. Two clicks, and we go in.”

Kai and his group approached the back door, Shimazu leading the way with his sword held in a high guard position, Kai following and Aswon bringing up the rear with the assault rifle nestled into his shoulder and held tightly into his body. On the far side of the house, Hunter and Tads eased closer to the building. Hunter led the way, and Tads mostly concentrated in walking in his footsteps, trusting him to find a quiet path for her. As they reached position, they got a further status report from Marius – still all clear. Outside the team could hear the faint throaty roar of the gun platform orbiting on high, ready to swoop down and support them. Unknown to the rest of the team, back at the truck Marius had prepared the third drone ready to deploy, the squat tracked ground drone sat at the top of the ramp he’d attached to the back door, ready to tip over and half drive, half slide down to ground level, and race to support them with the heavy grenade launcher atop its armoured chassis. Back at the house, Tads dropped her spells, Hunter suddenly appearing in front of her, crouched by the window in shadow, and the truck resuming its normal appearance. She took a deep breath, and then summoned a city spirit to her side, just in case. 

Kai took a deep breath and clicked the transmit button on his radio, twice.

The second that Hunter got the signal, he pulled a pin on the smoke grenade in his hand, carefully putting the pin in his top pocket and releasing the arming lever. Very quietly, he counted, reaching four before he exploded into action, his powerful leg muscles flexing and raising him from a crouch to a standing position. Five. His arm shot out like a piston, driving his fist through the thin glass of the window with a loud shattering sound. Six. Inside his fingers opened and the grenade continued its forward moment imparted from his punch. Seven. His fingers closed again, grabbing at the heavy curtain with his strong stubby fingers. Eight. He pulled, the arm withdrawing through the window almost as fast as his biceps reversing the action of his triceps. Nine. The heavy curtains were ripped off the curtain rings, as the first cries of alarm were shouted from inside the room and the sounds of chairs being knocked over started to fill the air. As the curtains were pulled through the window, they caught on the glass, pulling out large shards with them, and enlarging the hole considerably.

Ten. The smoke grenade exploded with a “woomf” noise, belching thick acrid smoke into the room and filling the space in moments. A plume of smoke started to drift out of the open window, but the view into the room was sill completely obscured by the rolling bank of hot particulates. Tads stood, and looked through the window into the room, seeing nothing but the mass of smoke swirling around as the grenade skittered around the floor in accordance with Newton’s laws. She let her vision slide into the astral, and the smoke vanished, revealing the room and the dozen or so people staggering about, coughing and spluttering, trying to draw weapons and work out just what the hell was happening.

It was harder to focus – her vision on the astral, her body on the physical. Trying to draw the mana and shape it at something her body couldn’t see, but her mind could – it was distracting. But she threw power into the stunbolt, drawing in mana from around her and focussing it on a figure in the centre of the room.

“Hoynose,” she exclaimed, and the bolt of power exploded into the room in a torrent of magic. Hunter winced slightly, curled up in a crouch at her feet, hoping to hell he was out of her line of sight this time. He didn’t pass out, so it seemed all good, but he did hear a collection of loud thumps from inside the room. Tads staggered back a step, looking slightly boss-eyed for a moment, and he reached out a hand to grab her waist and stop her falling over the debris in the garden. A moment later he rose a little and peered into the room, seeing only bodies on the floor.

“Clear, Go!”

Shimazu lifted the latch, and the other team entered, moving swiftly into the house and piling through the door into a long kitchen, with several doors leading out. It was dirty and unkempt, but they ignored that for the moment, piling through the door to their left and into the corridor, then the second door leading into the back room. The bank of smoke engulfed them, but they were ready for it, and were looking either astrally themselves, or had goggles on to protect their eyes. A few seconds later it became clear that there was no rush, and that everything in the room was flat out unconscious.

“All clear, securing the area. Hunter, Tads, come on in and get under cover.” Kai released the transmit button and moved to open a few windows, leaving the curtains shut to block line of sight mostly but letting air flush the smoke out of the room with a through draft. The temperature plummeted, the oil filled radiator in the room no match for the cold winter air flooding through the windows. As the smoke cleared, though, they saw that the assault could have been nigh-on flawless – only two or three of the goons had managed to draw their weapons, and nobody had managed to fire a single shot off.

The team split up, dragging bodies into a row on the floor and stripping them of weapons and ID, throwing them into piles at their feet. They quickly identified the likely “Mr. Mammadova” – positioned in a comfy armchair that he’d only half-managed to get out of before being struck unconscious. Not only did it have pride of place in front of the old TV and next to the radiator, but his rather tacky gold watch and gold-plated phone seemed to indicate some level of penis insecurity. 

His three goons were the ones who had managed to draw weapons, whilst the ones at the table had been milling around in confusion. Kai looked at the scene, and made a snap judgement.

“Shimazu, all those by the table, finish them off. We’ll take these four, and interrogate them. Strip ‘em, tie ‘em up, and let’s find their car keys and head out of here.”

Shimazu shrugged, sheathed his sword and pulled out his hunting knife. He wasn’t going to use his honoured blade for this work, he was certain of that. He worked down the row, turning their heads to expose their jugular veins and striking once at each with precision. Blood pumped out of the wounds, soaking into the carpet beneath them and the figures slowly turned an ashen grey as the blood oozed from them, the bodies cooling rapidly in the night air.

Aswon studied the IDs and grunted, then showed Kai the results – it appeared that all four of the second group were called Mammadova, indicating either a clan or extended family. Kai shrugged and just held out a bag, letting Aswon dump all the credsticks and IDs into it. Whilst Aswon continued to swiftly truss up the bodies using their belts and shoelaces, Kai searched the room, finding a small computer and a credstick sitting by a table in the back corner. Both of these were put to one side, and he turned to check on progress, finding Tads sorting through some keys and Hunter standing with a burlap sack covered in soot.

“Had to get this out of the exhaust, if we’re going to steal their ride.” Kai looked at him in confusion, then decided he didn’t really need to know, and carried on checking over the room for evidence or loot.

“Achtung, lone walker approaching, walking down the front of the block, ETA two minutes”

They froze as they listened, then sprang into action. Kai and Shimazu ran into the kitchen, and worked their way to the front door, whilst Hunter and Aswon staked out the back, ready just in case. Tads wondered who she should go with, still somewhat befuddled from the effort of casting the spell, and ended up standing in the kitchen looking around. As she did, she spied several photographs on the wall, showing a family in this room, having some kind of celebration. She stepped closer, examining the picture carefully – seeing the happy smiling faces, three generations of family gathered together for some occasion, with a table covered in tasty looking food. A spotlessly clean table – actually a clean and tidy room, with everything neatly arranged and well looked after. She looked around now, comparing the dirt and squalor and general level of filth present, and wondered what had happened to the family who had originally lived here, before these people had turned up.

Marius gave a commentary as the figure closed, heading to the front door of the house. He warned them, to the second when the figure would arrive, and as the mafia goon entered the house, Kai shot him at point blank range with his taser. He didn’t manage to even fall completely to the floor before Shimazu had grabbed his collar and yanked him inside the house, dragging him through to the back room, while Kai looked out of the door, left and right, before closing the door behind him. By the time he’d gotten back, Shimazu had stripped the ID and added it to the bag, and had finished him off, just like the rest.

A bit more searching revealed nothing further in the room, or the house, so Kai fired up the pocket secretary. It appeared to be a census of the town, and next to each of the names were a number of symbols or notations. He flicked the secretary off, and added it to the bag for further study later. When they inserted the certified cred-stick, they got a bit of a shock – it had nearly twenty thousand Nuyen on it. That was quickly transferred over to their own stick, and then the one they found was wiped clean, electronically as well as physically and thrown onto the bodies. 

Marius called over the comm-link to the team.

“I have done a data search on Mammadova – just to let you know, there are hundreds of people in Shirvan with that last name. Hundreds and hundreds. Also, a large number of Mammadovs, and possibly some more depending on the spelling. We may have annoyed a lot of people here tonight.” 

“Right, let’s get out of here. Load up the four Mammadova chumps into the car, and we’ll take them with us somewhere else to have a word. Shimazu – is that a bottle of spirits on the table? Shimazu grabbed the bottle of clear liquid, opened the top and sniffed, then nodded to Kai. “Ok, lets sprinkle that around then, Aswon can you set something up to catch fire about ten minutes after we leave?” Aswon nodded, hunting around in the kitchen drawers until he found a candle. Setting this at an angle in the gap between two cushions, he lit the wick and made a final change in the position, then moved to help the others drag the bodies out to the land cruiser. Each of the bodies was piled into the back, wedged into the footwells in ascending order of perceived importance, then they climbed up into the load bed or the front seats. Shimazu fired up the engine and turned to Kai.

“Ok, where to?”

“Back to the ranch?”

Various remarks came back, some of them very strongly negative – the most vocal being from Tads.

“No killing where we’re going to live. You’ll pollute astral space horribly.” That, and the prospect that one or more of them may have some kind of implanted health monitor or tracking device made it clear that the ranch was not a good idea at all. Hunter scrolled over the map, struggling with the size of the screen on his commlink, but finding something after a minute of looking.

“Head north out of town, on Meliyev, about seven kilcks. Straight road, but shouldn’t be busy, takes us to some uphills. I’m sure we can find somewhere quiet and out of the way to deal with them.

“Sounds good, let’s go. Marius, bring up the rear please!”

Shimazu put the truck into gear and pulled out into the street, driving slowly and carefully as he tested the car to ensure it worked correctly. Overhead the two drones headed back to the truck and started their docking manoeuvres while Marius wrestled with the loading ramps and shoved the tracked drone out of the way. Once the truck was sealed up, he set to following the rest of the team, catching them up as they left the northern side of town.

They drove carefully on the narrow road. Although it was clearly marked on the map, it was clearly not a main road or one in constant use, and featured some spectacular potholes. Shimazu had to slew the four by four around the worst of them whilst Marius could just ignore them in the bigger military truck. Slower going than expected, it was nearly half past eight by the time they had pulled off the road onto an old livestock trail and made their way up into the broken uplands, finding themselves in a narrow defile shielded from view from most of the surrounding area.

They pulled the four by four around, and arranged the four bodies so they were laid out in the intersection of the two sets of headlights, semi naked bodies covered in goosebumps in the cold night air. Even with the brisk coldness, they still didn’t show any signs of stirring yet, so completely had they been stunned by Tads.

Kai stood in front of them, backlit by the lights from the trucks, and slowly pulled out a long survival knife from a scabbard hung from his belt. Hunter moved around behind the prostate forms, facing towards Kai, with a blank expression on his face. The rest of the team looked at the set of Kai’s body, and the unconscious forms on the floor, and a growing sense of unease came over them.

“This. This is not soldiers’ work.” Aswon shouldered his rifle and turned away from Kai, marching up into the darkness looking for a vantage point. He made no move to stop Kai, but his shoulders were set and his movements indicated that he wasn’t going to take part in whatever was happening.

Shimazu looked between Kai and Aswon, his head swivelling back and forth a few times, then he turned and headed back into the truck. He grabbed his earplugs, and slowly worked them into his ears. 

Tads watched Aswon heading off, then she too turned and climbed into the truck, past Shimazu, and into the back. She grabbed a thick pair of gloves and a jacket, then a poncho to go over the top.

“Where are you going?” came Shimazu’s voice from the doorway, where he stood with one earplug held between thumb and forefinger.

“Out. Away. Up there somewhere.” Tads’ voice came out brittle and choppy, and she seemed on the verge of tears for some reason. Shimazu watched her for a few more seconds, then replaced the ear plug back in the container, reaching up to his other ear and pulling out the one already inserted. He put the case into his pocket, grabbed a jacket himself, and then followed Tads out of the back door of the truck, and into the darkness.

Marius meanwhile unjacked from the truck and grabbed a toolkit, heading over to the land cruiser and squirming underneath. Once there he began a careful check over the chassis from the rear, moving inch by inch and evaluating the condition.

Hunter watched the others leave the area, one by one, dim shapes moving in his peripheral vision. His attention remained focussed on the bodies though, and the team leader standing there with a drawn knife and a cold expression on his face.

“You going through with this?” he asked.

“Yep. Just need to work out which one to wake up first.”

“Give me a minute, I’ll fix that for you.

Hunter moved back to the truck, and grabbed a marker pen, and was just about to leave when he had a second thought, and reached in for a set of overalls. He pulled them on over the top of his normal clothes, and then jumped down and headed back to the bodies. He moved from one to another, and worked down the line, writing their names on their foreheads in indelible ink.

Ulvi, Subhan, Vagif, Vusal.

Kai grabbed the smelling salts from the medkit, and waved them under Subhan’s nose until he stirred. Subhan snorted and pulled his head away by reflex as the ammonia triggered his respiratory functions. He struggled to sit upright, hands writhing against the belt and shoelaces that bound them together, but then froze as Kai stepped forwards, placing the knife under his chin.

“Do you want to tell me what I want to know?”

“Fuck you! Who the fuck are….” The heavily-accented English cut off as Kai thrust the knife up into the flesh under his chin, driving the knife up into the brain, killing him with a twist of the blade. The body flumped back, voiding itself in death, and Kai wrestled to get the blade free. He moved on to Vagif, waving the salts under his nose.

The salts didn’t seem to rouse him, so he moved on to Vusal, rousing him to consciousness, too. Vusal stayed quiet, wide eyed in fear rather than mouthing off, but at his recalcitrance to speak, Kai executed him too. Hunter stood behind the bodies, unmoving, face still emotionless, watching the Mongolian work. He tried to wake Vagif again, but the body didn’t rouse, so Kai finished him with a quick thrust of the knife. Finally he moved to Ulvi, waving the salts under his nose and watching as the boss spluttered his way into consciousness.

“Sən kimsən? Mən haradayam?” He struggled to speak, breath coming in short bursts.

“Who are you, where am I” Hunter subvocalised, sending over his commlink to Kai. “I’m not sure he speak English.”

“Tell him, we’re the Yakuza” Kai responded, waiting for Hunter to translate for him. 

“Biz Yakuza deyilik.” Ulvi’s eyes opened wide and a stream of rapid fire Azerbaijani spat out at Kai.

“He says you’re dirty slit-eyed fucks and he’ll skullfuck you in front of your mother and then rape your sister.” There was a pause, then Hunter added “I’m not sure he realises what situation he’s in.”

Kai stepped forwards and poke Ulvi in the shoulder with the tip of the knife, watching as the blade slipped in to the skin. It was so cold up on the mountain that the wound barely bled, at least while the knife was in there. Ulvi tried to pull back, flinching against the blade, but Hunter moved behind him, adding his own knife to the base of his skull, and resting a large knee at the top of his back. Ulvi let rip with another long stream of injective, cursing him, his family, his dog and making several comments that would be anatomically impossible, let alone unwise.

Kai waited for him to stop, and listened to the tail end of Hunter’s translation, then moved the blade down and stabbed him again. More blood started to ooze down the chest, but instead of cowing him into submission or compliance, it just seemed to further enrage him. Ulvi’s hands squirmed and thrashed as he struggled against the bonds that held his arms behind his waist, his hands struggling against the thin laces that bound his fingers together.

Kai stepped back and moved to one of the other corpses.

“Make him watch.” He waited for Hunter to grab his head and twist it in his direction, then ritually disembowelled Subhan, before cutting away at his clothing and severing his genitals. Tearing away at the flesh, he forced them into the mouth of the corpse, pushing the jaw closed with bits of ligament hanging out of the corner. He moved down the line, visiting the same treatment on each of them in turn.

“Tell him the Yakuza own this town now.” He waited for the translation, but it seemed to push Ulvi even further into a rage. He spat at Kai, and the string of injective was hurled at him with furious force and contempt. Ulvi seemed to have no fear, no sense of reality, and absolutely no sense of his own mortality – a white hot fury seemed to drive him and there was not an ounce of give in him. He seemed to get himself so wound up that his insults took on a strange high-pitched cadence as he continued to swear on inward breaths as well as outwards.

Realising that he wasn’t getting through, Kai stepped forwards and thrust the knife into Ulvi’s body, driving the blade into his trachea and cutting through the windpipe. Even then, as the death throes and rattles of the dying body eeked out, they still sounded like a string of four-letter words.

Hunter let the body slump to the ground, and Kai stood over him, feet shoulder width apart and with the blade still held tightly his right hand, the blood of the men he had slain dripping from the point of the blade as it ran down the blood grove. Kai stared, unmoving for twenty seconds or so, then blinked and looked up at Hunter, stared at him for a moment, then turned away without comment and headed to the rear of the truck.

“Everyone, it’s all over. Think we’re done here.” Hunter waited until Aswon, Tads and Shimazu acknowledged his radio call, then wandered around the back of the truck after Kai. He found him standing just outside the shower, his arms thrust into the small cubicle and cold water squirting from the shower head down over his blood stained arms. He headed back to the front, watching as Marius climbed out from under the land cruiser, pronouncing it “acceptable, considering the age, but needs some remedial work.” The German avoided looking at the corpses, and gathered his tools, heading back to the truck.

Tads and Shimazu arrived at the same time, and Tads also tried to avoid looking at the area. She turned her back on the corpses, standing at their feet, and cast her spell, sterilising the area of forensic traces. Without a word, she climbed into the land cruiser, belting in and looking down at her feet. Shimazu looked at the mutilated bodies for a moment, studying them, then climbed into the driver’s seat and started the vehicle, slowly reversing away and heading down the trail, back towards the road. Just as they were pulling away, they saw Aswon climbing down from some rocks, heading to the truck, with a look of distaste upon his face. A minute later, the truck started up and headed down the trail after them, leaving four mutilated corpses to finish freezing high upon the hillside. As the truck descended, rocks and soil shifted behind it, obscuring their tyre marks and hiding the fact that they’d been there, as a mountain spirit obeyed Tads request.

In the truck, Aswon cast an eye back at Kai, who was sat in the back, slowly towelling his arms dry whilst he stared unseeing at the wall of the truck, then turned his attention to the bag of IDs. He flipped on the comm switch, and alerted Marius.

“I’m thinking we should forward these identities onto your friend Milo in Constantinople? If they’re legit, he might be able to use them to help someone else with new papers. May earn you a discount in the future?”

“Ja, good idea.” Aswon busied himself with scanning the ID sticks, and forwarded on the details to the number Marius reeled off, then settled back in his seat, staring out into the countryside as they worked their way back towards the town. The journey back was quiet, Aswon, Hunter and Marius all thinking about what had happened, and Kai sat slumped in the back.

It was about ten o’clock when they got back to the ranch, the truck following the land cruiser down the dirt track from the main road towards the house. Alerted by the lights, Rusudan and Naena came to the front door, looking with concern as the pickup truck arrived, then with relief as they spied the team’s truck.

Neana waved them all inside, gesturing towards the dining area where some food was waiting for them, but her arm froze in mid-air as the icy chill atmosphere given off by the team washed over her. She and Rusudan watched as they entered the house, closing the door quietly behind them, and their eyes widened a little as they saw the flecks of blood and occasional stain on their clothing. Nadia appeared from around the corner, SMG on a sling and ready to fire, until she saw it was just the team that had come back. She carefully put the weapon on safe, and moved to hug Marius, eyes flitting from one of the team to another as they still said nothing.

They settled down at the long dining table, an eerie silence filling the room as they stared at one another over the selection of bread, meat and cheese, all except Kai who stared at his hands.


	81. 081 - How big is this anthill

Date 17/02/2060, Location 40.02419, 48.95808

Kai eased his chair back, the legs scraping across the polished laminate floor with a series of loud squeaks. All eyes followed him as he stalked to the back door, opening it quietly before slipping into the quiet night air and closing it equally quietly behind him. The silence stretched out, with Nadia and the family looking at the team in confusion. Aswon was the first to break the silence.

“Hunter, can you grab the satnav from the truck we took, and see if they have any waypoints set – maybe their home base or something.” Hunter nodded and slid his chair back too, getting to his feet. “Rusudan, it might be best for you and your family to leave us alone for a bit. What you don’t know, can’t be used against you. We’re dealing with some bad people here, and I’d hate for you to get involved.” 

Rusudan looked at his wife and kids, then back at Aswon. His eyes flitted from one member of the team to another and saw general agreement with Aswon. For a moment, his face twisted in conflict, but then he sighed, and waved to Hunter.

“Stay here with your comrades. I will get the device from the truck. Kids – go upstairs with your mother, I will join you soon.” He headed for the back door, whilst the others headed upstairs, leaving the team around the dining room table. Nadia looked around the table at each of them, then turned her attention back to Marius.

“What is going on? What is wrong with Kai?”

“He, we… we’ve all had a rough night Nadia. Let’s not go into it more than that, not now.”

Nadia nodded, and instead moved her chair closer to him, pressing up against him and taking his hand between both of hers, offering her silent but trusting support. Tads cleared her throat, attracting attention.

“Hunter, can you find me some maps please?” Hunter nodded, but looked confused, and he waved one hand in a ‘go on’ motion.

“What I want is a map of the area where the wolf tribe was, but I want you to emphasise the natural features, rather than road names and signs.” Hunter looked at her like she was slightly mad, and she sighed with exasperation. “I’m going to fly over there astrally, and if I’m in astral, I can’t read signs and numbers and things – they’re just weird grey shapes of deadness, man-made things. I can pick up emotional content, but not details. But I can spot things like mountains, rivers and natural features, because they’re alive and real, they exist just as vibrantly in the astral realm. So I need a map focussed on things I can see in astral, to navigate in astral.” Hunter shook his head in confusion.

“I’ll try. Lots of mountains, and rivers, no road signs. Can’t guarantee anything though. And why?”

“Someone has been trying to track me down. Probably somebody we’ve upset – but not necessarily. So if I go and find the Wolf Tribe, and the other people we know, and ask them, and they go ‘oh yes, it was us, we were trying to find you’, then that’s good news. But if they all say no, then it’s bad news. I think we all know that it’s going to be bad news, but I’d rather check.”

The others smiled a little at her appraisal of their chances of being astrally sought after by the equivalent of someone just wanting to borrow some sugar against that of someone who sought to do very bad things to them.

The door swung open, and Rusudan entered, placing a battered sat-nav on the corner of the table before heading upstairs to follow his wife. Shimazu grabbed the sat-nav and passed it down to Hunter, who started to work on the controls, checking it over. They waited patiently whilst he worked through the settings, irritating mono-pitched beeps issuing from the cheap speaker every time he hit a button or moved the cursor. He dropped it on the table eventually, and his nose wrinkled in disgust.

“The home setting was for the house we hit, and there’s a bunch of tracks that just roam around the town in such a maze that they won’t show anything useful. Only a couple of waypoints, in other places and they all look personal – labelled as aunts and uncles. No mention of bosses or weapons caches or anything useful like that.

Marius sat upright for a moment, then nodded his head absently, paused then nodded again. He looked around at the others.

“Kai just called me on the phone. He suggested using the radio gear to scan the police frequencies, and see if we can hear anything from town. He sounded like he was busy with something though, and acting like normal.” The German gave a shrug, then pulled out his remote deck, accessing the truck’s electronics systems. He energised the powerful radio system from the heavy duty batteries, and started to scan the radio waves on the private bands often used by the police and other emergency services. It didn’t take long to find something.

“Ok, I have something. Signal is on a legally restricted band, but unencrypted. No way to triangulate properly without moving the truck or launching the drones and getting a good distance away to get a cross-bearing, but it’s definitely the right range and general heading to be coming from the town.” He reached for his glass and took a sip of water, his eyes staring into space as he listened to the intercepted signal via his built in cyberware, and then mentally translated and repeated the contents to the rest of the team in English.

“The fire is out at the house. No mention of who did it, or a fire service – so it might be local volunteers, or it might have just burnt itself out. The voice says he’s in his car just down the block, watching. No names given, no call sign or radio ID. No name of who he is calling either – so they must know each other. Saying that they should call in the fire to Shirvan of course, given whose house it was, and the likely trouble it would cause. Ok, quiet now for the moment.”

“So, they know who was in the house, and what they do, and they know there’s a link to Shirvan. So the police are definitely compromised, and on the take or controlled by the Mafia.” Shimazu sat back in his chair, eyes twitching slightly as he worked through the implications, as if he was staring as some ethereal flowchart in front of him. “We have to assume the entire town police force is compromised then, or at least the most senior echelons, which are all that matter. The question then is are the police in Shirvan also dirty?”

“Ok, something else happening now. Some people have turned up in another car, and are staring at the fire. He recognises them as ‘some of the boys’. They’re very angry apparently. They’re going to one of the nighbouring houses….. wait. Ok, they have kicked in a door, and are going inside, with pistols drawn. The voice on the radio sounds dismayed, but not surprised by this, but is also not apparently moving to intervene.”

The team listened as Marius continued his commentary, and imagined the scene back in town as more of the mafia goons arrived, and started to roust neighbours from their houses, lining them up in the street and interrogating them over the activities in the house. Aswon in particular looked glum, his eyes moving around the team, as they listened in on the activities of the thugs, as narrated by whatever kind of police officer was watching the scene. Marius blinked his eyes refocussed, looking around the table.

“We appear to have kicked an anthill, and the ants are very angry. If we leave town now to avoid this mess, a lot of people are going to pay the price, people who have no idea what is going on.” Aswon nodded emphatically, apparently in complete agreement with Marius, and not liking it one bit. “I think we should head back into town, and take these guys out, fast and hard – work our way up the chain faster than they can report in, and eliminate these scum before the word gets around.”

“If we do, we need to be careful – we’re on their home ground, and we don’t know how many people report in to them.”

“From what I can see, Tads, they’re not well liked, or respected – they may not even be locals from the town, and I get the impression people won’t cry over their absence. In fact they may even….” The others waited for him to finish speaking, recognising the focussed look on his face as he monitored the signal from his router. “They’ve just executed one of the locals, in cold blood. The policeman is still not doing anything about it, but is telling the other person that they need to get down here and sort this out.”

Tads had already laid her arms out in front of her to cushion her head and projected into the astral, flying over to the house. She hovered overhead, seeing the large black stain on the astral terrain indicating a fresh murder, and could see the ripples of fear and hatred flickering out from the people in rough lines, along with rage and contempt from the goons. She found a roof to hover over and a chimney to mostly hide behind, and manifested, her figure appearing in the real world for a moment as a ghostly apparition. Nobody spotted her, their attention being drawn to the events on the street, but it allowed her to get a look at their actual faces rather than astral reflections, and also to look at the car parked on the edge of the block. It looked more like a civilian model, but had a rotating red light positioned on top, with a thick black curly cable running down through the window. A man stood smoking a cigarette by the window, talking quietly into a hand-held radio, whilst he watched the scene unfold. Tads had another quick look around, then demanifested and flew back to her body, quickly relaying what she had seen.

As she gave her descriptions, Aswon perked his ears up.

“Those last two – those are the ones we saw at the supermarket, I’m sure of it. Marius, can you replay the sensor footage from the truck please, as best you can?” Marius issued a series of mental commands, and the footage started to play on the computer, low resolution and grainy, but clear enough for Tads to examine and confirm their identity.

“I’m going to get the vehicles ready. We should go and deal with this – unless anyone disagrees?” Nobody did, so Marius turned and headed for the back door, with Nadia in tow. The others pulled out their personal weapons and checked ammunition levels and equipment, taking advantage of the good light and solid surface of the table to make sure everything was ‘just so’. Hunter meanwhile had been busy with his computer and sat back in his chair with a low whistle.

“I’ve been looking at the census data, what there is of it. It looks like ‘Mammadova’ or ‘Mammadov’ is maybe the equivalent of Smith, or Schmidt. About fifteen percent of the town have the same surname, or a very close spelling of it. So, I reckon there is a clan, or extended family – but not all Mammadovas are necessarily our enemies. 

Out in the yard, Marius found Kai had set up the spray booth, and was slowly working his way over the SUV, giving it a new look. He was working merticulously, in smooth even motions that combined close attention to detail with a certain level of artistry. Marius couldn’t fault his neatness – or the effect achieved – but he also sensed that there was something cathartic about this for Kai, something that was grounding him after the events of the night. He sent Nadia on ahead to start up the truck and get things ready, and spent a minute filling Kai in on what had happened, and what they were going to do about it. Kai continued spraying as he listened, long graceful arcs of paint slowly recolouring the old SUV, and a minute later he finished the panel he’d been working on. He dumped the spray head in a bucket of cold water, depressing the trigger and sending the surface of the water into a mass of bubbles and thinned paint, until it looked to be clear, then set the spray head on the floor and turned to Marius, pulling out his taser and checking the charge level.

“Ok, let’s go.”

They mounted up and drove to the rear of the house, pausing to let the rest of the team climb aboard, before Marius gunned the engine and they roared down the driveway towards the main road. They barely slowed, Marius sending them into a six wheel drift onto the carriageway and then flooring it, the truck growling as he dropped the accelerator hard. The team moved around each other in the tight space, strapping on armour and grabbing weapons, filling pockets with smoke grenades and spare clips, and making sure first aid kits were full and ready.

“I’ve been thinking about the cops in the town – one of the things we really need to know, is if they are being paid off, or if they’re actively involved. If they’ve just been paid off, then I think we can deal with them. Once we take out the mafia, we just have a quiet word and explain that we’re not putting up with this anymore – but that’s it, and we’re not going to hold it against them. If they’re businessmen, they’ll accept there’s been a change, adapt and move on. If on the other hand, they’re part of the clan, then we’ll have to take them all the way out, and I don’t like doing that as it’s another complication. But either way, we need to do something. I can’t sit by and watch these thugs taking out the townsfolk for something we did. Tads, did you get a sense of what sort of mood they were in? Tads? Hey, Tads!” He poked her body gently, and saw her head lol from one side to another. “Marius, slow down a little please, it’ll make it a bit easier for her to get back into her body, when she returns.”

The truck slowed a little, and stuck to the main road, and sure enough about two minutes later the comatose body of the shaman stirred as her spirit returned.

“Another policeman turned up as I got there. He spoke with the first one, then moved over to the goons, and talked to them. There was lots of waving of arms at people. It looked to me like the new policeman was trying to get them to calm down, but they wanted to attack some other people. For the moment, it’s kind of stable, but I don’t think it’s going to last too long.”

“Kai, we have to do something here. We are responsible for starting this situation, and innocent people have already died because of us.”

“Whoah, slow down there, Aswon. We don’t know that for sure. At the end of the day, the only one responsible for their actions, is them. How they react to a situation is not up to us.”

“Come on Kai, you know that’s not how it works. Yes, technically they are responsible for their actions, as free thinking people – but we engineered the situation.”

“I’m just saying, we’re not here to be the police, or white knights, to go charging in and save people.”

“Well, maybe you’re not.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“What I’m saying is that if we as a team do not go in and sort this situation out, then I will go in alone. I will NOT let these people suffer because of what we did.” Aswon folded his arms and stared at Kai. It wasn’t defiance, but it was a clear declaration of intent. Kai bit back what he was going to say, and sat back in his seat and folded his own arms and looked at Aswon. Two equally dark sets of eyes stared at each other, unblinking.

“Fine, Aswon, fine. We’ll sort it out. But carefully, and with a plan, not rushing in and being all ‘in your face, I am mighty Lion warrior’, ok?”

“I would not have done that. But yes, we should have a plan.” Both of them turned towards Tads to request some more information, but saw her head lolling to one side again, and realised she had returned to the house to keep an astral eye on things. They both sighed, and then despite the tension smiled slightly, realising they were both slightly frustrated by not being able to catch her before she disappeared again. Kai thrust his hands into his pockets, then froze. A moment later he pulled his hand out, holding the subscriber card between his fingers.

“Nadia, Hunter? Grab one of the burner phones will you, and slap this chip in. Then see if you can pull up any messages or traffic from the head guy, and see what we’re dealing with.” He passed over the plastic housed chip to them, and they got to work. Nadia started to page through the messages, reading them out and noting down word choices and slang used, whilst Hunter started to build up a map of who had spoken to who, on what dates and times, and in what capacity.

It only took a few minutes to get into town, but by then Hunter and Nadia had a skeleton organisation chart for the mafia, and the team decided to pull over a few blocks away from the house and give them more time. Hunter worked to clear up the data and refine things whilst Nadia cross referenced, and then he spun the screen round to show their findings.

“Right, the boss, the one who turned up in the truck and we…. Dealt with…. Was called Ulvi Mammadova. It looks like he had three captains or lieutenants, whatever you want to refer to them as. They are Malik, Royal and Azer. Each of them has about ten to twelve goons under their command. There’s another Malik, but this one is in Shirvan, and appears to be Ulvi’s boss – and as far as we can work out, his dad. So it looks like Malik in Shirvan sent his son, and three captains with a load of goons to extend the business into a new territory. The three captains appear to be related, we think cousins to Ulvi. Whatever the relationship is, they’re clearly subordinate, and Ulvi was a cock of giant proportions.”

Hunter glanced at some updates that Nadia pushed across to his screen, then looked at his data and continued to speak.

“Half the messages are ‘just get it done you asshole’ kind of stuff, typical bad boss things – lots of micromanagement or demanding status updates to show that he’s the one in charge, and the other half is this weird kind of fake forced ‘we’re all family, here let me reward you my loyal underlings’. I reckon they had to have been plotting to take him out for being a giant twat, unless that’s part of the culture here?” Nadia shook her head violently. “Nah, didn’t think so. It really appears that the guy just did have a massive ego, and no sense of his own mortality. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer man.”

Shimazu shifted in his seat and leant forward, pointing with his finger at the crude hierarchy sketched out on the computer screen.

“We have his ID. We have samples of him giving orders. Why not send the captain at the house a message. We tell him to bring his men to a location, somewhere we are ready. Tell them that they’ve been chasing the people who burnt down their house, and they need more men to spring the assault. From what Nadia and Hunter have said, they wouldn’t argue – and it lets us bring in this group in a nice controlled manner.”

The others considered this, glancing at Nadia and Hunter, then Kai. Nobody spotted an obvious flaw in the plan, and it sounded like a good idea.

“Right, let’s work out where we need to take them, somewhere out of the way, where nobody else is going to get hurt. And we need to work out which captain is which, of course. Next time Tads is back, someone grab her and get her to eavesdrop on the conversation and see if we can work out who is who.” The team busied itself, looking at maps and the satellite data for the town, or keeping an eye on the still form of the shaman. A few minutes later they’d realised that the train station was the best, closest place to use – the sound of freight moving would cover any suppressed gunfire, and possibly any open combat depending on what was going on – and it was going to be near deserted at this time of night, with just freight trains lying in wait for the next morning. Tads was poked and briefed, and after a quick scout reported that only two men seemed to be present at the rail yard, both in a signals box right down the far western side of the station. After that, she returned to the house, listening out for the names of the captains she had been given.

They headed to the station and Marius found a tall goods shed to park the truck behind, getting it out of sight as much as possible. Kai turned round, and a thought struck him.

“Ok, first time we’ve done this since we upgraded. Aswon – what’s your preferred range now?”

“Somewhere between five hundred and a thousand metres at the top side.” Kai nodded, then looked at Hunter.

“A lot closer for me, probably less than two hundred metres. But I can lay down a lot more fire in a short amount of time.”

Tads appeared back in her body then, opening her eyes and smiling.

“I have a name for you. Azer – he is the leader of the group back at the house.” Kai pointed at Nadia.

“Ok, send it – get him over here fast. Remember, you’re an asshole!” He winked at Nadia as she paused typing to scowl at him, looking unrepentant. She stabbed at the keyboard angrily, sending the pre-agreed message over and telling Azer to gather his men and get to the station.

Marius prepped the Condor and the Dalmatian, lofting both birds from the launch rail and observing the area carefully. He kept the Dalmatian over the other side of the train station, where its superior speed would allow it to respond very quickly, but the noise from its vector thrust engines would be lost in the background. As he suspended control to report back to the team on their successful positioning, he heard a spirited discussion going on amongst the rest of the team about how best to ambush Azer and his men. 

It was generally agreed that they wanted a spell up over the truck to disguise it as something else, and another phantasm nearby to act as the “bait”. The argument seemed to vary about how they were going to present the bait, and how they would launch the attack. The discussion went round and round a few times, until Marius detected the target vehicle entering the area, closing on the station quickly. Abruptly all discussion ceased, and Hunter and Aswon scrambled into position, climbing up onto rooves and vanishing into the darkness. 

“Banana – that’s the code word to engage,” said Kai loudly, grabbing his tactical radio and jamming the earpiece into position with a wince. He watched the two climb quickly and surely, then heard two clicks over the radio indicating they were in position. With a sigh, Tads concentrated, and a grain truck appeared next to the station, parked incongruously close to the building.

The truck drove up to the front of the station quickly, then braked sharply and slid to a halt. It was another SUV, but a different brand to the first. Painted a dull tan, it too was rusty and badly cared for, and looked to be decades old. As it skidded to a halt on the tarmac forecourt for the station, the doors were thrown open and four men quickly slid out of their doors, leaving the engine running and the headlights on. Three more rose from their seated position in the load bed, also looking around to spot the rest of their friends.

The lighting was bad, the headlights facing towards the team and it would have been a somewhat difficult shot for either Hunter or Kai, facing into the glare as they were. However, it proved to be unnecessary, as Tad leant forward in her seat, and with a mental flick dispelled the illusion. The watching men gaped as the truck vanished, but she just focused her will and sent forth a massive blast of power. All seven of the goons dropped to the floor, sprawling in the cold night air. The blast of power made her wince though, and when she sat back, blood trickled from her nose freely, as if she’d just been punched, whilst her eyes squinted at the glare of the headlights and she contended with a throbbing headache.

“Banana,” muttered Kai under his breath, to be met with snorts of amusement from Nadia and Shimazu. Marius was too busy concentrating on his drones, but a couple of moments later he gave the all clear and started to bring them back in to land. As he did so he noticed the Dalmatian had made a significant dent in the fuel supply, and made a mental note to discuss it with Kai.

Shimazu vaulted from the truck and headed towards the tan SUV, stepping carefully to avoid the unconscious bodies scattered around it. With sword and pistol drawn he stepped around the doors, confirming that nobody else was hiding in the vehicle or waiting to step out and surprise them. Satisfied that there wasn’t, he quickly went through their kit, grabbing guns, ID and phones whilst the others moved to join him. In his peripheral vision, he saw Aswon and Hunter climb down from their positions, and tagging along behind. 

The bodies were loaded up into the load bed, and it was agreed to head out to the same location as they had previously used – though Aswon warned that if they filled up the gulch with the bodies of the local mafia, it would be found, and it would be investigated. Not having anywhere better to go though, Shimazu started up the tan SUV and with a crunching of gears set off to the north. Tads struggled to cast her sterilise spell, clearing up behind them, but then the rest of the team mounted up and helped her climb back into the cab and they set off to the north as well.

The road was just as punishing as last time, but at least this time they knew where they were going and where the tricky bits of the trail were, and Shimazu managed to navigate up the broken gully without ripping something off the bottom. The larger military grade truck had no issues at all with the terrain, and smoothly motored up behind them, the engine barely ticking over as they crawled after the SUV. When they reached the flat area, their headlights revealed the back end of a couple of carrion feeders disappearing into the rocks, attracted by the smell of the earlier killings, and reinforcing Aswon’s warning. They unloaded the bodies, and Shimazu worked along with his combat knife, cleanly and quickly killing each of the goons with his survival knife in a smooth and economical motion. Aswon glanced over in astral, looking at the discolouration of the emotion tainted mana-sphere – but it wasn’t as bad as he had feared. It took a moment to realise why – but it appeared that Shimazu was carrying out the task without any emotional input at all. Though their deaths caused a small spike in the background, the lack of hate or desire to inflict pain or suffering countered the worst of the act. Though it was a good thing in this particular instance, Aswon couldn’t help but let a shiver run down his spine at how dispassionate the act of murder could become….

As he finished, Shimazu rolled over one of the bodies, and started to saw away with his knife, slicing off the buttocks of one of the victims. The others stared at him like he was mad, standing with blank incomprehension as he mutilated the corpse. He turned around with several pounds of meat in his hand, blood dripping from the stained blade onto the dry desert earth.

“What? It’s cheaper than steak.” It took a moment, but then they realised what he meant, and watched him take the dripping meat towards the trailer and the jars of leeches safely strapped into one corner. He was right – it was much cheaper than buying animal product for them, and based on their experience so far, wasn’t going to leave much in the way of forensic evidence either. Tads followed him to the back doors, and before he managed to get the top off the first jar, got his attention.

“Shimazu, can you get out the leeches out for a bit, please? I need to rest in my lodge, and once I’ve got rid of this headache, I’m going to work on that new spell formula. And sorry, I’m not doing that while your pets are eating some poor guy right next to me.” Shimazu snorted, but grabbed the box containing the remaining jars and headed out of the back, putting them to one side of the trailer whilst Tads climbed in and closed the door behind her, settling herself down into the comforting environment of her magical lodge.

Nadia and Hunter continued to work on the phones and their web of contacts, gradually building up a better picture of the network. Each of the captains appeared to have ten or so soldiers, and the soldiers’ phones only seemed to communicate in their own ‘unit’, reporting to their captain. The captains talked to each other a lot more, and all of them reported to Ulvi, with occasional contacts with family members in Shirvan. From the nature of the text messages, they gradually built up a web of activities taking place in the town – some drug trafficking, a little prostitution, some gambling – but mostly it seemed to be protection rackets and extortion. The supermarket checking finally made sense – they seemed to have the census data for the town too, and if you hadn’t paid a “licence”, then you weren’t allowed in the shop. With only the three main supermarkets in town, and all of those under the control of the mafia, then those refusing to pay the fee were faced with a ten kilometre walk into Shirvan to get their shopping.

Marius thrust his rigger deck away from him with a look of disgust, causing Kai to raise an eyebrow at him.

“I was trying to find a way to triangulate and track the mobile phones they are using, to help us monitor and observe them. I can get a bearing to a rough degree from the equipment on the truck – but to accurately track them and to intercept multiple signals, we need a decker – someone with good active skills in hacking and the right hardware and software. This equipment just isn’t up to general purpose snooping like that. Even with a couple more Condor drones, I’m limited in bandwidth for actual signal interception compared to gaining access to the hardware or software in a cell tower.

To their rear, the map of individuals on the organisational chart was firming up, with over 80% of the boxes now having names to go with their numbers, and over half of them having some kind of detail identified from the text messages, along with usual positions in the town. As they worked through the captured subscriber chips, more and more information was painted onto the map or confirmed from numerous sources.

Along with the mafia cell in the town, they had references to “mum” and “dad” from Azer’s phone, and if their assumption that he was one of three brothers was accurate, they had an alternate route into the Shirvan parent cell – probably.

Aswon pulled up the map of the town, looking at the layout of houses, shops, commercial properties and the limited freight and industrial presence.

“You can see how it happened. First they came to make sure that their cargo got through, without being interrupted or inspected. So they bribe a few officials at the train station, get the guys on the signal tower on their side. That probably introduces them to the police, and maybe they start off with a few drinks, and a quiet conversation, a little bribe to look the other way, or not interfere. Once they’ve got that, they send in a few more bodies, and start pushing the drugs, maybe bring in a girl from the big city, and set up a gambling den. The bribe to the police goes up a little, and now he’s just ignoring a little bit more.” As he described the scenario, his hands traced over the map, showing the influence spreading.

“Then the protection racket starts, on the luxury stuff first, the stuff only the rich have or get. Or whatever passes for rich around here. They get nothing from the police, and nothing from the rest of the town, who don’t care about the rich people getting a taste of the shitty end of the stick. Then they slowly tighten the screws, taking over more and more of the town. By now the police are in too deep, and can’t back out, they’re as guilty as the mafia and have nailed their trousers to the mast. And short of national level organised crime investigations or a military coup, that’s the town all sewn up and gone to hell.” He sat back, sounding weary and disappointed, and a little disgusted.

“Right up until some Shadowrunners come along and upset the status quo anyway,” Kai responded, “and prove that they may be big, and have numbers on their side, but they’re not the only mean kids in town. Question is of course, what’s our next move? Do we try to magically influence our friend Azer here? Do we finish him off, and try to get the next captain in the same way and take them out one cell at a time?”

The discussion lasted a few minutes, but by the end of it they had agreed to try and send more text messages from Ulvi, claiming that there was a security issue, and they needed the captain and his troops to come to a quiet part of town, but not to tell his brother or anyone else. Kai got Nadia to text each one, demanding to know where they were, and found that both Malik and Royal were with a couple of their goons and each near one of the supermarkets that was their turf.

Shimazu jumped out of the truck and went to deal with Azer, quickly and without fuss, before he regained consciousness, returning to the truck a minute later with the same blank, detatched expression on his face.

Hunter gathered all of the information they had gained so far and forwarded it on to his contact at Ares, Julius Jones. It wouldn’t directly hurt them, and it might help him in some way – either by contributing to their general database, or specifically to barter for more information.

“Right everyone. So, back to town, and we capture the next lot, try and get a captain and some grunts. Rinse and repeat with the other lot, and we should have just about cleared the town out – and made it safer for everyone. All good?” Kai looked around, and received a number of nods.

“Ok, someone go wake Tads up, then lets hit the road. Game time.”


	82. 082 - Cell by cell

Date 18/02/2060, Location 40.07859, 48.95171

They left the tan SUV up in the hills, near the shallow graves and headed back to town in the truck, making better time now that Marius was more familiar with the trail. As they approached the train station, Nadia sent a text message to Malik, calling him and his men to the train station. Once more Hunter and Aswon climbed the drainpipes and columns onto the roof and settled into overwatch positions, and Tads stood ready. Just like Azer’s team, Malik and his crew arrived without suspicion, piling out of a white panel van and standing in an arc, looking around the darkened square. Tads waited for the driver and Malik to get out as well, and then released another blast of power – and just like the first squad, they dropped noiselessly to the floor with their brains shut down from the assault. Kai looked over at her, checking for nosebleeds, but she smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

“No problem, not this time.”

Marius searched the vehicle for transponders, trackers or navigation devices, but found nothing like that at all – which was both good and bad. What he did find was a catalogue of minor faults, poor maintenance, rust and filth that had him chuntering and muttering to himself and casting dirty looks on the unconscious bodies that the rest of the team loaded into the back of the van. Aswon held their cred-reader in his hand, and one of the goons SINs in the other.

“Hey, Kai? We have sleeping goons, and valid thumbprints. We have a cred-reader. We have a certified stick to transfer the funds onto. Are we robbing them blind?” The team stopped what they were doing and looked at Kai, watching as he gazed into the distance for a moment, considering the options.

“No. Leave the in their account, all except the leader. Take the captain for everything he has.” Aswon shrugged, and shoved most of the IDs into a bag and handed them to Nadia along with the subscriber chips from the phones and went to work on the Captains ID, pulling a thumb up onto the reader to authorise the transfer. 

“Not that I think I have an issue with that decision – but I am curious as to why?”

“Well, the captains are in it up to their necks – they know what they’re doing, they’re guilty as sin, and they’re all part of the ruling family. So no regrets there. But these goons – maybe they’re pressganged into it. Maybe they’ve got no choice as to what they’re doing, and it was join up or be preyed upon. And maybe some of them have wives and kids – and we’d be clearing out their accounts too. And I don’t want to be the person that steals a kid’s food money, or puts a family on the street because we raided their savings.”

Aswon stopped what he was doing and stared at Kai.

“You know, I hadn’t thought of that. You’re right – we definitely shouldn’t be taking money from their account. Besides, this guy had just over four thousand in his account, so I guess any more would be greedy!”

Hunter was busy cataloguing the weapons and ammo, and had a small stash to transfer over to their truck.

“What’s the tally, Hunter?”

“Not great Kai, more cheap rubbish, not well looked after either. Lots of these lightweight pistols, and a lot of ammo for it – all cheap stuff, though. And some more of these shotguns – they seem like an import copy of a decent enough gun, but these are made of thin and weak material. Slow to operate and a bitch to maintain properly. But we do have plenty of ammo for them, so they’re good to leave behind with people like Rusudan, I suppose – any gun is better than no gun.”

“And I guess, if they’re dirty and stuff, they’re useful to teach how to clean a gun with…”

They piled up the bodies in the white van, and looked at them for a moment.

“So. Um… I’m guessing these are all bad guys, so we’re not going to let them live?” Shimazu looked around at the others, raising the thought they were all having. Tads looked relieved that someone else was raising the point, and she didn’t have to.

“Yep. But let’s make it clean. Earlier was…. Well, let’s not do that again.” Kai stared at the unconscious bodies, and his mouth worked for a moment silently, as if he was working out how to say something else. The others stood silent and watchful – wondering if he was going to explain the unusual activities of the first interrogation. But, after a few moments, he closed his mouth, and his jaw set, the muscles tense on either side of his face. “Just make it clean.”

Shimazu drew his knife, but then stopped, tilting his head to one side. He lowered the blade, and then turned away from the pile of bodies and headed to the truck instead, rooting around in the supplies there for a few minutes. When he returned, it was with a handful of large plastic bags and some medical tape. One by one he put the bags over the heads of the recumbent goons, and applied a quick orbit of tape, sealing the bag around their necks. As the bodies continued to breathe – driven by autonomic responses - the bags started to contract and expand, slowly misting up with the moist air from their lungs. He saw a quizzical look from Aswon as he passed and felt the need to explain. “Not quick, but painless – if they’re knocked out still, they’ll just fade away as the CO2 levels rise, and it won’t leave any visible marks or wounds, and no forensic evidence either.” Aswon saw the sense in it, but gave a little shudder anyway, and moved away.

With plastic bags sealed over all of their heads, the bodies were shoved into the van, and the team climbed aboard both vehicles, then started them up and headed north out of town again, leaving the square outside of the train station quiet, dark and cold, with no sign of the abduction visible. On the astral plane, all that could be seen was a fading aura of fear and tension given off by the goons in the split second they were ambushed – with not even a trace of the spell used to attack them after Tads’ careful efforts to clear up her spell signature.

On the way up to the rocky defile, the team chatted over the radio, happy that even the basic encryption would be enough to keep them secure from any passing receivers.

“So, how are we going to deal with the last group – take them out near the supermarket they’re guarding, with a direct assault?” From the tone of voice, it sounded like Hunter favoured a direct response, rather than another lure. “If Aswon and I can get into positions on the roof, we can easily drop half a dozen or more in the first couple of seconds of an assault.”

“Certainly we have the range advantage over them, and they don’t seem skilled. I would concur that an assault would be pretty devastating – but that means we have gunfire, even suppressed or silenced gunfire, in the middle of town. And I would not put it beyond these people to grab anyone nearby to use as a human shield.” They could hear the disdain in Aswon’s voice clearly over the digital radios. “I would not wish anyone else to be hurt as a result of our actions.”

“No, I agree. If we do it, and it goes well – great. But I think there’s too much chance of something going a little wrong or getting complicated. The last thing we need is say one of them managing to get into the supermarket, or another building, getting on the phone and calling for help. So far – well, let’s look at it from their point of view.” Kai paused for a moment, sitting back in his seat and counting off points on his fingers.

“First of all, the guys in the house all disappeared pretty cleanly, and the house was on fire – it didn’t burn as much as we wanted, but that’s gotta be confusing as hell to them. Nearly a dozen of them disappeared, with no idea what’s going on. And they probably don’t want to circumvent their boss, especially given how he treated them, it seems from the messages, and report in to Shirvan with a lot of unknowns. So they’ve been scrabbling round to find answers. The locals know that something is up – but mostly that a dozen of them and their boss is missing, and a house burnt out.”

“Now we’ve got another half dozen or so, and another captain or capo, or whatever they want to call themselves – just disappeared. They might have told the other captain they had a call from the boss, which would reassure them, but then they’ve gone quiet. So whoever is left is just wondering why more and more of their organisation is going silent. Are they busy? Are they under attack? Is something going on they’re not involved with? Are THEY the ones under suspicion? We have to think about it from their point of view, and add in a healthy dose of paranoia and distrust – these are criminals, and not too bright considering how they’re treating people in the town.”

“Overall, I think it’s best to go with the same plan, one more time. We’ve seen it work, we know what we’re doing. It’s very low risk, high reward and there’s no reason not to take advantage of that. Let’s play it safe.” As Kai finished speaking, they heard Nadia pipe up.

“I’ve been looking through their phones with Hunter, and adding their messages to the database, filling in blank spots. I would agree – they have been communicating between the captains, and when we sent the message from Ulvi’s phone, there was a flurry of communications. They seemed reassured to have heard from him, there was some speculation about what was going on, and it seems they have assumed that Ulvi was out chasing whoever threw a firebomb through his window.”

“Ok, let’s take advantage of that. Can you drop a message from the captain of this lot, to the last remaining captain. Tell him ‘wow, it’s all got messy, we might need you and your boys for the cleanup. The boss is really mad, we’re going to need cleaning materials’, that kind of thing. But however he’d write it.” Nadia and Hunter nodded at Kai, then got their heads together, pulling up the messages from Azer and examining his vocabulary and writing style, before Nadia wrote a message and sent it through to him. It was only a few seconds later that they heard the phone buzz and a snort from Nadia as she read the comment with amusement.

“Not a message, but an animated image. It’s a turtle or something, pulling its head into its shell and hiding. Obviously understands the boss is very angry and that’s more scary than anything else that could be happening.”

They felt the truck slow, and looked around them, then realised they had arrived at the bottom of the trail. Marius pulled up at the side of the road, and Shimazu pulled in the white van behind him. There was no way the white van was ever going to make it up the rocky trail intact, so they cross-loaded the bodies to the trailer for the last half-kilometre, leaving the white van at the side of the road. It looked out of place, but the roads were so quiet around here, the chances of it being found were very slim.

As they moved the bodies over, they saw some evidence that one of them had thrashed around a little – the bodies desire for oxygen forcing the limbs to spasm and clench in a feeble attempt to remove the covering over their head. With their positioning though, there had been no chance of this happening, and as Shimazu had said there was no forensic evidence left or spilled. They shifted the cooling bodies quickly, and then mounted back up, Marius easily driving the heavy truck up the pitted and rocky defile. Boulders that would have gutted the underside of the panel van were barely noticed by the six by six wheeled truck with its metre of ground clearance and they made good time up the twisting canyon. As they emerged into the open space they’d used before, they saw the reflection of several sets of eyes from the scrubby bushes at the edge of the clearing, the carrion feeders having heard the roar of the diesel engine long before they arrived.

They quickly moved the bodies out, placing them near the rest.

“Bury them, or leave them out here Kai?”

“Leave them for now, Aswon – I’m sure the scavengers will just dig them up anyway as soon as we’re gone, and it’s probably easier to deal with them all later on and bury them properly – maybe with a spirit to help or something. Let’s not waste time now, we need to take advantage of the situation to move fast on the last captain.”

It didn’t take long to lay out the bodies, and turn the truck around. After a quick discussion, they decided to take the tan SUV back down with them, and split up again at the bottom of the defile. They’d take all three vehicles back to town, and abandon the white van near a house somewhere, then proceed with the truck and the SUV. That way, they had a vehicle they could dump, and wouldn’t have to crossload the bodies again to get them up to their grave site.

On the way back into town, another discussion started up, with Tads starting the ball rolling.

“Much as I don’t want to do this, I’m guessing we’re going to have to move on to Shirvan next and seek out the next people up the chain, to put an end to them as well?” They could hear the distaste in her voice clearly, as before the digital radios coming through crystal clear and with great fidelity. “If we don’t, they’re just going to chase us and come after us.”

“Actually, no – I think you’re dead wrong there.” Hunter cut across swiftly, before anyone else had a chance to respond. “We don’t. We should stay the hell away from Shirvan entirely. What Kai said earlier was spot on. We’re approaching this with perfect knowledge, and they aren’t. Hang on… do you know what I mean by that?”

“No – I don’t a clue what you mean.”

“Right, let me explain. It’s something that comes up a lot in surveillance and such like. Um… ok – you ever seen a game like chess, or draughts?” There was a pause over the radio, as Hunter waited for Tads to agree. “Right – that’s a game with perfect knowledge. You get to see where all of your pieces are, and all of their pieces are. You have perfect knowledge of the game board, and the situation. Provided you understand the rules and strategy, it’s about how good you are as a player – that’s where the surprise comes from. You can’t be surprised by a piece suddenly appearing from off the board or something like that. It’s not how the game works. Now compare that to poker – remember that guy teaching Aswon how to play, the one we got out of Batumi. When playing poker, you have knowledge of what you have in your hand – but you don’t know what they have in their hand, and you don’t know what cards are face down on the table, depending on what type of poker you’re playing. So while you have to know the rules of the game and understand strategy, you also have to look at the players.”

There was another pause, and Aswon and Shimazu, driving the white van and the SUV respectively both imagined Tads nodding in understanding, a smile on their faces as they listened to Hunter explain the theory to them. 

“Right – so as far as we’re involved tonight, we’re more like playing poker. We sort of know the rules, but we’re not sure what pieces are in play – that’s why Nadia and I have spent so much time working on this database. Now we know almost all of the information about who is involved. But we have to remember that they know almost nothing. They’ve maybe seen the truck around, or had reports. They might have a really bad description of “some guys”. But we have names, addresses, favourite foods, all sorts of stuff. We know exactly what we’ve done tonight – they’ve only seen bits and pieces, and have no idea why stuff is happening.”

“In fact, it’s worse for them – as we’re inside their comms network, feeding them bad information, that sounds legit. They’re now working on a very flawed logic tree, that is going to bite them in the ass really hard. What they think they know is all wrong. They think the boss is handling a situation, rather than being fertiliser. They think the other captains are helping the boss out – instead of being fertiliser. They think everyone else is alive – rather than them being the last ones alive that AREN’T fertiliser. Yet.”

“Ok, I understand that. But then surely we still need to deal with Shirvan?”

“No – if we can get a clean sweep tonight, then all these people just… disappear. The guy’s dad in Shirvan – let’s say they talk a couple of times a week. After a few days, he’s going to get curious, maybe come over – and everyone has just vanished, into thin air. The trail is getting cold by then, there’s nothing to follow up. Just an absence of mafia dudes, a burnt-out house, and no information. Very hard to investigate, especially without proper resource. And it’s during that time that we start investigating them – information is power. That’s when we’re scouting Shirvan, learning about their organisation – if that’s the way we’re going. Or we just disappear for a while ourselves, and leave them nothing to find.”

The radio went quiet, as people digested what had been said, and Hunter sat back quietly, a grin on his face, as the vehicles closed in on the station. Nadia got a nod from Kai, and sent the next message, from Ulvi’s account to Royal, the last surviving captain, telling him to get to the train station at once, with bleach and cleaning supplies.

They pulled up in the square, positioning the truck around the back of the good shed again and out of the way, and with the white van and tan SUV at the front of the station buildings as obvious lures. Once more Hunter and Aswon climbed up onto the roof of the buildings with their weapons, while Tads and Shimazu waited in the bait vehicles ready to spring the ambush. Kai, Nadia and Marius sat in the truck, with Marius watching the view of the area from the orbiting surveillance drone, with his Dalmation fuelled up and idling on the launch rail, ready to go at a moment’s notice.

They waited, calm and collected. The cars would arrive, they’d get out, Tads would blast them, they’d collect the bodies, take them into the hills, bury them, and that would be the end of it. Clockwork. Deep calming breaths. 

They heard the engines first, then saw the lights – two battered and old looking cars drove into the square on one side, pulling around in a gentle arc to stop a few metres away from the white panel van. As they stopped, the doors opened, and the occupants swung their legs out, pushing themselves upright and looking around them at the still and quiet square. There were four of them in the vehicle closest to the van, three in the one further away. By looks of things, Royal was the passenger in the car with four, with a total of six of his men. 

Tads leant forward, while Shimazu leant back, making sure he wasn’t in her field of view. She checked, making sure that she could see all of them, and took a deep breath, reaching for the power to gather into another stun ball that would lay them all low. Reached…. Reached…. And found nothing.

In front of her, a collection of dustmotes swam through the air, caught and highlighted by the beams of light from the two cars. They coalesced into a pattern, and then in front of her was the ghostly astral form of an elk, highlighted edges picked out in stars, the shadows formed by the inky blackness of the night. A large pair of liquid eyes looked at her, and she felt a wash of disapproval flood over her, her own eyes welling up in empathy as the astral being looked at her. Paralysed for a moment she just stared at the manifestation of her avatar, her spirit guide. And then, with a choking sound, she felt her magic drain away, leaving her feeling empty, hollow and bereft of power.

Struggling to hold back tears, she managed to hit the transmit button on her radio, a flood of conflicting emotions raging through her. Her voice wobbled, threatening to reveal tears of sadness and loneliness as she squeaked out a message.

“Plan B.”

There was a heartbeat of stillness. Then Kai’s voice came back, solid and clear.

“BANANA!”

With a whoosh the drone catapulted from the launch rail as commands issued with lightning speed flashed through the rigger interface to the waiting cybernetic systems. The engines rammed to the red line as fuel was dumped into the turbine and the drone vaulted into the air, the weapons already swivelling down and to the right to get a lock on the targets below. Barely a moment later, the rest of the team sprang into action.

Next to Tads, Shimazu sprang forward and pushed the door open, spinning through it and drawing his blade as he pirouetted around the obstruction. His arm extended out, the blade like a living extension of his hand and the tip of the sword arced down and into the flesh of the closest target. Slicing through the armoured clothing with so little effort as to be irrelevant, the sword cut deeper and deeper into the target as his momentum drove him forward. The shallow cut at the shoulder turned into a blow that almost cut through the whole body at the hip, spilling blood and guts out onto the cold cobblestones in a hot torrent that caused faint steam to rise.

Hunter fired a single shot, taking one of the men from the second car at the base of the neck with a clean and deadly precision, before twitching the gun barrel up and swapping targets to the second. His fingers stayed wrapped around the handgrip, steadying the weapon and keeping it under tight control – instead the firing command was a mental twitch as the targeting caret drifted over the centre of mass of the driver. Another silenced shot quietly barked from his weapon and another round punched through the spinal column with ease, dropping the body to the ground. On the other roof, Aswon aimed his Purdey at the third occupant, lining up his sights carefully. As the head started to twist towards the sound of combat, he gently squeezed the trigger, feeling it break at 700 grams. The rifle kicked back into his shoulder, but Aswon was already swivelling his head left, away from the sight and looking for the next target. He instinctively *felt* that the shot was good, and didn’t wait to see the impact. The shot was indeed good, punching through the temple of the man as he turned to look at the other noise, and the round penetrated his skull and caused devastating damage.

The truck doors burst open as Nadia and Kai dropped to the ground, submachine gun and taser in hand, and started to run to the corner of the goods shed, ready to add their support to the combat, and Marius jumped into the Dalmation, his view swinging wildly from side to side as the drone rocketed through the air on thrusters operating at 105% of their rated maximums.

In the car, Tads shrank back from the astral presence, her voice stammering quietly – almost inaudibly, as she looked at her avatar in bemusement and confusion.

“But…. But they’re evil. Bad men. They hurt for fun.”

Outside, Shimazu continued his spin, the blade slicing through the air towards Royal’s neck. The tip of the blade scythed through the darkness, droplets of blood exploding off the end in an arc as the force of the strike flung them away from the pivot point. Royal raised his pistol using the tip of the gun to intercept the blade. A shower of sparks erupted from the weapons as the steel scraped down the top slide, neatly cutting through the front slide, scraping off paint and then severing Royal’s thumb as Shimazu twisted his wrist to raise the blade.

Aswon suddenly found himself without a clear target – Royal and Shimazu were a blur of melee as they twisted and dodged, swaying to try and gain advantage. The remaining two goons had ducked down between the cars, scrambling for cover and trying to work out what was going on. Hunter, further around the roof, had a clear shot at the front goon and took advantage of this, sending a rifle round through his shoulder and the guy flattened himself against the side of the car, and then Hunter followed up with a second shot through the crown of his skull, dropping him instantly. 

Nadia ran around the corner and then threw herself into a skid, sliding across the ground on her hip, her submachine gun pointing towards the square. She squinted under the cars, and aimed the gun at a set of feet, then pulled the trigger. A long stream of fire spat from the gun, with the muzzle climbing uncontrollably. On her side, the exhaust gas which would normally eject out of the bottom of the gun and force the muzzle to climb instead pushed the barrel from side to side. Between her motion across the floor and her inexperience, she fluffed the shot completely – the stream of fire coming well clear of her intended target. She missed so badly in fact that the first of the ten rounds fire shot straight between Shimazu’s feet. Rounds two, three and four impacted into Royal’s left foot, tearing through flesh and bone alike and rupturing out of the other side of his boot in a series of massive exit wounds, while the remaining rounds punched into the wheel or beyond the car completely.

The Dalmatian banked hard, and the targeting cursor swung wildly over the scene, but Marius feathered one engine, slewing the cursor back over the last remaining mafia trooper, and then the twin assault rifles fired, sending two three-round bursts into his torso with precision and control, forming two parallel rows of three holes from his waist up to his chest.

Royal collapsed to the floor, blood pouring from his ruined foot and his pistol dropped. Both hands clutched at his ankle, squeezing and trying to compress the joint to stem the flow of blood, whilst he shouted in Azerbaijani. Hunter called over the radio.

“He says he surrenders, don’t shoot, and he’ll tell us anything. Last one left, by my count.”

Kai continued to close on the scene, running around the edge of the square and catching up with Shimazu, who had his sword pointing down at Royal, who remained on the floor, pale and sweating from pain, clutching at his ruined foot.

“Tads, we could use some healing here. I think this guy is going into shock.”

“GO AWAY. I’M BUSY!” came the snapped answer, in a voice most unlike her usual tone. When Shimazu turned back, he was just in time to see Kai pulling the combat knife out of Royal’s throat, and to see the body flump to one side, blood pooling around the body.

“Never mind, doesn’t matter…”

In the car, Tads continued to try and reason with her avatar, reminding it of the things they had seen, the information they had gathered about this group of thugs and bullies. The avatar still stared at her, but after thirty seconds, it drifted backwards out of the car, and over to one of the bodies on the floor. Tads followed it, and saw the avatar looking down at the body, then back up to her, repeating this several times. She saw the large eyes well up with tears, glimmering lights dancing in the darkness as the astral power shifted and moved in front of her. It dropped slightly, and as it descended lower, it faded and dissipated, until it was impossible to spot just at the point where it would have touched his chest. Tads stood over the body, looking around frantically for her totem. What did it mean? What did it want? Why couldn’t it just tell her, mentally, what she had done wrong, or done to offend it?

With the coast clear, the rest of the team converged on the square, and started to clear up. Fortunately Royal’s team had indeed bought cleaning supplies – so they went to work tipping bleach and cleaning fluid all over the pools of blood and spray of body parts that were the result of the short and very one-sided gun battle. Hunter spent a few minutes looking for his ejected cartridges, eventually finding them all – and scowling at Aswon who merely tapped the small bag that was attached over the ejection port of his rifle with a knowing smile.

They collected the weapons up, adding another set of seven pistols and seven shotguns to their collection – it appeared that Royal had the most heavily armed team, or he’d raided some kind of stash after being told there was ‘trouble’, as along with the guns there was a box with eighty shotgun cartridges and nearly two hundred rounds of pistol ammunition. All of this was added to their collection, and roughly sorted by grade or quality in Nadia’s spreadsheet.

Shimazu and Aswon grabbed the pair of old Ladas, and drove over to the burnt-out house where they’d started the evening, dumping one of them to the side of the property and then spraying the inside over with bleach, before returning with the other to the train station. By the time they got back they found that Kai had raided Royal’s account for another three thousand Nuyen, but again had left all the grunts’ credsticks alone. Tads was still crouched over one particular body, studying it carefully, with a SIN held tightly in one hand.

Kai moved over to her, and lightly touched her on the shoulder. She pushed herself up from the crouch she’d been in, and turned to face him, holding the SIN up in her hand.

“This one is called Vusal Aliyeva. We will be investigating this one. I don’t know why, but he’s important. Important enough that my Avatar didn’t want him dead. Important enough that my magic was taken away from me.”

Kai’s eyes went wide as she told him of her loss of power, and he nodded in agreement with her. He reached out and gently plucked the SIN from her fingers, and inserted it into their reader, pulling up the basic details, then calling for Hunter to grab his computer and a map of Shirvan. After some searching, they matched up the address on his SIN to a low class part of Shirvan, on the border of a heavy industrial area – what looked like the ‘poor’ end of town. 

As the rest of the team finished with their cleaning tasks or piling bodies into the tan SUV, they drifted over to see what had upset Tads so much and listened in to her rambling explanation. It didn’t help that *she* didn’t know exactly what had happened or why, but she made it emphatically clear to them that for some unknown reason, this particular mafia goon was somehow important to her, or her magical avatar, and needed to be looked into. 

“Can you still cast other spells, or is it your stun spell you can’t cast anymore?”

“I don’t know, Shimazu. All I know was that when I reached for the power, it wasn’t there. All I could see was my avatar, before me, looking sad and disappointed.” Her comment seemed to split the team in two – Aswon, Kai and Shimazu all changed expression to one that combined equal parts awe, fear, sadness and curiosity, whilst Hunter, Nadia and Marius all looked blank, not really having a reference point or understanding of what that actually meant.

“Maybe you could try casting an illusion, just a small one, to see if you can? You can work out what you can cast then, and what you can’t?”

“No, Shimazu! This isn’t some kind of science experiment. I’ve upset Elk in some way – I don’t poke her, and try to work around her. It’s rude and disrespectful, and I won’t do it.”

“Well how about spirits then, you could try summoning a new spirit, and see if that works?”

“You’re not listening to me! No! NO! Until I can work out what is going on, and why, I’m not going to offend my totem!” Her voice rose and her accent became thicker, passion and emotion running through her and the occasional word came out in a strange language rather than English and she forgot to mentally translate. The rest of the group had gone silent, and now even the non-magic users could appreciate that she was really upset about something. More importantly, they’d cottoned on to the fact that at least for the moment she considered herself unable to use magic at all – no spirits to conceal the vehicle whilst they hid, no illusions to cloak them during a pursuit, no healing to repair damage after a fight. They exchanged sober glances with each other, not liking this at all.

They drove the second Lada off to another part of town to dump it, then met back at the train station again. Marius informed them that he’d been listening in for police radios, to see if any of the gunfire had been noticed or reported – but he wasn’t even picking up a carrier wave any more, let alone any transmissions. Shimazu was now even more convinced that this meant there were only a few part-time cops on duty in the town – and they were probably in bed now, with their radios turned off and the batteries on charge.

As they were making preparations to leave. Shimazu had a quiet word with Nadia about the shooting incident earlier – finding out who she had been shooting at, and just how close he’d come to losing a foot. Once the chill had left his spine, he reasoned with her, explaining just how irresponsible she’d been and how close the rounds had come to taking him out, instead of the bad guy. Initially she seemed defiant and unapologetic, but after he continued to talk to her calmly and quietly, she gradually relaxed. When she realised he was trying to teach her, rather than punish her, her defiance evaporated and she listened carefully as he discussed tactics with her. Halfway through, Hunter joined the debate, adding his insights and discussing things like distraction and pinning fire, suppressive fire or sometimes even the wisdom of being prepared to wait in case backup really was needed. Nadia listened to them both, nodding and walking through the scene with them, gaining some insight.

They headed back up to the hills with the latest batch of bodies, dumping the white panel van at the side of the road and cleaning it, before taking the SUV to the top of the defile again – once more scaring off the scavengers that had been plucking and tearing at the corpses. Kai pulled Tads to one side of the clearing, away from the others.

“I want you to ask a spirit to come. I know, I know – hang on a minute and let me finish. Don’t command, ask. Beseech. Beg if you have to. In a way, Shimazu is right – we need to know where we stand, though I’m totally with you in trying not to scientifically analyse how much you might have upset someone. So, ask, politely. And we’ll take what we’re given and learn from it – but I’m asking because we need it, not because we want to test.”

Tads grumbled a little, but then concentrated. Kai’s words made sense to her – she’d seen how much effort was involved in digging even shallow graves, and how easily the scavengers had uncovered bits of body anyway to ravage. To her pleasant surprise, a spirit appeared before her, the astral form of a small set of boulders piled into a cairn thrusting up out of the ground.

“Thank you. I’d ask you to take those bodies over there under the ground, into your domain. Let them feed the ground with their bodies and fluids, let the worms eat them, and grow strong. Let them be part of the natural cycle, and do some good. Take all of them, and draw them down into you, and hide them. By then we will be long gone from your domain, and I will have nothing more to ask of you.”

She saw the figure slowly descend back into the earth, and a few moments later the ground quivered under the first body, the grains of sand and earth vibrating and quivering as if someone had just turned the bass all the way up. Slowly the body started to descend into the earth, lowering as the ground shook and reshaped underneath it and vanishing from sight. Tads breathed out a sigh of relief at the realisation that her magic was not gone after all, just affected to some degree, for some time.

“I’m gonna go sit in the lodge and talk to my avatar some more. I’ll see you later.” Kai nodded at her and watched her head for the trailer, and let out a sigh of relief himself. He’d been worried that she’d kick up more of a fuss than she had, and was primed to argue with her. He walked over to the bodies, watching as the second one started to descend into the earth, just like the first. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small collection of stones, and walked along the line, putting stones at the bottom of each grave. It wasn’t much of a mark, but it seemed important to him, in some way.

In the trailer, Tads strapped herself in thoroughly, attaching the webbing harness to the lash down points to prevent her being flung around if the trailer bounced around or had to take hard corners. Once secure she sat in the middle of her lodge – in fact, she couldn’t move from the middle of her lodge – and started talking, describing the activities of the goons to her avatar. She wasn’t sure if the avatar was listening, or if it cared – but she realised as she talked that *she* felt like she was justified, based on their actions, and that gave her a small amount of comfort.

As Shimazu swung the SUV around, the front driver’s wheel slipped off a rock and into a massive rut, dropping the vehicle a good 30cm. A loud crack could be heard, and the vehicle stopped suddenly, the engine dying almost immediately. Surveying the damage, they found the wheel almost disconnected from the chassis, the guillotine like edge of the rock having almost cut through the steering rods and drive shaft. Whilst technically salvageable, it would require a lot of time and effort, so they abandoned the SUV too, transferring everyone back into the truck except Tads who was in the trailer, and they set off, bouncing down the defile and then back onto the only marginally smoother road at the bottom, heading back to town.

By the time they had made it back to town, for the fourth time that night, Nadia and Hunter had finished working their way through the remaining phones, analysing the messages and links and adding the data to their chart.

“Kai – we’ve missed a couple. According to the records here, there’s two remaining goons out there, one in Azer’s team, one in Royal’s. They’re both sick apparently, and weren’t up to being on shift tonight. What do you want to do about them?”

“Well, I think we ought to send them a message, tell them the boss is really angry, and they need to meet us at a certain location – then we do a drive by, taser their ass, and dump them with the rest. I don’t want to leave any possible loose ends!”

They discussed a little more, checked the maps, and found a good location to use, then texted both of the numbers, and waited. After a few minutes, one of them responded – the man from Azer’s group, whilst the other didn’t. That’s when they hit a stumbling block…

There was no way they could ask for directions to the safe house or location where the sick guys were hanging out – their captains should know that, and it wouldn’t make sense to ask for it – in fact it would arouse suspicion. After a few minutes thinking, they came up with a plan. With much swapping of chips between burner phones, back and forth, they send a message to each of the sick guys saying they were sorting out a doctor, but the doctor was being sorted out by one of the other captains. Then they texted Azer’s man from Royal’s number – asking for the address, and vice-versa – gambling that while their own captain would know where they were, the other captains might not.

They waited a few minutes, anxiously, swapping the chips around in their burner phone. After a couple of minutes, they got an address come through, from the one in Azer’s team. Still nothing from the one in Royal’s team. They looked at the address, and found another large house in the south east part of the town, not far from one of the supermarkets the goons had staked out. Pressing the button on the intercom, they called Tads, asking her to come into the truck, where Kai showed her the map and quickly explained what they were after. 

“So, if you’re up to it – can you go down out of your body, and check the place out?” Tads nodded.

“I’ll try.” She made herself comfortable in the back, and then relaxed and tried to project. Her astral form shot out of her body, and she pirouetted and bounced with joy as the feelings of dread were left behind. It took her moments to get down to the house and identify it, then a few moments more to check it out. Ten seconds later she was back in her body, stirring to make her report.

“One person in the house, in a large room with several beds. No sign of magical alarms or defences at all. Person in bed actually looks ill, really quite ill – or he’s a little bit ill and has lots of stuff in his body like Marius. Not sure which. But definitely on his own. Oh, and I’ve had an idea.” She scrabbled to her feet and leant over to point at the map.

“Show me the first building, please, Hunter, the one we started at. Right, look here… see how big it is compared to all the rest of the buildings? Ok, now show me the one I’ve just been to. Great… see here, it’s not quite as big, sure, but it still looks bigger than all the rest of the nearby houses. So how about we look near the third supermarket for big houses, to see if that’s where they set up their base?”

They found three large houses near the supermarket, any of which could have been a contender – but then pulled out the sat-nav from the first stolen truck and checked the stops it had been to recently, and narrowed it down to a single house. Tads went for a fly past and Nadia gave it a count of ten and then sent another text message to the phone demanding an update, but this time it took longer – much longer. It was nearly a minute before she came back to the truck and sat upright again, and she looked a little uncomfortable with something. They waited for her to speak, five sets of eyes and a video camera watching her expectantly.

“Well, no wards, no alarms, no magical issues at all. Not just one person though, there’s two of them in there. Both appear mostly healthy. At first I thought that one of them was attacking the other – but they were doing something else. I think they heard their phone buzzing though, because the man seemed annoyed about something while he was… finishing. Didn’t answer it though.”

The others looked confused, though one or two of them slowly realised what she meant.

“After he was done though, he almost shoved her out of bed, and told her to go and make him coffee and a sandwich, then lit up a cigarette. But I’m pretty sure that while he is our man, he’s not sick. He does have a random woman in the house though.”

“Ok, let’s just confirm this then, just to be sure. We’ll drive down, and drop you off somewhere nearby, Hunter. Use that laser mike of yours, and we’ll send another message, and confirm this is our guy.” The truck started up and moved south, dropping Hunter off and waiting for him to get into position where he had line of sight to the window and could lay in the infra-red laser on the middle of the pane of glass.

“Nadia, one more message to him please. Let’s put him on edge a little. Um… let’s see. Something along the lines of ‘answer your phone you idiot, if we find out you’ve been getting your dick wet or something, the boss will shoot you’. Yeah, something like that.” Nadia thought for a moment, then quickly typed out the message and hit send. A moment later they got a thumbs up from Hunter, confirming that he could hear the message arrival on the phone. 

Whilst they waited for Hunter to return, Aswon got Kai’s attention.

“Your intention for these two. Are we terrorising them, using them to send a message, killing them – what?”

“We’ve come this far, I think we have to finish the journey. Make them all disappear, and leave the enemy with no clue as to what is going on.” Aswon nodded – he didn’t look happy about it, but there was understanding and acceptance on his face. They headed back to the first house, with Kai and Tads getting dressed up in their medical outfits and grabbing a bag of supplies.

“Ok, we get in, pretend to be doctors, take him out quietly, cleanly and without fuss, and we get out, ok?” Tads nodded and followed him to the front door, waiting for Kai to knock on it loudly. She scanned around the neighbourhood, seeing very little in the darkness – without streetlights it was unlikely anyone would spot them, and there were no cameras or security devices anywhere she could see. The face masks and surgical caps might not have been necessary after all, she thought.

They heard a low pitched voice calling from inside and tried the door, which popped open easily. Tads pointed the way to the bedroom, and Kai walked in smartly, flicking the lights on to try and take advantage of the sudden glare.

The figure in the bed winced in the bright light, struggling to make out the features from the people who’d entered the room. Against the bright light, he could vaguely see the white coats and the bags with medical symbols on the side, and gave a wan smile, mumbling something in Azerbaijani, before raising his arm and throwing the bedclothes back.

The surprise threw them both off balance and they paused, then took in the scene with horror. Around the man’s groin was a mass of putrescent flesh, with open sores and wounds weeping a yellowy green fluid. A rash spread all up his chest, with lesions making their way as far as his neck and down to his knees. The flesh was sloughing off in places, white macerated tissue forming a boundary around darker necrotic flesh. As they stood there, looking at the man, the smell slowly seeped through their face masks, making their gorge rise.

Kai crossed the room, and waved for the man to lie back, and flicked the covers back over him, covering up the horrible mass of infection, and then mimed for the man to close his eyes. The sick man seemed only too pleased to comply, and lay there obediently waiting. Looking around, Kai saw his pistol lying by the side of the bed, just sticking out and quietly bent to retrieve it, then grabbed a pillow off the neighbouring bed and in one smooth motion pushed it down over the sick man’s face and fired a round through it from the light pistol. The gunshot was still loud and sudden, even from the lightweight weapon – but the pillow stopped any back splatter or scatter. They paused for a moment, but the shot did seem to have been immediately fatal, the body just lying still. 

They called the rest of the team in, but advised them not to go into the bedroom. Instead they kept on their medical gear and put an extra layer of gloves on, before untucking the filthy bedlinen from the bed and pulling them and the body onto a plastic sheet laid on the floor, carefully wrapping it up to contain the body and any fluids. Just before they sealed the last part of the sheet, they stripped off the outer gloves and added them to the cocoon, before securing the last flap. As they dragged the body out into the main room, Hunter stood waiting for Tads, pointing at a filthy photo that he’d found under some rubbish.

“Look at this, Tads. Next time your magic beasty comes back, share with it this picture of the family that used to live here. Might change its mind.” Tads started to respond hotly, but Hunter spoke over her. “I know – it’s not you, it’s not your choice, and you know. But this is the second place it’s happened, and I’m not putting money on it not being the same at the third. We know what they’re doing, and it’s not got any upsides. Sure, we break the law, and walk in the shadows – but we don’t do this. You wanna let your moose friend know that too.”

“Elk.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said.” Hunter smiled at her, deflecting her anger and moved on, looking for weapons and supplies with the others. Tads did have a look at the photo though, seeing an average looking family playing with their kids in some wooded area, and then looked down at the dead body at her feet. He may have been a sad sight whilst sick, and deserving of some compassion – but she reminded herself of what he would quite happily do to the people in town and their families.

It didn’t take long to load the body and work through the house, establishing that there was very little worth looting. Nobody wanted to go into the bedroom they’d found the man in, given the smell and the description of the disease which Kai had been only too willing to share with people.

They drove on to the next house in silence, not feeling the need to talk during the short journey. Kai once again went with his medical disguise, but this time Shimazu flattened himself against the outside wall with his sword drawn, just in case. From what they’d seen, this guy wasn’t actually sick or ill at all, and he didn’t want to take any risks with Kai’s safety.

Tads went in astrally and checked the place out. The man and the woman were both laid in bed, talking quietly. She flitted back and told Kai, then went back to observe. As Kai knocked, the man slapped the woman on the buttocks, and pointed her at the door. She raced back and told Kai, who readied his taser. As she opened the door a crack to ask who was knocking on the door at gone two in the morning, he shoved the door open firmly and raised the taser, shooting her firmly in the chest. She twitched and spasmed, collapsing to the floor where she continued to writhe in response to the massive electrical overload to her system. They could hear a questioning noise from the bedroom in response to the thump as her body hit the floor.

Shimazu took off like a shot, and had burst through the door before the man had sat up in bed with a quizzical look on his face, and he found himself looking down the blade of the sword as Shimazu skidded to a halt next to him.

“I’ll give you a chance, scum,” Shimazu spoke quietly in English, not really caring if he understood, and reached with his free hand for the knife he’d used to execute people with earlier, tossing it onto the bed. At the movement, the man freaked – thinking the knife throw was an attack and instead of grabbing it and standing up to fight one on one – where his chances were slim to none, instead made a lunge for the gun at the side of his bed. Shimazu waited for his fingers to touch the gun before he struck, neatly thrusting the sword in through the ribs and cutting his heart in half. 

The rest of the team bundled in, searching the place thoroughly while Tads and Kai assessed the woman. She appeared to have been quite badly hurt during the attack – two large burn marks on her chest from the taser and a noticeable bruise on the back of the head where it had struck the floor as she collapsed. They worked to tend her wounds, and without thinking about it, Tads began her magical healing chant. As the golden glow filled the room, Tads looked up with a beaming smile, that vanished almost immediately as she lost control of the spell from the distraction. Her grin became a frown as the light dissipated, and the woman lay still before her.

“Well, at least I can still do that. But I’ve lost my chance to heal her properly. She’s better than when we started, but she’s not fixed. She may need a clinic or proper doctor.” Kai nodded, fiddling with supplies from his bag, and then quickly pulled down the woman’s trousers and knickers, before thrusting something into her groin. “What are you doing, Kai!”

“Testing. Want to make sure she’s not carrying the same thing the other guy had, otherwise we could all be in trouble.” He waved his hand at the rest of the team, working their way through the search with their normal clothes on. He sat back with his swab, dipping it into the analyser and watching the display intently. Moments later it beeped, several amber lights flashing. “Well, that’s a relief. She’s got a couple of STDs, but only known old-fashioned ones, and she may only be a carrier, not even symptomatic. So we should be fine, but she needs a strong course of antibiotics and some targeted taggants to eradicate the source infection lymph nodes.”

“Well, I doubt she’s going to get that, not in this town.” Tads looked down at the unconscious body, whilst Kai stuffed her ears with filler and then bandaged her head, covering the bump first but then working down to cover her eyes as well. Once he was done, he grabbed her mobile phone, leaving a detailed set of instructions on what treatment she needed to get rid of the infection and a warning of what would happen if she didn’t – which may have been significantly exaggerated or certainly portrayed the worst case scenario. Then he slid the certified credstick into her pocket alongside the phone, donating the money they’d found from one of the captains. He caught Tad’s eye and winked at her, then stood and shouted to the rest of the team to finish up. 

They pulled out of the house, not having found a stash of guns, drugs or ammo at this one either. The dead goon was slung into the back, the unconscious girl handled a little more carefully, and they headed over to the address contained in her phone, leaving her body slumped up against the front door. With the truck pulled halfway down the block, Shimazu hammered on the door loudly, then turned and sprinted, jumping up and into the cab before anyone had opened the front door and could see him.

One last time they made their way up into the hills, and added the last body onto the end of the row, watching as another one slowly was sucked into the earth, disappearing from view.

“Tads, go to the trailer please, do some more study on your spells or something.” Aswon ushered Tads away, looking a little confused. The mercenary towered over her, and he used his arm to guide her politely but firmly away from the bodybag. Shimazu poured a small can of fuel over the body and the others added brushwood and scrubby vegetation to the pyre. As the faint smell of fuel reached Tads nose, understanding dawned on her face and she hurried out of sight, nodding her thanks to Aswon. Behind her they set fire to the fuel, standing back and ensuring that it was well alight and burning fiercely before they hurried away. Even up here, in relatively good cover, there was a much higher chance that people would see either the flames or smoke and investigate.

One the way back to the ranch, Kai asked Nadia to start looking back through Ulvi’s phone over a much longer period – back as far as the messages went in fact, to try and determine how close he was to his father, and what type of relationship they had. She and Hunter went to work, having established a smooth and efficient protocol by now.

It was around 04:30 when they made it back to the ranch, but Rusudan was still up, waiting for them. He welcomed them into the house, and hurried to get the coffee pot on, checking that they were un-wounded and well.

“Say, Rusudan. These mafia goons, they’ve been around for a few months yes?”

“That’s right”

“How much do you think you’ve given them altogether? In fees and payments and such like?” Rusudan lowered his head in shame, and shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t know. Thousands probably. First it was just a little, and it seemed the best way to make them stop. But then it was more and more. And they threatened the children, my wife….”

“Well, first of all, don’t worry about that – they’re not going to threaten anyone anymore. Secondly, there was no way you could deal with thirty of them, all armed with pistols and shotguns, so don’t be so hard on yourself. The seven of us took them out in small groups, trying not to be outnumbered – and we had armour, assault rifles and magical support. So go easy on yourself. And last of all, I think you’re due for a refund.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the other certified credstick, flipping it towards Rusudan who caught it clumsily and looked at it uncertainly.

“We’ll talk about it more tomorrow if you need to. But for now, it’s bedtime, for everyone. It’s been a long and rough night.” Kai waved to everyone to go and hit the sack, and after the events of the day, they were happy to do so.

Rusudan looked at the credstick in his hands, not sure what to do with it – but deciding that it was a problem for the morning. He turned, and headed upstairs, following Kai’s advice.

The lights went out, and the ranch grew quiet.


	83. 083 - The New Sheriffs

Date 18/02/2060, Location 40.02419, 48.95808

Hunter came back down the stairs, cammo gear rolled up under one arm, assault rifle under the other. He carefully let himself out of the ranch and headed for his spot in the field, then nestled down in the camouflage gear and laid his gun out before him. Above him the stars slowly rotated in the sky and the frost on the ground grew thicker in the cold night air. The occasional car driving down the highway had no idea that they were being targeted by an assault rifle – as much to stop him falling asleep as because they were perceived as a potential threat.

By 07:00, Hunter was yawning every couple of minutes, and finding it increasingly hard to stay awake and focussed. Even with the cold weather gear and multiple layers, he was cold and his body gave the occasional shiver. The rising light levels of the false dawn played strange tricks with the terrain, casting odd shadows and leaving him staring at patches of ground for minutes at a time.

Eventually his commlink gave a quiet beep, signally it was eight AM, and he stretched and got up from his hide, and trudged back to the ranch. Once inside he found Aswon and gently tapped him on the foot to wake him. The dark skinned tribesman sat up quickly, relaxing as sleep gave way to wakefulness and he recognised his teammate. Hunter was disgusted with Aswon for looking so chipper after only four hours sleep – it was something that was an enviable trait, and Aswon seemed to do fine with between three and five hours of sleep a night at worst. Aswon got up and grabbed the camo gear and his rifle, and passed Hunter with a smile and a nod. Hunter took off his top layers and climbed into the bed, pulling the covers up and taking advantage of the warm patch left behind, drifting off to sleep within a few moments.

Aswon grabbed a couple of supplies and then headed outside, activating his Gecko powers and then slowly and carefully climbing up the outside of the house. As he reached the chimney at the end of the house, he pulled out the bits from the climbing kit that he had bought up with him. First, he rigged up a sling around the chimney, then an extra line going down the roof a little. With a couple of little tweaks, he had something he could tie gear to without any risk of it sliding off, no matter how windy it got. It also gave him something to tie onto in case he nodded off, or would make it easier for one of the others to climb up and keep watch now. Satisfied, he pulled the Purdey into position and started to scope around the area in the faint dawn light.

From the elevated position, he could see as far as the cloverleaf junction just north of Shirvan, which was the only major road in that direction. If the Mafia came, he figured they would come in a convoy and that should be easy to spot. He couldn’t see much of the terrain to the west of the junction, as the banked and ramped roads easily rose to the same height as the house. Scanning north though, he could see a good chunk of the town they’d been operating in last night. Most of the buildings were single story and had flat rooves, or very shallow pitches if any, so he could see a good way into town before the terrain and clutter of buildings cut off his vision. To the north, the main road stretched away, eventually turning east and heading towards Baku. Overall, it was pretty good – he should spot anything major coming from either town or from Shirvan, and have enough time to warn the others and take some shots.

As dawn broke, he heard the door open and saw a bleary-eyed Tads come out and wander around the yard looking like she was still asleep. She stopped after a circuit though, facing the sun and raised her arms to shoulder level, greeting the new day and paying her respects to nature. After thirty seconds of silent prayers, she turned and headed back into the house.

As she closed the door behind her, she squinted around her, then gave a massive yawn. She reached out for some mana, and slowly drew it into herself, calling on the hearth spirit of the house to appear before her. Fatigue still clouded her mind, and it was hard to concentrate – but she felt the spirit appear and politely asked it to guard the house and the occupants, if it didn’t mind too much, thank you. She felt it agree, and without a word she headed back upstairs, hoping that her nest hadn’t gotten too cold whilst she’d been up. It hadn’t – and she too dropped off to sleep again quickly.

Rusudan and the family got up shortly afterward and had a quiet breakfast. Aswon saw the kids heading to the stables and gave a low whistle and a wave to them as they crossed the gravel to the horses. They looked startled, but vaguely reassured when they saw him in position, watching over their home, before they turned on got on with feeding and watering the horses, and mucking out the stables.

The ranch remained quiet until about 11am, with the family going about their normal business as quietly as they could, mindful of their guests late night. Kai was first to rouse, followed by Nadia and Marius, then Tads shortly after. There was no sign of Shimazu or Hunter yet, but they decided to let them sleep in as long as they needed. Whilst the family got a meal prepared, the four of them gathered around the table for a quiet chat.

“Right – after what happened last night, I think we’ve got a good twenty four hours clear where they won’t have any idea what is going on. That’s assuming they stick to the normal pattern from what we’ve seen in the phones and stuff. And even then, it’s maybe going to take a while to realise that the city has just gone all dark for their guys. So, that gives us a period of time where we can do stuff and not have to worry about it too much, and I think we ought to take advantage of that.” Kai rubbed at his temples as he spoke, his red-rimmed eyes still looking tired. “I think we ought to make the most of that time.”

“Well, I know I need to go to Shirvan and investigate the boy, so that’s a high priority to me.” Tads stared at Kai, unblinking – reminding him that she had what she considered to be a very serious problem. 

“I know Tads, but you can’t go wandering around Shirvan, standing out like a sore thumb with no idea of what’s going on, we’ve got to plan,” Kai started to explain, but Tads spoke over him, repeating her intention, even more forcibly. They went back and forth a few times, their voices raising slightly as they each talked over one another, until they sat back and glared at each other – as much out of embarrassment as hostility, as they realised how they were acting.

Kai turned to Nadia, and asked her for a breakdown of the phone calls from Ulvi to Malik.

“Well, sometimes it’s once a week or less, just an arrangement to meet up. There’s a hint that it’s for business first, not for the sake of family, but there’s meetings at “the usual place” or “let’s eat fancy”, so they presumably have a number of places they go that are common to them. I talked with Hunter about this, and its his opinion that there’s probably a handover of a percentage of profits once a week or so, and it’s likely these meetings are for that. The longest I’ve seen without contact was ten days, and it seems that was from Malik’s side, as it references being out of town on business.” She opened her pocket secretary and quickly checked some details, then continued.

“There is not much sense of family there, no real concern over relatives or welfare. The language used is not warm or caring, on either side. Ulvi has called a couple of other places in Shirvan other than Malik, but from a quick check they’re business places that seem likely for genuine shopping – taxi firms, a tailors, hairdressers, that kind of thing. But other than those odd things, calls to Malik and the messages to his captains, there really wasn’t much personal stuff at all. He seemed very driven and focussed – just not on a good path.” Kai nodded his thanks to her and smiled.

“So, how long are we planning on staying in the area, Kai?” Kai was glad that Tads wasn’t immediately banging the same drum again about the young boy, and made an effort to speak carefully.

“Well, I want to stay a while, a good while actually. Short of actually taking a job of course. But that was the whole point of clearing the town out and making things better – we want this place to be nice, and under control. We’ll watch for Malik’s response, and we’ll have to see what’s going on of course. But the main reason we had the trailer hooked up for chunks of last night was so that if we ran into something we couldn’t handle, then we could just skip town quickly, and not drag any trouble back here. It was in case we fucked up, basically. But we didn’t – at least it doesn’t look like we did. So we need to watch out for the response, but I think we’re going to be here for a while.

“Right, so I can go to the talismonger’s and get some supplies, the spell formula I asked him about, and things like that, and we can go shopping for other team supplies?”

“Well, I don’t want anyone going into Shirvan – not until we’ve decided how we’re going to handle that anyway. We can’t do anything that risks alerting them in their home ground until we have some information on them. They’re going to be stronger, and better organised, more entrenched and harder to deal with.” He raised a hand towards Tads. “Now, I’m not saying we’re not going at all – clearly there’s work to be done. But we need to plan it carefully, and move with some forethought…. Like, ok – Marius. You know that tan SUV up in the hills, just how bad was the damage?”

“Well, the car was a wreck, with major structural defects on examination, clearly a product of poor quality engineering.”

“Yeah, but how bad was the damage – could you make it drivable again. I mean, you’re an ok mechanic, right?” Kai raised an eyebrow at Marius, and watched as the German glowered at him, clearly aware that he was being manipulated, yet struggling not to rise to the bait.”

“Ja. I can fix it. Maybe half a day, maybe longer – depending on the parts. I could make it driveable for sure, but I don’t know for how long.”

“So, let’s say we took the truck, and went to pick up the SUV. Bought it back here on tow, and spent a day getting it fixed. Whatever time we don’t use on that, we spend on the four by four. Then we take them both to Baku, and sell them for the best price we can get, or even better, we trade them in for a new off road vehicle that’s newer or better for the ranch here. But one we use to start with – so we can drive to Shirvan in a normal vehicle, that DOESN’T belong to one of his Mafia goons, that isn’t as noticeable as the truck and lets us drive around and find this boy’s family, and scope the place out…”

The others considered his idea, nodding their head as they saw the advantages to having a clean vehicle with no history or baggage – something that they had suffered through already with the truck and had no desire to repeat.

“And also, while we’re in Baku, somewhere we’re already known a little, we can shop for more supplies. And with it being the biggest city around, we’re more likely to get what we want without being fleeced. So we could get a couple of replacement bikes, lets say, to give you guys some mobility when scouting out Shirvan.” Tads nodded her head, succumbing to the avalanche of reason. Kai turned to Nadia though, and focussed his attention on her.

“Nadia, I’ve got a special task for you. What I’d like you to do is get this kid’s name, what was it?”

“Vusal Aliyeva” responded Nadia, pulling up the correct details on her organisational chart.

“Yeah, him. What I want you to do is a detailed search on the computer, on this guy. While we’re off sorting out trucks and going to the forest and stuff, can you do the best research you can on this fella for Tads, find out everything you can about him and make up a dossier?” Nadia glanced over to Marius and let out a subtle sigh. It appeared that she didn’t want to be separated from him that much, but she looked back to Kai after a few seconds and nodded.

“Ok, because it’s important – and not make-work. Sure – I have no idea how good the information will be, but I’ll do the best I can.” Kai smiled at her and sat back, then looked around the table.

“Hunter?”

“Still in bed, buried under blankets.”

“Shimazu?”

“Bed I think, not heard anything from his room.”

“Aswon?”

“Up on the roof, on watch.”

“Oh. Right.” He reached for his comm unit and turned it on, then called Aswon down from the roof for a few minutes. It didn’t take long for them to see him crawling down the wall with ease, though it looked freaky as all hell. When he entered the kitchen, Kai filled him in on their discussion, bringing him up to date rapidly.

“Well, there’s one question we haven’t asked yet, that I think it pretty important” Aswon said as he leant back in his chair. “What to do with the local police? Are they thoroughly in league with the Mafia, and will report back to their masters in Shirvan? Or they just on the take, and if so – if we pay them off and they change allegiance to us, that means they might just as easily change allegiance again in the future. Until we know more, I think we have to treat them very carefully and try and do some surveillance on them. In fact, Marius – you heard some of their conversation last night. Can you program your deck to listen in on their frequency and alert you to what is going on?”

Kai nodded in agreement, as Marius pulled up his deck and started to make adjustments, setting it to monitor the frequency they’d found the police radios using and to record any transmissions made whilst at the same time alerting Marius that there was activity. 

They paused for a while as the family came in with food, and ate a light brunch. Halfway through, Aswon excused himself and went to go and rouse Hunter and Shimazu. A somewhat bleary eyed Hunter came down for dinner – though that mostly comprised of coffee – but Shimazu was nowhere to be seen. The bed had obviously been slept in, but there was no sign of him in the house.

“I’m not sure where Shimazu has gone – I was going to get him to come with me so we had a second driver for flexibility. He did mention that he was going up into the hills to find a place to set up a prayer shrine at some point. I wonder if that’s where he’s gone?”

They chatted some more over food, and decided in the end that Aswon and Tads would head to the talismonger who lived in the old windmill in the woods about six kilometres to the west of them, while Kai and Marius went to get the tan SUV from the hill, and tow if back to the ranch for minimal repairs – which Marius estimated would be done in a day or less. Hunter was going back to bed for more sleep it seemed, and Nadia was doing research. Once everyone returned from their tasks, they might go for a quick scout to Shirvan, or they might go and sell the vehicles – but they’d play it by ear.

Hunter sent a quick message to his contact Julius in Copenhagen – providing some more details on the Mammadova subjects to help him narrow how his search. Leaving his phone ringer set to the highest volume, he stretched out on the bed, and dozed, catching up on sleep.

Aswon and Tads headed to the west, following the main road for a while until they saw the woodland, turning off onto the unnamed side road that quickly deteriorated into a track leading up through the trees on the shallow rise. When they arrived, Aswon stayed in the car, motioning for Tads to go on ahead without him.

“I think it’s better if I stay here. Last time my presence seemed to upset him greatly, so I think it would make your transaction harder.” Tads shrugged and headed into the small garden, knocking on the heavy wooden door at the base of the windmill. Aslik answered and welcomed her inside, and she disappeared into the dark and musty interior, leaving Aswon to watch and study the woodland from the cab of the four by four.

The talismonger’s place was still the same as their first visit – dark, cramped, full of weird things and strange spells, and designed to clearly indicate that there were things here that only those with talent could truly appreciate. Aslik greeted her with a firm handclasp and waved her to an old and badly stuffed chair whilst he settled into his seat facing her. They chatted for a few minutes, with Aslik asking how she was and where she’d been while Tads answered with broad and non-specific comments that glossed over details. Eventually though they got down to business, and Tads was able to purchase the spell formula she sought.

Aslik pulled out a piece of linen, tattered and uneven with fraying edges. Hand painted onto it was a picture of a person fighting, multiple wild beasts surrounding them. It looked crude, with an art style like that of a medieval tapestry – everything looked to be view like a flat representation with no allowance for depth or perspective. But, subtly picked out around the person were faint markings in the lightest of greys that echoed with power, and the whole thing glowed slightly in astral space. Along with the formula, she also purchased some more materials for making a lodge. Beyond that, there was nothing more that she both needed and could afford, so after a bit longer chatting, she made her excuses and bade him a polite farewell.

Marius and Kai meanwhile got into the truck and headed up the main road in the opposite direction, cutting through the very top part of town and heading out to the north and the upland areas. As they drove along the road they saw the terrain for the first time in daylight, and realised the area to the left of the road was a large farm or ranch, with rows of plants growing in straight lines behind a high fence, and some livestock wandering in other areas. The ground was drier and much more like scrubland than Rusudan’s ranch, but the place looked well maintained and busy. They drove on and up the road, turning up the defile and following the trail up to the abandoned tan SUV. It didn’t take long for the two of them to get the vehicle unjammed from the rock and behind their truck, with the tow point lowered to allow them to hook on to the chassis. With a press of a button, the powerful hydraulics raised the towing point, slowly lifting the tan SUV at the front, until the wheels slowly left the surface and hung on the fully extended shock absorbers.

It was slower going down the defile than up it – the dead weight of the SUV making driving more difficult and fraught – but Marius managed it with style, and soon they were on their way back, driving through the north part of town again and heading for the main road. As they were most of the way through the scattered housing, Marius slowed the truck a little, then a little more.

“What’s up Marius? Why are we slowing?”

“I think we have a tail. They’re not overtaking or turning off, and it looks like they are definitely following us.” Kai craned his head and saw a vehicle following them, perhaps twenty metres behind them. As he was looking, a loud beeping noise emerged from the speakerss, followed by an intercepted transmission from the police band.

“You are NOT going to believe what I can see at the moment…”

Quiet cursing in German burst from the speaker, and the sensors scanned around the area, evaluating the possible escape routes and checking for other vehicles and any possible ambushes.

“Aswon, Tads – can you hear me?”

“Kai? It’s Tads, we can just about hear you. We’re on our way back now to the r…”

“We have a problem – we think one of the cops from last night is following us,” he interjected over the top of whatever she was about to say.” There was a noise from her end, like a muted thump, and Kai also stopped speaking and listened.

“Tads? Tads, are you there?”

In the four by four, Aswon looked over as Tads’ body slumped in the seatbelt, her head lolling from side to side. He slowed, recognising the signs that she had jumped out of her body and was now speeding somewhere as a disembodied spirit – partly to make it easier for her to jump back into her body when she returned, but also to stop her body being thrown around from side to side without any muscle control to absorb the impact.

Overhead, Tads orientated herself and then burst into her top speed, for a heartbeat, then a second, then she abruptly stopped. She smiled – almost perfect. In the roughly three seconds of motion she’d travelled around eight kilometres, and looking down she could see the town laid out. For a moment she manifested, and her ghostly form appeared two hundred metres above the ground, looking down – but able to see the physical world and not just the astral reflection. She spied the truck, moving slowly down the road with the SUV on tow behind it, and behind them a battered, plain, nondescript car crawling along the road behind them. Once more the world blurred around her as she swept down towards it, and she dived into the car and landed neatly in the passenger seat. Once more she manifested and turned towards the driver.

“Hello? Can we help you at all?”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! Nəhəng dünyadan Demon!!!”

The scream ripped out of the driver, and he turned sheet white as the blood drained from his face. He also took both hands from the wheel and made some bizarre kind of warding gesture towards her, as he quivered in fear. Without the steadying influence of his hands on the wheel, it drifted to one side and the car lurched as his legs tightened in spasms.

“There’s no need to be afraid, I’m not here to hurt you! Please, stop screaming and look at where you’re driving!”

Kai and Marius watched as the car suddenly veered off the road, accelerating wildly and then ploughing into the side of a house, the front of the car driving through the wall and then coming to a halt in a horrible jarring noise as the building settled down onto the bonnet, trapping it in place. Marius slammed the brakes on, fighting for control as the SUV tried to push them along and twist on its towing point.

They’d barely come to a halt when Kai leapt from the truck, first aid kit in hand and sprinted to the car. From the house he could hear the sounds of a baby screaming and the sound of someone crying, and he figured he didn’t have much time before more people arrived. Pulling open the driver’s side door, he tapped the man on the shoulder.

“Hello? Are you ok? Come on, get out of the car! There might be a fire!” The man turned and looked at him, still in shock, his mouth working in fear, surprise and confusion. Kai modulated his voice a little, and in a much lower voice that resonated with subharmonics, he spoke again. “GET OUT NOW!” This time the man fumbled with the seat belt, and then swung out of the car, Kai grabbing him and pulling him clear of the vehicle, guiding him towards the truck. “Don’t worry my friend, I’m a doctor. I’m here to help you. Trust me.” For now, his command of the Azerbaijani language remained on point, and seemed to be making sense. “COME THIS WAY, that’s right, come on, towards the truck.”

“Doctor? You’re a doctor?”

“Yes, that’s right, doctor. You’ve had a nasty crash there my friend, let’s get you checked out.” With that, he pulled out a small light, shining it into one eye then the other, then working his gloved hands over the back of the skull, down the neck, across the shoulder. Whilst he poked and prodded at him, he talked to him, dropping in medical phrases and conditions, adding to the aura of confidence. “Good pupil response, no sign of bleeding, pulse is elevated but steady. REMOVE YOUR GUNBELT, no sign of broken ribs, breathing is steady and clear, that’s right, just let me check your stomach and legs here, ok good.”

The policeman removed his gunbelt and laid it to the side of him, in a daze as Kai gave him a quick checkover, and then drew in a sharp breath of surprise as Kai pulled out the heavy duty taser from behind his back and pointed it at his chest. “Sorry my friend, but you need to get in the back of the truck, right now.” The policeman scrambled to climb up into the rear of the truck, as Kai scooped up the gunbelt, and then climbed up after him. With the barrel of the taser, he motioned towards the seat at the map table, and the policeman sat, in a daze, looking at him fearfully.

“Ok, now I need you to contact your friend, the one you spoke to a minute ago. And you need to tell him that you made a mistake, and it’s not the truck you thought it was, ok? And then we’ll talk.” The policeman grabbed his radio and pushed the button, sending the message as instructed. Kai listened, and it sounded ok to him, but to be sure, he keyed up his microphone and spoke quietly.

“Marius, did that sound legit?”

“Ja – well, it sounded like bad acting – but he’s just had a crash and he’s sitting at gunpoint, so I’m not surprised. But I didn’t hear anything that sounded like code words or anything like that. But I’m going hot with the jamming, just in case and we’ll be pulling out in a moment as well.”

True to his word, a moment later the police radio gave a squawk as Marius powered up the jammer on the vehicle, feeding in power from the amplifiers and broadcasting a stream of static on the frequency bands they’d seen them use, then there was a lurch as the vehicle got underway again, gradually picking up speed and leaving the scene. Dwindling into the distance behind them the police car remained sticking out of the corner of the house, with a few people starting to emerge from their properties to come and examine it.

In the back of the truck, the policeman looked around him nervously, taking in the Cyrillic lettering, the army green paintwork and the Spartan furnishings, the weird mix of smells – gun oil, human sweat, novocaine and filler, the weird plastic zip lock bags holding a kilo of peanuts, and the collection of large unlabelled boxes stowed away in every possible location.

“Who are you people?”

“I think we’ll start off by asking who you are.”

“My name is Aliev.”

“Ahh – Mr Aliev. So that would make your friend on the other end of the radio your friend Mr Husyenova, yes?” Kai smiled at him as the eyes widened. “Oh yes, we know about you, and your friend. And the….other people in town. Let’s just say that we’ve had dealings with them, and the issue over the management of town has become subject to new considerations.”

“Tutoring new thoughts?” said the policeman, looking confused all of a second. Kai thought back about what he’d said, and realised that he’d gone beyond his basic grasp of the local language. Subject, tutor, consideration, thoughts – well, they were sort of the same thing, right? He waved, dismissing what he’d just said. “Wait a moment.” Next he called Hunter, and told him to translate for him, then called out to Marius, asking him to push up Hunter’s inbound transmission over the trucks speakers. He spoke quietly into his boom mike, and a moment later fluent Azerbaijani came from the speakers, complete with appropriate slang and mannerisms. 

With the language barrier smoothed out, the first thing they did was replay the intercepted conversation from the previous night, detailing how they’d stood by as the civilians were lined up and assaulted by the Mafia thugs. Aliev hung his head in shame, and his shoulders slumped. Kai watched carefully and was relieved to see what appeared to be genuine remorse in his face and body language. Working slowly, and using his body language in turn to reinforce his message, he told the policeman that what he had done was bad, and wrong – but understandable. What choice did he have, with so few against so many. What could he have done? Nothing, they all knew that. Some things in the world were wrong, but wishing couldn’t change them. He understood.

Kai studied his expression carefully, seeing the fear in his eyes – wondering what these strange people were going to do with the information. Sell him out to the Mafia? To the government? To the public? He knew that he was cornered… and yet, he had a tiny glimmer of hope in his eyes too – realising that the fact that they were talking meant something. Kai smiled at him, working hard to keep his poker face in place.

“Things happened last night my friend. You’re going to find out over the next few days, I’m sure. But things are going to change around here. For the better. It’s up to you if you want to change for the better with them.” Kai watched the policeman consider, then nod in agreement.

Back at the ranch, Hunter called Marius, being careful to mute his comms line, asking where they were. On hearing that Marius was now just driving around the southern part of town, in aimless loops and keeping moving, he grabbed some gear and hustled out of the front door, breaking into a steady and ground-devouring jog. “I’m on my way, don’t go too far will you?”

Kai asked the policeman to tell him the tale, and listened to the slightly breathy translation from Hunter, wondering what was going on but deciding not to worry too much about it. In turn, he listened to Aliev tell his tale. It was much as Aswon had predicted – first they’d arrived to secure some cargo at the train station, just a simple little box. They’d offered a very generous bribe to the policemen to just ignore them, and they had. Next week there was a couple of boxes – less money, but still free money. The things they were supposed to ignore grew more frequent, but the money kept getting smaller, and the demands harsher. They’d argued one day, and Ulvi had just played back a clip from a cell phone showing them taking a bribe – and mentioned that his father knew people on the force back in Shirvan that would be interested in this kind of thing.

Defeated, and not knowing who to trust, or what they could do, Aliev and Husyenova had just tried to keep out of things, and the gang had taken over. They hated seeing what they were doing to the town, but what could they do? Their superiors were compromised, there was no one who could help them. Kai listened and watched, picking up on his body cues and seeing the anguish and disgust on his face as he told his tale of brutality, extortion and fear. Unknown to Aliev, Tads manifested behind him and gave Kai a thumbs up – his astral emotions and aura echoed his tale, and she could detect no deceit or subterfuge in him.

Kai sent a message to Nadia, asking her to start checking the cell phones for video footage or clips as well, wondering if the evidence was actually worthwhile, or all part of a scam, and wondering if he could contain or neutralise that as a threat. The next line of questioning was about the Mafia in Shirvan – but there they came up dry. Other than a couple of weeks for training to be a deputy, it appeared that Aliev had not really spent much time in Shirvan at all – in fact neither of the policeman had. Kai went back a couple of times asking about parts of the story, asking for more details and sometimes asking the same questions again – but the story held together and felt true.

Aliev sat now with his head in his hands, looking thoroughly dejected. It seemed the impotence and rage had been building up inside him, along with a healthy dose of shame – much like Rusudan. As he rambled on, one of the translated comments caught Kai’s attention, when he mentioned that they’d found the beaten girl that morning, and he lamented that it never used to be like this before they came.

Some pointed questions followed, and it quickly became apparent that this was the girl that Kai had tased at the captain’s house – she’d been reported as beaten up overnight by someone, and her parents had asked the police to investigate. It became apparent that Aliev had a good idea who he thought had done it, and that was going to be the end of the matter. However, when Hunter relayed the message left on the data slate with her, word for word, he looked up at Kai with narrow eyes and even more questions on his lips.

“We ran into these guys a little while ago, and things got kinda heated, and they ended up taking a nap. A real long nap. And look – we like the town, ok. It’s nice. It should be quiet here, and people should be able to live their lives. So we decided to make sure we finished what we started, so it could be nice again. We’re from far away from here, far enough to be unknown to these people. Beyond their understanding, or expectations. We’re the force from outside that they can’t predict, or prepare for. And because of that, they’re going to lose.”

“Think of us as…a kind of neighbourhood watch,” Hunter added, of his own volition. Aliev sat back and looked at Kai, and for the first time a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. 

“Very well – so what is the next step. What do you want me to do?”

“Well, the first thing is to have a chat with your friend. Can you call him in so we can talk to him?”

“That’s asking a lot – a lot of trust in you.” Aliev stared at Kai. Kai in turn nodded, then reached down and grabbed his gun belt, and passed it back over to him, then flicked the safety back on his taser and holstered it. Whilst Aliev was fitting his gun-belt, Kai turned his back on him and got a cup of coffee on the go – giving him ample opportunity to draw his weapon and threaten him. Of course Aliev didn’t know that Tads hovered over him, watching him with intense scrutiny. Kai turned around and passed over the drink to Aliev, and then called Marius, asking him to cease jamming.

“Let’s start off with something simple – can you ask your colleague to go to the supermarkets and check to see what’s going on?” Aliev nodded and made the call, having to deflect questions and begging his friend to just trust him, and that he’d explain later. Whilst they waited, Aliev filled in Kai on more of the activities that had been going on in town – the two main money makers were ‘fire insurance’, which seemed to be straight up door to door extortion by travelling packs of goons, and ‘sales tax’ – which explained what they’d seen at the supermarkets. Unless you paid a fee, you couldn’t use the supermarket, which left people with a two hour walk to Shirvan to get to the next nearest shops. On hearing more about the door to door work, Kai suggested that Aliev’s partner also keep an eye out for goons on the street.

“I guess you want to deal with the gambling den as well, then?” Aliev looked at Kai expectantly, and then continued to talk as Kai waved for him to go on. “Well, one of the things they did was bring in some girls from Shirvan, and they took over a house, and started a little brothel...” He continued to describe the operation. It was clear from his description that both of the policeman hadn’t been to the brothel – in fact they’d been warned off and told to stay clear. From the sounds of it, it was run by a single guy, with a stable of between two and three girls working at any one time, rotated in and out at intervals. Ulvi and his goons went to collect the cash, and also ensured that there wasn’t any trouble in the place. It was a fairly standard house, and they plotted it on the map for future investigation.

“Well, that’s helpful Aliev, thanks. I’ve got people back at our base going through the captured mobile phones and looking for information, and we’ll look for details of any video clips and sound recordings – and if there are any, we’ll get them recovered and determine what’s happened to them.” Aliev nodded, appearing to be genuinely grateful. Kai was just about to speak when the police radio squawked. They listened to Aliev’s partner as he described that there were no goons to be seen on the street, and none at the supermarket – and that the market was busy, busier than normal, with people hurriedly shopping and taking advantage of the situation.

“So, Mr Aliev – are we on the same page now?”

“Honestly? No, we’re not. I get the feeling that I’m at least two pages behind, and still trying to work out what I’m reading. But I’ll try and catch up.”

“Good enough for me.”

“As long as you don’t decide to ‘take care of me’, I think we’re going to be good.” Aliev watched Kai carefully.

“Don’t worry Mr Aliev – it seems we ARE on the same side. Oh, and the ghost that made you crash your car? I don’t think you ought to worry about that. Let’s just say its appearance and ours are not entirely unrelated.”

Outside, Hunter turned a corner and caught sight of the truck driving slowly down the road towards him. He changed comms and called to Marius.

“Marius, pull up by me will you, and do me a favour. As I climb in, make the suspension drop on that side, then straighten up?”

“Whatever for?”

“Look, just humour me, will you, it’ll help.” He waited for the German to signal acceptance, then swapped frequencies back to Kai’s broadcast rig in the back of the truck.

“Kai, Mr Aliev, I’m just about to get onboard. Don’t worry.” Aliev looked at Kai with curiosity to see what his reaction would be, but saw only confusion in his face. They felt the truck slow almost to a stop, then lurch down on one side dramatically. A few plastic cups fell from the sink and bounced across the floor noisily, spilling the dregs of last night’s coffee across the cross hatched flooring. With another lurch the truck righted itself, and then slowly gathered speed again. Kai and Aliev both turned towards the connecting door as it opened, and Aliev gave a little noise of indrawn breath as Hunter squeezed himself through the gap. He walked down the narrow passageway between the bunks and the table slowly and carefully, and then stood with his arms folded, biceps bulging and looking down at the policeman.

“Nice to meet you in person.” Aliev nodded, his mouth slightly open as he stared up at the intimidating bulk of the heavily muscled ork who loomed over him. Whilst he was off balance, Kai decided to capitalise on the situation.

“So, we’re going to look at doing some data searches on the police network in Shirvan, and see what we can find there about the superior officers – work out who we can trust and who we can’t.”

“Bad idea, in my opinion – it’s far easier for the mob to have a decker or a really savvy computer guy handy somewhere in the world, and just flag up searches like that, or watch for tripped flags and alarms in systems. If I was them, that’s probably about the first thing I’d do to keep my organisation secure.” Hunter spoke quietly, but articulately, and Aliev blinked at him, then averted his gaze as Hunter turned his attention from Kai to his upturned face with a broad smile. Hunter continued to describe the automated systems he’d put in place to alert him if outsiders were searching on his system for key data, making it very clear to Aliev that he definitely didn’t fit the ‘dumb ork’ stereotype.

The radio keyed up again, and Husyenova reported that the second supermarket was also clear of goons, and if anything was even busier at the moment. He’d also still not seen any of the goons wandering around town, and his demands to know what was going on were even more pointed now. Kai and Hunter got their heads together, and picked a spot in the southern part of the town, and got Aliev to call his friend in there, promising to explain it all, then got Marius heading to the same spot. 

As they drove towards the rendezvous, Aliev looked around the truck a little more, then took a deep breath.

“So… are you guys…. Are you spetsnaz?” His eyes flicked from Hunter to Kai and back again, watching for reactions.

“Nyet,” Hunter smiled at him again, exposing teeth and tusks. A second later, Marius called over the speaker system, in fluent Russian.

“Did he just ask if we were Spetsnaz?”

“Da.”

“Uncivilised barbarian.” Hunter smiled again, as Aliev listened to the rapid fire Russian bouncing back and forth between them.

A few minutes later they pulled up, and Aliev, Hunter and Kai got out of the truck and headed over to the waiting police car, with Aliev climbing in the front and the two team members sliding into the back. Husyenova had his hand on his service pistol and the safety off as they climbed into his car, especially once he’d seen the size of Hunter, but Aliev reached over and pushed the pistol back into his holster with a shake of his head. In the back of the car, the astral form of Tads floated between Kai and Hunter, watching carefully and ready to appear if required.

They spent the next few minutes listening to Aliev as he talked to his friend, relaying what he’d learnt and discussed with Kai over the past half hour. They added a few bits here and there, reinforcing what Aliev said, or clarifying parts that he hadn’t gotten quite right. The two policemen exchanged looks when they played back the radio traffic of the previous night, but by the end of it, Husyenova seemed to be as convinced as Aliev had been.

They left the policemen, advising them to check the third supermarket out and keep an eye out for goons – but otherwise, to keep their heads down and stay out of trouble. Aliev nodded, but paused, as Hunter suddenly leant forward in his seat and interrupted him

“Hang on, I’ll be back in a moment.” They watched as he climbed out of the car, squeezing his massive frame through the back door and jogged back over to the truck. While they were waiting, Kai exchanged phone numbers with both of the policeman, and asked them for their father’s names, telling them to use that as a code word if they were in trouble and required assistance. 

Hunter was busy rooting around in the back of the truck when his radio chirped in his ear, and he heard Aswon calling for him.

“Hunter? Aswon. Can you let Tads know, if she’s still with you that I have bought her body back to the ranch, and I’m in the car keeping an eye on it. And also, can you get your decker buddy to look for details on this kid in Shirvan for Tads?”

“Negative, he has a tasking already.” There was a pregnant pause while Aswon waited for any more information, or some kind of negotiation, but when it was clear that there wasn’t going to be one, he came back with a clipped acknowledgement and signed off. Hunter meanwhile had continued to build up his package, and after grabbing a few more items, grabbed his bundle and climbed out of the truck and headed back to the car.

Whilst the two policemen in the front watched, he carefully unwrapped the blanket, revealing the two best maintained and least battered shotguns from the haul, along with a full basic load of shells for each of them.

“These are for you guys. Keep them handy in your cars, in case you need them – just a bit of extra firepower to help even the odds.” Aliev and Husyenova exchanged looks, with Aliev having a slightly smug “see!” expression on his face. They both thanked them, and watched as the team got out of the car and headed back to the truck. 

“Oh Tads, if you can hear me, Aswon took your body back to the ranch, and he’s keeping an eye on it.” Tads waited until they were safely back inside the vehicle before she manifested and thanked him, then disappeared in a blur of light as she raced back to her body and merged with it. Kai, Hunter and Marius started up the truck and headed back to the ranch, only arriving a few minutes later, dropping off the tan SUV into the workshop area and covering it with a large tarpaulin to disguise it from casual view.

They met up again around the dining room table, having a quick recap on the day. Tads confirmed that she still wanted to research into the life and activities of the young man, Vusal Aliyeva, and that until she had, she wasn’t going to be at peace with her totem. Nadia was sitting with a ‘trode net on, along with some earphones and was busily navigating the matrix, carrying out her searches – they knew better than to interrupt her and disrupt her from virtual space, and decided to leave her to it at the moment. In the end they decided the best thing they could reasonably do at this point was to actually go for a quick drive around in Shirvan, risking being seen in the truck. As they were getting up to get ready to leave, Kai raised his voice a little, to ensure that the family would hear him too.

“Hey, has anyone seen Shimazu today at all?”


	84. 084 - Trouble in the tunnels

Date Wednesday 18/02/2060, Location 40.02419, 48.95808

Shimazu awoke, and looked around him in confusion. It was dark, cold and uncomfortable, and his body was a mass of pain. He had no idea where he was, or why he was here… wherever here was. As his senses slowly returned, he blinked and looked around, trying to take in his surroundings.

He lay on a jagged and rough floor, in what appeared to be a natural cave of some kind. The walls were jagged and uneven, a little under two metres high, and maybe the same across at the bottom, narrowing slightly at the top. Above him was a chimney – a twisting, turning fissure that stretched up some distance above him, with a tiny window of grey light far above, looking small and forlorn. His eyes flitted over the slick looking sides of the fissure and estimated the size – it was a good metre and a half across at least, and the walls, though natural looking, appeared less jagged and rough than the tunnel he was in. He’d seen people climbing chimney type formations in pictures on the matrix, but never one this broad – and though he was in pretty good shape, he wasn’t experienced at climbing at all, and wasn’t sure of technique or style.

He climbed to his feet, wincing slightly with the stiffness of his muscles as they complained at the movement, and several spots flared with pain as the result of what promised to be epic bruises. His ribs hurt, and with gentle poking he estimated that a couple were either cracked or broken – but at least everything else seemed generally intact. Looking on the walls, he spotted a faint blood stain in a few places, and checking himself over found bruises and contusions - thankfully most of them minor. It looked like he’d slid down the fissure, bouncing off the walls and striking his head at least once on the way down, before landing in an untidy heap at the bottom and lapsing into unconsciousness for some time. He looked for handholds, but after a moment gave it up as a bad job – there was no way he was safely going to climb up the fissure to the daylight above – and for a moment, he had a stab of envy for Aswon and his tattoos. Aswon would just activate his powers and would rocket up the cave wall like he was walking across the floor and be out of here in a few moments.

But – he wasn’t, and he couldn’t. So, he looked around, at the passageway that led off to each side of him, swiftly vanishing into the stygian darkness. His eyes had finally adjusted to the gloom and the tiny amount of light filtering down the fissure – but that was soon lost and beyond about two metres, the tunnel was pitch black. He scrabbled in his pocket and pulled out his phone, checking it over and finding it scuffed but undamaged. There was no signal here, but with a quick tap on the screen, he turned on the torch function, and shone it down the passage, the light beam illuminating a narrow area of wall, floor or roof of the tunnel. 

He flicked the torch off, and the cave went black again, his night vision destroyed by the light. He paused a moment, then reached behind him and grabbed the handle of his sword, slowly and carefully drawing it from the scabbard, and testing the structure of the blade by careful feel. Satisfied that it too was intact, he took the torch in his left hand, sword in his right, and slowly moved forwards. His left hand ran along the wall, guiding him forward whilst his feet slowly moved over the rough and broken terrain. He slowly edged forwards about four or five metres, about as far as he had seen with the torchlight, and then paused. His thumb depressed the button, and the tiny LED lit up, producing a thin cone of light that was quickly swallowed up by the darkness again – but showed him the next few metres of cave. He flicked the light off, stopped and listened for a moment, then slowly moved forwards again. He repeated the pattern, illuminating the area, stopping and listening, then slowly moving forwards again. He continued to work his way forward, sticking to the left wall, and made slow progress through the cave system, listening intently and walking as quietly as he could. He came across a larger cavern after perhaps twenty metres, and saw a passageway leading off to his right, as well as the continuation of the tunnel he had entered from, on the other side of the open space. There was also a spoil heap, smelling strongly off to the left. He looked around carefully, examining the excrement from a distance and trying to gauge what size of creature might have left that kind of ‘deposit’. Looking around, he also noticed no bones or signs of food – so whatever it was, it didn’t eat where it crapped, which implied some level of intelligence and awareness. He pushed on, skirting around the crap and exited by the far side of the cavern, sticking to the left wall.

As he moved along the tunnels, his torchlight sparkled off something in the walls. He listened carefully for a few moments, checking for movement or the sound of breathing, before turning his torch back on and examining the source of the glint. He found a relatively large gem of some kind, wedged into the wall, looking quite natural. It was a flecked red and yellow colour, and looked to be over a centimetre in length. He carefully pulled out his pocket knife and pried it out of the wall, stashing it in his pocket to examine later, before continuing his progress.

He lost track of time and direction, wandering through the darkness and stumbling through the rough cut tunnels under the hill. He found another spoil heap, along with some dead ends and tunnels that all appeared to be on the right hand side of the passageway. The tunnel twisted and turned, rising and falling as it meandered through the rocks under the ground. He was just getting ready to move on again after shining his torch along another part of the tunnel when he heard something ahead – the sound of claws on rocks, ragged breathing and a hissing noise. He quickly pocketed his phone and pulled the taser from the holster.

He felt the presence of the creature ahead of him, his senses working in overdrive. The hairs stood up along his arms and the back of his neck as adrenaline dumped into his system, and his pulse and respiration skyrocketed. He half squeezed the trigger on the taser and the front of the gun lit up, the two ranging diodes pulsing. In normal conditions they were barely noticeable, but in the inky blackness of the cave they emitted enough light that he could see the source of the noise. It was shorter than he was, and broader, being covered in a mass of fur. He had just enough time to see a mass of yellowish teeth bared at him as they shone past leathery lips pulled back in a sign of aggression before his hind brain reacted, pulling the trigger all the way back. Two darts shot across the intervening distance, trailing fine wire behind them and flew past the creature, which dropped and swayed to the side, driven by its own natural reaction to the unknown object. That was enough to halt its forward momentum though, and the sword tip hissed through the air as Shimazu followed up on his first attack. The streel found its mark, and fear-fuelled muscles lent it strength and power, biting deep into the flesh and severing the creatures head from its body in one fatal swing. 

He backed himself against the wall, and tried to listen out in case there were more of the creatures – but all he could hear was the crescendo of blood pumping through his veins, his own ragged breathing as his chest heaved to get air into his system. Slowly he calmed himself, his pulse dropping to normal, and he listened carefully – quiet. He holstered the taser, and grabbed his phone, activating the light and played it over the corpse. It looked like a large monkey or small gorilla, grey fur and leathery dark skin, covering the body and with vicious looking claws as long as each of his fingers. The head lay to the side of the body, revealing a mouth full of large fangs that would look at home on a tiger or lion, with small sunken eyes and a heavy mass of bone deposits around the eyes. Blood continued to pump from the stump, forming shallow pools in the passageway.

Shimazu decided to take a gamble, and scooped up a handful of the blood, smearing it over himself, then another, and another. He liberally doused himself in the cooling liquid, hoping that if the creatures had a sense of smell as sensitive as a dog or other scent hunter he should smell like death incarnate to them. Either that or a suitably tasty gourmet meal…

He also took the head, grasping it by the long and matted string of fur. It might be useful magically, or it might be useful to wave at any other of the creatures he found down here. He wasn’t quite sure – but hopefully it would be good for something. He waved his torch along the passageway, and then turned it off, resuming his slow shuffle through the darkness.

He worked his way along the passage, seconds stretching into minutes, into hours. The tunnel continued to twist and turn, and Shimazu followed along, sticking to the left hand wall and alternating looking, moving and stopping to listen, moving even slower now he had proof that there was something else down here with him. Time stretched on and became meaningless. Technically he could have checked the phone and seen exactly what time it was – but it wouldn’t have mattered to him at all, so he purposefully chose not to distract himself.

He stopped – frozen in mid-step. Waiting. Waiting. Then it happened again – a faint stirring of air currents. A tiny breeze from his right. He waited again – and after a few minutes there was another faint wash of air that blew over him. He turned on the light and investigated, finding that the rock on the far side of the tunnel was broken and crazed. As he examined it, the wall crumbled to his touch – it looked to have been excavated at some point in the past, and hastily blocked up by something or someone. He tore at the wall with one hand in the darkness, his other hand firmly on the hilt of his sword, until he’d made a space big enough to crawl into.

With his sword still held in one hand, he struggled through the narrow crawlspace, into a curving tunnel that wound up and around, rising until it burst out onto the hillside under a dangling mat of hardy vegetation. He flopped forwards and out onto the side of the rise, eyes squinting in the evening light that still looked incredibly bright after so long underground. He lay for a moment on his back, phone clutched in one hand, sword in the other and a severed head knotted and tied to his belt loop, staring at the sky in grateful thanks. After a moment to recover, he raised the phone to his face, glad to see that he once again had a signal, and speed dialled Kai.

“Boss? I fell in a hole, into some underground caves. I’m a little bit hurt – can you send someone to get me?” Kai agreed, and asked him where he was – prompting Shimazu to look around and realise that he was in some kind of defile, with absolutely no frame of reference at all. Kai didn’t seem too bothered though, and asked Tads to go look for him. Floating above the ground in astral space, and looking down for sizeable life signs in the otherwise arid scrubland wasn’t too difficult, and she found him after only a few minutes search. She manifested and told him not to worry, and that they’d be out soon enough.

Returning to her body, she reported in, then went to see Rusudan. In only a few minutes, they had the horses saddled and one of the kids was riding with her, up into the mesa to look for their companion on the back of the sturdy draught horse. When they found him, they got him saddled up on one horse, while they both rode on the other. The horse was skittish from the smell of blood, but eventually was calm enough to ride back, and they headed down the trails in the gradually darkening sky. Along the way, Shimazu passed over the gem to Tads.

“I found this in the wall of the cave, near one of the spoil heaps. Do you think it’s worth much?”

Tads examined the gem, looking at the rough facets and shining her torch on it.

“It’s a sunstone sphalerite , nice specimen too. Probably get a good thirty caret gem from this, if you cut it right. Maybe worth a few thousand to a gem cutter, or possibly of use in a magical ritual or fabrication. You say you found it in the wall?”

Shimazu confirmed how he’d found it, and described the tunnels and caverns some more, along with the strange creature that he’d found, and dispatched. They made it back to the ranch ok, and Shimazu was quickly dispatched for a shower and a fresh set of clothes, before he was thoroughly checked over for damage and his ribs bound and a few injections given to aid in his recovery. While he was being ministered too, he described what had happened.

“Well, I found a couple of places that looked like good locations for a shrine or small temple to be built. I’d settled down to meditate, and probably spent half an hour or so just sitting with my sword across my lap, just focussing. I recall getting up and then starting to walk back, but over the top of some rocks and stuff. Then it’s just a blank, until I woke up at the bottom of the rockface.”

They listened, and Kai checked over Shimazu’s head carefully, finding a few very tender patches.

“Probably retrograde temporary amnesia, caused by the impact trauma. Nothing too much to worry about, but let us know if you start to get headaches.” Kai bandaged him up, and the team filled Shimazu in on what they’d been up to while he’d been gone.

At the end of the quick round up of what the team had been up to while Shimazu had been having his underground adventure, Tads sat forward on her chair, resting her arms on the dining room table.

“And that is why I need to investigate Vusul. And, I’m not leaving the area until we do.”

“Hey, chill out – we’re a team, and we do what’s right for the team, even if that’s not what you personally want to do.” Hunter retorted loudly.

“Well, if that’s the case, then I might need to leave the team – as this is something I have to do.” The temperature seemed to drop a degree or two with that statement. Hunter looked like he was about to reply, but was distracted as his phone started to buzz and vibrate, and he grabbed it to read through the received message.

“Is there a magical spell that allows you to translate speech, Tads?” asked Kai, trying to seek a resolution not a confrontation.

“Yes, but the problem is, its cast on a person, so it’s where their meat body is. I can’t astrally project and go and listen in on someone like I was spying on the goons in their house – the spell won’t come with me. In fact, the spell can’t stay up while I go out of my body.” She started to explain, but saw Kai struggle with the concepts a little. “Look, I can’t keep a spell up and running if I leave my body – there’s not enough power. OK?” Kai nodded – that much at least was pretty simple and easy to understand.

At the other end of the table, Nadia grabbed Marius by the hand, attracting his attention with a few taps from the other one.

“Marius, I want to add things to the team shopping list. Can you speak to Kai about this for me? Please?” She gazed at him, stroking the back of his hand gently until he nodded. “Great. In that case I need a new computer, a proper full sized laptop or portable unit, with about a thousand megapulses of fast access memory, multiple trode hitch points, an LX4 chipset or higher, a couple of datajacks with the 1.3 media bus addons, a decent quality one metre rollout screen, and a couple of backup devices with about 20K of storage each. Oh, and an external sat dish with unlimited download subscriber ID, auto-track alignment system, class 2 UPS and full weather seals, OK?” Marius gawped at her as she reeled off the specification.

“It’s for data searches and organisation, honey, I need it to work on. This little thing is no good for that – I keep running out of storage space when searching, and the scripting language is too limited, and trying to piggyback off the phone signal is SOOOOO slow. Otherwise it’s just an exercise in frustration trying to find things for you lot…” Marius nodded at her, and promised that he’d speak to Kai about getting some parts ordered for her, and tuned back into the conversation at the other end of the table, where Tads was discussing doing something with the front of his truck.

“What is this? What are you doing to my truck?” He put subtle but determined emphasis on the possessive term.

“Tads was just saying that she wants to set up another lodge, in the front of the truck. A low force one, but just enough that she can be studying new spells as we’re travelling, and still able to react to situations as they happen.”

“What does this mean to me? Will there be chalk lines all over the windscreen and things?”

“No, no – just a couple of dreamcatchers here and there, and maybe some art on the back wall. Nothing that will interfere with the trucks operation.“ Marius glared at Tads and Kai, but it looked like he’d missed the main part of the discussion and all the others agreed it was a good idea, so he’d probably lost his opportunity to refuse it without appearing churlish. An idea entered his head though….

“Kai, that doesn’t seem to be an issue. It’s for the good of the team, after all. So Nadia has just mentioned that she’s trying to do the data-searches for us on various things, and keeps running into low-memory messages on the pocket secretary. She’s asked for a couple of little upgrades, to make things faster and help her ensure she gets all the detail she wants, that ok?”

“Sure, next time we go shopping, we can pick some bits up. No problem.” Kai turned back towards Tads, Hunter and Aswon, and missed the satisfied smile on the German’s face. Nadia hugged him tightly, beaming up at him and admiring his style. 

Hunter sighed loudly, then rapped his knuckles on the table, waiting until he had everyone’s attention. He started set up the rollout screen and his phone at the end of the table, propping them up on the bread bin and getting ready to show the team some data.

“Right, my mate Julius has sent me some data on the town, and on the Mammadova clan by the looks of things. Probably will be useful in planning out what the next stage is. Looks like a corporate presentation, so I’ll go through the slides one after another until we get to the end, then go back to the start and we can go through each one and discuss what’s on them, one at a time, right?”

He set the presentation going, paging through the dozen slides included in the file one after another, then hit the key to return to the beginning. As they worked through them, they discussed what the graphs meant and tried to interpret the data - Nadia proving to have the greatest grasp of economic theory and various book-keeping knowledge. It seemed that Mammadova was firmly established in the town, and was using the legitimate businesses to clean his money gained from people, drug and gun smuggling in the area – and it was easy to see where young Ulvi had gotten his ideas from. The data also showed them that there seemed to be a distinct bias in the town against foreign investment, especially from the UCAS, and that the politicians in the city was almost certainly up to their necks in some kind of vote rigging scandal – and as a result were almost inevitably crooked, and in charge of dirty cops and a corrupt council. 

“Was Esprit the oil company we attacked? Or were they the one that hired us?” asked Tads.

“Neither. Esprit were the third company, the one we impersonated. Maersk hired us to attack Dekita, owned by Fuchi, which we did by pretending to be Esprit, owned by Saeder Krupp. Or at least it was the Esprit air wing that engaged Dekita over the desert while we made our getaway.”

“I think I caught up with that explanation. Either way though, I guess we want to stay clear of them in Shirvan. In fact, don’t we want to stay clear of the whole town – it sounds like a stinking cesspool all together, and we don’t stand to gain much. Once we’ve sorted the Vusul situation out, aren’t we better just avoiding the whole place?”

“No, I don’t think we can. We have to address the situation, we can’t just ignore it.” Marius pointed at the presentation data with his index finger. “People that can act like this – they rely on fear, and reputation. The aura of power. Once word gets around of what happened to his son, he will have to take action, to preserve his reputation. He can’t let the situation slide, it would be a massive loss of face, a challenge to his power. He will investigate, and aim to neutralise the source. And with the power of whatever industry he controls in town, along with the police and the politicians, we can’t afford to leave that at our backs. Otherwise we’ll always be looking over our shoulders.” A freshly showered and clean Shimazu nodded along with Marius at his description of losing face and the potential outcomes.

Hunter had been busy with his computer, trying to track down the owner of one of the major companies that didn’t have ties to the Mammadovas – but finding little beyond “Shirvan Steel” being run by Arif Farad and their matrix site not having been updated for over twenty months. Giving it up as a bad job, he started trying to research the elections in Shirvan and any election controversy that had been reported instead.

Tads and Shimazu went out into the yard and examined the head of the creature that he’d encountered. Carefully prodding and poking at it, Tads determined that it was a variant of a creature known to her as a “knocker”, a powerful subterranean burrowing creature loosely derived from orangutans. Their immensely hard claws were able to rip apart rocks and they tunnelled extensively creating vast warrens of passages in any area they inhabited. The bad news was that they shunned contact with other species, and tended to react aggressively when encountered. On the other hand, the head had been severed by a pure blade in a single stroke – and properly prepared and kept now, would make a great base for enchanting something in the future, as would the gem discovered in the rockface. Aswon came out to fetch them in, as they’d discovered more information on the town, but was intrigued with the severed head, asking for details on how it lived and what it was, so Tads explained again.

“I guess this would be useful as a focus or fetish for any spell that shaped or affected the earth then?” Tads nodded at him. “That might make Marius and Hunter happy – they seem intent on developing some kind of underground lair. Personally I think it’s a little excessive. He shrugged, but then turned back towards the house.

Inside they found that there was a political opponent that had done very badly at all of the elections, despite seeming not to be that unpopular – and on examining his policies which centred around increased commercial development and encouraging foreign investment it was easy to see why the current crop of politicians were keen to squash him. Hunter and Nadia had done a bit of digging, and found that Tirek Mammadove seemed to be fairly straight up – and was probably being used to ‘prove’ that the elections weren’t fixed, and were free and fair, by presenting a vaguely credible opposition. As long as he didn’t ever get anything other than 14.2% of the vote, year after year.

Kai turned on his chair and faced Tads.

“Can you do a quick scout around the mountain, and just make sure that we aren’t looking at the monkey apocalypse. Just check that we don’t have any of the creatures coming out of the ground and tracking us or anything. I just want to not have that niggling away at me.” Tads smiled at him, but nodded in agreement, and went and laid down on the couch before projecting from her body and scouting. It only took her a few minutes to whizz around the trails and hills, before coming back and reporting that it was all quiet, with just the normal nocturnal wildlife out and about.

After Tads reported that it was all clear, they talked about their plans to do recon in Shirvan. Aswon made the point that they really had to take the truck – it was their base, their main redoubt and the one place they could pretty much guarantee that they could take a hit until someone called in the army or some seriously heavy firepower – but more than that, it was where all their best gear, spares, and alternate equipment was located. Although the truck was very noticeable, and somewhat easy to spot, it meant they had ready access to whatever they needed to make the mission work. Now they had the four by four resprayed they could use that for mobile recon around the town, and leave the truck parked somewhere a little quieter, but still close enough to be available to respond to any situations they could find themselves in.

They also agreed to deface the tags on the stolen four by four – adding extra black stripes to the bar code number plate with electrical tape. Although Shirvan didn’t strike them as the sort of place to have much in the way of automatic plate capture, it was best to be certain, and at least they’d flag up as an invalid plate rather than the stolen car of a mafia boss if they did get scanned. Between the altered tags and the respray, they should be safe from casual scanning.

“Can we infiltrate on the bus or train, to reduce our reliance on the vehicles, do you think?” asked Tads. “Surely if we mingle in with the commuters we should stand out less?

“I don’t think so, Tads – I can alter my facial structure a little, and change my skin tone, and Nadia blends in pretty perfectly of course – but the rest of you stand out like sore thumbs.” Kai pointed at each team member in turn. “So we have tall, thin, black man with a lion mane and a habit of saying ‘I am Aswon’, a member of the Aryan master race, a Chinese bodybuilder, and a western European ork. Somehow I don’t think any of you are going to pass in the crowd without notice. Not even a disguise is going to help most of you – your body shape is just too different. So most of the spying is going to have to be from behind the car windscreens. That’s why I want you to be busy doing a whole bunch of research, Nadia.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No.”

“I’m not sure you’re getting how this is supposed to work. I’m the boss!”

“Yes. But the answer is still no. In fact, we shouldn’t be doing any more searches at all, I think.”

“Why not?”

“Well, Rusudan said there’s no wired matrix access here – so we’ve been using his cellular commlink as a hotspot. Which explains why the signal is so awful and the bandwidth so low. But that also means every single matrix search we’ve done has the same MSP address and flags, the same carrier signal and the same origin point. So far most of the searches haven’t been too unusual or noticeable. But if we start doing searches on the local politicians, the actual details of the vote rigging, bent cops – that kind of thing… we’re going to trip flags. And that will bring a response right back down on Rusudan and his family.

The room fell silent for a moment as they considered that, and realised that Nadia was right.

“Ok, well, we need to get a wired connection sorted out, and yeah, we need to get some better gear for doing our research on – something that will hide our trail a little. But until then, let’s keep it lightweight and general. So, we need to do more physical scouting. Hmm… that’s going to be a problem.”

“Maybe not – I’ve got a spell that will help, as long as people aren’t spotted by a mage or cross a ward. Here, let me show you… if you don’t mind… Hunter?” Hunter raised an eyebrow at her, but then shrugged a little and waved his acceptance. Her hands made a series of complex gestures, and she spoke quietly, but there was no outward show of power – no glow like when healing magic was used. But, slowly Hunter seemed to collapse in on himself, his features morphing and twisting. He grew smaller, and seemed to become more slender as well. His clothing rippled and suddenly twisted into tatty jeans and an oily hoodie, with a headcloth wrapped around his head revealing a dark and swarthy appearance with a black beard and moustache. 

The others pushed back their chairs and circled Hunter, examining him carefully and trying to see through the spell she had cast – but it held up under their scrutiny. Tads sat with her eyes closed, a frown of concentration on her face.

“The bad news is that I can do this for one person easily enough. But more than one and it gets easier to break through, and harder to maintain. So if we can have one person out at a time, I can disguise them – and change how they look each time if you want, as long as you don’t hit anyone magical. Other than that – the chances are we’ll get funny looks and people might see through things or they’ll be inconsistencies.”

“Well, that makes things simpler then. Good work. So, let’s plan on one at a time, rotating people, rotating disguises, doing physical recon on the town, from the four by four, with the truck on standby somewhere quiet.”

“Oh, and one other thing Kai,” Kai turned to Aswon and motioned for him to speak.

“Please can we sell those leeches, the shares and find a buyer for that dagger we got from the golem retrieval guys?” Shimazu made disgruntled noises and looked outraged that someone was going to sell his leeches, but not as annoyed as Kai did.

“It’s not the right time to sell those shares yet… trust me!”

Kai could see that Aswon and several of the team were not exactly happy about this, and excused himself from the table, heading to the stairs and calling for Rusudan and Naena. When they came down, he asked them to join the team at the table, and asked them about their views of the local politicians.

Over the next ten minutes, listening to both of the locals describe the politicians and their activities, they had a better idea of the depth and quality of the sleaziness of their targets. Although there was nothing concrete or proven, their activities and approach all reeked of media manipulation, bribery, corruption and venal behaviour that fitted the stereotype for a corrupt local official in a backwards area. The team asked about conditions in the Shirvan, and got a few blank spots filled in by the two, getting more of a feel for how the town ran and the type of services on offer – though the viewpoint was understandably slanted by their needs and approach of being resort operators.

With nothing more to do that night, and no electronic searches in progress, the team settled down, spending a quiet night in their beds resting. The night was uneventful, and though a few of them stirred at dawn to greet the new day, or in response to the noise made by the family as they mucked out the horses or carried out their morning activities, they enjoyed the calm and relaxing time. They gradually made their way down to breakfast at around nine, finding a selection of food and drink laid out on the table for them courtesy of Naena. Tads went to the kitchen looking for some preserve to add to her bread, and ended up rooting through the cupboards – discovering that they were fairly empty and that supplies were low. 

Poking her head around the corner of the kitchen door, she checked what was on the table, then went back and looked through the pantry and cupboards again. Now that she was looking specifically, it was clear that the family had used most of their supplies to feed the team, and there was very little left. Sighing, Tads pulled several containers out of storage and down from shelves, and rolled up her sleeves, before starting to mutter under her breath. One after another she filled the containers with different types of basic food, trying to restock the kitchen and provide for their hosts. When she was done, she went and poked Kai in the ribs repeatedly until he stopped talking, so she could tell him what she’d found.

He agreed that they needed to sort this out, and said that they were going to head into Shirvan, just as soon as he’d made a call. He waited for a bit of quiet, then putting the phone on speaker, dialled the number for one of the policemen in the local town. When the phone was answered, he asked how things were, checking that nobody from Shivan had come to town yet, wanting answers or causing trouble. Thankfully, the situation was unchanged – it appeared that their disappearance had not been noticed or responded to yet. The locals were very happy about their new found liberty to shop when and where they liked though, and there was a buzz around town and lots of people wondering what had happened to them, but nobody was mentioning the team or the truck yet.

Kai then asked for information on Shirvan – but here he was less successful. It became clear that Aliev had only been to Shirvan to attend the police station there for training. It was laughable in a way – he kept referring to Shirvan as “the big city” and spoke of it as a cosmopolitan and busy place, showing just how limited his world view was. However, he could confirm at least that there weren’t any “no-go” or ghetto areas of Shirvan, and that the most upscale areas were just west of the central area of town, and that’s where the politicians and big chiefs tended to live. Most importantly though he told Kai that Ilham Aliyev had private security bodyguards, not just local police, to protect him.

The team got ready to leave, and Tads cast her masking spell on Hunter again, turning him into a large and thuggish looking human with a heavy set monobrow and hunched shoulders, with battered jeans and a sweat stained check shirt, hands covered in scars and thick short fingers – the type of guy who might want to work on a building site or steel mill, doing some kind of hot, dangerous or physically demanding work. With some of them in the four by four, and the rest in the truck, they pulled out of the yard onto the highway, leaving the trailer nestled by the side of the garage, and headed down the main road towards Shirvan.

They were a third of the way there when they caught sight of Rusudan, sticking to the edge of the road in his little cart being drawn by one of the horses. They skirted around him and pulled over, waiting for him to catch up to them. 

“Where are you off to, Rusudan?”

“To Shirvan, Master Kai. I need to get some food shopping in.” Kai glanced across to Tads, and then back to Rusudan.

“So we noticed. You’re supposed to tell us about things like that, and not let us eat all your food, you know. At least you’ve got money on the stick we gave you the other night, yes?” Kai watched, and then frowned as Rusudan said nothing and looked away with a strange expression on this face. “What is it? What’s the matter?”

“Well, the stick you gave me. There’s no money on it. I didn’t want to say anything… I thought I had disappointed you and you had taken it back.”

The team looked at each other in confusion for a moment, wondering what had happened, until Marius facepalmed, the loud slap sounding like a muted gunshot. 

“Ach – our reader. It’s not linked up to the banks, of course. But the money was taken from a normal SIN. So when we didn’t synchronise with a valid bank terminal within a certain timeframe, the charge was reversed. The money will be back on their original accounts now – both this one and the money we gave to the gir…. other person.”

Kai made a disappointed grunting noise, then pulled out one of the certified sticks, and grabbed Rusudan’s personal stick, feeding them both into the cred-terminal and transferring four thousand Nuyen over from their reserves before handing it back to him.

“There, that should cover the shopping. Anything like that happens again, please tell us straight away – the sooner we know, the sooner we can fix it. And, it might be the first sign that someone is trying to mess with us.”

With that, they boarded their vehicles again, pulling out onto the quiet road and heading towards Shirvan to start their surveillance and operation against Malik Mammadova.


	85. 085 - The South Side of Shirvan

Date Wednesday 18/02/2060, Location 40.02419, 48.95808

The truck led the way into the city, trundling down the main road while the team looked about them. The four by four followed along, with the passengers also looking around with interest. The buildings were similar to those they had seen elsewhere in the country – squat and low generally, square and of simple and plain construction. The commercial buildings were larger, concrete and steel, with larger glass and looking considerably more “western”, and out of place against the background of housing. To the west there was a neighbourhood that was made up of larger and more expensive housing, double-height houses set on a gentle rise and with considerably more greenery and tree cover. The roads were wide, with traffic buzzing around at random, the drivers paying scant attention to the rules of the road or nebulous terms like the “highway code” – typical for the region. They made their way south, heading for the canal and the railroad, and then headed east out of town to find a quiet area where they could pull up. 

They fired up their comms, and then split up – Kai and Hunter climbed into the back of the four by four, while Shimazu drove. Aswon, Marius, Tads and Nadia stayed in the truck. Tads was concentrating on the masking spell she held up on Hunter, disguising him as a local labourer. The powerful magic was almost impenetrable to even a trained observer, as long as he didn’t walk through any wards or magical barriers. But, while she maintained the spell, it took enough concentration that she couldn’t concentrate fully on anything else, so she lay in her bunk and stared blankly at the ceiling above her.

Aswon broke out his cleaning kit and started to strip down his new monster rifle, checking it over for dirt and damage, keeping his trusty purdey by the side of him, loaded and ready to go. He’d told them he was going to clean his own kit first, one then the other, but had made it clear that he was happy to clean anything else that was put out for him afterwards – anything to pass the time.

Marius was scrolling through the local map, studying it closely. It would help with navigating around town of course, but mostly he was planning out if there was anywhere that could be worth ram raiding or staging an assault on – anything to help raise some funds. Nadia meanwhile was working on some data searches and background research – things that would help them out without tripping any flags or alarm signals, using the sat-phone provided by Marius.

Kai directed Shimazu to the south, heading for the Mammadova construction company, homing in on the address they had found previously. Crossing the canal and the railway line proved to be an eye opening experience – it was a sharp and sudden dividing line into poverty. As they crossed over to the south side of the city, the land became browner and more barren, the lush plant life of the other bank being notably absent. Buildings were smaller and in poorer repair and the roads more potted and distressed.

It wasn’t long before they passed the first industrial site, and could see a plume of polluting smoke pouring out of the stacks and into the sky. Rusty metal and decaying fences, battered vehicles and equally hard-bitten labourers dotted the landscape, and cars became almost non-existent, being replaced by heavy goods vehicles.

As they drove around the area, they noticed people staring at the vehicle. At first they put it down to being the only vehicle on the roads, other than the bulk carriers. Next they wondered if it was because the vehicle had been resprayed and was comparatively clean. The further they drove around though, the more and more stares they attracted – and they realised it wasn’t stares at the vehicle, but at the people IN the vehicle. Cursing the backwards country that still had vehicles with clear glass, Kai decided to change tack.

“Shimazu, head north, back towards the canal. Let us break contact for the moment. Hunter – keep an eye on our rear and see if we pick up a tail, will you?” He waited until they’d turned and started to head back towards the canal, before he touched the button on his comm-link. “Marius, can you fire up your surveillance drone please, and send it over our way. I think we’ve been made by the locals, and we might need some assistance.”

He head the whine of the launch ramp in the background as Marius started to prepare the drone, and broke off the link, then started to look around as well, checking the situation. As Shimazu drove north they continued to attract stares, but didn’t spot any tails or overt hostile action. Three or four minutes later Marius confirmed that he had them in sight, and even though the drone was unarmed it provided a comforting feeling that the rest of the team in the truck had them in sight and were ready to respond.

They crossed over the canal, back into the commercial area of town, and drove towards the main road – and realised they were still getting odd looks.

“Nothing personal, Shimazu – but I think it’s you. They’re obviously not used to seeing Asians around here. It can’t be Hunter, not disguised like that, and I’m looking pretty local – so it’s got to be you. We’ve got to get you a disguise.” Shimazu grunted, and drove around a little more, before pulling over outside a clothing shop that might sell headgear. Kai headed in, with Hunter following him as far as the doorway, keeping an eye on the street. 

In the shop, Kai examined the piles of gear behind the counter, and started to ask the shopkeeper for a head covering, something modest and tasteful. At least that’s what he thought he said. The shopkeeper looked at him in confusion for a moment, his brow furrowing as he stared at his customer with the very weird accent and strange manner of speech as he asked for ‘I need a clothing that goes over the head, around and around and around, then looks neat and makes you tidy.’ He reached behind him and grabbed a tie, offering it over to Kai with a hopeful look upon his face.

Sighing in frustration, Kai took the tie and smiled, nodding in agreement, then held up one hand for a moment’s pause and crossed to the front door, beckoning Hunter in to come and help him. Hunter looked at the tie on the counter and shook his head, then asked the man for a headscarf to go with it, selecting a plain looking but large shemargh that they could wrap around Shimazu’s head in the local style and hide most of his face.

They got back to the car, and while Shimazu put on his new disguise, they checked in with the truck. Marius told them that they appeared clear, with no sign of pursuit or observers, but he was on station and continuing to monitor. Aswon informed them that he’d been monitoring the police bands whilst he was cleaning his rifle, and had started to build up a list of names and callsigns, gathering passive information on the local law.

Once Shimazu was disguised, they headed back across the canal, but this time headed more to the east than the south, following the directions to the house they had identified. The area deteriorated quickly, the houses becoming smaller and less well constructed, the plots of land narrower, the piles of rubbish in the street growing larger and more fetid. They continued to attract stares, but now they were directed at the vehicle, not the occupants. Looking at the level of poverty in the area, the truck probably represented three years income or more for these people, and even something like a spare wheel could be stolen and then sold for a week’s income or more. They cruised down the right street, looking at the run-down houses that were little better than squats and quickly found that none of the houses had numbers on them, or identifying marks they could discern. Kai directed Shimazu to pull up at the side of the road, and then slid out of the car, looking around. Down the road a couple of elderly folk were leaning on a car and talking, looking their way with interest but not hostility, while two poorly-dressed children were a few yards ahead, and a larger group of slightly older kids played on the other side of the road. 

He approached the two kids nearest him, who stared at him with a little fear and doubt clearly evident on their face. Kai reached into his pocket and pulled out two chocolate bars from his pocket. Their eyes dropped to the brightly wrapped bars and then flicked back to his face.

“So, can you tell me where I can find the Aliyeva family then?” He rustled the wrappings to underscore his question. One of the boys pointed at the house three down from where they stood, then tentatively reached for the chocolate bars. Kai moved the bars forward, giving them one each, then reached into his pocket again and pulled out a local note, worth about ten nuyen and passed that over as well. The older boy snatched at it and both kids burst into a sprint, surprising Kai somewhat. A few seconds later, he realised why – the bigger group of kids had been watching with interest, and as soon as they saw the wave of cash had started to run towards the recipient. The pack of kids streamed past them intent on mugging their peer for his loot.

Kai got a good look at the house, the peeling door with dry rot in the corner by the hinges, the ill-fitting window with a gap under the sill and a cracked pane of glass. He nodded to himself and returned to the car, asking Hunter to note down the location on the map. As he did, Marius called over the radio.

“Kai, everyone – are you ok. We saw Kai have some kind of interaction with the kids, then they all seemed to take off. They’re now climbing onto the roof of some house and jumping from one to another. Have they stolen something from you?”

“No Marius, it’s fine. We gave them a little cash, and I think the older kids wanted to take it off them. We’ve identified the house we want though, it’s two doors forward of where the car is now, if you can note that on the map as well for Tads to check out later.” He waited for Marius to acknowledge and then shut his comm-link down, and got Shimazu to start heading for Mammadova’s business.

As they drove through the streets they drew fewer stares than before, but the ones that did look at them seemed to be looking harder and longer than before. They couldn’t work out if it was because they’d come through the area twice now, or for some other reason, but there were few enough people that it felt like an acceptable risk, and pressed on. They approached the area marked on the Ares map, and looked up to see the edges of the construction yard looming ahead of them.

It was surrounded by a low quality chain-link fence, about 2 metres high. It hung slackly from the uprights, bowing and sagging in various places to the point that even the most un-athletic person could scale the outer barrier. There was no razor wire, or even barbed wire around the top of the posts, and they didn’t see any sensor posts or cameras either, just pile after pile of building materials and construction equipment. As they drove slowly along the edge of the compound they saw a lot of crew moving around the area – lots of manual work seemed to be involved, with very little of the machinery in use in other countries. There was equipment of course – cranes and diggers, cement mixers and huge pipe bending machines, but a lot of the work that would be automated or done with labour-saving machinery in a more technological society was instead done with brute force and lots of pairs of hands. 

They passed a large set of open gates, looking into the compound on the eastern side. The first thing they saw were three cars parked outside some battered and run down offices – cars that looked way out of place. Two of them were really nice BMWs, expensive models from the looks of things. Their sleek and styled shapes looked out of place set against the concrete and steel backdrop, and their glossy finish reflected light from the pale and wan winter sun. The third car was even more spectacular, and Hunter gave a low whistle as he recognised the Rolls Royce Black Phantom. It wasn’t a hypercar, noted for speed or ultimate performance, but it was one of a handful of cars that was still entirely hand-built and was *the* word in luxury travel – with an eye-watering price tag. If the two BMWs looked out of place in the construction company, the Roller looked out of place in the city.

The radio keyed alive, and Marius reported in on the cars from the overhead view, giving the specific models and their relative costs and availability, backing up Hunter’s quick appraisal. As they drove on, the cars swept out of view, and they continued along the sagging fence and the piles of construction material, dirt and rusty machinery until they reached the end of the block.

“Marius, Kai. We’re going to head back to your location. Can you keep the drone on station here, and watch those cars and the people that come or go?”

“Ja.”

They headed back, keeping an eye on their surroundings in case of tails, but didn’t spot anything more than the odd hard look from people they passed. Back at the truck they checked in on Marius, but found that nobody had been to or from the cars since they left. The drone was orbiting the construction company in a wide circle, high above in the sky with the engine hum lost in the breeze. They looked back over the footage taken of them earlier, but couldn’t spot any adverse reactions from their passage around the town. They tried to work out why they were attracting stares still, but couldn’t pick up any anything concrete – it could be the colour of the car, the make or model, or even something small like the absence of a bumper sticker.

Tads dropped the masking spell on Hunter, returning him to his normal appearance as she studied the map carefully, looking for physical landmarks and terrain features to guide her. Moments later she projected her spirit into the astral realm and headed out of the country at top speed, flitting across to the edge of sea, before turning and heading back, looping into Azerbaijan from a different direction, and then slowing, orientating herself and jumping closer and closer to the south side of the city. Carefully floating down and closing in on the house, she turned up her nose at the filth and despair in the area, distaste showing clearly on her face at the pollution seeping into astral space from the torment and despair of the real world. Pressing through the ceiling she entered the small house and looked around, spotting four living beings, none of them magically active. She observed for a few minutes, watching carefully, then finally spun her body around in the corner of the room and manifested, so most of her body was still in the wall and only her face showed through in the corner.

It was dim in the room, the light from the day struggling to get through the two small dirty windows, front and back. Three young girls played at some kind of game in one corner of the room, curled up on a big heap of mattresses and bedding. In the other corner, a woman was scrubbing tiredly at a collection of dishes in the tiny kitchenette. There was only one other room, a tiny and dirty looking bathroom with a small bathtub and a cracked sink visible through the doorway. The whole scene was a sad indictment on their lives, and it was easy to see why there was a background count in the area if this was typical of the quality of life for the area. Tads let herself fade back into the air, and flew north, heading for the windmill and the magical talislegger as a handy way-point to check for any magical tails, before returning to the truck and making a report.

She was just finished with her report when they spotted a bike coming out of a side road a few hundred yards down the road. The biker checked left and right as he pulled out onto the road, but then did a double-take, staring their way and slowed, reefing the bike into a U-turn and heading back their way.

Shimazu started the car up and was accelerating away to the east before Hunter and Tads shouts of warning were even complete, revving the engine hard and leaving trails of black rubber on the grey tarmac road. The bike continued to chase after them, and they saw a plume of black smoke suddenly billow from the truck as Marius fired up the engine. The bike zipped past just as the truck was moving, swerving around the turning truck, and continuing to close on the four by four.

Shimazu accelerated, slowing the closure rate somewhat for a moment, but then the biker accelerated again, and the distance started to drop between them.

“We can’t outrun him, not on that thing.”

“Ok, get ready to stop in a couple of seconds. Marius, jamming please. Aswon...” Kai looked behind him, past the pursuing motorbike but could already see Aswon pushing the hatch open with a shoulder and rising out of the cab with his rifle in hand. “Yeah, Aswon, you carry on. Ok, Hunter get ready… and STOP!” Unseen by Kai, Tads had cast her masking spell on the vehicle, changing the shape and style somewhat – but it appeared to be too late, and the biker was still in hot pursuit.

Shimazu slowed hard, not quite skidding but coming to a very abrupt halt. The biker slammed on the brakes, the front of his bike dipping into the shocks and forcing him to throw his weight back to avoid overshooting or lifting the back wheel. He pulled up next to the four by four, looking through the window with confusion as Shimazu stared at him with cold eyes.

“Ulvi?” there was a distinctly uncertain tone to his voice, but no sense of alarm – not yet.

The back window opened and Kai leaned out, levelling his taser at the biker and pulling the trigger. The biker fell back, recognising the shape of a gun and flexing to try and get out of the line of fire and the two prongs flew over the top of his body, tiny sparks flickering off them. Kai snarled and fired again, the two prongs striking in his upper thigh as he fell back away from his bike. His body went into spasm as thousands of volts flowed between the two spikes, making him twitch and jerk.

Hunter leapt from his side of the car, scooting around with his rifle held in a tactical position, covering the biker. Shimazu climbed out of his door and kicked out at the biker – catching him a glancing blow as he continued to twist and jolt with the after-effects of the taser. He lined up more carefully and his large meaty fist came down in a hammer strike on the biker’s side, driving the air from him and knocking him into unconsciousness – although there was also a noise that sounded considerably like a few ribs breaking.

They looked around, watching as the truck pulled up behind them, but other than that the area was quiet and still, with nothing else moving.

Hunter broke the silence first, putting the crook of his elbow around the bike handlebars and then lifting with an explosive breath, raising the front end of the bike up in the air. With short steps he half walked, half dragged the bike to the canal on the north side of the road and then heaved it into the turgid and still waters. It vanished with just a small trail of bubbles behind it, which rapidly trailed off as it sank beneath the surface. Kai rooted through the ex-motorcyclist’s pockets, grabbing his phone and his ID stick, then examined them. He couldn’t find any reference to Ulvi in the phone, and the name didn’t match anything on their research so far.

“What are we going to do with this guy?” asked Aswon.

“Well, the first thing we want to do is get off this road, just in case someone comes. Hunter’s disposed of the bike, let’s gather anything else up and get off the road to the south. Yeah, canal to the north – let’s go south.”

They heaved the unconscious body into the four by four, and then both vehicles drove south across the rough terrain, following a faint trail into the wilderness. They pulled up about a kilometre to the south in a shallow ravine, mostly out of sight of the road, and pulled the body out and laid him out on the ground. The team gathered around and discussed what to do with him. Options ranged from just leaving him by the side of the road to offing him and tying rocks to his body and throwing him in the canal. After much discussion though, they came upon the plan of casting a spell on him to influence his thought process and sway his mind to be friendly to them, then interrogating him.

Tads explained to them how the spell worked.

“It won’t tell him how to think, and we have no control over what they do, or say. It’s more that we can change their outlook on life, on a specific area. Like we could get someone to feel strongly motivated to rescue sick animals – but it wouldn’t change what they like to eat or drink. And if we do something that’s actually strongly opposed to how they feel, then it’s more likely their subconscious mind will rebel against the spell and break through. So it’s best to do light touches, and not try to make them say that black is white.”

They discussed for a while, and worked out that their best approach was to try and influence the biker to believe they were friends of Ulvi, working for him and were thus generally ‘trustworthy’. With that in mind, they patched up the guy’s ribs, gave him a healthy shot of novacaine and some anaesthetic from the medkit to further cloud his senses. Finally, a capsule of ammonia was snapped under the nose, rousing them to wakefulness. Slowly his eyes fluttered and his eyes rolled up to face outwards, slightly defocussed and confused. 

“Where’s Ulvi? I thought that was Ulvi’s car?”

“Ulvi is busy, on a job. We’re helping him.” Kai said firmly. 

“Oh, ok. That’s nice. Oof, why do I hurt?” Hunter took over from Kai, replacing his faltering attempts at the local language.

“You fell off your bike, when someone in a car nudged you. They stole your phone and ID, and your bike. We saw them driving off as we arrived, and decided to help you out. How did you know it was Ulvi’s car?”

“Oh, it’s the only one like it I’ve ever seen. Ulvi always said that he would get an ST Turbo when he made the big time… it was his favourite car. I’ve never seen anyone else with one. I was confused when it changed colour, but then I thought – ooh, he’s got the colour shift stuff installed. I’d like to get that, but it’s expensive – and not worth it on a crappy bike.”

“So, what do you do? How do you know Ulvi… do you work for him?”

“Me work for him? No, I wish though. It would be exciting! And I’d earn lots more money than I do now, that’s for sure. No, I was his friend at school – I used to help him with his assignments, and he stopped kids picking on me. He’s called me from time to time, to ask questions on stuff, accountancy and such like, and keeps saying we’ll meet up for a beer sometime.“ The biker moved, and winced as he compressed his ribs a little, then fell silent as he probed at his side.

The team exchanged looks over his head, with lots of shrugs and questioning glances. Hunter motioned a gun shooting with his fingers, but Kai shook his head and then moved around to whisper to him in English, for him to translate.

“Well, we have to go now. You should be fine though, to get back to town – it will just take a while. Sorry, we would take you but we have to do something for Ulvi. And you know how impatient he gets!” The biker nodded in agreement, clearly remembering some incident in his past. “We’ll drop you on the road, and then we’ll be off – you should be ok as long as you keep heading to town though.”

They loaded him up, and quickly drove back to the road, dropped him off and then returned down the trail, heading west and hitting the road to town much further along, out of sight. It was a good ten kilometres to the edge of town, and with his still injured ribs it would easily take him three or four hours before he made it back to civilisation. Even then, it didn’t seem that he would be causing any trouble for them, and he didn’t appear to have any links in to the Mafia.

As they bumped over the rough terrain, the came to the conclusion that it was time to get rid of Ulvi’s four by four – it was obviously recognisable and pretty rare, no matter what colour it was painted – and probably the reason for the stares they had received around town. It also made some sense that it had clear glass – Ulvi obviously wanted to be seen, and his vanity or ego overrode his safety against magical attack, although there seemed to be very little magical activity in the town at all, so perhaps that wasn’t so much of a weakness.

As they travelled along the route, they set a destination they were heading for, and asked Tads to go to Mammadova construction and scout the place out. Once more she went limp, her spirit soaring through the air. Again, she flew out of the country at high speed, travelling at thousands of kilometres per hour, he spirit unfettered by the need to move her physical form. She flew out to the mountain where they’d first been captured, then spun around to look for pursuit, and seeing none accelerated hard back to the south and back towards Shirvan. At the speed her spirit moved it took moments to detour, but meant that she never travelled directly to her observation target, and always had a chance to spot for astral pursuit.

Closing in on the compound she was once again hit by a wave of distorted mana. Here it wasn’t despair and need that created a warp in the manasphere, but the pollution and disdain for the earth that created the static that warped astral space. The rusting steel, industrial pollution and discarded plastics that lay around the place made for a horrible area, one that would impede her ability to cast spells significantly. As she flew over the area though, there was a spot where the warping intensified even further, twisting and becoming malevolent and evil. It was around the back of an outhouse or garage, boarded on two sides by large shipping containers and a large pile of rusting metal and concrete on the fourth. Two narrow paths led to it, and if you were in the area, nobody would be able to see you from the outside. She shuddered, imagining what kind of activities must have taken place there to create that kind of taint. As she looked over to the cars though she noticed the warp easing up, becoming almost unnoticeable next to the cars. In fact, as she looked over the cars there was an area of almost normal mana there, and a strange feeling enveloped it. She looked over it for a moment, concentrating on the emotional content of the area and then snorted – she felt nothing but love and care, the feelings she would have expected from a mother looking at her child. Obviously someone had strong feelings for this car – and that could prove to be useful.

She gave the admin buildings a quick once over, testing them cautiously for wards and magical barriers, looking for spirits of any kind that might be bound to the buildings, but again finding nothing. In the admin area there were four office workers, looking tired and dispirited and struggling with a mound of paperwork – old fashioned, non-computerised records. As she was leaving she spotted another area of twisted nastiness in a different area of the yard, and she hid up near a light stand and manifested for a moment, looking down at the scene to identify what was the cause. As soon as she looked with her normal vision, the grey blob of processed material turned into a huge compactor, a hydraulic press that turned materials into small cubes of waste. She felt her gorge rise and tried to put from her mind what would have caused that amount of suffering, but as she flew out of the country on a dog-leg trip back to the meeting place, her imagination filled in details of people put into cars and the huge steel jaws descending upon them, making her shudder in revulsion.

She went back to the truck and reported in, providing all the detail she could on what she’d found, then decided to quickly flit over and check the house again, finding it much the same as before. Instead of at the sink, the mother was now tucked up on the bed with her three daughters, reading to them from a book. Other than that, it was much the same scene as before, so she returned to the truck.

Most of the team were watching the roll out screen, as Marius piloted the drone over the compound, keeping an eye on the scene and the cars. Aswon was in the back, apparently checking in with his contacts and making sure that everything was ok with them. Shimazu decided it would be worth a try, and pulled out his own phone, calling Sato. The phone beeped and clicked at him, seeming to take a long time to connect – but then finally rang.

“Hello?” The voice sounded guarded and hesitant.

“Sato? It’s Shimazu? Are you ok?”

“Yeah – I’m ok. Is your phone secure?”

“Um, not really I suppose, just a standard model.”

“Right – in that case, I’m fine, and I’ve moved away… far far away. Call me back sometime when you can, securely, and we’ll talk, ok?”

“Right, no problem. I’ll call you back soon then.” He disconnected and sat back in his seat, with a relieved expression on his face. It was as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and he breathed out deeply, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them he saw Kai smiling at him and gave him a brief nod.

They settled down to wait a little, watching the display in the cab as people moved around the compound and carried out their work. The afternoon wore on, and other than the odd bit of traffic that moved past them that was carefully watched, nothing happened nearby. It was about two hours later when they saw a heavy construction truck pull into the yard, and people disgorged from the cab and the load area, moving around to offload supplies. One of the passengers headed over to the Rolls Royce though, and popped the boot. They kicked off their dirty boots one at a time, exchanging them for some clean trainers, and put the boots carefully into the plastic bucket in the otherwise spotless cargo area. By this time the team was assembled, watching over the scene carefully.

“Ok, this has got to be Mammadova. If he gets in the car, can you follow him carefully? Chances are he’ll be going home sooner or later. Can we do that?”

“Ja, drone is at 67% charge – the sun is not so strong today. But we still have good range, and unless he gets on the highway we should be able to keep up with him through the city. Taking direct control now.”

As Marius directly jumped into the drone the picture steadied, his expert skills taking over from the basic piloting software installed in the blimp. The drone drifted over to the gateway, ready to follow the car and then waited. Sure enough, minutes later the car started up and headed to the gate, then started to head north-west, back towards the centre of town. Kai turned to ask Tads to follow him, but found her body slumped to the side in her safety harness. A moment later, she opened her eyes.

“Sorry, was just checking back on the ranch. No sign of those creatures or anything else out there. Did you want me for something?”

“Yes, Mammadova is on the move, in his car. Can you trail him for as long as is safe, and see where he goes?” He watched as she flopped to one side again, and sighed under his breath.

“I’ll take that as a yes, I think…”

The drone followed Mammadova as he made his way through town, crossing over the canal and the railroad and then heading west into the higher class area. Completely invisible to the drone’s sensors, the disembodied spirit of Tads probed and checked the car, and jumped in as he stopped at a junction, assensing him and finding him not magically protected in any way, and with a little cyberware in his head and down his spine, along with a few other bits dotted around his body. She leapt out at the next junction, and flew through the air again, tailing him back to a large detached property that backed onto a small lake.

While Marius took up position high above the house and kept a wide view on the area, Tads snuck into the house with him, probing carefully and again finding not a single magical defence. She heard a group of people come to meet him, and quickly determined that he had a small staff that were dealt with curtly and abruptly. Whilst Mammadova relaxed in his front room with a drink and a small snack bought to him by his servants, she explored the large house quickly. Manifesting in some carefully selected places she spotted cameras covering all of the external exits, along with some of the key junctions in the house. Interestingly, the most intensely covered area of the property was the garage, with cameras in all four corners facing towards the large central area, which was clearly designed to house the Rolls Royce. 

Tads returned to the truck, and recounted what she had seen and Hunter got to work on sketching the internal layout of the house using the external view from the drone as a basis, and filling in details from her quick scout. Kai sat deep in thought, his fingers steepled under his chin as he stared forward, eyes unfocussed and deep in thought. After a few minutes, he stirred.

“So, who’s the closest in size to Mammadova?” Marius and Hunter went through the footage, pulling frames out from the surveillance info and comparing the pictures to a library of shapes and sizes, scaling him from the background. Hunter and Shimazu were clearly far too big, Tads was the wrong sex, and Aswon was a massively tall African with a huge afro and lion fangs… which left Marius and Kai. And of the two, Kai was clearly a much closer fit than Marius.

“Shit.” Kai looked like he’d bitten into a lemon for a moment, then cleared his features. “Well, I guess that plan won’t work then. I’d wondered if we could impersonate him someway. Hmm… maybe we can make it work after all. Tads, tell me about this spell of yours that disguises the physical shape of things…”

Tads described the spell as best she could, considering their lack of shared magical knowledge, outlining the actual effects and trying to give him an understanding of how physically taxing it was to cast, and how difficult it was to sustain the illusion, making it much more difficult to cast other spells, and impossible to summon or banish spirits. But crucially, she clarified that within certain limits she could make things appear bigger or smaller than they were – so it was possible, at a stretch, that she could make Marius appear to be Mammadova.

“I think we don’t just want to defeat this guy. We don’t even want to just kill him. We have to destroy him, and his organisation – and for that we need to work at least partly from the inside. And that means impersonating him or key members of his organisation, and taking advantage of them.”

Kai sat back in his seat and started to talk, illustrating his points with much waving of the hands.

“Right, so hear me out – some of this might sound far-fetched, but I think it stands a chance of working. So we get into the house and take care of Mammadova – I think that bit would actually be pretty easy, given the skills we have. We hide the body and replace him with a disguised Marius.” Marius raised an eyebrow at him, but didn’t object – at least not yet.

“We have Mammadova burst from his room, he’s written a message, telling them that he’s been targeted, and he thinks the house is bugged, so he won’t speak – and neither should they. They need to carry on as usual, but he’ll just grunt at them. So Marius can understand them, and we don’t have to worry about the accent, ok?” He looked around at some sceptical faces, but nobody argued.

“Then we get him to write that he’s called in outside security – he doesn’t know who he can trust, and he thinks someone in the family has betrayed him. At that point the rest of us arrive, as the outside contractors – and we can take over his dealings, moving to secure his family and assets, with Mammadova giving his approval. Once we have that sold to them, we go to his house and business, and we get access to his computers and take him for every Nuyen he has, and make that money disappear. Then we arrange for Mammadova’s body to be found, hanging from the ceiling having committed suicide in response to the situation – the head is cut off the snake, and the body has no funds or resources, and should die.” He stopped speaking and looked around at the others. “Ok, I’m done, you can talk now.” The silence continued for perhaps ten seconds, just long enough to be really awkward before Tads asked a question.

“What about his brother or sister?”

“I don’t think we need to kill them to ruin him.”

“No, I mean we know they’re involved. They were the parents of Ulvi’s lieutenants, so they’re likely to hear or find out about their kids going missing sometime during this, so we should factor that in too.” Kai blinked at her for a few seconds then nodded as he caught up with what she meant. Shimazu cleared his throat

“I don’t think it will work. Sorry. But it’s not believable. Too many people will ask questions.” Kai looked like he was going to argue, but instead just waved at Shimazu to go on and elaborate on his point. “Look at the house and the servants – he could easily afford a driver for his car, but he doesn’t He drives himself. He wants to be in control, to be active. The car is the status symbol for him of his wealth and success and power – but he doesn’t want to be driven. He sees the act of driving as a masculine trait, of someone driving their own destiny. He doesn’t want to be like… a politician, being driven around and having rules and compromises drive their life. We saw him earlier coming back from somewhere in the work truck. He’s a hands on guy, goes out with his workers and sorts out problems directly – that’s almost certainly where Ulvi got it from. He’s not going to be the type of guy who panics and calls in outside contractors. He’d get a gun, and go deal with someone using excessive and continued violence on a disproportionate scale if they threatened his family.”

“He’d fuck them up royally,” Hunter added, helpfully. Shimazu shrugged.

“That’s what I said, just not as crudely. But in essence, yes. I just don’t think anyone that knows Mammadova would believe that he could sit back passively and let someone else deal with this problem.”

Kai looked around and saw the nods of assent as the others agreed with Shimazu.

“Sounds like that psychology course is working. I wish it wasn’t true, but that doesn’t make it so. Alright – so we need a new plan.”

“I think you’re making it too complicated boss. Just kill him and be done with it. Keep it simple, cut down on the risk. And we get to fuck him up, royally.” Said Hunter, with a wry grin on his face. Shimazu and Marius nodded, agreeing with him.

“Keeping it simple is good, but if we can take some money from him easily, I think we should do that. Can we steal his bank account? Hunter, can you use the computer to do that?”

“Realistically no. If we had a cyber-deck and a whole bunch of utilities then perhaps – but we’re talking hundreds of thousands of Nuyen worth of kit to pull it off without leaving a trace that could be followed up – and experience. I’m good with computers, but this would be new to me. So we shouldn’t count on that,” Hunter’s voice was filled with a frankness that made the others take note. “If we get control of him, we can go to the bank with him and get money from his account and put it on certified sticks – at that point it’s just like cash, and not tied to his account. But if we take too much, that would probably trip alarms at the bank. Anyone know what the limit is?”

Marius did a quick check on the matrix using his satellite dish, and waded through several pages of dry and boring text, then shook his head.

“According to this, I think the most you can take out is about ten grand, before it triggers something. But there’s a weird footnote about something.” Nadia leant over and scrolled the page back up and then down, scanning the text quickly.

“No, it’s only five thousand, unless you’re a member of an approved political party or an employee of a schedule III business. Pretty much that means unless the government approves of you, you can’t transfer more than five thousand in cash at any one time without filling in permits and applications. 

“Maybe we could brew up some kind of chemical to affect him. I’m not sure what I could brew with a simple setup, but I have a good understanding of the processes required. Maybe if we can get the chemicals and a recipe or directions from the matrix, we could make some truth serum or something like that,” Aswon looked over at Hunter and Marius, who both frowned and shook their heads slowly, indicating that they were not sure they could get that kind of information from the matrix – at least not easily.

“Ok, that may be worth looking into. Based on what Tads told us earlier, it’s not likely that influence will work – not for something like this. Maybe both together would work – lower his inhibitions chemically, then influence him to give his money to charity. But it’s still probably tenuous.” Kai sighed. “I so wanna destroy this guy.”

“I think we just hit him just outside the house, a single silenced shot that takes care of him. We hit the house, steal anything not nailed down, load it into his car, and then drive off with it and sell the lot. Don’t be too greedy and keep it simple. And then we put the money into a fund for a helicopter” The rest of the team smiled as Marius added the last part.

“If we are going to do this, then we do need to make it a professional hit. Get set up, make it quick, clean and simple, and get the hell out of town and lay low for a while. This guy is too well connected. But yes, I agree – get me somewhere high with a good line of sight, and we can end this with a single shot, based on his current security. If he gets wind of his son’s death though, then it will get much more difficult.”

“Yes, I agree – we need to check if the servants stay in the house or go home before we do a hit, as they could complicate things. Ideally we should leave them out of this, they’re not really involved I think.” Hunter paused for a moment. “If we do need to take them out though, we shouldn’t hesitate, and make it quick, clean and efficient.”

“We know he loves his car – can we use that as bait? Or booby trap it?”

“I dunno Tads – that represents a very expensive and mobile asset, that would probably be easy to shift on some place like Baku. I think someone like Germaine could probably help if we explained what kind of person used to own it. I don’t think she’d approve of Mr Mammadova at all.”

“Let me go check on something.” Without waiting for an answer Tads floated out and zoomed around astrally. Checking at the construction yard first, the two other posh cars were still there, for whatever that was worth. Then she headed back over to the house, and stealthily made her way in. One servant was busy polishing the car in the garage, while two more worked in the kitchen preparing a meal. Mammadova was relaxing in front of his trid, and had been joined by an adult and a child. Tads listened for a moment, and made the snap call that she was listening to his wife and daughter, having returned from a day trip somewhere. A quick turn of the house found the last servant putting away things in a bedroom, but nobody else present. She returned and reported in what she’d found.

“Ok, a wife and kid. That makes things a little messier. I think we need to think about it. And we probably need some gear. Let’s get on the road and head to Baku, and get rid of that four by four, to get us some ready cash, buy some supplies and then come back tomorrow, once we’ve done some more planning. Then we can take this bastard down, hard.”

They nodded in agreement with Kai, split up into their vehicles and started the drive north to Baku, scheming and plotting on how to take down the head of the Mammadova clan.


	86. 086 - Things that go woosh in the night

Date Wednesday 18/02/2060, Location 40.01134, 48.94391

The team hit the junction just before 21:00, driving up the bumpy concrete ramp to meet the main raised highway, the truck making faint thumping noises as the wheels drove over the poorly maintained expansion gaps between the rough concrete slabs. The moon hung low on the horizon, three quarters full and shining through the wispy clouds slowly blowing down from the north east.

Once they were settled and up to cruising speed, Aswon turned on his phone, and checked for messages, deleting the half dozen automated bits of spam that the network providers always sent you, regardless of your preferences and settings. He fired off a quick message to Germaine letting her know that he’d be back in Baku for a day or two, and asking if she wanted anything or a meetup. With that complete he pocketed the phone and stretched out, enjoying the luxury of space in the front of the truck. With Shimazu, Kai and Hunter in the four by four, Nadia had moved to the other side of Marius and Tads had the entire back seat to herself – which was ironic, as she was curled up in just as tight ball as normal. She was however gazing around the cab, piece of chalk in one hand and a frown upon her face as she worked out what and where she would need to inscribe her symbols on to make her new lodge.

The old pickup followed the truck along the highway, its new coat of paint gleaming in the pale moonlight. Shimazu was in the driving seat – but he wasn’t happy about it, and there was an almost inaudible muttering in Japanese escaping from his lips. For some reason he couldn’t fathom, the truck was playing up, and one of the gears was missing. Working up from first to third was fine, but fourth seemed to have just….disappeared somewhere. The gearbox seemed to either drop straight down to second with a corresponding scream from the transmission and the rev counter leaping up towards the redline – or worse, try and drop into reverse with a gut wrenching deceleration and screech of tyres. So far he’d been over-revving in third and then jumping straight up to fifth to work around the problem, but he was worried that something fundamental was wrong with the vehicle and was wary of anything else going wrong. If it would only hold together for another day or so…

Kai and Hunter relaxed, not saying anything to Shimazu who looked like any criticism of his driving would not be taken with humour. Hunter gazed at the darkness outside the vehicle, eyes flitting from shape to shape as his enhanced senses examined the countryside. Kai sat still, gazing straight ahead – not really looking, as his mind contemplated a plan to take down Mammadova.

A dull roar sounded to the right of the vehicles, from the east, starting as a faint rumble and turning into a loud blast that could clearly be heard over the sounds of the engine and the tyres on the roads. A black shape manifested out of the darkness to their right, growing with frightening rapidity and then blasted past them – bisecting the tiny convoy in half. The four by four rocked gently with the edges of the jetwash as the craft flew past them at a rate of knots that made them look like they were hardly moving at all. It disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, vanishing into the darkness to the west. It had overflown them barely fifty metres above the ground, and the bright plumes of flame visible as it headed away from them confirmed that it was jet-powered. 

The team’s comm-net sprung into life as they called out to each other, asking just what in the hell had passed over them at such a rate.

“It was black, no icons I could see. I had the feeling it was covered in RAMs.”

“Covered in sheep?” Kai enquired with a confused look upon his face.

“No – RAMs. Radar Absorbent Materiel. Stealth technology, if you like. Can be very expensive stuff and hard to get permits for – so normally only used by the military – and smugglers.”

“I caught a glimpse of it on the astral – it looked mostly mundane, but there was something about it. I got the impression there was some strong magic wrapped around it, but it was being concealed and masked. Probably by someone with significant power. I didn’t get enough of a sense of it to identify though, and it was gone too quickly.”

“Well, the sensors on the truck aren’t that great, as we all know, but I didn’t get ANY read of it at all – so I would guess they also had some ECM – some electronic countermeasures – to spoof sensors as well.”

“Heads up, more traffic coming in from the east!” Hunter called, seeing more shapes appearing out of the darkness. Five large choppers appeared, their noses down and travelling at maximum speed. The fast-moving rotors carved a path through the air, and the very tips left a faint trail of light behind them as they collided with atmospheric dust, heating it up to melting point from the impact. The five craft flew in a line formation, not precise like a display team but still obviously a planned movement.

As they came into sight of the highway, two of the choppers illuminated incredibly bright spotlights, the beams lancing through the air and spearing the two vehicles as they travelled to the north. The lights bounced around, adjusting to try and keep them lit but snaking back and forth over them as the operator struggled to adjust the angle as they moved in differing directions. In the lead cab Marius frowned as he picked up fire control radar locking onto the truck. He waited a moment and was just about to call Kai and advise him when the radar disengaged and returned to air-search mode. His instruments hashed and wobbled, the displays blinking and jumping as the radar sets pumped out hundreds of kilowatts of RF energy into the air.

Tads looked out of the window, craning her head to try and get all of them in line of sight and dropped into astral perception. The mundane world faded into the background, as her Other sense took over and pierced the barrier between the two worlds. The ground was awash with brightness and life, the scrubby land and plant growth bursting with life as the plants and animals auras merged into one seething mass of bio-matter. The air was darker, sparse with a faint sheen as airborne bacteria created a featureless dull light that filled the horizon from left to right. Set against this was the five choppers, large grey and flat shapes of dead space, made things with no living aura. They were sharp, angular, devoid of any emotional content - grey uncaring matter forming a pale echo of the Real. However, each one was accompanied by a being that glowed an intense white. As they swept towards her she directed her view to the creatures, ascertaining what they were and trying to gauge how powerful they might be, before dropping back out of astral space and returning to the darkness of the night sky.

“Those choppers, each one has an air elemental accompanying it. I think they’re guarding the craft, preventing any misfortune or magical attack, but they could be there as a weapon too. And they’re pretty strong – I wouldn’t want to face one alone, that’s for sure. And certainly not all five.”

“Elementals you say, not nature spirits?”

“No Aswon – definitely air elementals. Not spirits of the air.” Aswon saw Nadia raise an eyebrow at them in interrogation. 

“I don’t want to get into a philosophy debate, especially not with Tads – the point is that means either there’s a mage on board those choppers or someone doesn’t mind dropping fifty grand of summoning materials just to give them an escort.” 

“You’re telling me we can buy spirits with money?” said Hunter. 

“…No. Sort of. I…”

The choppers flew overhead, following the dark shape inland, and again the vehicles rocked slightly from the downdraft of the combined rotorcraft.

Not to be outdone, Marius called over the comms into the pause.

“I have identified the emissions signatures of the choppers that were in pursuit. They are clearly Renraku in origin, high strength and being flown so that each set is searching a cone in front of the craft, overlapping with the adjacent craft. However, the t-bird had enough of a lead, that I realistically don’t think they have a chance of finding them. So I’m now leaning more towards smuggler than military. “There is no way those choppers can have been trailing the t-bird for long, they don’t have speed or range for that kind of pursuit. They’re at their intercept vector terminus if I’m any judge. If that T-bird makes it to cover, they’re gone.”

“Either way, it’s nothing to do with us, and we probably don’t want to get involved,” Hunter added. There were general murmurs of agreement and the comms went quiet for a moment.

“What’s a t-bird?” asked Tads. They expected Marius to answer, but surprisingly it was Nadia that got on the radio first.

“Stupid and expensive, that’s what they are. About the only thing that is more fuel hungry and complicated is a space rocket! They have small cargo areas, are noisy, expensive, hard to fly, ugly, and are a maintenance nightmare. One of the most pointless things you can imagine.”

“Oh Nadia – I’m going to have to show you some sales catalogues if that’s what you think.” Smirks and snorts erupted from several of the team as Marius responded, emotion tinging his normally professional and clearly enunciated voice, and in the rear vehicle Hunter mouthed the word “porn mag” to Kai, making him chuckle. “Yes, they’re expensive. Yes, they’re loud. And yes, they drink fuel like you would not believe. But they have the flexibility of a helicopter in terms of landing and takeoff, the speed of a fighter jet or commercial freight transport – and they are the most heavily armoured and armed aircraft ever produced.” He sighed, then continued.

“I walked past a Nashorn class LAV on a German base once, and got the flight engineer to show me a few things. Armour that was four to five times thicker than we have on the truck, sensors that could track a sixty drone air combat. Dual turret mounted Gatling guns, racks of high performance air to air missiles and a rotary assault cannon in the nose that will go through an APC longways.”

“I think Marius has a hard-on.”

“Shut up, Hunter. But a well-designed LAV, or t-bird, is a thing of frightening combat power with protection that is hard to penetrate. If you have a small but very high value cargo, they are the best way to move it quickly and safely. Yes, they have high running costs. But if you are smuggling electronics, data, gems, or anything like that – they are the ultimate tool.”

“Can you pick up any of their radio chatter or anything?”

“I’m not even going to try, Tads. For one, I’m certain they’re going to be encrypted, and all we’d pick up would sound like static. And for two, while we’ve been talking they’ve almost moved out of sensor range and I’m fine with that. Last thing I want now is to ping them and make them swing back around for another look.”

“I’ve been having a look at the map”, said Hunter. “Marius mentioned cover so I thought I’d see what I could find. I think it is possible that they have looped out over the sea from somewhere nearby to cover their route, but if they’ve crossed straight over they could have come from Iran, Afghanistan, or Turkmenistan.”

His voice was suddenly serious as he contemplated the tracks he was looking at, trying to establish the possible route they were taking. He frowned. “They could be heading for anywhere in Europe on that general heading.” 

Kai leaned over and traced his finger along the ridge of the Caucus mountains. 

“Along here – I’ll bet good money that’s where they’re heading. They can criss-cross through the gorges and swap from the TCL to the Russian side with ease, and use the shadows of the mountains to hide their signature and throw off pursuit. And I agree – we shouldn’t attract the attention of those guys following if we can help it.”

The chatter died down as the team returned to looking around them into the darkness – apart from Nadia, who leaned over and surreptitiously checked Marius’ groin, probing for signs of an erection. Marius of course just sat there slumped, his consciousness merged with the systems of the truck via his rigger interface. He did watch Nadia though, as she probed at him, and had never been so glad that the RAS override built into his rigger jacks prevented body movement and reactions when he was jacked in. The Nashorn was a very sexy craft after all… 

They trundled along the highway at a steady 100kph, the normal top speed of the truck and trailer. Shimazu didn’t complain - although the four by four would almost certainly do a considerably higher speed, if something else did go wrong with it then it was likely to be fatal for everyone inside.

No-one spoke for a little while, and then Hunter piped up “I want to know more about this buying spirits business. I didn’t know we could do that”

Tads’ expression switched to one of distaste. “That’s not how it works Hunter! Honestly this is not hard to-” 

“I explained badly” Aswon interjected, before things got too heated. “I was short on time – let me try again”. 

Tads was more prickly than usual at the moment, everyone had noticed, but he was the only one who seemed to get why – she was unable to shake the feeling that Elk was watching and judging her every move, and she was terrified that she would choose the wrong path back into her Totem’s good graces. Aswon, familiar with Shaman, had confidence that whatever she decided would most likely be correct, or Elk would never have chosen her to begin with. But in the meantime she just sounded cross with everyone and Hunter especially wasn’t going to respond well to that.

He took a deep breath and chose his words carefully. 

“The way this was explained to me is that there are three types of magic.” He caught Tads’ eye and corrected himself. “Well. Ok it’s not really that simple, but it helps to think of it that way. There are Physical Adepts, those with control – magical control - over their bodies. People myself and Shimazu. We make good soldiers – we can do things that normal people can’t, by turning our magic inwards and using it to jump really high, run very fast, or strike the first blow in a fight without needing to rely on implants. Kai also – he does not jump really high, but you have heard him speak with such authority that even people who do not serve him jump to obey, yes?”

Kai, who had made a small indignant noise when Aswon failed at first to mention him, nodded, somewhat mollified. 

“So. Physical Adepts. Then magicians and Shaman. These are not the same. Everyone knows that much from the trid, but because they appear to do the same things I know it can be hard to care about the difference. But you must care. These are two very different viewpoints that only mostly achieve the same things. Both can generally cast spells that have the same effect – a mage can make you as invisible as a shaman, and a fireball burns you just the same.” 

Tads flinched. 

“Sorry Tads. A lightning bolt then. A lightning bolt will fry your cyberware just the same, no matter who throws it.” 

“What differs is the source – magicians believe their power comes from scientific principles and rules. To them, the world is full of complex formulas and equations, book learning and principles.”

Aswon shrugged. “They are wrong, of course. But it helps them focus, so who am I to tell them otherwise? Shaman on the other hand get their power from living nature itself. They follow principles that tie them to it, ideals that all can see are embodied by the creatures of the world – Dog is intensely loyal, Rat is shifty and can be trusted to see what is not nailed down as theirs, and so on.”

Hunter shifted in his seat impatiently. “OK, fine mate, sure. Power of the Puma or power of maths. Whatever. What the hell does that have to do with buying spirits?”

“I was getting to that, but it is important you understand this, because you may not care where the power comes from but this is where you would usually see the biggest difference. 

“Shaman summon natural spirits – sylphs of the sky, the land, the waters or the city. They are bound to the locations and terrain in which they live, and cannot leave. In other words: a nature spirit is there in the world already and the Shaman must call out to it and ask for its’ aid. If it agrees to help it can do so only until the end of the earth’s next cycle. I do not know why this is, only that it is so. 

“Tads has explained this before though - always she must summon a new spirit at dawn or dusk. They never last more than a day and you must – you must – understand that she asks them to do things for her. She does not command them.”

“Hmph. Close enough,” said Tads, grudgingly. Aswon grinned: that was nearly praise! He must be getting this right.

Encouraged, he continued. “Mages though. Mages summon elementals. Beings of order, one of the four different elements of earth, air, wind and fire. They are dragged from the higher planes and forced to do the bidding of the mage. Slaves, more or less. Some slave owners treat their slaves well, asking instead of commanding – but others not so, and some elementals suffer greatly.” 

Aswon paused, and shook his head. “Can you see that this is a very different outlook? Yes? This difference is everything. “

“A shaman calls to a spirit which is already here, and asks for its help, like you or I might ask an attendant at a gas station to fill the tank. A mage though… a mage must build a pyre, or go near a pool, then call across the dimensions to rip a being from its’ home and bind it to this plane. Once it is bound, it is bound - forever - until its agreed services have been delivered. The mage can use it as an extension of his will – for good or ill.” 

“To achieve this, to summon an Elemental, requires time, and it requires resources. Expensive resources.”

“You know, you could’ve just said “Mages buy spirits and Shaman don’t”, Aswon”

“I could have. But I would have been wrong. Mages do not buy spirits. Think of it more like bribing a contact. These details are important”, said Aswon somewhat sharply, “especially if you wish to not anger and frustrate your Shaman with misconceptions about what they “should” do, and place demands upon them to use only cold logic and stick to rules that do not exist.” 

He gave Hunter a hard stare for a brief second before visibly breathing out and calming himself. He knew Hunter was not the kind to back down if a confrontation was made out of this.

“I am nearly finished”, he said, “so please be patient.” He shook his head again. “I am trying to explain something… Well. The spirits, they do not speak to me as they do Tads. The stories we tell to understand… they are not always perfect.” 

“Both nature spirits and elementals have limitations - those limitations are different, and this can make the difference between life and death, so I hope you are at least listening carefully to this part. 

“Spirits may only last till dusk, and they may only be able to stay within a particular terrain – but sometimes that place is very big. A desert spirit has the run of the whole desert. Thousands of miles of influence. The other limitation for most Shaman is this: one spirit from one place at a time. Very powerful, experienced Shaman, I have heard, can do more.

Mages do not have that problem. They can control maybe a handful of Elementals at once. But because Elementals do not really belong here, their limitations are tight. Well defined. Rigid. The main one that matters is that the elementals can’t go too far from the summoner, or he loses control of them. The only way around this is for the mage to bind the elemental to an object or place and give it a standing instruction it must obey for a period of time.”

“A year and a day of enslavement, at most” interrupted Tads, with a disdainful sniff. 

“Yes. And the elemental will accept no change in its instruction from that point on. This is an expensive investment for the mage, because they must expend all the same resources and time, but then relinquish control to what they hope is a well worded order which the elemental will follow to the letter. Do you understand?”

Nadia piped up. “So if there had been spirits instead of elementals, we’d have known there were either lots of Shaman, or one very powerful one? But with elementals then it could be there’s a mage with them, or it could be that someone with a lot of resources paid for each elemental and bound it to maybe just guard the chopper from attack? So… either way, it is a lot of magical firepower but since it was elementals it’s more likely that we’re fine as long as we don’t get their attention?”

Aswon grinned and put an index finger on his nose and with the other hand pointed at Nadia. The sudden switch from deep and serious magical discussion to a comical charades pose broke the tension.

“Yes. You are very smart. I think you have earned some tea. I will make it.” Aswon got up and headed to the back.

As they closed in on the glittering lights of the Zeta-Imp-Chem refinery that straddled the coastline Hunter’s phone began to ring, displaying a completely unknown number. He pulled the phone out of his pocket and held it in his hand, looking at it in indecision. It rang another twice, and he glanced round at Kai.

“Suggest you answer it, but on speaker. If needs be, I’ll answer it to throw off any voice matching.” Hunter nodded, activated his comms pickup so everyone could hear, and then hit the accept button.

“Hey, it’s me, Jules. Are you there?”

“Oh, hey Jules – what’s up? Why are you calling me on this number?”

“Mate, it’s all pocked up. I’m in a spot of trouble and I need some help. You know that briefing pack I squirrelled out for you? Well, it must have tripped some flags or something. I’ve got people demanding to know where the data was sent to, and why, and questions are being thrown at my boss. He’s covering for me at the moment, but I need to produce something to cover his ass, or he’s going to stop and I’m in trouble. I’ve just gone into town and picked up a burner phone, I can’t send this on the normal one, as it’s probably under suspicion at the moment.”

“What do you need?”

“Well, you know the briefing pack mentioned that they were hostile to foreign investment down there? Well most of that stems from the top, and the policy direction of the guys in charge. If you were able to…well, do something about that – take out the main obstacle. Well, the next guy in the seat might be more amenable to corporate co-operation.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I can sell that to my boss, and his boss as coming across some assets in a ‘unique position of opportunity’ and then instead of betraying my corp, I’m using my initiative to improve profits. Entirely different thing, see.”

Hunter looked up from his phone to Kai, who just shrugged in a very non-specific way. It wasn’t encouraging, but neither was it a no.

“Well, we’re not on station right at this moment, we’re just heading for some supplies. But we can be back soon. And we’re not against the concept.”

“Fantastic. I can authorise a small payment, from discretionary funds for any incidental expenses. It’s not much, but it should cover your costs. The only thing is I need some traction on this pretty quickly. Like, in the next two days. That’s about as long as I can stall this thing. Can you do that?” Hunter sat back in his seat and glanced at Kai. Kai smiled and gave a thumbs up.

“Don’t worry Jules – we’re on it.” The connection went dead as Jules terminated the call, and Hunter turned to face Kai again.

“You thrive on this, don’t you? Chaos and disruption? You love it?” Kai just smiled in return, but his eyes gleamed. “Do I at least get to tell Marius about the change in plan?”

“Of course Hunter – I’m happy to share the fun. How upset do you think he’ll get?”

As it turned out Marius wasn’t actually that upset about the change in plans, and both Kai and Hunter lost their mental bets about how much swearing there would be. Instead, as the trucks ate up the miles to Baku, they discussed the mission – or rather both missions – working out what and how they were going to do. It was agreed that if at all possible neither of the wife and kids were to be involved in the hits, and they would try and make it both quick and clean. It was likely that both of the targets knew each other, and the team wondered if it was possible to get both of them to a clandestine meeting to make the hits easier and make it appear to be a disagreement between them that had ended in bloodshed. Even with the briefing pack though, they felt that they didn’t have a clear enough grasp on the politics of the local area to arrange that without triggering suspicion.

“What about the other family. I have an idea for them, but I don’t know if it will work or not…” 

“I’m still not clear why we should do something for these people.” Marius was quick to respond to Tads, his voice sharp and clipped.

“Because I have to do this, so I am going to do it. Either as part of a team, or on my own!” she responded hotly, her voice thick with emotion. She stared at the back of his head, and her inability to fix him with a stare made her irate and frustrated. 

Aswon interjected swiftly, seeking to defuse the situation once again. Hunter and Marius between them seemed particularly resistant to the idea of just taking Tads at her word. Perhaps it was just the difficulty of seeing things from a non-mundane perspective. But they needed to get their heads around this, or he could see the team was going to self-destruct. Once you lose unit cohesion, he’d had drilled into him time and time again during his time in mercenary theatres, it is over.

“You must understand. Elk took away Tad’s power in the middle of combat - just to make the point that this family is important. Totems are as real as they come and they do not speak directly, they only guide, so when Elk takes a direct hand… only a fool would not listen. 

“This is not a matter of choice for her. It is barely a matter of choice for us.” 

Aswon glanced at Hunter, noticing him taking a breath to speak, and held up a hand to indicate he still had more to say.

“Tads is not a fool. Even if she were a fool, which she is not, if this is important to the totem, then it would be important to her. All of her power is wrapped up in her relationship to Elk – their beliefs and her morals, their outlook are one. If she upsets or strays from the path that the Totem follows, the Totem will send a warning – strike one. This has already happened. If she persists… if she persists she risks losing her power. This… this would be on us. It would be our fault. We are the ones asking her to deploy Elk’s power for our benefit, the least we can do is show some respect towards it. 

“And if you don’t like that then think of it this way: no more free fruit, or nuts. No spirits to guard us against accident. No spirits to conceal and hide us. No spells that mask and conceal the vehicle, or change its appearance. No stun spells that can drop an entire group of mafia thugs. No spells that can hide Hunter as a regular local. We lose access to all of that, which massively affects us as a team and our ability to function. 

“And we are a team, yes? We must look after each other. Elk is as important to this team as the truck. When we need to do something on the truck, or for a vehicle we have no trouble prioritising it. This is no different.”

Aswon sat back in his seat, speaking calmly and slowly, but in one continuous stream so as not to be interrupted. As he finished it went quiet for a moment, and he exchanged a look with Tads, hoping she wasn’t upset that he’d spoken for her. The moment lasted, then there was a grunt of agreement from the speakers. Kai looked at Tads and motioned for her to speak. 

“Well, I was thinking if we could get the family to the ranch, maybe they could help out there. I mean, do jobs – look after the rooms and things perhaps. But that will only work if we can get the place running again with bookings, otherwise I don’t think they can afford to feed the extra mouths. But if we can help out for a bit with the bills, from my share of any pay, it’s somewhere close enough they recognise where they are, but gets them out of that house and the situation.”

“I don’t think that’s a bad plan. Looking at the area of the city they were living in, there’s only one real chance of employment they’re likely going to be able to do, for three females – and I wouldn’t want anyone to be forced into that kind of situation. If it’s a choice, well, I’m not judging. But if it’s forced….” Aswon closed his mouth and left the statement hanging, but it was pretty clear how he felt.

“Can we just give them some money?” asked Shimazu. “Something to get them on their feet and restart their life?”

“I don’t think so – not in that area. If we gave them enough money to make a difference, someone would notice and just take it away from them.” Kai frowned, but then turned back to Shimazu. “Can Nadia’s family get them jobs do you think? Employ them in the transport business? It would be a fresh start in a new city, same sort of culture though, and they should fit in.”

“Well, we can try. I’m not sure I want a face to face with Tural though, and have to lie to him to his face. I mean, it’s not like I’m the one that stole his daughter!” There was an indignant grumble from Marius and a frown from Nadia, who interrupted the conversation.

“I’m planning on grabbing a niqab, and putting my coloured contact lenses in, and trying to keep a low profile. But I think going near my dad’s business would be pushing your luck. Though I would like to see my uncle having to help out, when you pointed out to him that charity is one of the five pillars of faith…” She smiled a little, and you could tell that she was imagining the scene of her uncle’s discomfort. Kai steered the conversation back to the topic in hand though

“So, we have some information on Mammadova from the briefing pack and our own intel gathering, but only a very basic set on the politician. We can probably manipulate Mammadova for a little while by spoofing messages from his son and nephews by using the phone ID cards. But we have no leverage of information on the politician, or idea about his defences or plans.” Shimazu stopped his muttering about the car long enough to add his opinion to the discussion.

“Generally speaking, bodyguards will fall into two camps – the overpaid bully boys and show forces, and properly trained bodyguards who will protect their principal. Mammadova is likely to have thugs, and probably a bunch of henchmen, but not actual bodyguards – not if he drives his own car anyway. The politician however, I would expect to be driven about, and he surely must have at least one bodyguard. If it’s the first type, as soon as we open fire with decent weaponry, they’ll shit their pants and run for cover. If it’s the second type, they’d try an intercept if necessary, or stage a fighting retreat using themselves as cover for their principal. Taking both groups out at the same time complicates matters – unless you can get them to line up for Aswon that is, but doing them one after the other risks raising the alarm in the town.”

“Do we think that the two see each other as enemies, or as friends? Are they likely to have some kind of symbiotic relationship and work together, or do you think they see each other as competition?”

“I don’t know Tads, but I suspect the answer is ‘all of those, depending on the day of the week’. There’s got to have been times when one has pushed the other into doing stuff they don’t want to, and they have to have plans for each other in some way.”

“If we can get to one over the other then, maybe my influence spell might help build some tension between them?”

“I’d say definitely – and if we mix that with something like using the phones to send messages, saying they’ve been picked up by the police at the orders of the politicians, that might generate the sort of hostility that could arrange a meeting between them in a quiet, dark, out of the way place.” Aswon mimed aiming a shot, “and that’s all I need – a clear line of fire and both of them relatively close. And that way we don’t have to risk anything with the wife and kids.”

“We still don’t know that the woman at Mammadova’s place was his wife and kid – it could have been his sister and niece,” Hunter pointed out. “I’m not arguing that we shouldn’t involve them – I’m just saying we don’t know who is who, so let’s not make assumptions!”

They were entering the outskirts of Baku now, driving on the highway still, but with houses and shops laid out to either side of the highway, along with the darker and larger patches of industrial areas. Marius headed up to the truck stop near the highway that their first paying job had started in. It was hard to believe that it was only a few weeks ago – it felt like a lot had happened since then, and certainly the team had a much better understanding of each other now.

Arriving in the large car park, they selected a spot amongst the heavy goods vehicles. The truck and trailer was positioned between two large articulated goods lorries, and the 4X4 nestled behind them. They cycled through the truck stop in pairs, using the facilities and getting hot food, having a chance to stretch their legs and relax. Nadia was true to her word and changed her eye colour and covered up almost completely, blending into the crowd easily.

When Kai and Tads returned from the buildings they found Hunter, Nadia and Marius poring over the map of the area, marking down buildings. 

“What are you lot looking at?”

“Targets. For ram raids. These are the shops that will sell bottom end cyberdecks. We don’t want low end stuff, but we don’t think that we’ll get better than that here. So, we’re seeing which shops are likely targets and working out how feasible it is to stage a raid on them.”

“Ram raid? As in smashing through the front of the shop with the vehicle?” Tads asked with a note of incredulity in her voice.

“Yes, smash through the defences, quickly get out and grab the gear, then back out and escape before the police arrive. Why? What’s wrong with that?”

“Well, wouldn’t that scratch the truck? Normally you threaten death and dismemberment to anyone who does that. So surely you wouldn’t want to do that yourself?”

“It would be like a manly scar.” Tads snorted, but didn’t push the issue any further. A few minutes later, Hunter and Marius climbed into the back of the truck and checked the inventory of equipment and updated the list with goods that could be used to stage the attack, whilst Nadia refined their targeting data. One by one though the team yawned and turned in, and slowly the truck grew still, filled with the sounds of gentle snoring and flatulence. 

Dawn broke, and the team were roused by Aswon who had apparently gotten up again at five am and was looking remarkably – some might say insufferably – chipper. After grabbing breakfast at the café, they returned to the truck and gathered around the map table in the rear, where Nadia presented the information she had gathered.

“There are four places that I believe may have the required hardware we seek. The first is an electronics store called Ishmaels. It’s found on one of the main roads heading out of the central business district – so not in the centre of the city, but certainly on a major thoroughfare, so likely to have cameras. As a specialist electronics shop their gear is likely to be of average quality and grade – not great, but ok. They won’t have masking chips of course as they’re illegal regardless, so we’ll still need to hit your contacts to arrange that. But they will have pretty much everything else required on a hardware level to do some really decent work. The store is likely to have a competent alarm system and interior CCTV and electronic protection.”

“The second place is the Arif Department store. It’s out of the main town centre, on a quieter street – away from the beaten track a little. It does have a car park attached to it, and the place sells lots of stuff in a wide mix. It’s not likely to have hardware as good as Ishmaels as its more of a bargain grade place, but it will likely have less security and protection.”

“The third is Rurak training and supplies. They are mainly a training college, teaching people how to use programs and devices, but they also operate conference rooms and office suites on short term hire and rental – so they will have devices available for hire or rent. It’s possible we can even sign up for an office suite and then arrange for stuff to walk, once we’ve scoped the place out. They are in the CBD, but set back in a quiet side street so police response will be quick, but security might not be top notch.”

“The last is Teraks, a premier electronics shop set on the corner of one of the busiest shopping streets. It’s going to have the best gear in town that are available over the counter, but they are slap in the middle of the city centre, and likely to have the highest security too. If we were buying legitimately, that’s where I would want to shop – but in this case, perhaps not.”

“Great stuff. Let’s have a think about what we want to do after we get rid of the car. Once that’s out the way, maybe we can scope out each of the places and see what they’re like.”

“Why not just send Marius in, he’ll just look like he owns the place anyway,” snorted Hunter, receiving a scowl from Marius in return. 

“No, I think for a look around, it might be best for me to go – I can slowly adjust my skin tones to make me look like a local, and providing I don’t talk to anyone, it should be ok. What I was thinking was to get someone to follow me in invisible, and find a hiding place, then wait until closing time, grab the stuff and then just waltz out of the fire exit and into the van for a quick get-away. Nice and simple.”

“As long as they don’t have shutters that seal the fire doors after they close. Lots of places do that.” Shimazu said diffidently. Kai looked surprised, and was just about to speak when Tads piped up.

“And you need to make sure they don’t have a ward on the perimeter, otherwise it will set off the alarm the moment a spell is forced through it. Either that, or the spell would drop, and that would look very suspicious.” Now Kai looked like he’d been sucker-punched.

“Well, it was a good thought Kai, we just need to refine the plan a little bit,” said Aswon encouragingly. Kai looked at him suspiciously for a moment, trying to detect if he was being sarcastic – but the tribesman radiated openness and honesty. 

“If we can get in past a ward, perhaps we can smuggle a weight in, and do a swap on a box, take the contents and leave something that feels right? Or maybe just open the box and take the contents, and smuggle it out under a burka again?” Tads mused. 

“Maybe we could leave a leech in the box instead of a weight…”

“SHIMAZU!” – the cry came from everyone, a mix of horror, exasperation and amusement. Tads waited for the cries to die down.

“You’re better at warding than me Shimazu – can you go and scope the place out and see if there’s a ward?”

“I could, but I have to be holding my sword to do it. That might look a bit suspicious.”

“Let’s go and sell the vehicle first, then look at the store and go from there.” Kai spoke firmly, ending the discussion, and the team got into their vehicles and headed for a disreputable-looking second-hand car dealer they had passed the night before.

Arriving at the dirty lot, they found a selection of grubby and rusty cars lined up haphazardly, stretching across the potted and rutted ground that seemed to make up the business forecourt. As they pulled up, an equally dirty man emerged from a battered portakabin, wiping his hands on a filthy towel that was then flicked up over one shoulder. He crossed the lot towards them, while the team climbed out of the truck to meet him, Marius in the fore.

“Hello my friends! I like your truck. How much do you want for it?”

“The truck is not for sale. The four by four is though…”

As Marius engaged him in conversation, Tads summoned power to her and tried to subtly influence his mind into giving them a good deal. She frowned as she felt resistance to her efforts from his mind, and slowly let the power dissipate, trying not to raise the alarm. Hopefully it would be enough.

Marius guided the car dealer to the truck, talking up the battered four by four, and pointing out all the best features. In return the man kicked each of the wheels, making a little grunt as he did so, before grabbing the cab and rocking it back and forth on the shocks, testing them out. Climbing into the cab he fired up the engine and revved it a little, before switching off.

“Is ok, decent truck, nice model. I can give you five thousand for it.”

“Done.” Marius offered his hand and shook on it quickly, before anyone could shout at him for not haggling. He offered his credstick and accepted the transfer quickly, then headed for the truck, cleaning his hands as soon as he was out of sight, and quickly starting the truck up, while the rest of the team climbed aboard. As soon as the door was closed, he pulled away smartly, heading back the way they had come to the first target – the department store.

They drove past the department store and down the side street, following the sign for the car park and discovered a squat multi-story affair made from old and chipped concrete, with a yellow and black barrier approximately two metres high at the entrance. It was quite clearly sized only for the average car, and there was no way the truck would fit, so Marius had to reverse down the street and back onto the main road, then look for somewhere to park up, finding a patch of abandoned forecourt about three hundred metres away.

As soon as they had stopped, Tads went for a quick look astrally, and found after careful probing that there was a very low level ward over the building, following the internal walls up on all floors. It was set back from the front doors, so there was no breach when they opened, and it appeared to be a solid cube all the way around the store. Checking the roof she found a small block sticking up from the flat roof, and sleazed her way inside – only to find that the lift shaft was also blocked by the ward where it met the bottom of the roof. She left, and flew over the back of the store, and was just about to head for the truck when she noticed the massive air conditioning units at the upper floor of the store. Just on the off chance, she pushed through the machinery, finding a series of tubes nearly 60cm across behind them that led into the building – none of which were warded.

She floated down the air pipes quickly and into the store, and then quickly scouted it out. The HVAC system led into a service area and stock room, which appeared to fill one half of the top floor, whilst a café and toilets took up the other half. On the middle floor and ground floor the shop was fitted out like a department store, split into sections for male and female fashions, homewares, sports and entertainment. Once she had an idea of what was where, she flew back up and out of the ducting, and returned to the truck, reporting in on what she had seen.

After Tads reported in, there was a period of manic discussion, with all kinds of crazy plans being discussed, put forward, shot down, patched up then shot down again. The plans grew more convoluted and confusing until they realised they were overthinking it – considerably. They then took a step back, and came up with something a little simpler.

Tads and Hunter headed to the store first, entering through the double doors at the front and crossing the shallow lobby. Tads squinted and could just make out the faint haze of the ward, almost invisible except to the most paranoid of observers. Hunter meanwhile looked with more mundane vision, and looked over the store laid out ahead of him. There was a short flight of stairs leading down into the store, allowing people at the entrance to gaze out over the whole floor, seeing men’s fashion to the left, and women’s to the right, with the stairs and lifts straight ahead. Of course, the fashion was a good five or six years out of date and a lot of the stock was faded and looked tired – but it was laid out to see. As was the quite old, slightly overweight security guard who was now approaching him, clucking in Azerbaijani and demanding to see his ID.

Hunter pulled out his fake medical legend, and allowed the guard to snatch it from his fingers and run it through his scanner, where is flashed green. Reluctantly the guard handed it back, manifestly giving him a dirty look that focussed on his orcish features. Hunter made a point of ignoring it completely, and thanked him fluently and effusively, really rubbing it in, and then they headed to the lift, travelling up to the first floor and checking out the electronics section – finding the hardware they were after locked away in a display case. They headed up another floor, and headed to the toilets, waiting for the coast to be clear. As soon as nobody was watching, Tads summoned her power and rendered Hunter invisible, then headed into the café and purchased a mug of soy-choc and some kind of cake and sat down in the corner, concentrating on keeping the spell up and herself out of the way.

Hunter padded down the hallway quietly, heading for the double doors into the stock area. The doors were controlled by a badge swipe system, so he lurked to one side, waiting for someone to come or go with some stock, planning on sneaking through the doors behind them.

It took nearly ten minutes, but eventually a young and bored-looking employee pushed through the doors from the stockroom, pushing a wheeled cage full of stock. Hunter waited for him to pass him, then moved forwards, trying to be as careful as possible and slide through the doors before the closed. The employee froze, then turned around and looked straight at him – through him – with a puzzled look upon his face. Hunter kept moving, concentrating on keeping his footsteps quiet and flattened himself against the wall, freezing into position.

The employee pushed back through the doors, looking around him for a moment, then another. Hunter held his breath, keeping as still as possible as the young man’s glance swept over him once, then twice – hoping that Tads was keeping her talent focussed. Then he saw the man sniff, taking in a big sample of the air, and watched his brow furrow. He moved around, sniffing again and again, and Hunter suddenly realised that living in the truck had probably given them all a unique aroma. The employee moved to a phone on the wall, and dialled 0, then started speaking, reporting a ‘strange smell from the air-conditioning, a musty and slightly rancid kind of smell’. He listened, then described where he was, and confirmed he’d only just smelt it, then listened, shrugged and hung up. With one final sniff and look around, he badged out of the doors and disappeared, leaving Hunter to exhale and relax.

He looked around and confirmed he really was alone, then moved into the stockroom quickly and started to hunt around. It was quiet and still, pale sunlight filtering through the high windows and casting beams of light down the aisles between the stock, dust motes dancing through the air as they transitioned from light to dark. He started to hunt for the hardware they were after, but was soon reduced to a long muttering rant against ineptitude. Whatever the organisational system was in here, it made no sense to him at all.

Kai meanwhile walked into the store and made his way through to the homewares section, and after a minute of wandering around found two large pillows in amongst the bedding. He purchased them, and received them in a large bag, paid and then headed around the store on a slow amble, looking at other products and just killing time.

Hunter froze again as he heard the door open, and then watched as the same employee and a colleague entered. They both stood and sniffed, and he saw the new person nod in agreement. Studying him carefully, Hunter came to the conclusion that it was either the shift manager or store manager – he was better dressed and just had that kind of look around him. Slowly the pair moved around the stock room, sniffing the air under the various air returns and outlets, searching for the source of the smell. Hunter was suddenly glad he’d checked out the whole stock room, as the scent he had left behind was obviously quite diffuse and they were unable to pinpoint him as the source. After a couple of minutes of searching they gave up, and headed out again. Hunter continued his search, and eventually found the right section of stock, finding two of the decks in plastic boxes covered in dust, clearly not having been moved for some time.

He carefully slid on his gloves and lifted the boxes, being carefully not to disturb the dust any more than necessary, then pulled out his knife and sliced open the boxes from the bottom, letting the contents fall out into his hands. Once he had the two slabs of computer hardware safely removed, he added a strip of tape to the bottoms to keep them in place and replaced them with painstaking care, matching them up exactly with the clean patch on the box below. Sliding the two computers into his waistband he meandered around the room for a minute, then returned to the door to wait, sending a brief update over the comms.

Again it took a few minutes of waiting until an employee wandered through, a young female this time. She too sniffed as she came through the door, wrinkling her nose as she smelt ‘something’. Hunter held his breath again, waiting for her to move a little, and then dived through the door before it closed. She span on her heel, feeling the disruption in the air as he passed her, but she peered straight though him, and he quickly crossed the corridor and found a place to lurk. She pushed her head through the gap, glancing up and down the apparently empty junction, then shook her head and disappeared into the stock room and left him alone. 

Hunter headed for the toilets and called in, and Kai and Tads converged to meet him. In the gents’ loos, he slid out the computers and pushed them between the pillows in Kai’s bag.

“Done, drop spell please, Tads”. Tads withdrew her support for the spell, and Hunter appeared suddenly, and watched as Kai left the bathroom. He gave him a minute to get clear and followed him out. Hunter and Tads headed for the lift down, while Kai strolled down the stairs. From different directions they headed to the front doors, where again the security guard stopped Hunter and demanded another ID check. As Hunter stood still and submitted to the attentions of the guard who obviously had issues with metahumans, Tads passed on one side and Kai on the other.

“Disgusting,” muttered Kai as he passed, sneering and hoping his sympathy with the guard wasn’t overplayed. A minute later after the ID check had been cleared – again – Hunter pushed out of the double doors into the street, turned and headed up towards the truck, following the distant figures of Tads and Kai.

They got back to the truck and climbed in, and Marius made sure the jammer was engaged until they had chance to do a scan of the purloined hardware and make sure it didn’t have any tracker or screamer tags on it. Kai checked the time, seeing it had just crept past midday.

“Well, that’s not a bad morning’s work I think. Nicely done, everyone. Right – on to the next part of the plan. I’m thinking that Tads and Hunter should go and buy a car, with some magical influence to make sure he can get a good deal on something. Nadia, you can have a look at the computers and start getting them set up and familiar. The rest of us can go see Tural and see if we can get a safe house set up for the family from Shirvan.” Behind him Nadia shook her head slowly, but didn’t say anything yet – but she looked unhappy. 

“Do you think Tural can find them jobs, help them get set up in a new life up here?” Aswon asked.

“If he and his brother really are Muslim, then we can push hard on the charity angle, and help with a donation. That should be enough.” Marius looked at Kai, and still looked unhappy with being involved with the whole thing – but kept his peace for now.

“Of course, the more pressing thing is that we need to look at our plans for getting rid of Mammadova, and the politician now. So, let’s go find somewhere to eat, and have a think, then we can crack on this afternoon with getting stuff ready.”

The truck pulled out, heading for the nearest restaurant or café they could find, while the team thought about possible assassination plans.


	87. 087 - Germaines Fishing Trip

Date Thursday 19/02/2060, Location 40.42662, 49.81593

After lunch they checked over the decks. Marius ran the scanner over them carefully, with Nadia watching over his shoulder. The display showed only background signals, twitching more when Aswon turned on the music player in the cab than when he scanned the decks.

“They look clean, both of them.” Marius carefully disassembled the scanner and returned it to the packaging, wrapping the leads carefully in the original tie-wrap and putting everything back in the box like it was just unwrapped.

“So, now we’ve got some hardware, we’re going to head back down to Shirvan and do some research, deal with Mammadova and then deal with the politician chap, hopefully on the same night,” Kai summarised, nodding to Shimazu at the last part.

“Nien. We still need to secure a masking chip and sleaze utility, otherwise the deck will just let us be captured quicker. We need to source that here too, I think. As to the plan, I still think the politician’s wife has to go too.” He held up his hand as Kai took in a breath and waited until Kai nodded, exhaling slowly instead of interrupting. “Someone cannot be married to a man like that for so long, and still be ignorant. She must be at least aware of his corruption, if not actively involved. To me that makes her just as dangerous – she will likely know many of his secrets and may wield his power to strike back at us.”

Kai cocked his head as he considered this though, then nodded agreement.

“I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I suppose you’re right. She moves in the same circles, knows the same people. Ok, one to consider.” He frowned as Tads leant over and picked up one of the decks, shaking it in her hands and then holding it up to her face closely so she could peer at the connector ports.

“How do we know it doesn’t have one of those thingies that you can turns on when you want?”

“An AOD? Activate on Demand? Well, it might – but I found no trace of it at all. They can be subtle, but I wouldn’t expect a department store to use such a thing. In fact a decent tracker would probably cost as much as the hardware here, so it’s very unlikely. And please don’t put your nose in the connector port, it’s a precision connector…” Marius looked pained as her nose slid along the edge of the deck as she tried to peer into the innards. She pulled the deck away from her and burnished the edge with her sleeve and then handed it back to him.

“So, we’re in a rush – and we need a masking thingy. Who do we know, and who can we call?” Kai looked around the team and each of them pondered their contact list.

“I might know someone – but the downside is that they currently think I’m still dead. Might take some explaining. So I’d rather someone else.” Aswon looked over at Marius in despair.

“Not everyone is going to sell you out to the corp, you know. Contacts are only useful if you, well, use them. But anyway, it’s your choice. For me, it’s obvious – we put in a call to Germaine. She’s a fixer, this is her town – this is her specialist area. The only bad side is that it probably comes with strings – personal strings. We’ll probably have to get her a present. And make sure it smells of lavender, and has the right shade of gift wrap or something. And stop Kai flirting too much with her.” Kai spluttered at the last part.

“I don’t flirt. We just have an active discussion including some pleasantries that can have more than one meaning.”

“Yes, flirting.” Nadia coughed, and then addressed the rest of the team.

“Flirt if you have to. Buy fancy ribbon if you have to. But we need that chip.”

“Could we… could we send a message from Ulvi to his dad, asking for a masking chip? I’m sure he can get hold of stuff illegally, and that would add a certain delicious justice to the whole thing.” Aswon grinned at her, but slowly shook his head.

“I like the concept, but I think it would be very much out of character for him. I just couldn’t see him needing something like this in his line of work, and I’m sure it would involve some further conversation and the chance of something being spotted.

“I agree – very out of normal behaviour, and likely to cause some raised eyebrows” added Shimazu. “I couldn’t see him just arranging something like that. Guns, knives, drugs – yes. But not computer hardware for hacking the matrix. It’s not a key area of theirs as far as we’ve ever seen.”

“So, other than Germaine, nobody has anyone in town or the area that deals in tech, or that could help us out?” Marius looked from face to face, but didn’t get any positive response. “Well, I guess it’s time to call her….” Kai pulled out his phone, and paged through the contacts list, then took a subtle but deep breath and hit dial, then speaker.

“Hello?”

“Good afternoon Germaine, it’s Kai.”

“Kai! Oh good afternoon! How are you?”

“I’m good thank you, Germaine. Very good. Especially as we’re in lovely Baku at the moment.”

“You are? Marvellous! Always good to see people in my little corner of the world.”

“Yes, it’s so lovely here, we just can’t stay away. However, as it so happens, we’re in need of a little thing, and we thought ‘who could help us get hold of this rare and difficult to get hold of thing’ – and only one person came to mind!”

“Oh, well that’s good to hear. One tries, one tries. So what is it that you are in the market for?”

“Let me see if I can get my computer expert to talk to you and describe what it is we need…”

“STRIKE!”

“Sorry?”

“Oh, don’t mind me.” Kai looked over at Marius and proffered the phone to him. Marius made a throat slicing motion and Kai hit the mute button just in time.

“I don’t want to talk to that witch. Just ask her for a masking chip and utility, suitable for a Sony CMT with base memory.” Kai frowned at him, then pulled his arm back and hit the mute button again.

“Sorry about that, he’s busy with a data search or something. But he says we need a masking chip and a program. For a Sony CMT.”

“Oh, is that all? Well, that should not be a problem. Of course a masking chip is an illegal modification – but I’m sure you’re just wanting to look at one for educational purposes.”

“Of course, yes. We just love learning.”

“Well, I don’t think that should be an issue. Give me about 5 minutes and I’ll come back to you.”

“Great, thank you Germaine, speak to you soon.” He hit the disconnect button and relaxed, leaning back into the corner of the truck and twirling the phone in his hand idly. Aswon turned in his seat to face Kai, watching him carefully.

“Germaine will no doubt want to have a face to face meeting if she can arrange this item. When you go to meet her, do TRY not to take another job, unless it pays very well!”

“And doesn’t start for two weeks, or more!” added Tads.

“Yes, we should be done with the politician and the mafia thug by then, including whatever intel gathering we need to do, and escaping any fallout or retribution.”

“I had a thought – do you think the mob boss will have the politician on speed dial, like Kai has Germaine. And could we get one of them to invite the other over. Or at least use the phone to impersonate one of them to the other?”

“We probably could – but even then, no doubt they have codes or specific things they refer to when they are discussing things, to avoid discussing clearly illegal activities over the public network. No doubt they are both aware that their communications could be recorded or intercepted.”

“Assuming they are in contact at all” Kai added.

“I’m sure Tads could influence the mob boss to initiate the call. It would fit his profile – to take control of a situation and feel like he has the upper hand and is in charge of the situation.” Tads nodded, then spoke again.

“Surely, they will be in touch. When you get to that level of power, everyone is an enemy or competition, and you have to deal with them? They no doubt move in the same social circles or go to the same functions, so will probably have at least intermittent contact with each other.”

“If we can get the mob boss under some level of spell control, we can maybe try to work out some of their friends and enemies, and come up with some kind of story or scenario to justify what is going on, something appropriate perhaps?” Aswon mused, starting off into the distance as scenarios danced through his imagination.

“I think we need to isolate him from the outside world completely. Like we did with the mooks in the other town – just make them disappear without trace.” Kai shifted in his seat. “Just make an information black hole, that is harder for someone else to investigate or find loose ends.”

“I don’t want to have to hurt the servants. They have a bad enough life already, and get treated like rubbish already. So whatever we do, we shouldn’t hurt them if we can help it, at all. In fact, we should make efforts to try and avoid hurting them, or putting them in a place where they will get hurt.”

The phone rang, startling Kai, who quickly hit the connect button and held the phone to his ear.

“Yes, yes. Oh – how nice. Of course we can. Yes. That should be fine. Right. Ten, for both? Now, that’s fine. Ok, we’ll see you then. Yes, no problem. Until later then.” He lowered the phone again, then addressed the team.

“Right, she’s out fishing at the moment, and we’re meeting her at the marina at five this afternoon. It’s going to cost about ten grand, and she’ll have it with her.” As Kai spoke, Hunter pulled up the city map and found the marina, finding the best route to it and working out where they could park the truck, and then started to highlight items in the local area.

“I need to get a presentation case for the gun. Does Baku have a music shop? Maybe a musical instrument case would do?” Aswon trailed off as he thought. Hunter scanned around and found a listing in the Baku matrix, and plotted it onto the map, adjusting the proposed route to the meet.

“Well, we’ve got a meeting with Germaine in a few hours then, so everyone make sure you’re spruced up and looking presentable.”

“I’m not going to meet her.” Kai looked over at Hunter with a raised eyebrow. “I’m not going.” Kai waited, but there was no further explanation or expansion, so he shrugged a little and just accepted it.

“And are we still going to speak to Turul about getting this family jobs? The ones in Shirvan, that is.”

“No, please. This is such a bad plan. Please don’t do this.” Nadia clutched at Marius with her hand, but looked straight at Shimazu. “I just don’t think you can lie to him convincingly. What will you do if he asks you about me directly? Please, no.” Shimazu looked at her, and it was obvious he disagreed, but Nadia sounded so sincere he couldn’t dismiss her out of hand. He nodded at her, acquiescing, at least for now. Silence spread for a moment, and it felt a little uncomfortable in the cab of the truck, the air charged with emotion. Kai looked around, evaluating body language and mood.

“So Tads. We think…. Or rather you think that Elk is angry with you for killing that kid, and leaving his family without support?” Tads nodded at him. “Can you ask him? Her? ‘It’ just sounds rude… But can you cast a spell and ask them what is going on? Are you sure you’re going down the right path?”

Tads took a deep breath, opened her mouth, then closed it again and cocked her head, thinking for a moment, before she spoke again.

“Do you follow a particular religion, Kai?”

“I watch a bit of Movieflix here and there, but I don’t do it religiously” The humour flew straight over her head, and she looked confused for a moment, thinking he was being sincere. She ummed, then tried a different track.

“Imagine if you were home, with your clan, working with your clan elder, or leader. But somehow, your clan elder had the ability to take your voice away, and remove your powers. Would you want to anger him with silly questions?” Kai looked at her, trying to see what she was getting at, but clearly not getting the analogy. Hunter turned to Tads.

“So – can you ask, or not?”

“Yes, I can. But we need to work on the basis that it would take twelve hours of uninterrupted time, and we need some peace and quiet and a place of safety – ideally back at the trailer. And while we’re asking Elk, we need to make sure we’re safe and don’t have to move or get attacked.”

Hunter listened, and as Tads added more and more qualifiers, just looked more and more confused and annoyed.

“I just don’t see the logic in what you’re saying. Why can’t you just ask, then work out what to do!”

“No. I’m not going running to my totem and begging for help whenever I’m confused. I’m not relying on my totem for answers. I have to think for myself, and act for myself. My totem is a guide, an ideal. Something to live up to. Not an easy answer. So, when there is a problem, I need to TRY something first, and fail if need be. Then, and only then, do I think about trying something else or asking for advice.” She sounded as much exasperated as angry, and it was clear that she didn’t have the answers, and was just as confused as the rest of the team, but determined to solve the problem in her own way. Kai decided to deflect into the other thorny conversation once more.

“So, Nadia…. Why can’t we ask your dad for help with getting the family sorted and into a new life?”

“Because…” she sighed, “because it’s not a life or death situation, which means you’re going to fuck it up. Because although you pull the most bizarre things out of thin air between you when people are shooting at you, or chasing you in helicopter gunships – when it comes to the small stuff, you’re like stumbling buffoons. Sorry, but I just can’t see how you’d talk to dad without slipping up and letting him know something important. Or worse, my uncle.” She shuddered as she contemplated that concept.

“Can’t you just find them a new place, give them a chunk of cash and leave them alone. Let them manage on their own. I still don’t understand why you need to do this,” she held up her hand to Tads, to ward off the reply – “I accept it, but don’t understand it. But surely setting them up with enough money to live for a year is more than enough, you don’t have to tuck them into bed each night as well!” Kai looked at her.

“I think we’re not that bad! Well, granted, we’ve had our off moments to be sure. But I think you’re remembering the worst, not the best. Either way, we can sort this out, I’m sure of it. Shimazu – have a think about this, and talk to Turul, see if we can sort out a place for them.” Shimazu nodded at Kai, and waited for him to turn away then looked at Nadia.

Nadia looked at Shimazu and felt her stomach churn, fearing that her new life was about to come to an abrupt end and that everything she had worked for would be undone. She was about to speak, to burst out and say something to Kai, regardless of his position as the team leader, when she paused. Shimazu had winked at her. Or at least she thought she’d seen him wink. Kai was looking over at Aswon, on one side of the truck, and Shimazu was in the other corner. Had he winked at her, or had she imagined it? Shimazu just gave a tiny, fractional, smile and leant around her a little, apparently paying her no attention now.

“I don’t see how you’re going to get this family uprooting and following you anyway. What possible reason do they have for trusting you, Kai?”

“I was thinking we just rock up to the house with the Doctors without Borders IDs, and do a random health check – announce that they have some kind of communicable disease and need to be quarantined for their and everyone else’s safety, load them into the truck and drive them away. And on the way explain that we’re here to help, and they can trust us – and then get them settled.” Aswon considered his words and then nodded at him. It was a little thin, but they could probably pull that off.

“Shimazu, I might be able to help with the conversation with Tural. I could, if you’re happy, cast my influence spell on you and try to prevent you talking about Nadia. Make you change the subject, and steer away from talking about her at all?” Shimazu considered this for a moment, his eyes closing as he worked out the implications of what Tads had offered.

“Thank you for the offer, but I don’t think that is a good plan. Not at all. Psychologically speaking, if I’m asked about his daughter and keep deflecting or evading without good reason, especially if I’m asked a direct question that I should answer – it would be incredibly obvious and damaging to our relationship. If he asked me if I thought his daughter going missing was a sign of his parenting skills for instance, and I changed the subject…I might as well just slap him in the face.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of it like that.”

“It was a good idea, but I think something like that you need the flexibility. Maybe better to influence him not to ask, rather than me to not talk about it – but then you’re talking about casting magical restrictions on our friends and contacts, and I don’t think that’s a good idea either, for a very different set of reasons.”

Meanwhile, Kai and Aswon were continuing their conversation.

“Kai, you need to be careful when discussing this stuff I think. Germaine is a fixer, and a lady of style – but she’s not a charity. Without explaining the context and revealing a lot about what we’ve been up to and why, it won’t make sense.”

“Yes, granted. I think she’ll like a little bit of charity though as our way of helping people and looking after folk, providing we don’t go silly.”

“Yes, like I said, I think Germaine has plenty of style, but we need to be careful not to overplay the charity angle. Keep it subtle.”

As the conversations petered out, Kai looked around at them, then poked Marius in the shoulder.

“Ok, let’s get rolling, go find ourselves a new car.” The truck started up and headed towards Achmed’s, a second hand car lot they had spotted while driving around that morning. As they drove down the street, the conversation picked up again. They discussed what they were going to use the vehicle for – if it was going to be used for actual illegal activity, then they certainly didn’t want a paper trail leading back to themselves or rather their fake IDs. However, it appeared that mostly it was for observations and for Rusudan and his family to use on the farm, so tying it to an ID wouldn’t be too bad – and at least then they could get the car serviced without tripping alarm flags or needing to pay cash for everything.

Marius determined that they ideally wanted a car that was mechanically very sound, with a decent chassis and engine in good condition, but poor bodywork or other damage that made it look less assuming. It also needed to be at least four-wheel drive and have decent ground clearance to work effectively on the ranch. They arrived at Achmed’s lot, and looked over the rows of cheap second hand commuter cars and small saloons for a few minutes, but this place clearly didn’t have anything close to what they wanted.

When it was obvious that they weren’t going to buy anything from him, the presumed “Achmed”, a scruffy looking middle-aged man directed them to go to his cousins place, “Pritak’s”. They followed his directions, heading out of town a little and into a lower class area and found the place. It was less of a car showroom, and more of an abandoned lot that someone had strewn cars over – a grim and filthy looking cabin at one end of the yard disgorged an equally filthy looking man wiping his hands on an oil-covered rag. 

The yard was rutted and badly kept, pools of water with the tell-tale shimmer of chemicals laid over the top filling the roadway and the vehicles lined up in crude arrangements around the worst of the obstructions. There were all manner of vehicles here, from battered first generation solar commuter cars to decrepit old tractors, from delivery vans to….an old and battered Land-Rover 2046. Marius and the team drifted over to it and started to check it out. While it had originally been a creamy white colour, the long wheel base off-roader had at some point had the two front doors replaced – one was a deep green and the other a navy blue, making it look battered and decrepit. Working his way around the vehicle, Marius checked the wheels, what he could see of the chassis and the exhaust, finding them all acceptable. 

Pritak arrived, giving them what charitably might be called a smile, revealing yellowing and rotting teeth and started to describe the Land Rover to them. His descriptions bore only a passing resemblance to reality and both Marius and Hunter just turned and fixed him with a stony stare. The salesman continued for a few more moments before he faltered under their gaze, his speech trailing off into silence.

Marius asked for the keys and unlocked the car, starting the engine and listening carefully to how it sounded when he revved the engine, checking the gauges and instruments and poking around the driving area to check the internals over, giving the steering wheel a quick check over and testing the gearbox. There was no electronics or datajack in the vehicle, but at least it had tinted windows and seemed to work fine.

Marius turned to the salesman. “I’m interested in the vehicle. How much?”

“For this fine example of engineering? I could not possibly let this go from my collection for less than fifteen thousand!”

“Unacceptable. This is an old model, without the upgraded gearbox, the doors don’t match and there’s no electronics port.”

“True, true, but it is still a thing of beauty, is it not. The colour gives it a unique charm. But, you seem like a nice guy – I could let this go for thirteen thousand, for you.”

“Very well, I accept. I have a credstick with the funds.”

The salesman seemed to lurch, having been thrown off his stride by the sudden cessation of haggling. He recovered though, and went to fetch the ID chip with the log book and vehicle history, such as it was, and retried his cred-terminal, and he and Marius finished the deal. Hunter came back to the group with a disgusted look upon his face, complaining about the lack of negotiations on the part of Marius.

The team drove off, testing the new Landy out, and found it to be a reliable and reasonable vehicle – at least so far. They found a place to stop for a while, and worked out who was going to the meeting with Germaine later, and who was staying behind. In the end only Kai and Aswon were going to the meeting physically, with Tads going as an astral observer or spotter, whilst Hunter, Marius and Nadia stayed behind. As such, the three of them got the two new decks and their old hardware out, and started to do some of the research that was outstanding on the job in hand – or at least the queries that were unlikely to trip alarm bells.

Aswon and Kai headed out to find a music shop and spent a while looking for a large case suitable to house the gun Aswon was going to take to Germaine. He’d had his eye on the combat shotgun since they’d “acquired” it, and had spent a long time polishing up the gun, cleaning it thoroughly and tinkering with the mechanism to ensure it worked smoothly and trouble-free. It wasn’t a patch on the Purdey in terms of artistic style, or quality of workmanship but it was a solidly built weapon and it was unusual – there were very few weapons commercially produced that had selectable twin magazines in the shotgun catalogue. Aswon figured that while she liked quality, Germaine also prized originality and the unusual, and this would make a somewhat interesting gift for her, to keep her onside.

They headed down to the quay once they had the shotgun boxed up, walking past the waterfront restaurant they had met Germaine in for their last meeting and then down the narrow jetty heading out into the bay. Huge concrete caltrops were piled up on either side of the path, with the waves crashing and breaking through them. As they meandered down the path towards the lighthouse at the bottom, they saw a sleek grey motor yacht slicing through the water towards them. It was about twenty five metres long, and about four or five across the beam. A row of portholes about a metre above the water line indicated a number of rooms below deck, and then a large curving observation lounge enclosed in glass lay atop the main deck. A smaller flying bridge lay above that, and then a tower with the antenna and radars crowned the vessel.

It slowly approached, leaving a narrow V in the water, the sharp lines of the bow slicing through the water as the momentum pushed them through the water. The pilot swung the wheel and the boat heeled over, turning to run parallel with the mooring bollards, and Aswon and Kai caught sight of the boats name – “The Elegant Urchin”. With a deft touch Germaine’s chauffeur – and apparently Captain – put the engines into reverse and killed the forward motion, and the boat gently slide towards the rubber protrusions on the side of the walkway as he bought to the boat to a perfect stop.

“Coo-eee!” The shape of Germaine was unmistakable, standing in the top bridge with legs spread wide and a huge fishing road jammed into a holder on her waist, her arms holding it out to the side. She looked like a bronze of some conquering warrior goddess, bathed in the fading last rays of sunshine. As they studied her for a moment, they noticed that the tip of the fishing rod was still bent, the line under tension – she still had something on her line, it appeared. “Come aboard, my friends!”

Gingerly Kai and Aswon stepped onto the yacht, climbing the short flight of steps to the deck. Aswon struggled a little with the bulky case, and in the end had to climb a step or two and then use his height and reach to lift the gun up onto the deck and then let go, climbing the steps and recovering the box. Germaine looked at the box with curiosity for a moment, then turned to face Kai, smiling broadly at him. 

He returned her smile, and approached her to give her a large hug, surreptitiously slipping a credstick into her pocket as he did so. In return, he felt her slide an envelope into his trouser pocket, her fingers lingering for just a moment too long, before she stepped back and then put some more tension on the line, the reel clicking as she dragged in whatever it was that was hooked. With a bit of efforts she started to reel in some more, and the tip of the rod dipped further and further until a large fish emerged from the water, spinning and thrashing on the end of the line. The last rays of sunlight lit up the flanks of the fish, making the scales reflect all the colours of the rainbow as it spun and flexed on the line, trying to disgorge the hook from its mouth. 

Germaine reeled in further, raising the fish to her level, expertly removed the hook and dropped the nearly metre long fish into the huge coolbox on the deck below that was now almost full of fish. It dropped in and tried to swim around in the water, barely able to turn in the tight confines and between all the other fish.

“So, what’s in the box, Aswon?”

“Ahh, I have bought you a little gift. Something I hope you may find interesting.” He lifted the box and held it on his raised forearms, supporting it from the base to allow Germaine to open the lid towards his body. She did so with a look of curiosity, that turned into a smile when she saw the contents.

“Oh, marvellous!” Pulling out the shotgun, she looked it over, checking the breech, mechanism and after confirming that both the magazine wells and breech was empty sighting down the barrel. Her hands moved quickly and with assurance, and probed the levers and controls of the gun, establishing where the safety, mode select and other functions were. Aswon watched carefully – though it looked like the gun was in no way familiar to her, the speed with which she catalogued the capabilities and performed a basic safety check was impressive – and spoke of a good working knowledge of shotguns at the very least, and probably a broader familiarity with all firearms. Interesting.

His mouth dropped open though as she selected one of the magazines, inserted it into the deep well on the bottom of the receiver and slapped it home firmly, then worked the action, letting the charging handle slap forwards. Dropping her rod to the deck, she turned slightly and jammed the stock into the rod harness, securing the gun against her hip. She glanced out to the seaward side.

“PUUUUUUULLLL!” With that, she stabbed at the lever, setting the shotgun into burst mode and pulled the trigger. The gun barked three times in rapid succession, the deep boom of the shotgun shells exploding rolling out across the harbour in a thunderclap sound. “My word, that has a kick like a mule, but the action is lovely! Thank you Aswon, that’s a lovely gift.”

Behind them a uniformed man burst from the small lighthouse wearing a Coast Guard windbreaker, his pistol in hand. He skidded to a halt, glowered at Germaine and then holstered his pistol. She smiled and waved at him, as he spoke quietly into his lapel mounted radio, then waved back at her with a slight glower. Aswon watched him for a moment, then turned back to watch as Germaine cleared and safed the weapon, returning it to the case. Even more interesting – not only did she know how to pick up a brand new weapon and figure it out within a few seconds, but she could also fire the weapon in the poshest part of town and have the local law enforcement come out and just give her an exasperated look and then tell everyone else to stand down. He reappraised just how well connected – or how much dirt she must have – in or on the local movers and shakers.

Germaine finished putting the gun away, then picked up the case and turned to the chauffeur, who was now standing patiently by her side after having finished overseeing the mooring of the boat. She handed the case over to him without a word and he turned to stow it, whilst Germaine enveloped Aswon in a big hug. He returned the hug gently, ensuring his hands didn’t stray anywhere they weren’t supposed to.

“So, how are you and your team doing Kai? Well I hope?”

“Yes, we’re doing fine thank you, Germaine. We’ve actually found a nice little ranch down to the south that we’re currently working on. 

“Sangachal? Qobustan? Down that way?”

“Actually a little further, down near Shirvan. We found a family running a business there. Well, um.” Kai paused for a moment. “May I ask you a personal question?”

“You can ask my dear, but there are some things that a lady should never discuss!” She laid a hand on his arm and grinned at him, adding a little wink to the mix.

“Indeed, and I wouldn’t be a gentleman if I asked *those* sorts of questions, now would I! No, I just wondered – a lady such as yourself with such an active circle of friends and acquaintances, I’m sure you come into contact with all manner of people. Some of them with a reputation less savoury than others. I just wondered if you had ‘business dealings’ with any groups that might not be traditionally approved or looked upon with favour by the authorities.”

Germaine’s hand tightened on his forearm a little and her eyes narrowed slightly as she considered the meaning behind his words.

“Well, one does speak to a lot of people, and sometimes one finds out things only after one gets to know someone…”

“Of course, and I meant no disrespect. Well, let’s say we found a family running a fine upstanding business, a holiday home if you will. And the locals had taken a dim view of them. They were acting like it was their job to protect them, like a local police force, and a fire department too – they were apparently experts on how flammable the building was. But we had a chat with them and it seems not to be an issue any more.” Kai studied her face carefully as he spoke and chose his words with care, keeping his tone light as he fenced with her verbally. Her hand relaxed and she stroked his arm gently, and she replied with humour returning to her voice.

“Oh, well that sounds like a very chivalrous thing to do. Looking after people in the face of oppression has a certain style to it, and I’m sure no one could fault you for that! But you should be careful where you do that sort of thing – some places are more dangerous than others.” There was a look that passed between them. Kai nodded a bit, keeping a broad smile on his face for anyone watching, but he decided that Germaine had just warned him off doing the same kind of thing in Baku.

“So, this holiday home… it’s a new venture?”

“Well, it’s been running a while, but we’re going to use it for some relaxation we think, once we’ve got them on their feet, maybe as somewhere to base out of?”

“Oh, speaking of bases…the places I suggested?” she let the sentence hang in the air. Kai had sudden flashbacks to how annoyed she seemed to have gotten about them not calling the talismonger quickly after she’d passed the details on, and realised that there was a good chance she would view the base in the same way.

“Well, we’ve been looking at those thank you, and that was the next thing we wanted to discuss.” The words slipped out smoothly, and he controlled his voice with absolute concentration, focussing on making them sound natural and flowing. “The theatre was a very stylish place, but we felt it was very close to the centre of town and had a number of issues as a result. The factory however although it needs more work from a comfort point of view has a lot of space and other factors going for it. So we’re looking into that and we think it would be ideal. So thank you very much!”

“Oh, no problem my friends, no problem at all. What is this farm like then? Does it have much game on it?” Kai suddenly thought of an idea, and his face lit up in a huge grin.

“Actually Germaine, that was the next thing on our list. We need to do a little bit of work to finish it off, but then it’s ready to reopen – and we’d love for you to be our guest of honour. We’d like to offer you a few nights of free accommodation and amenities. They have a few horses and a large plot of land with some rolling hills and more challenging terrain for the more proficient riders – which I’m sure you are. And as it happens we’ve discovered a whole nest of strange ape like creatures that are vicious little pests infesting the hills that make for excellent hunting targets.”

“That sounds simply marvellous! I’d love to come, thank you so much. I’m sure I can find a couple of days to come and view this place.”

“Excellent – it’s a nice, quiet place, off the beaten track. A great place to lay low, and just disappear from the stresses of the modern electronic world. To get away from it all. Leave your troubles behind, as it were.” Aswon watched and listened as Kai stressed certain words, making it clear to Germaine that it might be a good place for other teams like themselves to hide out for a while, realising that as a fixer well wired into the local scene, this could be just the foothold needed to get Rusudan firmly back on his feet. Of course, if people managed to actually track the guests down to the ranch, it could also get an air to ground strike launched on the whole place and the ranch destroyed in short order. Oh well, rough with the smooth…

“I’ll give you a call when I’ve managed to get a few days clear in my diary, if that’s ok dear?”

“Of course Germaine, we’ll look forward to your visit, whenever you can make it.” They continued to chat for a few minutes, Kai flirting with Germaine a little, and her responding in kind. Eventually though, they made their excuses and climbed down from the boat, back onto the jetty. As they wandered off, Aswon waited for just the right moment, when he figured they were just about to go out of earshot, then turned to Kai.

“I’ve never been sea fishing you know. I wonder what it’s like?” He spoke a little louder than normal, just to make sure his voice carried and winked at Kai, who returned his wink and kept walking, heading back for the rest of the team.

Meanwhile, in the truck, it was quiet and calm. Hunter, Marius and Nadia were busy scanning matrix archive sites, using their gear to slowly page back through databases and news sites, looking for information. Restricting themselves to physically just browsing through pages they avoided searches being tagged by the bots and data spiders that operated on the servers, but it made for slow progress. With three of them on the job though, the work was progressing smoothly and they’d found a couple of articles from some years ago detailing public protests outside “Government House” in Shirvan, with photos of a large group of people waving placards and signs. The report detailed that the police had come in and disrupted the protest, violently, with a number of people ending up in hospital. The article was spun significantly though, pitching the police as responding to a breakdown of law and order when protestors turned violent – though it lacked detail of exactly how they’d done that. With a date to work on, they searched more carefully around that and found several examples of police brutality and heavy handedness, all responding to protests over vote rigging, kickbacks and bribery allegations.

Now with the reporters names and some idea of publications, they spread out their browsing, and slowly uncovered a number of reports over the years showing how Ilham Aliyev had been implicated in union breaking, vote rigging, organised crime and a host of other activities – none of which had ever stuck. In every case vital records had disappeared, key witnesses had suddenly changed their minds or key bits of evidence had been lost or destroyed. Along with the politician’s long reign of power in the area, they found the chief of police seemed to have also enjoyed an equally long term of service, which raised further suspicion.

Hunter stretched, working out the kinks in his back and realised he’d been hunched over the screen too much.

“Anyone else for a drink. Bad coffee anyone?”

“I’ll go grab some. I’m not working on the computer, and I saw a place down the road that looked interesting,” Shimazu offered. He slid from the truck and headed down to a coffee shop, which had a number of brand new advertisements pasted all over the window, showing steaming mugs of coffee and pastries. When he arrived he pointed at the large cups, and managed to ask for four cups of coffee without mangling the request too badly, watching as they used a new machine to decant the scalding black liquid into the plastic cups. Adding a small bag of nibbles, he paid and picked up his takeout tray, along with the promotional leaflet for the new “Krill-caf – a taste sensation” with half a dozen translations splashed all over it, and headed back to the truck. 

Opening the door, he lifted the drinks up into the cab, pushing them into the footwell to make space as he climbed up into the high cab. As he did so, his eyes fell across the quiet and still form of Tads, laying there with blood trickling from her nose.

“Err. Why is she bleeding? Hunter? Marius? Nadia?”

They broke off from their work, confusion on all of their faces, and exchanged looks. It was clear they were baffled, not having heard or seen anything, and unsure when it had happened. Shimazu grabbed a napkin and gently wiped at the blood as the flow continued, the nosebleed rolling down her cheek. The blood tracked down into her ear where a pool had caught in her ear lobe, then overflowed and dropped down into her hair and the seat below, slowly drying.

“She’s been bleeding for half an hour or more – look, a lot of this has congealed!” 

Kai and Aswon climbed up into the truck, chatting away and they too stopped, seeing Shimazu tending to a bleeding Tads, and they both blurted out the same question, repeating what he’d said only moments before. Climbing in and looking around at the concerned faces Aswon quietly reached for his gun. Moments later there was a swish as Shimazu drew his sword and activated his astral sight, carefully looking around in case there was a spirit or mage attacking in some way. Around the cab there was the sound of quiet clicks and metallic noises as various firearms were readied – just in case. 

Marius got ready to start the truck, and looked at Kai.

“No, we stay here, unless we come under actual attack. If she’s out of her body, and in combat, the last thing she needs is to come back horribly wounded and find her body isn’t where she left it – in that condition it would be much harder for her to track it down. If she turns up with company, I’m sure Shimazu can deal with it.” Shimazu tightened his grip, his head slowly scanning back and forth as he watched around the area, looking for any kind of astral creatures that might indicate trouble.

They waited, the seconds ticking by, turning into minutes. The krill-caf sat unnoticed in the cupholders, slowly going cold and congealing in the cups. Kai took a breath and was just about to speak - at that moment, Tads’ eyes fluttered and she groaned, then struggled to sit up.

“Well, that wasn’t part of the plan.”

“What’s the matter Tads – why are you bleeding? What’s wrong? And do we need to move? Or attack something?”

“I don’t think so. I think I lost them. Pretty sure anyway. Oh, thank you.” She took the proffered cup of water from Aswon, not commenting on the monster rifle cradled in his other hand. “Well, I followed Kai and Aswon out to the marina and had a look around. Nothing unusual there, and it all looked clear, no sign of magical attack or surveillance. So I headed over to the temple, stopped and checked for people following, and then headed back to Shirvan.” The others nodded, aware that she liked to zoom around the world in her astral form at speeds that made a jet liner look slow – although she really needed to go to somewhere she’d been before to navigate efficiently.

“Well, I got down to Shirvan, and checked on the house. The kids were there, but the mother wasn’t. Otherwise much the same as before really. So I thought I’d go check on Mammadova’s place. Same as before really – there were three servants there, cleaning the place up. No sign of the boss. No changes in magical defences or anything. So I moved on and went to check out Aliyev’s place.”

She sat back in her chair, and rubbed at her temples, closing her eyes as she did so. When she spoke again, it was slow and measured, as she recounted what she had done, step by step.

“I found the place easy enough – the shape is quite distinctive with the stables and the exercise yard. I watched from up high for a few minutes first, getting a feel for the place. It’s not that polluted really, but not that nice either – just like any other house. I couldn’t see any spirits or wards, no sign of magical defences or anything. High wall all around the property, and I think it has cameras – lots of grey blobs that look about right. Hunter had pulled up the map they had started of the house, and she pointed to where she had seen things, Hunter quickly adding the icons for the surveillance system.

“Then I moved down, carefully. The doors were closed, and I couldn’t see any open windows, so I pushed through the roof here, into the attic space. It was quiet and normal in there. Fairly dead, just some insects and things really. About normal. Then I moved down into the house, being careful. No sign of wards still, or alarms. Moved around for about thirty seconds, and saw a couple of rooms.” She grabbed a stylus and roughly sketched in the shape of some walls and doorways on the map, leaving Hunter to neaten them up and turn them into a proper floorplan. “I didn’t want to stay too long, didn’t want to push my luck. So after I had a look at this area, I pushed out through the front wall, and that’s when I saw them”

“Them? Plural them? And what them?” Kai asked with concern in his voice.

“Well, there was a mage and four spirits, coming down towards me at high speed. So I ran. But they were too close… one of them swung at me as I turned to fly off, trying to snag me and grab hold of me. I wriggled free and left as fast as I could, heading towards Tashkent. I flew as fast as I was able, and got there in about ten minutes.” The others exchanged glances, still finding the concept of being able to move at 2 kilometres per second bizarre and almost beyond imagination.

“They followed me. In fact the mage was slowly catching me up – ever so slowly, but surely. I turned at Tashkent to check I was away, and he was right on my heels, and attacked me magically, trying to batter my astral form. I twisted and dodged, but he managed to get a punch into me, and I think that’s when I must have started bleeding. His spirits were just about to catch up with me, so I ducked underneath him and just ran, not going to anywhere I’d been before. I just went as fast as I could. Went another 10 minutes or so, just flying to the south or south east, flying blind. I stopped by some massive mountain, and checked again, and that’s when I’d managed to lose them. So then I headed back to Constantinople, then back here to report.”

Hunter had plotted a rough time / distance graph, and then had some vectors built up on the map – allowing for some fairly loose margins of error, that meant that she’d been pursued over two thousand kilometres after emerging from the house, and had finally lost the pursuer somewhere in the Himalayan mountain range.

“They were pretty serious about following you then, by the looks of things.”

“Yes, and I still don’t know how they knew I was there. Maybe there was something I missed?” Tads opened her eyes, turned to look at Kai and frowned. “I’m sorry. I guess they know we’re coming now. But honestly, I didn’t see anything. I didn’t touch anything either!”

“Don’t worry about it Tads – and I’m sure they must get false alarms, whatever they are. Speaking of which, what were they?” She closed her eyes again, racking her memory for the fleeting glimpses she had caught as she turned to flee.

“Watcher spirits. Pretty powerful ones, but only watchers. I’m certain of it. But all four belonged to the same person, the man who chased me. And he was as powerful as me – maybe more. Must have been to have kept up with me. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. What’s done is done. But, now you’re back, let’s get moving, just in case they are searching.” Within a minute the trucks were started up and they were on the road back towards Shirvan, driving just below the speed limit and trying not to attract attention.

As they hit the motorway, Kai remembered the envelope in his inside pocket, and pulled it out to examine it. Inside was a small module containing a single programmable chip, with a sticker on it displaying a holo-logo of a smiley face, and a small optical disk. Aswon peered over his shoulder.

“Can you fit the chip into the computer whilst we’re on the road, or do you need a workbench?” Marius responded over the intercom.

“A workbench – you don’t want to bend the pins, otherwise you can break the chip. And we need to compile the code and run it, so it will take a little while I think. It could be done on the road, but will be much easier to do when we’re stopped.”

“Right, back to the ranch, let’s get this installed and the thingy compiled, whatever that means. Then we’ve got some work to do, fast.” Marius accelerated as Kai finished speaking, pushing the truck to its top speed and they hurtled down the highway in the gathering dusk, heading towards the ranch. The journey was uneventful, Shimazu sticking just behind them in the new vehicle like glue, and just over an hour later, they pulled off the highway onto the dirt track, heading up to the ranch.

It was time to plan the assassination.


	88. 088 - Low Res Castles

Date Thursday 19/02/2060, Location 40.02419, 48.95808

The team arrived back at the ranch, grabbed their gear and headed inside where they were greeted by Naena. She told them that Rusudan and the kids were out – the kids working the horses and Rusudan out in the local town. They grabbed their gear and headed into the dining area, settling down at the big table and relaxing for a few moments.

Kai pulled out the envelope from his pocket and cautiously opened it, then tipped it over. A large computer chip slid out into his hand, along with a smaller optical disk. He turned them over and examined them carefully. The optical disk looked to be a standard product, exactly like something purchased from the store that held music, a film or some kind of utility or program to run on your home computer. The other chip was much larger, about 50mm to a side, and with a row of blocky and sharp connector legs on each side ready to be mounted to a circuit board. On the underside were a series of small printed labels, etched into the plastic with a laser marker in a tiny san serif font proclaiming strange things like “MBB+” and “SVC-3.3V”.

He shrugged and passed them over to Marius who examined them equally carefully, then gestured for the envelope, and reaching inside pulled out a single page of instructions with a badly drawn and printed series of instructions showing where each of the pins had to be connected to. Marius pulled the stolen deck to in front of him, grabbed his toolkit and started to carefully disassemble it, laying out the parts carefully in a mirror image of where they had come from, standing screws upright in the appropriate location and swapping tools carefully from his neat line-up next to him.

“This will take some time I think. It is not terribly difficult, but it will require precision and careful planning to execute correctly.” Nadia shuffled around a little so she could watch and assist him, and the others edged slightly away from him, ensuring he had some elbow room to work in.

“Right Marius, fine. Take your time. We need to sort out the plan for this politician anyway. Nadia – can you pull up that database you created, and see if there are any hits for the politician in there from Ulvi and his gang. Any contacts at all?” Nadia frowned at Kai, obviously having intended to watch Marius at work, but then sighed and nodded, pulling out her pocket secretary and activating the right applications, quickly entering a series of queries. It didn’t take her long to pull up the answer.

“No, no contact. Not by name, and no references to him by position either. We’ve got no keywords entered that might reference him at all, and only a few unknown names or codewords, none of which have any context that would indicate someone in a position of political power. So it would appear there is no contact there.”

“Well, it was worth checking out. The way I see it, we are short on time, and I’m not sure we can do both missions in the timescale allowed. We know about Mammadova – he’s the mafia boss, he’s currently ignorant of the situation, but that won’t last. Once he finds out about his family, he’s not going to stop – from what Shimazu has said, he’s going to take it personally, that’s obvious – but he’s also going to personally lead any attacks or responses, he’s a hands on guy.” Shimazu nodded in agreement with Kai’s assessment.

“The politician, Aliyev – we’re pretty certain he’s as corrupt as they come, but we know very little about him and his situation beyond the briefing pack and some local news stories. While Mammadova is personal, we have this second mission from a contact that also has some rather tight time constraints.” The team listened, and heard him pause as he described the requested assassination as a ‘mission’. Each of them reacted slightly differently, based on their backgrounds and perceptions, but they could see what Kai was trying to do – separate the emotionally distasteful act from their planning and preparations. Shimazu and Aswon seemed the least bothered by this, while Tads had obvious emotions showing on her face.

“I think the distinction is somewhat academic. Both are personal missions – one for our own safety and security now, and one to maintain a useful personal contact. But, both missions are also worthy in their own right. Both targets are abusive, corrupt and arguably evil men. We should not kid ourselves – what we are planning is murder, plain and simple. But both of these men have manipulated and controlled their environments to enhance their lives at the cost of pain, suffering and misery of others on a grand scale. I have no issues with their termination, and I don’t believe anyone else should.” Aswon looked around the room, his dark eyes settling on each of them one at a time before moving on. He sounded utterly sincere and completely convinced of his own words.

“I do not take life idly – but in this case it is well deserved. I have no compunction about this at all. We should make it quick, clean and merciful – I am not interested in inflicting suffering upon them. But I have no issue with this. We should however take care not to inflict collateral damage.” Tads shifted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable with her role in planning a murder, especially in light of the ‘thin ice’ she probably considered herself on with regards to her totem.

“Tads – you are a good person, and that’s why you worry. But both of these people care as little for nature and the natural world as for other people. They despoil the land, they pollute, they extract resources without care and do not repair the damage they have caused. They hurt the world as much as the people, and they are your enemy, and the enemy of your totem. If your people were here, they would live under sufferance and control, and their way of life would be slowly destroyed. Wouldn’t it?” Tads frowned and nodded. Clearly she was still having issues, but she could not fault the logic that had been laid out. She nodded again, more decisively. Whilst she might not enjoy it, she had clearly committed to the mission at hand.

“On another matter – Hunter, you said that your contact informed you that he had tripped flags?” Hunter nodded in agreement. “I would suspect that he’s spun some kind of tale to his superior, promising results for his corporation that would be beneficial. He won’t care what or how we approach this, as long as results are visible. But we don’t know what he has promised, so we must work in the dark. But from what we known, we must take out the politician quickly, and for our sake, as cleanly as possible.” Aswon relaxed back in his chair, looking around the table again.

Shimazu and Hunter sat quietly, watching the others and keeping their own counsel. Tads sat in the chair fiddling with a small fetish, radiating uncertainty. Marius had his head down, concentrating on his work – by now he had half a dozen wires neatly soldered onto the chip and small fly leads spanning all over the board, cross-linking circuits or connecting to information busses. He had displayed a good ability to multi-task so far though, and they had no doubt he was keeping up with the conversation and would speak if he felt it necessary. Nadia was working on her database, refining the data and looking for additional information or supposition that might assist them, but was otherwise keeping quiet. Kai was deep in thought, but then turned towards Tads and pointed at her.

“Right – so what did you trip? Or rather, what did you run into?”

“I don’t know. I was keeping an eye out, being careful to look for wards or traps, alarms, spirits or guards. I didn’t see or feel anything! There must have been something though, but I have no idea what it was.”

“And what was it that attacked you?”

“There was a mage, and a pack of watcher spirits, out in the street when I exited the building.”

“What kind are watcher spirits? Are they for, well, watching? Guard spirits?”

“No, not exactly, though they can be used for that.” Tads looked over at Aswon for a moment, but then plunged on with an explanation. “Remember what Aswon said, about the differences between mages and shaman? How we call different types of spirits and elementals? Well, both types can call watcher spirits. They are less powerful than the other types, but easier to summon. There are limits on what they can do – they can’t affect anything in the physical world for starters, so they couldn’t attack Hunter or Nadia for instance, at least not physically.”

“Well, what other way is there?” asked Hunter, still clearly confused by the rules and logic of the magical world.

“They can’t hit you, or poke you, they couldn’t pull a pin on a grenade on your belt for instance. So no interaction with the physical world. But they could suddenly appear and shout at you, or startle you – say if you were halfway across a rope between two buildings, or climbing a ladder, or in a high speed chase – they could appear in front of you and scream at you, and might startle you into crashing or falling.” Hunter listened and shrugged, accepting but not rating it as much of a threat.

“But they can certainly attack magical targets and creatures – myself when I’m out of my body, or Aswon and Shimazu when they are looking at the magical realm. They can attack things like lodges or wards, or magical items. Anything that projects through to the astral realm can be attacked by them. And though individually they’re weak, together in a mob or a pack they can overcome a stronger foe by chipping away at them and making it so hard to react or respond to their attacks.” Again, Hunter didn’t seem convinced by the threat.

“Hunter – you’re a big, powerful, strong person yes?” He nodded. “Would you get in a pool with a bunch of hungry Piranha? Surely, you could defeat them? They’re only thirty centimetres long? They’re not strong, or tough like you? You could kill ten of them in a fight, right?” Finally, Hunter nodded in understanding now he had reference he understood.

“The other main thing is that when you summon a watcher spirit, it normally only lasts for a few hours – not even a whole day. So they were probably freshly summoned to the mage. It is possible to get them to last for weeks, but that requires some very advanced knowledge and training, as far as I know. So, my guess would be they had just been summoned.” Shimazu stirred in his seat and raised a finger, indicating he had something to add, and Tads waved at him to speak.

“That sounds right to me. We used to train with magical controllers for keeping our VIPs safe. If we had someone trip an alarm, they would often take a few seconds to summon a few spirits to themselves to act as astral bodyguards, or for sending messages back to the HQ. It took them only a second or two each, and they could grab half a dozen and still be hundreds of miles away quickly. And like Tads said, they allow you to mob a target and distract it or even damage it, while you attend to the principal.”

Hunter pulled out his phone and sent a simple text message to the burner phone number for Jules. ‘OK?’ He checked his watch and calculated the time difference between their current location and Stockholm, figuring that it would be about 16:30 there. Hopefully he should get a response after his friend finished work for the day and got chance to check his messages.

The conversation stopped for a moment as Naena came back into the room with a fresh pot of coffee and some homemade oat cakes drizzled in honey and set it on the table – not because they didn’t trust her, but because they were too busy asking for utensils, or eating and drinking. Their host went to the back window and cracked it open, allowing a chill breeze into the room, but also wafting away the smell of solder and hot electrical components which was slowly building up as Marius continued to methodically solder the chip in place and connect up the dozens and dozens of tiny pins.

“So, what firepower do we have? Physically I mean, we have an idea about our magical responses now. But what options do we have?” Kai looked over as Hunter, who pulled up a list on his PDA.

“Well, we have a couple of LAWs – they’re old fashioned and will be ok against cars and small trucks, providing they don’t have defensive measures. They’re not shaped charges or anything though, so they’ll struggle against serious defences. Likewise, we have some RPG launchers and a bunch of those generic old fashioned Russian RPG heads. They’re mostly anti-personnel though, and they’re one shot weapons, so not good for putting a lot of fire down-range quickly. Great in a confined space by the way – or rather shooting into a confined space. Don’t fire them if YOU are in a confined space.”

“After that, my assault rifle is pretty decent for laying down a volume of fire over a short time, though it doesn’t have the magazine capacity for an extended engagement. I’ve got the grenade launcher underneath for a bit of blast damage as well. Shimazu is pretty choppy with his sword, but has to be at point blank range, and we’ve got Marius with his drone which can lay down a fair stream of fire from the two assault rifles.”

“Ja – but remember that they too will struggle against any kind of armoured vehicle. People can be killed or suppressed, but vehicles require something with more power.”

“My Purdey is a great rifle, but ideally used against metahuman targets in the none-to-medium level of armour. Provided I have a few seconds to aim, they can be neutralised efficiently. The new gun is a considerable step up in power, and I would match that against even moderately armoured vehicles. I certainly think I could probably shoot through the windscreen of our own truck for instance, and take out a target inside. However, I have only five shots before I need to reload, and we have very little ammunition for it. And whilst the first shot is pretty quiet, the second is not, and by the third shot everyone around knows that you are firing a large calibre military anti-material rifle. With all the issues that entails.”

“Shimazu – if you were working as a bodyguard to that politician then, and you’d had an intruding mage like Tads, what would your alert status be like?”

“It would be high, Kai. And remain high for a few days. We’d probably be looking at upgrading the magical defences long-term if someone had penetrated that easily, maybe stationing an adept or a spirit there as constant surveillance. It depends how often it has happened, and what the threat is like. He isn’t the leader of the country, just a prefecture – so it depends how much weight he has to throw around. But certainly we can expect more resistance. And they will probably be faster to respond.”

There was a sharp intake of breath and a wince of pain as Marius kept the soldering iron on a fly-lead for a few seconds too long and the wire heated up to the point of burning his fingertips, but the team – even Hunter – managed to ignore it and they continued their discussion.

“I didn’t get a great look at him – I was too busy trying to get away. But he felt more like a spirit summoner than a mage. Certainly his spirits were quite robust. I think I was more powerful than him overall, but he did a great job of keeping up with me and almost catching me at one point. But certainly we should be wary about the type of spirits he summons. If it came to a direct magical confrontation, I think I could probably win – but it wouldn’t be a sure thing.”

“Ok, well, let’s try not to have it come to that then, Tads.” Kai glanced over at Marius and made sure he wasn’t at a crucial stage of work. “Marius – your drones, what’s the operational life on them?”

“Well, the surveillance drone is effectively unlimited during the day. It’s got a solar cell on top, and unless the wind is phenomenally strong, it can keep the same position based on absorbed solar power indefinitely. Much less than that if we need to manoeuvre of course, and even less at night. But we can still keep aloft and running for a couple of hours. The down side is that the sensors on it are not great – at least not yet. If you’re talking about the vector thrust drone, then the operational hang time is very short – it drinks fuel regardless of what you’re doing with it, and we don’t have anything to fill it up with at the moment. So we can launch it and use it, but we need to be thinking in terms of a direct strike, rather than longer duration missions.”

“Ok, can you send the drones down to monitor from here?”

“Well, technically, yes we can. We can probably control them from further away if we really needed to. But we shouldn’t. If we wanted to control them from here, I’d have to ramp the power up so much on my signal amplifiers that everyone for about 50 kilometres around would be able to see the signature of my deck, and that’s bound to attract some attention!”

“Can’t we do it like they do on the trid movies? With the designator light thingy?” Tads asked.

“Again, not yet. For that to work, you need two things – the designator to lase the target and keep it lit up.”

“Which I can sort out no problem,” interrupted Hunter, drawing a quizzical glance from Marius and Aswon.

“… but you also need the receiving equipment on the drone itself, capable of tracking and analysing the laser signal. And that we don’t have. It’s on my list, but they’re very expensive.”

The team continued to talk, making sure they understood the capabilities of their kit and equipment, until Marius sat back up straight and stretched. After working out the kink in his back, he carefully screwed the deck casing back together and flipped it over, giving the top side a quick burnish and then plugging the power supply in and flipping the other end of the cable to Hunter, who moved his chair around and stretched the cable to the wall and the nearest power outlet. Marius fired up the deck, checking that it was working ok, and then fed the optical disk in to install the additional programs for the deck.

Whilst Marius worked through the intricate setup routine that customised the program and masking chip to the deck, Shimazu talked about his experiences as a bodyguard, describing the various levels of resources assigned to different levels of VIPs.

“He’s going to have at least one close protection officer. That is possibly a policeman who has been on a four week course, and still thinks in terms of a law enforcement officer, and will hesitate to shoot to kill. Or, it may be a specially trained CPO that has gone through a decent training routine, and now will work more as a bodyguard and think in terms of saving their principal rather than catching criminals. There may be a professional driver who doubles up as an additional guard as well, who will have received training in evasive and combat driving.”

“Depending on how much money he has, he may also have hired in additional guards from a private security company. If he has done so, then they will almost certainly be more proficient – but there may be communication issues and rivalries between the assigned and the hired guard. They may even have different tactical systems and have problems working together if it all kicks off. Unless we have time for a bit more data gathering, we just don’t know.”

“Regardless, it is my estimate that striking him actually inside his house, or in his car, or his office workspace would be the most difficult targets – they are the easiest places to harden or protect, and they have standard procedures to do so. We should aim for a moment when he is transitioning between them – that was always the period we feared most, and required the highest levels of attention and concentration.”

“In that case, I recommend that we find a nice perch where I can be concealed, and we conduct the attack at the maximum possible range, with my rifle – striking him as he gets in or out of his vehicle at some location. If we can obtain access to his diary or engagement list, we can work out where to strike.”

“Ja, Ja, I’m working on it. This setup program is a nightmare. Ten more minutes, unless you can tell me a faster way to link my Op-GUI to the binaries via the cryptography suite and get it to load the MSP address on the fly through the Net-Prot chimney….”

Hunter winced in sympathy, whilst the rest of the team looked confused, wondering if Marius had suddenly started speaking a previously unknown language.

“Ok – so how about this as a plan. We work out where he’ll be once we have his diary, and get set up, Aswon takes the shot. But, about thirty seconds before, we call in to the police, saying that we’ve heard about a Mafia plan to off Aliyev. The police find out that their boss’ head has exploded, like a melon, drive round to Mammadova’s place, storm it with a SWAT team and take him down for us?”

“It’s a nice idea Kai – but I just don’t see it working. For one, the Mafia almost certainly pay better than the government, so most of the people who could make that decision will be wondering how much they get paid NOT to do that.” Aswon shook his head. “Secondly, even if we got straight cops, I think they’d go for the arrest at the most, and the investigation wouldn’t hold up. And that puts Mammadova in police custody for a while and we don’t want to attack him there!”

“Why don’t we plant a car bomb or something like that…of course I want to continue, you heap of crap… anyway, set the bomb off, and draw the police away from the residence, then hit him there, whilst there is nobody in response range. This program is awful. Was it written by a child?”

“Oh, and we could get Tads to do a trid-phantasm of a police chopper, over and around the gun drone, and then shoot him dead, and make it look like a police coup! Or a Mafia hit using the police! Maybe other agencies would then take Mammadova out for us?”

“No Kai! WE want to take him out, in his house, so WE can rob him blind and get access to his funds!” chorused Aswon and Hunter, in unison.

“This is getting complicated. How about I just use my magic to levitate and conceal Aswon, up into the air, and hold him there – and let him just shoot him?” It went quiet for a moment as they considered the plan. It certainly made positioning easy, as they could choose the most favourable position to attack from without the hassle of finding a convenient high rise building. As they considered the plan, Hunter pulled up the map and plotted the house more clearly, and then started working on a model to account for the elevation needed to shoot over the walls and still reach the target.

“This is doable. If we can get him high enough, he can be far away – at the extreme range for effective shots – that gives us masses of time in term of response, and makes it very difficult to determine source of the shot. I like it.” Hunter spun the map around, showing a circle drawn at 800 metres, covering a significant part of the built up inner city area.

“How high can you make me fly, Tads?”

“High enough.” She saw him open his mouth and continued, forestalling the question. “High enough that you would either freeze to death or die from lack of oxygen unless special arrangements were made.” She saw his mouth close and gave him a lopsided grin. “High enough?” He nodded at her.

“If you’re up that high in the sky – can you stop your spells from glowing from a passing mage, Aswon?”

“Yes, Shimazu – with deliberate effort I can hide them, though it’s somewhat distracting. But I can’t stop the spells that are holding me in mid-air from glowing – only Tads can do that! But I don’t think that’s a major factor – if a mage spots a life sign hanging in mid-air, they’re going to be suspicious and that will set off the alarm I’m sure.” Shimazu grunted in understanding – he hadn’t considered that.

“Could we send up the drone instead “Kai mused, “and hold that in the levitate instead of Aswon. That way it will use no fuel, and can hang there for ages?”

“I don’t think that would work – the drone needs time get the engines warmed up, and it would be fighting for position against the spell. Also, the assault rifles just don’t have the same effective range against targets as that rifle, they’re just not designed for long range precision shooting.” Marius was tapping away at the screen furiously now, and the progress bar on the configuration routine moved closer and closer to 100%.

“Shimazu – how would you feel about jumping over the wall, charging and then just killing him with your sword?”

“Well, I’ve got no issues doing it Kai, but I’m not sure how feasible it is. I mean, depending on where we go over, there’s a bit of ground to cover and they are probably armed with guns and panic buttons and things. And if I can’t get to him before he gets in the car, then my sword or even my pistol may not get through the armour. Plus they’ll get to see me at point blank range and the guards will no doubt try to be shooting me. So overall, I’m not keen, thanks Kai.”

“And the vehicle might be warded or magically defended, so you wouldn’t be able to count on unobstructed access. After all, our vehicle is warded – it’s not that hard. Just something to think about.” Tads added to the mix.

“Hunter, pull up a map of the area and show me the max res satellite view will you. Can you see manhole covers that they drive over, something we could plant some kind of device under?”

“Sorry, the maps here are a bit crap. And it looks like the sewers run under the pavement mostly, not the streets? There’s loads of holes down the side of the road though – ohh, right – the report mentioned that the place flooded, didn’t it.”

“Stop a minute,” Kai frowned.

“I guess it’s to let the water drain away quickly, you need lots of capacity.”

“STOP a minute, will you?”

“The pipes under the pavement must be pretty large – we might be able to get something in there…”

“WILL YOU SHUT UP A MINUTE!” Kai pointed a finger at Hunter, who just grinned at him.

“Right – I have a plan, a better plan. How about this…we get the number for the politician. We call him – from Ulvi’s phone. We send a message ‘Its Ulvi Mammadova, my dad needs to talk to you, will throw a clean phone over the wall in 2 minutes. Your eyes only’ ok?” Kai looked around the team, gesturing a phone being thrown over a wall.

“We get Aswon in position, floating, from Tads. We get the phone thrown over. Aliyev goes out into the garden when his security system registers something landing there – because he thinks the mafia don needs a quiet word. You can’t send a security guy out for that, it has to be handled personally. And besides, the Mafia don is sending his son – a trusted minion to do the delivery. So it seems legit from his point of view. He walks to the corner of the yard, to get the package and…” he turned and looked at Aswon, who raised a hand and squeezed an imaginary trigger.

The room went quiet for a moment as they considered the plan.

“We still don’t know what the relationship is between the two of them.”

“No we don’t Aswon. But surely, for people in their kind of positions, positions of power and used to wielding it – they probably do talk to each other, and keep at least some lines of communication open – otherwise they’d be at war through misunderstandings.” Tads looked at Kai. “Right?” Kai nodded to her.

“I still think we should attack Mammadova first, then Aliyev. Mammadova lives in the shadows - Aliyev in the light. If we attack in the light first, we set off the alarms, we alert the police, the media gets involved. It could make our job so much harder…”

“We may have to do it that way, depending on if we can find out the Aliyev’s comcode. Nadia? How many comms companies are there around here?”

“Here? One, just one. Azerbaijan Communications. It was the national carrier, but has been sold to private interests.” Nadia sneered. “They are awful, but there is no competition. Seemingly any company that tries, it all goes wrong for them. I wonder why.”

“Ok, well, that’s good – at least for us. Only one place to crack. Marius – how you doing?”

“Nearly there. Five more minutes.”

“If we use the phone to attack the politician, which I think is our best plan so far, then we need to move fast against Mammadova.” Tads looked around the table. “The police will investigate, and find the phone.”

“And once they have the phone, they will find out who it is registered to, and that will lead them to the town, near the ranch. And the two cops there – how long will they last. They’ve seen us. From there, it’s all too easy to get to the ranch, and the family.” Aswon added, his eyes widening as he picked up the thread that Tads had started. He saw Kai start to grin, his smile growing wider and wider. “This is not funny, Kai.”

“No, that isn’t. But that’s why we’re not going to use one of those phones. We’re going to use one of the burner phones from Iran. You know those phones that kept losing charge even with everything turned off? Because of the tracking and monitoring chips installed by the government? The ones where once they’re found, the TCL authorities will then start wondering if this is a state sponsored assassination by Iran. One of those phones. That’s the phone we’re going to use.”

There was silence around the table as they considered his words, then slowly smiles or outright looks of glee started to appear as they imagined the looks on the faces of the investigators as they uncovered that rabbit hole.

“Ok, last stretch. It is compiling crypto-keys and binding them to sockets, and sampling atmospheric noise for the randomiser tables. It will take a few more minutes, but my part is done. So – I believe we have a plan. Drive to the spot where Aswon will have line of sight to the compound, and still be near Mammadova’s residence. Tads makes him float up in the air. We deliver the message. A minute later we deliver the phone. The target comes out for the phone, and we shoot. We bring Aswon back down, and whoever delivered the device gets back here, then we head to Mammadova’s place. We kick in the front door, and take him down, get his codes and then finish him. We use his codes to take his wealth, and then escape.”

“Well, pretty much, yes. I’m concerned over the person delivering the phone, and how far they have to travel though. Could we get a drone to do it, Marius?”

“Yes, of course – but I would need to fabricate a hook or delivery device or something. It will take time, but it can be done.”

“And that brings its own problems. Drones are not common around here, from what we’ve seen. It might cause more alarms than a person nearby, and be more easily traced” Aswon pointed out.

The deck pinged, and the screen cleared for a moment, then the standard interface appeared as would be expected – all apart from an icon on the right hand side of the screen showing a skull and crossed femurs on a rippling flag. Marius shoved the hardware over toward Hunter who licked his lips and looked a little nervous – for the first time since the team had met him. He pulled out a fibre patch cable, and carefully placed one end into the datajack on the side of his neck, and the other end into one of the ports on the deck, settled back into the chair and made himself comfortable and then closed his eyes. A moment later the fans on the small unit started to rev up and the activity light started to blink so fast that it looked like a strobe. 

Marius and Nadia pushed their seats back and headed out to the truck, to begin a thorough check of the systems, check the wheel nuts and everything in between – in the middle of an assassination would not be the ideal time to find out they had an oil leak…

The rest of the team ate and drank, and made small talk, while at the end of the table Hunter sat motionless, looking like he was asleep rather than projecting his conscious mind through the sat uplink into the matrix riding the electron surf and trying to stay clear of the circling sharks. The deck hummed, the noise of the fans rising and falling and the light occasionally showing solid for seconds at a time and then going dark – but through it all, Hunter was still and quiet.

Without warning, his eyes opened and he reached for his mug, taking a sip of lukewarm coffee with a grimace and then holding out his cup for a refill. 

“Got into the MSP, found his record, got his number. Away clean too, as far as I could tell.”

“Excellent work, Hunter. Right, next thing we need is his appointment calendar for tomorrow.”

Hunter pouted, but was ignored by the rest of the team. With a sigh, he grabbed a biscuit, and pushed it into his mouth, chewing it slowly – once, twice, three times… then he stopped, his jaw slightly slack again as he delved into the matrix.

His consciousness of the real world faded away and became nothing but a memory as his thought patterns merged into the deck, creating his avatar. A shining knight clad in plate armour, astride a huge white motorbike. He grabbed his lance and revved the engine, and the bike rippled as his avatar sped up the datastream towards the waiting satellite, following the neon trail of the carrier wave. At the satellite a barrier lowered, denying access to his data stream, recognising the hot deck without the carrier signal that all normal terminals carried to identify them. 

He swung to the side, out of the saddle and his plate gauntlet scrapped along the trail, sparks of ones and zeros erupting from the carrier stream as he slid the bike under the barrier, evading the protocols. He felt liberated, empowered – like he could go anywhere, do anything. At least he felt like he could if he wasn’t weighed down by the primitive hardware in the deck.

Regaining his seat he spun the bike around, finding the right portal and hurled himself back down to earth, heading for the Trans Caucus League parliament matrix site. Here the guards were more alert, stronger and faster, more determined to challenge him. He circled the building, rendered into a low resolution castle by the overtaxed filters on his deck. The drawbridge was up, the portcullis was down and he couldn’t see another entrance, no matter how hard he looked. He knew that an assault on the castle would be loud and noisy – and he also knew that he just wasn’t that good, at least not yet.

Then he spied an approaching wagon, riding up to the castle with strongboxes loaded onto the back. He spun the bike around and drove at the wagon, full tilt, and as he passed, threw himself off the bike and at the rear of the wagon, desperately grabbing at it and swinging himself underneath it. His bike and his weapon continued down the road, into the woods and out of sight, while he wormed himself underneath, hiding himself in the axles.

He heard a slam, and then the wagon was driving across the drawbridge, under the portcullis and into the main courtyard. Behind him the portcullis slammed shut and he heard the chains rattle as the drawbridge raised. Armed guards moved the boxes full of information off to the data-vaults, and he remained in hiding until they’d all gone, then dropped to the floor and scurried off to the side. Amongst a mound of low level data supplies piled up against the wall of the courtyard he hurriedly slipped his armour off, realising now that stealth was what he needed – his armour would only slow him down and defend him against the most basic of attacks.

He worked his way through the corridors in the castle, stealthily flitting from one shadow to another. As he moved along, he felt his speed draining away, the combination of the overtaxed deck trying to make sense of the dense data haven and the horrendous response lag imposed by the satellite journey taking their toll on his responsiveness. He slowed further, listening, lurking, moving only when it was safe. The low resolution of the digital reality he was in further compounded the journey – he had to get so close he was almost touching each sign before the text resolved from glyphs to something readable and he could navigate his way around.

Further and further he went, until he found the office for Aliyev, and he pulled out a skeleton key from his pocket, gradually working it into the door, managing to open it and clear the corridor just before a patrol of four heavily armed soldiers discovered him. Inside it was dark and quiet, lit by a few spluttering torches that cast shadows around the crowded room. A long bench would allow serfs to slave away at their work, and he saw a brighter portal on the other side of the room – probably the office of Aliyev himself. The lock however was more complex, hugely more complex than the one leading into this room, and he turned away, and started to rummage through the scrolls.

Minutes trickled by, and he felt a bead of sweat trickling down his back as the tension ramped up. What happened if someone found his armour, his weapon or his bike? Would they raise a full alarm or just send soldiers looking for him? He tried to concentrate, pulling out scroll after scroll, peering through ledgers and books, filled with inconsequential data. Press summaries, invitations, past speeches – a mass of data stored and kept for what reason? Eventually though, he found it, studying the scroll carefully and copying it into his own notebook. He was about to replace it when he glanced around at the carnage he had wrought on the tidy room – scrolls and paper adrift, debris all over the floor. Instead he mixed the data in with the rest and moved to the door, listening carefully.

When he was sure it was quiet he moved, squeezing out into the corridor and closing the door behind him. He moved along the corridors, three times having to throw himself into alcoves behind statues or open store rooms to avoid patrols. Higher and higher he worked, until he emerged upon the walls. Looking down at the courtyard far below. Glancing over at the guardhouse above the main gate he saw it was swarming with guards – dozens of them. There was no way out that way.

He glanced around, and then did a double take. It was crazy… but it might just work. Maybe.

He snuck along the wall to one of the defence posts, creeping carefully across the stonework and heading for the giant catapult that stood sentinel over the approaches. Evading the guard, he climbed up the massive timber limbs and seated himself in the cup that would normally hold a giant flammable projectile. He concentrated hard, warping the reality around him as he inserted code into the matrix, and slowly the arm bent down, until it clicked into place, the limbs bent back and the creak of sinew and horn starting to grow loud. A digital knife flicked out, and he accelerated, flung into the air and over the castle wall, towards the waiting woodland on the other side of the cleared fire zone that surrounded the castle.

A little tweak here… a tweak there. Then the roaring of an engine and as he plummeted to the ground, the motorbike roared and burst from the trees, shooting underneath him. He landed, hard, the shock absorbers dipping beneath him until he felt a bone-crunching slap as they bottomed out. But he was away from the castle, data intact with no sign of alarm. He accelerated, appearing out of the far side of the woodland and riding fast towards the crudely rendered sunset on the horizon. A noise behind him made him twist his head, and look over his shoulder – a giant raven flew above him, travelling in the same direction. It didn’t look at him or interfere with him in any way, but it made him worry for a moment. 

With no weapon, there was nothing he could do, so he concentrated on navigation, pulling back his persona and travelling back through the satellite relay and back down to his deck, notebook pressing against him in his pocket.

He opened his eyes again, the aches of his muscles and digital body suddenly translating into a tension headache, while his physical body which had remained sitting at the table felt fine. The mush of the biscuit in his mouth was quickly swallowed, washed down with a gulp of coffee, as he opened the file on the deck. For a moment he wondered if it would be displayed in some weird scroll form and in “Olde English” to fit in with the metaphor of his journey – but instead it displayed as a normal calendar with entries for various tasks and a number of notes.

“Ok, got it. He’s working from home tomorrow. Got a number of virtual conferences with people, and two separate sessions in parliament which he’ll remote presence into. But he’s going to be at home all day.”

He felt his pocket buzz before anyone else could say anything and pulled out his phone, checking the message from the burner phone Jules was using.

“Oh, and I asked Jules if he was ok. He’s responded with ‘not really, bosses getting impatient. Please tell me good news?’ Do you want me to send him a thumbs up?” Kai nodded and responded.

“Tell him we’re on the case, and expect results on his business issue within the next day.” Hunter sent the message quickly, then closed and returned the commlink to his pocket.

When he was done, Kai bought him up to speed on what they’d been discussion. Kai had started to embellish on the plan, involving messages from megacorps and byzantine plans within plans, until Shimazu, Aswon and Tads had shot him down, and told him to keep it simple. So now instead of Ulvi being a rogue element that had gone on a killing spree and had split the Mafia in two, they were going with the original plan.

With all the data in hand, they used the loo, got changed into the combat gear and headed out to the truck, finding Marius and Nadia almost at the end of their checklist. Soon they were ready, and leaving the trailer behind, the seven of them headed down the road towards Shirvan. The journey took only a few minutes, and was uneventful and their truck roared down the main road through the centre of town, following the course Hunter had plotted. They turned into the more upper class area marked on the Ares plan, and Marius slowed, trying to keep the revs down and the engine quiet. He navigated the winding roads and pulled up in a secluded street full of darkened houses at around 23:15, killing the engine and letting the truck go quiet while they looked around them.

Kai had pulled on a set of battered clothes from his stockpile scavenged from a second hand store. During the journey down he’d also been busy with his facial appearance. His bizarre magical abilities had twisted his features, widening his eyes and darkening his skin tone until he looked just like one of the locals. With appropriate dress, he grabbed the Iranian phone and then paused as Aswon handed him a thin set of sterile gloves from the medical supplies. Tads raised her hands and gestured, muttering quietly to herself while Aswon grabbed a piece of trash and laid the phone on the middle of it, along with the five monster fifty-calibre rounds from his magazine.

As Tads finished, there was a ripple across the collection of kit, almost unseen. Nothing changed physically about them, that anyone could see though. Aswon and Kai both put gloves on and Aswon grabbed the rounds, carefully loading them into the magazine and then reloading his rifle. Kai wrapped the phone in the trash, and jumped down from the truck, heading at a brisk walk towards the walled compound that Aliyev lived in, around three quarters of a kilometre away.

“What was that for, Tads?” asked Hunter.

“A sterilise spell. In an area around the phone, there’s no living bacteria or material now. Hopefully it will stop the forensic examination of any of this stuff finding trace DNA or anything that can be used to identify us.” Hunter nodded in approval, realising he’d missed a fair bit of the conversation apparently during his foray into the matrix, but pleased that they team were starting to think more tactically. “Oh, can you open the roof hatch for me, please. It’s a lot easier for you than me.”

Hunter grinned and then moved into the cab, easily pushing open the heavy armoured hatch and revealing the night sky above them. Tads climbed up onto the seats, standing on the other side of the opening and pushed up through the ward, feeling herself emerge into the night air as if rising from a pool. Opening herself up to the sky, she called on the spirits of the wind, calling forth a sylph to aid her. It appeared before her astrally, a shifting pattern in the breeze and she thanked it for answering her call, explaining that she was going to send one of her friends into the air and she wished for him to be stable and safe. The spirit nodded and then faded, waiting for it to be needed.

With that out of the way Tads summoned a watcher spirit to her side, then another, and another and then a fourth, continuing until she felt she could control no more, commanding them to be quiet and wait for her instructions. The effort of summoning so many spirits so quickly left her reeling somewhat, her eyes blurry and watering and a headache brewing. She lowered herself into the cab, grabbed a bottle of water and some painkillers and curled up in the corner out of the way, resting and trying to recover her mental strength.

They waited for fifteen minutes, whilst Kai meandered towards the target via a circuitous route, then moved onto the next stage when they got the all clear from him, indicating that he was waiting a block away.

Tads opened her eyes at the nudge from Hunter and blinked a few times. Even the short rest had been enough for some of the headache to fade, and the drugs had taken care of the rest if she concentrated. Muttering and waving her hands again, she wrapped magic around Aswon and he started to rise up in the air, smoothly and without pause. Slowly he climbed, as if standing atop a giant column that pushed him inexorably up into the air.

“Can you make him go faster?” asked Hunter, eyeing the shape as he ascended into the night sky. Aswon was wearing his camo outfit, and had no light source, but he was still a dark and unusual shape in the air, and the monster rifle was hard to disguise.

“Nope. I cast the spell as well as I could, but it’s a low force spell. That limits the amount of power I can put into it. There’s nothing I can do about that, short of improving the spell, and that would take weeks to redesign and learn. So no – he’s going as fast as I can make him go.” Aswon continued to rise at nine metres per second, silky smooth and without pause, up into the air. “And before you ask, that’s as fast as he’ll come down too. No it won’t be easier with gravity helping. Magic doesn’t work like that. So don’t bother trying to work it out.”

“Well, that doesn’t make sense. But why do you only have a low force spell?”

“Why don’t you have a jet bike and a minigun with nuclear bullets?”

“Because I can’t afford it.”

“Well, there you go then.” Hunter snorted, but dropped the point, and instead looked up and watched as Aswon receded into the night air, before slowly spinning in place and checking out the windows and doors of the nearby houses, to see if anyone had noticed something strange. Fortunately, it was all quiet.

They waited, while Tads pushed Aswon up higher and higher, until her earbud transmitted a quiet message.

“Hold please. In position.” His upward movement stopped, and then a moment later his skin twitched as the winds died away completely. The spirit wrapped him in a bubble of still air, the currents flowing around him, above and below him, but leaving him stable and secure. He hefted the rifle up and sighted down at the city below him, zooming in on the powerful scope until the yard filled the reticule. Sighted in, he lowered the rifle, resting his arms and keyed up again. “Sights green, send it.”

Down in the truck, Hunter hit the send key on Ulvi’s commlink, sending the text message to Aliyev. A moment later he saw the confirmation of delivery, and only a few seconds later got a read receipt.

“Message received. Throw it.”

Kai pushed away from the shelter of the wall where he’d been waiting in the shadows and picked up his pace, walking swiftly along the road in parallel with the compound. As he reached the last few metres he pulled out the trash wrapped commlink from his pocket and hefted it up, praying that he didn’t botch it. Visions of the smoke grenade bouncing off the lip of the hatch and going off in the cab filled his mind for a moment, and he watched with his heart in his mouth as the package sailed up towards the top of the wall. He relaxed, realising that it was going to go over by a good few centimetres, then his eyes widened.

The package tumbled suddenly, spinning for no good reason – as if it had hit something. Fortunately the momentum carried it over the wall, and a few seconds later he heard the muffled thud as it hit the ground. He walked swiftly, on the verge of a jog, trying not to lose his cool. At a guess there was a trip wire or some capacitance wire strung up around the top of the wall – an incredibly fine wire that would detect pressure, heat or bioelectrical energy and trip sensors in the security system. He reached the end of the block and crossed the road, then headed west, keeping up his brisk pace.

“Delivered,” he said as he turned and started to head back towards the truck. Up in the night sky, Aswon raised the rifle again, regaining the view of the grounds. Wiry tendons bulged in his forearms as he raised the huge firearm into position, straining to keep it steady and still. His breathing slowed dramatically as he used his intense physiological control to get ready for the shot, and his pulse plummeted down to the 40s.

He saw someone appear in the bottom of his sight, walking towards the package in the corner. In the low light sensor, he was monochromatic, but it looked like Aliyev – right build, right height. His finger tightened on the trigger, taking up the slack and he concentrated further. His heart rate dropped to below 30 beats per minute, and he felt each beat clearly. Lub lub. Lub… lub. Lub……..lub. A second target appeared in the viewer, looking up and around, surveying the walls. Not watching the first target.

“Eyes on, one additional security.”

“Fire.” Kai’s voice was slightly breathy, as he speed-walked away from the scene. As he spoke, Aswon waited for a tiny fraction. Lub….squeeze. The trigger broke cleanly, the pin hitting the primer and igniting the round. The main charge ignited and the round accelerated down the 66 cm long barrel, reaching a maximum speed of 1250 metres per second….lub. 

Aswon let the rifle rise, absorbing the ferocious recoil. The shot was good. He *felt* it – it was right. Instead of watching the impact, he reached for the transmit button. The round covered the distance between Aswon and Aliyev in just under a second. By this point the spin of the round had degraded somewhat and the projectile was starting to yaw and tumble – though it still followed the calculated trajectory. It struck Aliyev in the base of the skull, entering the soft spongy area at the rear of the head as he bent to pick up the package. On meeting resistance the yaw intensified and the round ripped through the brain stem, now tumbling and spinning out of control as it ripped through the target. 

As Kai walked up the street he heard a sound, like someone ripping a melon in half and throwing the contents against the windscreen of a car. It was unlike anything he’d ever heard before, but it could mean only one thing.

“Hit.” He looked around quickly and kept walking, heading for the first available turn to break line of sight to the compound. Tempted as he was to break into a run, he kept to a fast walk, making sure he didn’t arouse suspicion. Up in the sky, Aswon bought the rifle under control and regained the picture, seeing the security guard running over towards the body. The picture was confusing, until he realised that hot blood had fountained out of the nearly headless corpse and was spraying over the ground like a fountain, rapidly warming it.

“Guard is running to the body.”

“Take him, too.”

Aswon considered for a moment, then aimed, waited, squeezed. This time there was a distinct bark from the rifle as the hot gasses exploded out of the barrel into the huge silencer, but found it still full of roiling air from the first shot. In accordance with gas dynamics, they instead shot out of the barrel, still at near supersonic speed, creating a pressure wave that blasted out of the muzzle. Aswon winced, and lowered the rifle, calling for Tads to start lowering him. He didn’t want to be in the air any longer than he had to be. He sighted down the rifle to check out the compound and saw the security guard crawling on the floor. Something bothered him about the shape, and then he realised the figure was missing an arm. He must have moved slightly whilst the round was inbound. Aswon felt strangely relieved that he wasn’t dead, but he was out of the running for effective response. He was only doing his job, after all…

Just as Kai rounded the corner he heard a scream behind him, then a high pitched artificial wail. Turning the corner greatly diminished both sounds and he keyed up again.

“Think the guard had a med-sensor. The alarm is definitely raised!” 

Aswon felt himself start to descend at the same steady rate, lowering from the sky in a perfectly straight line. As he did so, the wind picked up again as the spirit stopped using its power to steady him. He looked around and saw nothing to alarm him physically, and just to be sure he dropped into astral space, looking around the area. As he did so he saw a blinding flash of light approaching him – an astral entity closing at high velocity. He didn’t even get a chance to call out before it arrived and started to attack the spirit that was guarding him.

The two spirits engaged in combat, and immediately Aswon knew he was in trouble – the attacking spirit was larger and more ferocious-looking in astral space, and started to batter at his guardian, driving it back with a flurry of blows and lashes of power.

“Tads! Astral contact! GET ME DOWN!” He continued to drop at the same rate, nine metres per second, slow and steady. He continued to look around, and spotted a second astral target, closing on him slightly more cautiously – this time the shape of a metahuman – an astral mage. It gathered up power – Aswon saw the motes of energy entering the body from all around, the form glowing brighter and brighter before it was flung directly at him. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion as his reflexes accelerated and kicked in, and his heart rate shot up as raw adrenaline was dumped into his bloodstream. He tried to move, to sway, and realised he couldn’t – trapped completely in the embrace of Tad’s spell. He’d never felt more helpless in his life.

The spell arced across the distance between them, and Aswon was unable to move out of the way – closer and closer it flew until no more than a metre away it splashed off something. Like a torrent of water splashing off an umbrella the power rebounded and flowed around him, licking at his mind and tugging at his soul, but mostly deflecting off into the air. With a sudden gasp he realised what he was seeing – it was Tads protecting him. As she had gained in power, she had become open to advanced forms of magical talent, things impossible for an untrained user to grasp let alone use. Her totem had unlocked these secrets, and now it was being put to the test.

In the truck Tads stood and stared upwards, one hand clenching as if pulling on a tiny string, forming a pincer between fingers and thumb as she pulled Aswon out of the sky. The other was extended outwards, fingers splayed as she mentally shielded her friend, protecting him from harm. A second later the torrent of energy stopped, and she had a moment to act.

“Get that spirit.” Her flock of watchers exploded upwards, a gibbering and writhing pack of energy, mouths, claws, whirling vortices of power and emotion. They burst onto the enemy spirit which had been handily winning the fight, grinding her wind spirit into oblivion. The chittering pack struck over and over – individually feeble they were everywhere, ripping and rending, slashing and tugging, and the spirit started to howl in fear as they mobbed it.

A bolt of power lanced into one watcher, disrupting it instantly and without mercy, lowering the odds. The remaining spirits continued their attacks, rending at the spirit which was now leaking magic from a score of wounds, slowly unravelling into the night air.

Down at the truck, Hunter dropped down out of the way and slithered into the back of the truck. Shimazu replaced him in the hatch, also looking astrally and spotting the mage high above them. He snarled in frustration, realising that there was nothing he could do unless the enemy came within range of his fists.

Aswon descended, slowly and steadily. He suddenly realised the danger he was in and stopped looking on the astral plane, cutting off his vision of the fight. The mage and the spirits disappeared as he returned wholly to the physical realm. While the mage was present only astrally, as long as he remained on the physical plane, it could not harm him directly. The only thing he could do was try to disrupt the spell. A sick feeling twisted his stomach – Tad’s spirit was in no condition to arrest his fall, or even slow him now. If the enemy mage realised… he would pancake across the ground and that would be the end of him.

Hunter climbed back into the front of the cab and up into the now crowded hatchway, shoving at Shimazu and trying not to do the same to Tads. Clutched in his hand was Aswon’s spear – the ancient magical relic found in the temple to the east. He thrust it into Shimazu’s hands hopefully. Shimazu took it, and looked up at Aswon, still hundreds of metres in the air. There was no way to get it to him, not in time. Unless Tads could control a second levitate spell and send it up quickly. He was just about to speak when it happened.

Tads had been watching the battle, and had come to the same conclusion, and realised that there was one way out of this mess. With a wave of her hand, she stopped concentrating on her spell, feeling the magic dissipate. As it did so, Aswon plummeted. Accelerating downwards he spun and tumbled, hands reflexively grabbing his rifle. One moment he was flat, and air resistance was at its maximum, the next he was flipped and falling headfirst towards the ground. His speed rose second by second, ten metres per second, fifteen, twenty, thirty. An involuntary scream sounded as he fell, faint and reedy as the air was sucked from his lungs.

Tads watched him fall, counting in her head. As she reached five, she flung both hands up, drawing in mana and recasting her spell, trying to wrap him in her mana and arrest his fall. The spell took hold, firming up and slowing him. Thirty metres, twenty, ten. He stopped a metre above the truck, body flat and a look of horror on his face. The enemy spirit was just behind him, closely followed by the mage, with no sign of the watcher spirits or Tad’s wind spirits.

The enemy mage looked down at Aswon, laying flat in space and obstructing his view of the target’s below, and peered at him intently as he descended like quicksilver towards the truck. Aswon felt himself being tugged at, probed and examined as the mage tried to get a read on his aura, and the sensation was like a bucket of cold water being thrown over him. He snapped to his senses, and masked his aura, denying the enemy mage a good look at him. Below him Tads grabbed a handhold on the roof of the truck, trying to climb out. She suddenly shot forward as Hunter gave her a boost, his massive physique easily lifting her body up and out.

In the cab, Marius started the engine, having seen Aswon close enough to count, and slowly and smoothly pulled away. He kept the lightest touch possible on the accelerator, aware that there were teammates on the roof and he was determined not to knock them off. The truck pulled away so smoothly that most of them didn’t even realise they’d started to move.

Back on the roof Shimazu passed the spear up to Aswon who grasped at it gratefully, while Tads crawled to the side to get a glimpse of the mage. She was rewarded with another powerful blast of magic lancing down from the sky like a thunderbolt, hammering into her shield. She recognised the spell – a manabolt, cast with deadly intent. Clearly the mage was not pulling any punches. He was also taking a large risk – channelling power through the body was fatiguing and draining, leading to headaches, burst blood vessels and potentially passing out – if you were in your body.

Out of your body, without the flesh and blood of the human form, the intrinsic strength of a morphic field to channel and guide the mana, it was a case of pure will. In astral your mind was your body – and any damage caused by failing to channel the power correctly led to physical wounds, not just a headache. Cast too much or too hard in the astral, and you would die. Tads realised that he had been casting profligately while astrally projecting and chasing them – which made him either very good, or very stupid. Possibly both.

Aswon landed on the roof, and as soon as he had purchase, he thrust with the spear. The spirit was closing on him, unaware of the threat, and could not respond in time, and Aswon slashed across the spirits form. The ancient spear bit deep into the body, ripping open the magical bindings and raw mana sleeted out as the spirit wailed in pain. Two metres away Tads lashed out almost without a thought and banished it, sending it from the place forever, then turning her attention towards the mage still plummeting towards them. She saw him start to pull up, aware that at least three people below him were magically active, and that one of them had a magical weapon – a weapon fully two metres long.

Tads gathered her power, dropping her other spells and concentrating fully on the mage. Her gaze locked upon him and she ripped aside his own attempts to conceal his soul, and she examined him, tasting his aura, studying his essence, his body, his form. Every part of his being was laid bare before her, and she grunted in satisfaction as she imprinted that taste, that astral fingerprint in her mind. She KNEW him now, could recognise him in a crowded room with a moment’s attention, could detect his magic, his defences. Now to get rid of him.

Her body crumpled to the roof of the cab and started to slide towards the edge, until Aswon and Hunter grabbed her, holding her still. Her astral form vaulted upwards and for a moment she focussed purely on the attack. There was no holding back, no attempts to shield herself, no thought for blocking, or defence. All of her might and rage was focussed for a moment into a single attack. Her astral fist flew upwards, rising past his waist, his chest, impacting under his chin as her body rose. One astral form hit another as real to each other as two boxers were in the ring. His head cracked and flew backwards, his neck straining at an unnatural angle. The body flickered and then vanished, as Tads hit him so hard he was knocked out, instantly. His disrupted spirit vanished, returned to his body.

She floated down, landing in her body easily at the pace the truck was moving and crawling back inside the cab gratefully.

“Mage down. Somewhere, he’s back in his body taking a nap. He won’t be an issue for half a day, unless someone manages to wake him up medically.”

She collapsed back on her seat and started to shake a little as the impact of her actions hit her. It was quite possible that the shock to the mage’s system would actually damage his essence, robbing him of power and disrupting his ability to channel energy, permanently weakening him. She imagined how she would feel if that happened to her, and then wondered if she would ever forgive someone for weakening her link to her totem. And if she felt like that, it was only logical that so would the mage…

The truck moved off serenely down the street, heading out of the estate to pick up Kai and then looping back towards Mammadova’s house. In the distance, faint flashes of blue light could be seen as the first response vehicles arrived, crowding around the decapitated corpse of the politician Aliyev whilst medics worked to save the bodyguard’s life, stopping the flow of blood from the stump of his shoulder and picking up the severed arm and dropping it into a bag of nutrient gel.

One down, one to go.


	89. 089 - Mammadafia

Date Friday 20/02/2060, Location 39.94636, 48.92074

The team parked up at the west of town, right on the edge of the district. Calling it the “upmarket” end of town was a bit of an exaggeration – it was just where nicer houses had been built over the best land, and the poor had been expelled by the police. As soon as they were stopped, Tads projected from her body and sped up to Baku, hovering over the Marina and having a good look around her. She couldn’t spot any tails, so she accelerated back to the south, to Mammadova’s house, about four hundred metres from the truck.

Even though she’d travelled over two hundred kilometres for the dog leg, she arrived only a minute or two after setting off – but she was pretty certain she wasn’t being followed. She entered the house carefully, heading for the main room and looked around her. There was Mammadova, watching the trid unit in the corner of the room, and behind him were four humans, all standing and watching. She had a quick flit through the house but found no other signs of movement, then returned to the truck, again via Baku.

Opening her eyes, she reported in.

“Mammadova is on the couch, watching trid. Bunch of servants I think, all standing waiting, also watching. Didn’t see anyone in the house – but there was one more servant than last time. No wife, no child though.”

Hunter had already keyed up the portable trid, and was picking up the local signal. Very shaky footage, obviously hand held, was showing a confusing scene – they recognised the politician’s house, but there was a mass of police cars, an ambulance and a fire truck there as well, all with emergency lights flashing creating a disco strobe of blue, yellow and red lights that bounced off the streets and walls. A police officer was pushing back people, and running a piece of tape across the road to cordon it off, whilst knots of policemen stood around.

He listened for a moment via an earbud, then reported in.

“There’s been an incident. No actual facts, lots of guesses. No statement yet. They know something major has happened, but don’t know what. So we have a little time, but the clock is definitely running.” Kai nodded to Hunter.

“Based on what we’re hearing, should we send him a message from one of the phones, saying ‘Ulvi is being blamed for the death of the politician, you need to get out’ – maybe go back to our plan of being the rescue squad?”

“No, I don’t think so. Bad plan,” Aswon shook his head, his dreadlocks flapping back and forth with his emphatic gesture. “That will send him into his car – and I have suspicions about that. Vehicle armour, gas seal, run-flat tyre kind of suspicions. If it’s as upmarket as we think it is, then it could have almost anything built in – including pop up turrets. Bad mojo. Keep him out of the car.”

“And if we can’t get to him in the car, we can’t rob him,” Shimazu added helpfully.

“And the garage was the one place we were convinced had the most security cover,” chimed in Marius. 

Kai nodded, then shrugged. “Do we have any rubber bullets – things that can stun him?”

“We have Kai, when he shouts in that funny way, he can stop people in their tracks for a few seconds. And we have tasers. That’s close.”

“Either way, we need to sneak into his house somehow, don’t we?” said Tads.

“I can sneak ok, and I’ve been practicing my lockpicking. And I can walk over things like grass and flowerbeds without leaving a trace, if needs be, from Shimazu.

“But the first electronic lock you run into, you’re stuck.” Aswon smiled, baring his fangs at Shimazu. “Can’t we just kick in the front door, Kai shouts at them to lay the frak down, and we go from there?”

“I like that – we can handcuff or zip tie them all, get the servants out of the way and stop them getting hurt, then deal with the boss, at our leisure. We can load him up into the truck whenever we’re ready and take our time with the magic nonsense then.” Marius sniffed at the end of his sentence, clearly not having the highest regard for the magical effects yet.

“Ahh, but if we assault him and kidnap him, then the influence spell is almost certainly doomed. There’s no way he’d want to trust us with his bank details if we’ve already abducted him.”

“Could we make him terrified instead? Intimidate the information out of him, and use the spell to overcome his natural aggressiveness?” Shimazu looked at Aswon, and then smiled as Aswon considered this new approach. After a few seconds he nodded in firm agreement.

“Do you actually need him awake to conduct your theft? Or will just having access to his fingerprints and things work?” Tads shuddered a little, considering what she was saying, but carried on regardless. “I mean, they need to be attached still from what I understand, because the scanners can tell the difference, but does he need to be woken up to do this?”

“That depends if he has verbal passcodes or phrases for his account – which he might do for large amounts – then yes, he will need to be awake. Or controlled. Or both.”

“And of course, if we steal him away, he’ll recognise us, won’t he Aswon? And that’s bad.” Hunter interjected before Aswon could respond.

“No Tads, don’t worry. We have a load of burkas and shemaghs and stuff to use as disguises. And besides, even if he recognises us, it won’t matter. Not in the long term.” He smiled as he stopped speaking, but the smile stopped at his eyes which where cold and hard. Certainly the future did not look full of roses and comfy blankets for Mr Mammadova. Tads shuddered, thinking of the shallow graves up to the north where the other mafia goons had been buried.

“Well, we definitely don’t want to stay in the house, as the cops might turn up anyway from the politician’s death, let alone any noise we make getting in. So taking him away in the dark to somewhere else is a good thing.” Kai added. “Even if the cops came only because they were on the payroll and wanted to report in to their real boss, that would be bad.”

“We can still try your plan Kai, we just need to keep the message really short, sharp and a little vague. Something about some friends of his to keep you safe while the heat dies down.”

“Yeah, and I can always change my appearance to look like one of the goons, or someone very local, and just ‘encourage’ him into the back of the truck.” Nadia looked at Kai and pointed at him to attract his attention.

“Something you may want to be aware of… he may have the bank set to call his home commlink number to authorise transfers. Or he may need a token or authenticator from the house to provide confirmation. If you go to his house, this will be a factor, perhaps.”

“Ok, something to bear in mind. Say, Marius – can you tune that jammer of yours. So the trid signal still gets through, but the phones don’t work? Can you do that?” Marius cocked his head to the side for a moment and then nodded.

“Are the phones working at the moment? Would the police jam them in response to the assassination of Aliyev? As Tads asked the question there was a frantic rooting through pockets as the rest of the team checked their phones, but signs of relief as they found them all working ok. 

“Ahh, but there is a thing. He may be using his phone – or rather an app on it – to control the trid, or other things in the house. If we jam it, he may notice sooner rather than later. That would instantly raise his suspicions.” Marius frowned as he considered if there was a way to block some of the signals, but not others.

“Also – if he has medical coverage of some kind, as soon as we killed the phone signal, they could be scrambling a team to his location. Let’s face it, he has enough money to afford the best,” Kai added.

Hunter and Marius suddenly twitched, pointing in roughly the same direction.

“Curtains moved in that window over there. We’re being watched.”

“How can you tell, the glass is polarised? Can’t see anything through it!” Kai wondered.

“The amount of light being pushed through, like a backlight. It changes the reflections somewhat. Anyway, someone is there, and watching. I’m moving the truck.” Marius put actions to words, starting up the engine and pulling away smoothly down the road, seeking a new place to pull up and plan that was out of sight of this house.

Two minutes later they pulled up in another quiet area. As they pulled to a halt Shimazu turned to Tads with a sudden twist.

“Did you say there was a new person? Who were they? Do you have any details?”

“No idea. I can go check if you want?” She looked around and saw several nods. Laying back she sped from her body, heading to Baku, stopping for a look, then doubling back to the house. Inside she spotted the people again, with one of the servants now working in the kitchen. She spotted the new person, now squatting on the end of the sofa, watching the trid unit with Mammadova. She concentrated and let her astral sight wash over him.

In his body, dark tendrils of cyberware wrapped their way up and down his limbs and chest, forming a dark skeleton inside the brightness of his essence. It looked different to Marius and Hunter – just as pervasive, but not the same. She examined him for a few more seconds, then headed back to the truck, and reported in. Several of the team frowned, but they knew that it was an imperfect science and would have to just wait and see.

Marius launched the surveillance drone, sending the lighter than air craft drifting towards the house, with its sensors all trained down on the property, checking out a hunch. Back in the truck, Kai was addressing the rest:

“I think assaulting might not be the best – I still think getting him out of the house is the way, we just need to figure out how.” He looked at Aswon as the tall tribesman suddenly had a lightbulb moment, his mouth forming an obvious “oh” of surprise.

“How about we send the message instead saying that Ulvi has been framed for the murder, and they have someone coming over. Maybe a lawyer? To get him out of trouble?” While the others considered this, Shimazu seemed less taken.

“I say we go with Marius and his idea – ram the house, go in, taser him, load him in the truck and leave. It’s simple, it’s effective, and it gets us out of there quickly. I don’t like the psychological aspects of what we’re trying to do – my gut says it won’t work on him.” Marius twitched, then threw up the drone footage onto the screen, replacing the silent news footage which still showed a whole lot of flashing lights and very little else.

“See here. Standard construction. Local materials. Probably a lightweight block construction with local render applied over the top, simple truss roof. Large windows. It has all the structural integrity of a wet paper bag. My truck WILL go through this, far enough for us to assault him.” Kai chose to ignore the possessive term, and instead asked a question.

“Won’t it make an awful racket crashing through the house?”

“Ahh, I can fix that. I can put an illusion over us, making it look like the normal house and no truck to anyone watching. And I could make a huge noise of sirens and screeching tyres as if someone is being chased down the road to cover it. Maybe some flashing lights off the building – enough to make someone think that there was a police chase outside, but gone by the time they get to the window.”

“And how about, as we leave, we fire one of the RPGs into the front of the house and throw the tube. Sure, cops will come – but they see a massive hole in the house, collapsed bits of building – and a cheap ass RPG lying there, they’re going to see what we want them to see. Cops are lazy mostly – certainly it’s going to take a while to change their minds, and that makes it easier to get away.” Hunter spoke with certainty, pointing out firing angles on the drone surveillance picture. As he did so, Tads sighed, and reached for a blanket.

“Get me the things. Everyone with clips and stuff as well, let’s get rid of the forensic evidence….”

An RPG was pulled from the stash in the back, followed by numerous clips and magazines, knives, electronic gizmos… after she had finished casting the team ensured they gloved up and then reclaimed their gear.

“On the way out then, let’s send a message from one of the phones, saying that Ulvi was involved in the hit and the politician is coming for you – but after the ram. That way it can be found by the investigators, and throw them even more off the scent.” This time everyone agreed with Kai’s plan, and he warmed up a phone, ready to go.

“Are you sure you can hit the building hard enough to go through, and stop before you run the guy over on his couch?”

“Trust me, Aswon. I’m an expert.” Marius looked up past the tribesman at a house on the other side of the road. “More curtains twitching. Are we going for this?” Kai nodded, and the team started to buckle in, cinching harnesses tight around them and securing loose objects in the cab, as Marius pulled away and started to close on the house.

Tads clambered into the front seat, ensuring that she could target a stunball into the house without catching anyone else, displacing Shimazu into the back. As they looked around, they realised there were only five of them in the cab. Kai glanced into the back, looking with concern for Nadia and Aswon – and saw her pulling blankets and pillows into one of the bottom bunks as she wedged herself in under a couple of spare flak jackets, while Aswon wedged himself into position, wrapped up in his hammock like a crash-net.

“All secure – go!”

The truck accelerated, the diesel engine roaring as it ponderously picked up speed. Marius nursed it around the sweeping bends, the parked cars flashing by the cab with little clearance on either side. 

They roared up the road and then swung off into the driveway. Kai hit the send button, then crunched down into a braced position as the house loomed up. He winced – he couldn’t help it. They were doing over 50kph and heading straight for a house. At the last moment, Marius did something – something that probably defied perception for anyone that wasn’t rigged into the vehicle, truly at one with the machine. The front left wheel jammed the brakes on full, clamping down on the wheel with massive shoes. The heat spiked dramatically as the ceramic disks heated up under the friction, glowing cherry red after fractions of a second. The three wheels down the right hand side of the truck jacked up in unison, blasts from the shock absorbers forcing the truck body up and the wheels down into the ground, until they reversed almost immediately. The impetus of the movement pulled the wheels up into the air, and friction on the right hand side of the truck dropped to almost zero.

In accordance with the laws of physics the truck yawed immediately, the back end kicked round, orbiting the pivot point of the front left wheel. In slow motion, Marius saw the heading come around – heading closer and closer to the bearing that would see him intersect the front of the house. As he got close, the shocks on the left side of the truck fired, slamming it over to the right, and the brakes released. All six wheels hit the ground, spinning and leaving a metre long set of tyre tracks gouged into the driveway, before a moment later they struck the front of the house.

A sickening crash ripped through the cab, and everyone was flung forward into the harnesses. The truck hit like a wrecking ball, barrelling into the structure of the house and shattering it, blowing it inwards as the armoured cab plowed into the front room and entrance corridor. The dividing wall struck the cab, plasterboard and plastic shattering under the impact and giving way in huge sections from the torque. Tads gritted her teeth and threw her power into the phantasm spell, throwing up a bubble around them and blasting out the sound of police sirens, copying what she’d heard from the news report earlier.

As they drove in, Marius felt bumps and grinds from the front wheels as they rolled over rubble and debris, building struts and material. Then he felt something softer, something much more compressible, as the wheel ground over a human body, smooshing it into paste. Oops! 

They slowed, and came to a halt, and the roof came down on the cab, the weight resting on the top hatch now that the support of the front wall had been removed. Inside the scene was confused and chaotic – plaster dust still falling from the ceiling along with lathes and bits of material, lights blinking, the flashing from the huge trid sending strobes of red and blue light across the room. There were four almost simultaneous clicks as the safety harnesses were released and the team grabbed weapons and deployed from the truck.

Hunter and Shimazu slid out of the doors to the left, Shimazu diving forwards with sword and taser in hand, Hunter backing him up with his pistol raised. Aswon slid out of the door to the right, actually dropping down the side of the truck head first, crawling down into cover behind the large couch. As they started to move, their eyes were drawn to movement in the chaos within – servants running for cover away from the death machine that had just smashed through the front of the house, and what looked like Mammadova rolling towards the trid – not diving for cover, but actually rolling in a controlled fashion.

In the truck, Tads took one glance at the madness and then climbed over the seat, heading back for her normal position. There was no way she was going to get everyone in sight at once, and the rest of the team were encroaching anyway – casting a spell would do more harm than good.

The air was rent by two loud gunshots, as a pistol appeared in Mammadova’s hand, rounds punching through the sofa. The second one slammed into Aswon, shattering on his armour having been slowed by the passage through the heavy frame of the sofa. Hunter heard the shots and adjusted to the right, moving forward to cover the couch, his pistol held in a two handed weaver stance. Next to him Shimazu moved forward, knees bent almost double as he crabbed forward, keeping out of line of sight. Aswon rolled to the side, moving away from his previous position and training his weapon towards his unseen foe.

As one of the servants fled through the door into the kitchen, a large figure loomed around the corner, raising a machine pistol towards Hunter. Huge sinewy muscles clamped down tight as the finger depressed the trigger, firing fully automatic towards the large ork. Bullets ripped into him from hip to shoulder, as the recoil made the muzzle climb. Each of the bullets were light, without much energy but the kinetic shock and impact force spun Hunter around, forcing him to pirouette across the debris, tripping and ending up sprawled on the floor, facing back towards the truck. Blood oozed out of the tiny holes in his armour that some of the fragments had punched, but the worst injury was to his ego. 

Shimazu sprang off one foot, charging towards the new threat with his sword held in a high guard position. He covered the three metres quickly and bought the sword slashing down, trying to eviscerate him. The sword bit deep, dragging through the armoured overalls the target was wearing, but then slowed as it hit the flesh below, instead of opening a massive wound, the cut was shallow and superficial. The figure twisted, the machine pistol tracking from Hunter towards Shimazu instead.

Aswon sprang to his feet and pointed his gun at Mammadova, and shouted at him over the noise of gunfire and collapsing house.

“DON’T!” his weapon was trained right onto his forehead, and he looked down the sights, trying to make it clear that he had him bang to rights.

Hunter span over onto his front and raised his pistol – taking careful aim at the figure that had drilled him with auto-fire. He aimed carefully past the weaving Shimazu and his sword, and fired a single shot, hitting the figure centre mass. Rather than crumpling, with blood pouring from his gut wound, the figure seemed unaffected – not even taking a step back. Definitely cyber-augmented in some way, Hunter thought.

In the cab, Marius checked the surveillance drone, spotting two people looking out into the street, one from their doorway, one from a window. Neither were looking at their house, so he relaxed, swinging the drone around to get a good view of the area. In the back Tads suddenly flinched as she took an elbow to the face, as Nadia climbed over her from the rear of the truck, submachine gun in hand.

“Hey! Watch it!” she rubbed at her temple, leaning to the side in her harness as Nadia’s feet kicked past her as she struggled out to join the fray.

Next to the kitchen the figure thrust his machine pistol into Shimazu’s chest and depressed the trigger once more. Shimazu’s sword thrust forward, taking advantage of the complete lack of defence posed by his opponent. The sword thrust deeply into the side of the figure, penetrating the armour and opening up a huge flap of skin. Hot blood cascaded from the wound but he couldn’t hear the grunt of pain – the ten lightweight rounds chattering from the pistol filled his head with ringing. The light bullets were scarcely out of the barrel when they hit his chest plates, shattering after imparting their kinetic energy into the dense polymers and Kevlar weave. As round after round punched into him he was forced to take a step back, then another, and a third. Pain lanced through his guts as fragments of bullets poked through the dense weave, opening up scores of cuts in his stomach. 

Kai threw himself down from the cab onto the couch and faced Mammadova, modulating his voice;

“FREEEZE!!!” To underscore his point he shot him with his taser, twice. Thousands of volts coursed through the Mafia boss, and his body went into spasm, then dropped to the floor, twitching and frothing. Tads looked around, and saw the situation was marginally under control internally, but could see the curious neighbours on the screen, relayed from Marius’s drone. She dispatched some watcher spirits to distract them.

“Go and annoy those people, and stop them looking at us. Quickly” They flew away, and she had a sudden thought, shouting after them, “Don’t be seen!” She hoped they heard her….

Shimazu raised his taser, figuring that he’d been pushed back out of combat, so he might as well make the most of it. He fired the first shot, but between one hand steadying himself from the pain of his wounds, and the lurching of his target, the prongs flew harmlessly overhead. He adjusted aim and fired again, this time striking true and seeing his target start to shake as his muscles clenched in response to the flow of electricity through them.

Across the room, Aswon saw Mammadova go down and turned to his left, spotting Shimazu firing at his target. The rifle swung round, and the target’s head filled his scope, enormous at this short range. By instinct the trigger pulled, and the Purdey belched a shot, taking the target in the throat and destroying most of the neck. The body crumpled to a heap on the floor, blood spraying from the severed arteries in a fountain up the wall.

“Ok, clear up, out of here in 30 seconds!” shouted Kai, then moved towards Mammadova, grabbing his shoulders and spinning him around. Aswon moved to quickly check his pockets, finding his car keys and ditching them as soon as he saw the fingerprint scanner built into them – much as he wanted to have the car away, that was going to make it too complicated for a fast getaway. Instead he grabbed the feet, helping Kai drag the body towards the truck.

Hunter grabbed the ID, machine pistol and phone from the corpse by the kitchen, then headed for the truck, hot on the heels of Shimazu. In the cab, Tads pulled on her respirator and goggles – any second now a bunch of people stinking of cordite were going to enter the truck, and she didn’t want to have to deal with the headache. She’d never even known she was allergic to gunpowder until she’d started on her walkabout.

When everyone was back aboard, Marius started to back out, listening carefully and watching the sensors. He felt the weight of the roof on the cab, and as he started to move could detect the eaves catching on the back of the hatch. The truck lurched forwards, throwing everyone in the cab around for a moment, and as he felt the roof lift as the cab pushed it up, threw it into reverse and backed out swiftly. As he cleared the house with a shrieking of timber and ceramics, the roof collapsed down, sagging almost to ground level. Marius slammed the brakes on and saw a shower of debris slide off the roof of the cab.

“Hunter, you’re up.” The ork grinned and heaved the hatch to the side, and stood up, RPG in hand. He aimed down at the house and fire, the warhead hurtling across the few metres and impacting on the remains of the front wall, blowing tiles and timber up in the air and finishing off the structural integrity of the roof entirely. Carefully he threw the launching tube to the side, making sure it landed clear of the truck, on the side of the building where it would be easily found.

Marius accelerated backwards down onto the street as Hunter climbed back inside, and then floored it, accelerating madly away from the scene of the crime. Tads breathed heavily inside her mask, the filter on the respirator stopping the particles entering her airways but making her sounds like a sci-fi villain instead – but it gave her the concentration she needed to modify her spell and make them look like a heavy construction vehicle – with the Mammadova livery splashed down the side.

In the front, Shimazu pulled open his jacket, wincing as sharp stabs of pain ripped at him as shards of ripped plating pulled out of the flesh. He grabbed the medkit and stabbed around the wounds, injecting dose after dose of novocaine until it started to feel numb and distant. He probed at the wound with gloved fingers – it mostly seemed fine, now that he’d dug all the splinters out, so he sprayed antiseptic over it and then pulled out a big patch of synthskin, peeled the backing off and slapped it over his stomach, sealing the wound.

The truck hit the edge of the district and the main road, and accelerated south, out of the city, away from the ranch and their home turf – just in case. 

Mammadova lay on the floor in the rear of the compartment, Nadia keeping an eye on him with her SMG aimed at his legs, as they headed out into the wilderness, looking for a nice ravine to turn off into, or a trail off into some woodland. Somewhere nice and quiet, secluded and with no chance of interruptions.

It was time to have a chat with Mr Mammadova…


	90. 090 - risk vs reward

Date Friday 20/02/2060, Location 39.85396, 48.97281

As the truck rumbled through the chill morning air, Marius transferred just enough attention back to the physical world to check the jammer was plugged in and working correctly. The display showed it was broadcasting on a wide spectrum, drawing power from the truck’s systems and blasting out noise across huge swathes of the electromagnetic spectrum. The road was quiet and deserted at this time, so no passing motorists noticed a travelling bubble of disruption and loss of service.

The road was quiet enough that Marius just kept half an eye on the driving and started to tweak the jammer, opening up a narrow band and excluding the frequency of his satellite uplink and the teams encrypted comms network. It only took a few minutes to set up, and ensure that the frequency hopping ear-buds stayed inside the clear areas – but now the team could chat freely and still be reasonably certain that their captive couldn’t call for help when he regained consciousness.

Hunter was checking the map, scrolling and zooming around, an intense look of concentration on his face as he studied the limited information on the screen. They were about 15 kilometres south of Shirvan when he asked Marius to slow, and then turn off the road. They travelled a short way along a farmer’s track, and slowly descended into a defile with a shallow stream running through it, until they were below the level of the road, masked to both the north and south by earth, with their view constrained to a narrow angle front and back – where it would be easy to spot anyone approaching.

As soon as they stopped, Aswon dismounted from the truck, carrying his Purdey, and started to climb the slope. On reaching the top, he found a convenient tree and swiftly climbed up into the boughs, his tattoos glowing briefly as he called upon their power. Even though the trees were devoid of leaves this early in the year, his drab clothing blended into irregular shape and he was all but invisible in the dark.

Back in the truck, Tads moved to examine Mammadova. She stared at him for a full thirty seconds, thinking about what he had done, how he treated people, and the kind of son he’d raised and what he in turn had done to the people in the local town. Rage built within her, her contempt and disgust with the actions of a monumental bully building upon her dislike for him, becoming a seething whirlpool of emotion within her. She reached down, tapping the storm of power and channelled it, forcing it into Mammadova’s unresisting mind, shaping his thoughts and mental reactions.

“Fear… compliance…doubt…uncertainty…obedience…powerlessness,” She muttered under her breath, pushing those feelings into him, repeating her mantra. The magic wound its way into his mind, forcing neurons into new alignments and changing his reactions. A moment of doubt entered her mind, as she thought about how her totem had reacted previously to her use of magic to defeat the Mafia – but was just as quickly vanquished. This was the head of the snake. The cause of the suffering, no teenager trapped in the only path available to him – this was a man who chose to walk down a dark and twisted path. She continued to pour power into him, until she was left feeling hollow and empty, and sat back on the bunk silently contemplating him.

On the other side of the truck, Kai laid out a selection of medical equipment, like he’d seen once in a movie where someone had been interrogated – he hoped Mammadova had seen the same film. He glanced over at Tads and saw her nod silently at him, then finished arranging his ‘tools’ carefully.

“Nadia, can you go through his phone, see if you can find anything interesting – particularly if he actually does have any contact with Aliyev. “ Nadia nodded, and grabbed his phone from the small pile of possessions, and swiped his thumb across the sensor to unlock it, before moving into the front to work on the passphrase with Marius. They were soon attaching it to their deck and running the decryption utility on the security database, brute forcing their way into his private records.

“So – how are we going to do this?” Kai looked over at Tads first then at Shimazu.

“We can try to push him out of his comfort zone. Make him experience something really weird. We could… I don’t know. Paint him a funny colour, like a human sacrifice to dark gods or something like that. Make him think we’re cannibals and we’re going to ritually consume him. That should freak him out…”

Kai and Tads stared at Shimazu with open mouths at the bizarre idea, then their eyes swivelled to the doorway to the cab as Nadia appeared.

“That’s crazy – and not in a good way. That’s not going to push him out of his comfort zone – that’s just weird. He’s used to wielding power, and having absolute control – THAT is what you need to take away. Stop him from communicating, stop him from having power, and take away control from him. NOT painting him a funny colour and pretending to eat him.” She disappeared into the front again, and the muttering got quieter as she settled back down with Marius to work on his phone.

“I could levitate him, hold him in mid-air?” Tads offered. “That takes away a lot of his control. If he’s got his hands tied behind him, and he can’t move, or spin, that should make him feel powerless.” Kai nodded approvingly and Tads concentrated for a moment and they watched as the body slowly levitated into empty space, suspended on an invisible cushion of force.

“Well, ok, we got him out of the house, we could still play it that we’re the rescue squad – come to get him away from some scheme or something? We can just play it by ear I suppose?” Kai mused, starting at Mammadova, still slumbering quietly.

“Pretend to be his friend, let him think he can buy his way out of this? Offer him the prospect of power again,” shouted Marius from the front of the truck. A moment later, Nadia appeared in the doorway again and stared at Shimazu.

“You still have those horrible leeches, right? Well, if there’s a time to put one on someone and then flick salt at them, that’s probably now.”

“Oooh – yes. I mean they look nasty – but it’s a magical creature. And we’ve seen very little magic around here at all. He’s almost certainly not used to dealing with magic, or have a handle on magical threats. That’s going to do the trick.” Hunter smiled broadly, almost rubbing his hands together in glee, while the others looked considering or vaguely horrified.

Hunter got up and poked at Mammadova’s belly, wincing as he did so.

“Right about here, I reckon.”

Kai ignored him and gently poked Hunter in the side, drawing another wince and a sharp indrawn breath.

“Sit. Looks like you took a few more rounds in the armour than you let on.”

Kai and Shimazu moved round to Hunter and helped him strip off his armoured vest, carefully peeling back the blood stained fabric and Kevlar/ceramic strips. The side of the ork was perforated in multiple places where fragments of the light pistol rounds had burrowed through the armour into the flesh. Deep red viscous blood oozed out of the perforations as the compression of the armour was removed.

They worked in silence, struggling to cut away at the tough ballistic fabric of the form fitting armour, to expose the flesh, then working with forceps to remove fragments from the wound before cleaning the area with antiseptic spray. Before the blood could ooze out again, they inserted sterile packing material into the holes and covered the area with synth-skin, then a layer of cushioned dressings. It only took a few minutes, but afterwards the winces of pain were gone and he was moving much easier.

Shimazu had been concentrating on his work so much he’d not spotted Tads come up behind him and use her magical talent to heal his scrapes and shallow wound, the golden light from her hands mostly covering his back and side, out of his line of sight. She moved back quietly, sitting back down without a word and returning her full concentration on keeping Mammadova floating.

Shimazu grabbed a jar, and found a set of tongs to handle them with, and sat staring at the large black glistening shapes as they oozed around the jar, chasing after the small amount of foliage and trace of meat that had been dropped in for sustenance.

“Ok, we have cracked the message encryption. There are definitely messages back and forth between the two targets. Including mention of payments.” The loudspeakers in the back relayed the message from Marius, with the strange uninflected tone that indicated the message had come directly from his mind, rather than being physically spoken. Kai hit the intercom button and responded.

“Payments? Which way?”

“Both ways. Never says how much, or what for. So almost certainly bribes, or permits, or for services rendered. Nothing that would stand up in court or for a lawyer, but clear indication of business dealings, and suspicious as hell as they don’t say what for, like a normal person would. We’re reading through more now, and it’s much the same. Discussions of jobs, and things, but without details or with code names. Basic level security or fieldcraft – makes sense as long as you know the context, but otherwise you can’t prove anything.”

Tads peered at Mammadova, then flicked into the astral and examined his body. His head contained the tell-tale black tendrils of cyberware, and his eyes appeared to be solid black lumps. Traces wrapped down his spine and into his limbs, but the majority of stuff was in his head. She told the rest of the team, trying to describe how it looked compared to the things in Hunter or Marius. Although they couldn’t be certain, they agreed that it was probably best to assume that he had communications gear of some sort, and that the jammer should stay on and functioning.

“Do you think we could salvage the stuff in his head and sell it on the second hand market?” Kai asked. There was a resounding silence, then Marius called over the intercom.

“Is this what we’re reduced to? Are we really robbing people for their cyberware now?”

“No, no – you’re right. That’s not what we’re about. Besides, we don’t have the contacts or the equipment.” There was silence again. “Hey – I was joking! But no, let’s not do that.”

Kai tried to wake up Mammadova, pinching and twisting at his flesh on the side of his neck and the back of his hand, but it didn’t wake him. Shimazu reached back behind him and flipped open the fridge, and slid Hunter’s medicine to one side so he could reach into the tiny freezer section at the back. He grabbed a handful of ice cubes and then slid them under Mammadova’s collar. After a moment or two there was a gasp, and the eyelids fluttered and then opened slightly, blinking into the overhead light. His pupils were dilated and unfocussed, still not tracking correctly after the trauma inflicted upon him. Kai looked down at him and smiled.

“Hello, Mr Mammadova.”

“Who the hell are you?”

“Well, at the moment, I’m your captor…” Mammadova spat, a gobbet of phlegm landing on Kai’s cheek and starting to ooze down. Kai remained motionless for a moment, then calmly reached for a tissue.

“Well, I’ll take that as one of your three questions. I was about to say your captor – or possibly your rescue. But we’ll have to see. You may ‘buy back’ one of your questions with a sincere apology.”

“You will get nothing from me you, yellow swine!” Mammadova flexed his shoulders, and they could see his arms testing the bonds behind him. A moment later they saw a look of panic on his face as he realised he wasn’t touching the floor, and had no purchase point. Shimazu turned away and hit the transmit button, whispering into his pickup.

“He’s rattled. The magic has made him feel out of control.” Kai nodded, a broad smile forming on his lips.

“We were sent, Mr Mammadova. Sent by someone…. Higher up the food chain, let’s say. Sent to stop your son from killing Aliyev.”

“My son? Ulvi? Why would he do something like that?” Confusion twisted his features at the news.

“He wanted the power. Someone got to him, Mr Mammadova. Someone told him he could have it all. They used him as a pawn, to take out Alieyev. And then to strike at you. They wanted a puppet they could control.”

“No! That’s a lie. Ulvi would never do that. Would never turn against me!”

“Oh, Mr Mammadova. He did. We have proof. First he turned half of his troops loose on the others, then he started to plunder your accounts and skim off your assets. Then he was to take you out, and take over control of the organisation. With a new politician in his back pocket, he was poised to take over the area and become a real power. So he thought.” The lies spilt from his mouth, but his tone was deadly serious, and the insidious magic that Tads had cast upon the mafia boss went to work, making it seem plausible and even likely to him. 

Kai let the words go to work, the worms of doubt burrowing through Mammadova’s mind, making him think about recent dealings, and see everything in the worst possible light. Doubt, confusion and now anger twisted his features, as his mind worked through the possibilities, shaped by the magic into scenarios that he wouldn’t otherwise consider.

“So. What do you want?”

“We just want to get paid. We were going to get paid to save Aliyev – but Ulvi got ahead of us. We didn’t get told to save you – but we figured that you might want to have a word with Ulvi before he just blew up your house, or your car and killed you.”

“You want money? You’re mercenaries?”

“Freelance operatives, Mr Mammadova, with expenses and bills. But we thought that if you wanted to take control of the situation, then you may be a good person to rescue.”

“Wait, my house? Blown up? My car? MY CAR???”

“Some of the people in your house were in on it – that’s why we had to get you out. But your house can be rebuilt. And don’t worry, your car is fine. The garage is untouched. We couldn’t see that beautiful piece of art damaged by Ulvi’s betrayal.” Mammadova’s relief was obvious at the news that his car was intact, and Kai followed up quickly.

“Of course, we need to move fast. Ulvi doesn’t know what happened to you, not yet. But we don’t want him to decide that you’re dead, and the car is his. We can’t see him driving around in your car, acting like he owns the place.” The relief turned into a scowl as his imagination worked through scenarios, his paranoia sending him to dark places.

“Do you have a safe house, somewhere to go that Ulvi doesn’t know about? We did research on him, but not on you – you were of secondary importance. But we have to get you to somewhere safe if you’re going to deal with Ulvi and stop him stealing your car.”

“Yes, I have somewhere. So what is it you want?”

“Well, that should be obvious. We can be bought – we’re mercenaries, like you said. The question you want to ask is ‘how much is my life worth?’ How much do you want to keep Ulvi from stealing everything you have built up, and worked hard for?” Mammadova was quiet for a moment, but his jaw muscles worked silently as he considered his options.

“I have money in my personal account. If you can get me to a cred-term, or an auto-teller I can get twelve, perhaps thirteen thousand out to pay you. IF you can get me somewhere safe.”

“You can’t do this remotely?”

“No, not unless I use my terminal at home – and Ulvi would be watching that, wouldn’t he?”

“Yes, that’s right. Ok, so twelve to thirteen thou, that’s a good start. What else? Do you want your car saving as well?” The jaw muscles worked again, and they saw his body tremble in rage. The spell was obviously working, as he wasn’t questioning the integrity of what he was being told, just assuming the worst about Ulvi.

Kai held up a finger to Mammadova, then put the other finger on his ear-bud and pretended to listen to someone. After a few seconds, he waved at Shimazu and the jar.

“Mr Hat, our employer says Mr Mammadova is holding out on us, and that maybe he doesn’t appreciate the seriousness of the situation. Please bring out one of the magical beasts.” He looked down at Mammadova and sadly shook his head. “I’m very sorry, I thought we were going to be able to come to an arrangement. But my employer says you need to be reminded of the situation you’re in.”

Shimazu unscrewed the jar and removed one of the leeches with the tongs, holding the glistening black body carefully and turning it in the light. Kai pulled up Mammadova’s top and unbuttoned the bottom shirt buttons, exposing his belly.

“I’m very sorry about this. I’m not even sure what they do. All we’ve been told is that they’re some kind of horrible magical creature that feeds on their host, and infests them.” Kai gave a little shudder and turned away slightly. “Proceed, Mr Hat.”

“No! WAIT! I have more. I mean I can get more. You CANNOT DO THIS!” Shimazu paused, the leech hovering 30cm over the belly. Kai turned back and listened, politely and intently.

“My business. There is money in the checking account. Nearly thirty thousand. I can get that, from the bank. I can give you that, to get me somewhere safe so I can deal with that bastard.” Already they could hear the change in his voice. The team were not the enemy now – Ulvi was. He was turning his attention on what he needed to do to *get him*, to deal with the traitorous and wayward son. 

Kai looked down again, then suddenly gasped, and once more held a finger to his ear.

“You’re going to have to do better. My employer’s patience is not without limit, and he says that your cyberware alone would fetch us more than thirty thousand. Please hold still, Mr Hat, you may continue. Seriously, Mr Mammadova, don’t resist or fight them – apparently it makes it less painful.” Kai’s voice was tinged with regret, but cold and businesslike – as if he’d just ordered a replacement coffee maker or some other inanimate device. Shimazu started to lower the leech again, and the tip of the cold and slimy tail touched onto the hairy flesh just below the belly button.”

“NOOOOOOOOOO! WAIT! I have more! I mean I can get more!!!!”

“I can get more from my tribute account. The money I pay to my boss for my region. There must be nearly a hundred in there. Easily! But, it’s not mine! He will come looking for it – he will hunt you down if you steal from him. But I will give it to you!”

Shimazu lifted the leech back into his jar and screwed on the lid, then turned away to store them on the shelf. Under cover of the motion, he activated his mic again.

“He sounds like he’s telling the truth to me. Lots of tells on his face, and there is a definite split in personality between dealing with us and talking about Ulvi. I think that’s all he’s got immediately available.”

“Who is your boss, Mr. Mammadova? Who would you be taking the money from?”

“Gregori Peggario, of course”

“Oh, of course. Well, that doesn’t sound like a plan.” He sighed heavily, then ‘listened’ to his earbud again. “Well, it’s not ideal, but we’ve been authorised to help you, for the money from your own account and the company. We can get you to a safe house, and bring you the two nephews that were not in on the plan, to help against Ulvi. But you have to tell us that you will deal with Ulvi, and stop him from taking over your business and stealing your car.”

They listened to the stream of assurances and profanity as Mammadova swore bloody vengeance on the son who would betray him to unknown organisations. Nadia quietly suggested to them during his tirade that they drive south to the next major town and use the bank there – to cut down on the chance that he had some kind of personal relationship with the staff or that they would recognise that he was under duress. 

The truck headed south towards the town, and during the journey they worked up a “doodad”, a small project box with some flashing lights on and a coil antenna. Mammadova was informed that this was his personal jammer, and it would stop Ulvi and his men tracking him down to strike at him until they had gotten to a place of safety. Once they had the money from the bank, they would use their equipment to allow him to make untraceable calls to mobilise his forces and call in his trustworthy men. 

The journey to Lankaran was uneventful, and they covered the 160km in a few hours, pulling up on the edge of the town to wait for dawn and the bank to open. Mammadova had sunk into a sullen silence, and the team remained quiet, dozing or keeping an eye on him in turn. Slowly the minutes slipped by, and the sky lightened in the east as the winter night gave way to morning. Traffic slowly picked up as people made their way into work or to the markets, though it was no bustling metropolis. Hunter kept an eye on the news, which was still showing the same segments of outdoor footage, showing the politicians house and the police line, with the reporters talking about what could have happened – it was clear that no precise details had been revealed. In between news updates, he sent a quick text to the new number for Jules, asking if everything was ok.

Eventually, the clock showed 09:15, and Kai decided to go to the bank. Kai sculpted his face to look like a fairly non-descript local, and put on his disguise clothes again. He and Mammadova climbed down from the truck and headed into the bank, where he strode up to one of the desks and informed the young man there that he was making a withdrawal, from both a personal and a business account. 

Kai watched carefully, keeping an eye out for tricks or alarm signals, but after Mammadova gave a thumbprint ID, entered his 8 digit code and dashed a quick electronic signature across the pad, he was gratified to see a transfer of first thirteen thousand, and then twenty six thousand Nuyen flow over onto the supplied certified stick. Mammadova nodded curtly at the bank employee, and left without another word, Kai trailing after him with the credstick now holding nearly forty thousand extra. As they got back into the truck, Mammadova turned to face him.

“Ok, I have paid. You’ll take me to the safe house now, yes? In Hajgabul? With my nephews?”

“Yes, we’ll take you to your nephews, and you’ll be safe with them.” Kai swirled his finger around in a “wind it up” motion, and the truck rumbled into life and pulled away, heading north back towards Shirvan. They made their along the road sedately, just travelling slow and steady. They’d gone about half the distance back to Shirvan, and the team and their guest were all relaxed – or as relaxed as they were going to get. Kai turned and smoothly pulled out the taser, and shot Mammadova in the side of the head, frying synapses and driving him back into unconsciousness before he could respond or even recognise what was going on.

“Ok, let’s find somewhere to pull off the road and get rid of the body. Shimazu, can you deal with him please.”

“No! Not in the truck if you don’t mind. The stain on astral space is horrible to deal with. If you’re going to kill him, do it outside!” Tads folded her arms and looked defiant, and Shimazu and Aswon both nodded in agreement with her. Kai shrugged and acceded, not really caring either way. It didn’t take long to find a deserted piece of road and Marius carefully pulled over to the side. It didn’t take more than a couple of minutes for them to dig a shallow grave, and carry Mammadova out to it. His body was ziptied into position and pushed down into the hole, ensuring that he’d be under the surface completely. Hunter checked his head carefully, examining the cybereyes and the interfaces. He frowned, and then grabbed the taser from Kai, and carefully lined up the prods with the inputs of the datajack, and fired again after making sure nobody was touching the body. 

Lightning arced and the smell of burnt flesh filled the air as he kept the trigger pressed in, emptying the capacitors completely, and for a moment, a small flame actually flared out of Mammadova’s left eye as electrical circuits burnt out. When Hunter checked again, he nodded and grunted in approval. The massive blast of energy should have overloaded all of the circuits, way past the normal levels of shielding and protection built in – and if he had any internal footage of their discussions over the last day, they should be well and truly scrambled and burnt out.

Shimazu leant in and sliced off a generous chunk of his buttock, earning some dirty looks from the rest of the team, but they understood – even if they didn’t like it – when he dropped the fresh flesh into the jar with the leeches, who soon oozed their way over to the succulent gift and started to devour it. As Shimazu put them back into the truck, Tads cast her sterilise spell over Mammadova’s body, cleansing it of their traces. Once he’d fed the leeches, Shimazu returned to the body and leant over, sliding a large clear plastic bag over his head and another tie zipped shut around his neck. They saw the body spasm as they were covering it over with wet sods of earth, but it had stopped by the time he was covered in a shallow layer of earth, and they were back on their way soon after.

They were back through Shirvan and pulling into the ranch driveway when Hunter’s commlink buzzed – a text message from Jules confirmed that ‘all is good’. Hunter replied, asking him if he could talk, but Jules signalled that now was not a good time, and later would be better. They parked up, leaving the truck just in front of the trailer and returning to the house, checking that the family were ok and settling down for a drink around the long dining room table. Hunter checked the news again, and then updated the team.

“Ok, they’ve released some details. Confirmed that there was a terrorist incident, and that at least one person has been killed, though they’re not confirming who it was. One person has been rushed to hospital with life-changing injuries, again no details released. Lots of supposition that it must be the politician otherwise it wouldn’t be so secretive. Based off that, there’s lots of political commentary about the situation – appears our man Aliyev was on a lot of business committees and steering groups in their parliament, and he was well tied in with industry. They’re saying if he is dead, it could lead to some shift in the political spectrum and changes in business practices…”

They considered this, and idly discussed what it could mean for a few minutes, with the general consensus being that if there was any chance of a change in situation, Ares would probably be happy, and Jules would get some credit for making it happen, rather than getting shafted for leaking Ares corporate data – so that was good.

Kai decided to give their part-time policemen from Hajgabul a call, to check in with them. He got through quickly, and asked them how everything was, hearing that things in town were good – they were all getting back to normal, and people were much happier than they had been for a while. Kai talked about the situation in Shirvan, and made it clear without saying explicitly that the situation in the news was “related” to what had happened in their town, and not to worry about the Mafia so much anymore. They seemed quietly optimistic, informing him that they would keep their heads down, but ears open.

Kai smiled as he hung up then turned to face the team.

“Right, all good on the local front. One last loose end to tie up then – sorting out Vusul’s family, and making sure Tads is happy.” Tads smiled at him, but also looked nervous, her uncertainty over the ‘right thing to do’ radiating from her.

“That’s good to hear – I’m still not entirely sure what we need to be doing.” She saw Marius start to scowl. “I know we need to do something – I just don’t know exactly what it is we need to do. Not specifically anyway. Just generally.”

“We know Tads, we know. But if we work on getting them a better life – making things nicer for them, and trying to repair their family, that’s the sort of thing, right?” He watched her nod emphatically at him.

“I just want to point out, again, that I am against you involving my family in this. The chances of it all going wrong are too high.” Nadia held onto Marius’s arm as she spoke, using him as moral support. Nobody was surprised to hear her say it, and she’d been strident, and constant enough about it that they figured she really was entirely serious by now.

“Ok, that’s fine Nadia. But let’s take a step back here and figure out what we need to do. Tads – don’t worry about what we need to do for a moment, instead, tell us about Elk.”

“Elk is a gentle and wise protector. He is a guardian of the pack, of the herd, of the land. He stands majestic before his opposition, proud and willing to stand against evil. When there is no threat to be faced, he wanders the land in deep contemplation, learning of the natural order and the spirits of the land. Elk fears little as he knows that when he falls, another will replace him. He is no predator, but will stand strong against oppression.” As she spoke, Tads seemed to relax, her eyes defocussing. Her voice took on a strange cadence, and it appeared as though she was reciting something that had been taught to her a long time ago. Realisation seemed to wash over her as she did so.

“Elk doesn’t have a problem with using magic to kill when we need to. But we used magic to stun them – then executed them while they were helpless. We butchered them – but we didn’t need to. Not all of them. This Vusul – he was young. He was walking down a dark path, that would lead him to evil – but he wasn’t too far along yet. He could have been saved. Should have been saved.”

“I have a horrible feeling that perhaps what you need to do is go find the family and confess what you’ve done, admit the mistake and try to put it right. At least from the sounds of things.” Aswon had his hands interlaced together under his chin, trying to work out what he felt was the right course of action from her description of her totem. “If we can get the family back on their feet, back on a good path – then we’ve done the honourable thing. If we put ourselves out, and help them, then we repay the debt we owe.”

“Yes, exactly, Aswon – we need to offer them better choices, or opportunities. We can’t make them walk the path, and if they turn away then that’s their choice. But we have to offer them this chance.”

“Can I just point out, that you want to be careful how you approach this. If someone turned up at my door, and said they’d killed my son or brother, they were very sorry, but here’s this big chunk of money, or offered me a chance to go with them to some strange place for a new life – I’d tell them where to go. That sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.” Shimazu glanced around the table, getting nods from them as he laid out the logic. Tads didn’t want to agree, but had to, when he put it like that. 

“Hang on a second…. Nadia. If we’re making the assumption that he’s from a Muslim family – isn’t there the concept of paid reparations for crimes against a person? Culturally I mean?”

“Hmm? Well, yes, Aswon, sort of. It’s…. complicated. But yes, diya is a thing.”

“What is complicated about it? We killed him, we pay them money, then it’s a done thing. Simple.”

“Well no. As a male, he’s worth full diya – if it had been a woman, then only half as much. And if it turns out that he wasn’t a practicing Muslim, then he’s worth less in the eyes of the court. If he was a Jew, or a Buddhist or something, then maybe only one sixteenth. And it depends on the approved cost of livestock, as diya is always measured in terms of values of a camel. No, seriously – I’m not making it up.” She punched Marius on the arm as he snorted, and Hunter just let rip with a belly laugh at the idiocy of the system. “So, no, it’s not simple. But there is a precedent for it, and it might help."

“So, if it’s a thing, can we go get the family, tell them something, get them up here and get them working on the ranch for a while, to sort themselves out? I know the ranch isn’t making money at the moment, but we can sort that out for a while.” Aswon fixed Nadia with a stare, as he laid out his question, waiting for her to nod agreement.

“And if we get the matrix connection sorted for the ranch, we can try to ensure the children get a proper education as well, on the home schooling sites. To give them a chance, too.” Tads added. Kai called for Rusudan, who appeared out of the office at the other end of the ranch, and questioned him about the viability of taking on a few staff to help out.

“Alas no Kai, I don’t think we can. We have barely enough to keep us supplied, and very few bookings. I wish we could help, but cannot see a way to do it.”

“Ahh, well this should help then. First of all this is a certified stick – it definitely has money on it this time.” Kai gave a lopsided grin as he handed the credstick over. “So that’s just short of twenty thousand to cover the running costs of the ranch, including the extra mouths to feed. And secondly, we have a VIP coming sometime soon, so we’d like for her to have a fantastic experience – I’m sure we’ll get some more bookings from that.” Rusudan seemed stunned, but accepted the stick and wandered off to make arrangements for a spare room.

With that sorted out, they agreed that Tads, Nadia, Shimazu and Kai would go into Shirvan and go see the family. Shimazu drove the new truck, making sure the load bed was clear and clean to accommodate the return trip. When they arrived at the slums, Nadia took the lead, knocking on the door firmly, while the others stood to the side, keeping an eye on the street and staring back at the watching locals, while Shimazu stayed behind the wheel.

When the door was opened, Nadia greeted the woman with a smile, asking if she could come in to talk about Vusul. The woman looked nervous at seeing the strangers, but opened the door wider, inviting them into the house. They filed in, moving to stand against the wall in the suddenly cramped bedsit, watching the young children back up into the corner on their nest of blankets and clothes. The room smelt of unwashed bodies, stale food and dirt – and now they could see physically, it was plain to see that the bathroom was not functional and was filthy, and they were using water from bottles in the kitchenette.

Nadia smiled at the woman briefly, then grasped her hand in both of hers, and began to talk to her about the local mafia, and how they had angered businessmen and politicians. She spoke firmly, and without pause, making sure she wasn’t interrupted. What she said was true – but missed out huge parts of the story, and didn’t implicate the team directly. Instead she described the actions of the Mafia, and how Vusul had been swept along with them, and how despite his youth, he had fallen prey to the enemies of the Mafia. 

The woman was crying now, while the children looked on uncertainly, picking up on their mother’s distress without understanding why. Nadia continued to talk to her, telling her that the team felt responsible, that they should have been able to save Vusul, recognising that he was not really a bad man – but they had been a little too late. But they knew that Vusul was only doing this to save his family and to look after them – and that he was only doing the bad things because of his love for them all. As a result, the team wanted to take them to a new place, just north of Shirvan – where they could get work, legitimate work, that would let them rebuild their lives. It was a chance to start over, like Vusul would have wanted…

Kai concentrated on giving a patriarchal nod of approval, and controlled his body to subtly give off a sense of welcome and warmth. They had to answer some questions, but it appeared that she had already come to the conclusion that something was wrong, with the absence of her son. It only took twenty minutes to convince her to join them, and another ten to pack their meagre belongings into bags and load the family up into the truck for the short journey north.

Once they were back to the ranch, Vusul’s mother and sisters were welcomed by Naena and Eteri, and taken upstairs to get settled into a room and given a hot bath. With the two families working on settling in, the team settled back down around the dining room table.

“Right – hopefully that’s sorted out then. I don’t know if you can ask your Totem about this Tads, or we just have to wait and see – but unless we find out anything more, hopefully it’s dealt with.” Kai glanced at Tads and saw her shrug, then nod at him. “So, we’ve been busy for the last while, I’m thinking that maybe we need to settle down, keep a low profile and take a week to ourselves to rest, recharge, practice new skills and take stock – and keep off the radar.”

As he looked around the table, he saw nods of agreement all around.

“I can finish learning my spells, and see if I can talk to my totem. Maybe try and hide my astral trail somewhat from the people looking for me.”

“I can try to increase my mastery of my body, and practice with my spear and see if I can gain some proficiency with it? Maybe we can spar, Shimazu?”

“Sure, I can do some practice with my sword too. Combat is combat, and it might be good for me to practice against someone with a reach advantage.”

“I was planning on learning some more Chinese, and practicing with my throwing knives” added Hunter.

“I’ll join you with the study on the Chinese language – it’s probably going to be useful for getting some cheaper imported parts for vehicles and drones. And otherwise we can work on the truck and the vehicles.” Marius motioned to himself and Nadia.

“And I can probably do with some practice with the old pistol – we’ve got plenty of cheap ammo haven’t we, Hunter?” Kai smiled as Hunter snorted and nodded agreement. “Ok, so that’s decided then. Let’s take a week, get some rest, then we’ll look for some more work from somewhere. Make the most of it!”

The team pushed back from the table and split up, heading out to gather equipment and find somewhere to practice, learn, study or relax in.


	91. 091 - A call from Patrick

Date Saturday 28/02/2060, Location 40.02419, 48.95808

The team split up, or settled into small groups. Aswon and Shimazu sparred against each other, spending hours trying new techniques, standing and watching each other, making small suggestions about foot positions or weight distribution, as well as watching badly jumping video over the narrow matrix connection. After putting up with this for a while, Aswon called Kai and told him they needed a better matrix feed sorting, so Kai had a word with Rusudan to get the wheels in motion. Rusudan was more than happy of course – the mafia that had plagued him having been decimated over the course of a few days, and enough money to keep the family going for a year having been given to him the previous night.

Hunter set himself up a target near the vehicle, and spent hours honing his skills with his throwing knives, while calling out to Marius in Chinese while he worked on the vehicle, Marius gradually picking up the basics as he did so. In the distance they could hear the regular crack of pistol rounds as Kai shot at another target set up in a small gulch, firing hundreds of rounds of the cheap and nasty ammunition they’d confiscated or collected over their travels. He wasn’t going to get great performance out of them, but they were more than good enough for him to practice his quick draw, shooting and the dirty nature of the cartridges meant he had to break down and clean his pistol a lot more often, which in this case wasn’t a bad thing.

Tads finished studying her spell formula, until she’d finally understood and memorised the incantations necessary to learn her spell, then set to creating her new lodge in the truck, listening in idly as Hunter and Marius chatted in Chinese around her. 

They met up for an evening meal, chatting away and discussing their day with each other, talking with Rusudan and his family, and the new additions to the ranch. Vusul’s mother – Gungul – was the most involved, while the two younger girls, Inje and Jeyran were quiet and withdrawn, still obviously uncomfortable to some extent with the situation. Rusudan and his family were doing their best to make them welcome, and both the young girls seemed to have taken a shine to the horses, which gave them something to talk about.

The following morning, they split up once again, and headed off to their chosen areas to work on their skills. 

Tads entered the trailer, accompanied by a moderate size of spirit of the small area of plains-land that surrounded the ranch buildings. “Guard and protect my body and all people currently on this area of land, please?” The ethereal horse with grasses instead of hair nodded to her and wandered off to watch its newly designated herd until sunset. Trying to prepare for all contingencies, she straightened the loose body armour, settled herself in the harness, made sure all the clips were secure, and put on the mask and goggles which protected her somewhat from the noxious outpourings of her comrades’ guns. As a finishing touch, she added the coms device, then a climbing helmet and elbow and knee pads then pulled on the cable that closed the lodge off from the outside, and tried not to roll her eyes. If the team had to move, well, she was about as ready as she could be, including waking up in a firefight. But hopefully not.

The team knew where she was and that it could be at least a day and maybe more before she was back in her body. She was within the hopefully safe confines of a powerful lodge to her totem, so that should help protect her from the random tracking attempts that she’d been picking up – it would take more power than the seekers had used so far to break through her lodge, and if they added that power now, there was nothing she could do about it. Not that there was lot she could do about it if they overpowered her defences whilst she was in her body, but at least she’d be there to know.

She attempted to settle into a form of meditation, quietly chanting the songs to call the reindeer as she thought through why she was doing this and what she wanted. Setting out on an astral quest without an idea of what you sought was a way to have an interesting life, and the less firm the idea, the more interesting the magic was likely to get. If you survived, it would give you what you sought, of course, but not necessarily as you wanted or in a way that you could understand. Of course, being very specific wasn’t always much better, but being clear on why you’d gone on the quest or what you wanted could make interpreting the results easier. Certainly the questing she’d done in Constantinople whilst learning spells had mostly gone well because she had been specific about either wanting to understand the spells better by delving into how the magics within it wove together to make it work, or to by trading time in the magical plane to focus on the main magical thrusts of the spells to make them less challenging to retain and cast in the future.

This, this wasn’t like that in almost all ways. With spells, she’d known and chosen how much magic to put into the quests. But now, she didn’t know. It was up to trust and judgement. Had she understood her totem correctly, and performed the appropriate actions to make recompense for her mistakes? If she had, this might be a simpler quest. If she hadn’t understood yet, and was getting it all wrong, this had the potential to be much more challenging. That was the first choice, how much power to put into the quest, and in the end that one was easy. Either she was doing it right, or she wasn’t. Elk was the only one who knew, and would be or have already made that judgement. Elk would choose the level of the quest. If she wasn’t getting it right, she’d find out, and better that than adding insult to injury by attempting to stroll in through a low-magic quest if Elk wanted more from her. 

What did she want? Why was she doing this? She cleared her mind and focused on her desires from this quest. “I have offended Elk by misuse of their power. I have attempted to make recompense in the best way I know how. Have I correctly understood how I have caused offence so that I can avoid it in future? Has the recompense that I have attempted to make been appropriate and correct?” With these thoughts, she closed her physical eyes and let the magic take her.

To the Dweller, the keeper of the secrets on the threshold. Or the sharer of secrets if she had come with company. With her current team, that was not going to be possible outside some fairly unique circumstances, so not something she was particularly worried about. The Dweller knew why she was here and what she wanted and if she was firm enough in her intentions, could point her in the right direction. She wasn’t sure about the significance of the Dweller’s outfit this time – it looked like a very old-fashioned, sharp black suit, perhaps a century old in fashion terms, she guessed. He, in this time and place, had paired it with a hat that she thought was called a fedora, and was carrying what looked a smaller version of the musical instrument case that Aswon had used to hide the gun he’d given to Germaine. The antlers springing out of his hat might just be a little inappropriate, or possibly more than appropriate, but she wasn’t going to potentially offend more cosmic beings any further by commenting on that! If he was being respectful to Elk, great. If he was being disrespectful of her reason to be here, then she deserved it.

Something that was undeserved, in Tads’ opinion, was that he was about light up a flamethrower and torch what appeared to be a perfectly innocent patch of forest. She stepped forward with the instinctive, “No!” ringing out to protect the land – that was her charge as a shaman of Elk – help the people and the land grow the best she could. The Dweller certainly understood that, but he was a cosmic being of unimaginable power, at least here in his place, and when he turned to look at her, she breathed once and sought to control herself.

The shadows under the brim of the fedora hid the face, but she could sense the rising eyebrow in surprise/anger at her temerity to tell him what he could or could not do here. This was backed up by the sudden aura of darkness surrounding him, and a tide of unease that washed towards her, and that’s where control and some self-preservation kicked in. Thankfully. “No?” rolled back out from him, deep with menace.

“I mean, I’d really rather you didn’t do that!” She was little surprised at the higher pitch in her voice that made her words come out as a squeak and tried to get back to normal for the following words. “You know I’m an Elk shaman – we protect the land – what else would you expect me to say or how else could I have reacted?” She breathed again, feeling the darkness and unease recede somewhat. “What I said obviously came across very rudely and I apologise for that, but that’s the instinct, and I really would much prefer that you didn’t destroy any patches of forest unless you really had to, real, unreal, or magical. Please?”

He gave the appearance of having rolled his eyes, returning to the unthreatening figure she’d encountered first, before the flamethrower and the trees. “Those instincts may still be right. Would you do better in future to follow them rather than others, huh?” He stepped away, gesturing for her to head into the forest. Tads thanked him, and stepped past, glaring at the flamethrower as she did.

The forest was somewhat familiar. Since this was magic, it very likely was, but whether it was a forest that she should recognise or simply that it had a feeling of familiarity, she might never know. Within the magic, it appeared familiar enough that she knew which trails would lead her back to the village where she was born, and that seemed to be the way to go. If Elk wasn’t at the village, and as a loner, he might not be, something would point her in the right direction. She hoped.

She headed along the trail. This was her quest, what was here, was here and supposed to be, so she didn’t bother to hide, or check for more than obvious tracks, and thus was a little surprised when the quiet whistle – of an arrow – her brain reported – came from ahead of her. Approaching more rapidly than she had time to react to, and – oof! She swore in forest Nenets. Good thing her shamanic furs were thick and appeared to cover the armoured vest which had come with her, else that would have hurt. It’d left a hole through her furs anyway, as the vest had deflected it.

Around a tree up ahead popped a head of a young man, no more than 40 seasons as Nenets counted, or 20 or so in outside terms, with a worried expression on his face as he came out of cover. “I’m sorry, Tadibya!” he called in the same language. “I thought you were one of them.”

“One of whom?” was the obvious question for her to ask, so she did, and he explained about the outsiders who had come and were razing areas of the forest for some mineral underneath. Apparently they’d tried to buy the land for some insulting low price, and with no consideration of where else the tribe might want to go, and been rather upset when their generous offer had been turned down by the elders. Part of Tads shrugged, able to settle almost comfortably into the role the magic had given her here – protector of the land was what she was. The other part remained a little detached, cataloguing the workings of the magic for a normal quest versus one like this so that she would be better prepared for the challenges ahead if she could guess what area of magic each challenge might be based on.

She followed the hunter back to the village, and headed for the meeting place of the shamans. As she entered the village, she stopped and shuddered as her vision swam over the tanning hut. Her stomach flipped and she shuddered as a feeling of dread ran down her spine, unwanted memories crashing over her. She smelt the familiar odours of the tanning fluid, of the hides and the coals and ash used to preserve the furs, and her footsteps faltered as she remembered the night. The coals roaring and the bowls of fluid catching fire, of tripping and getting entangled in lines. Flames roaring high, the walls ablaze and the murderous heat searing her. Her body twitched and spasmed in memory and her pulse skyrocketed as the night she nearly died came flooding back.

She overcame her fear though, fighting down the panic, and turned away from the innocent looking building, heading out of the far side of the village to the shamans lodge, set in a position of respect by the great tree. She requested entrance and blinked at the two figures within once entrance had been granted. One was old, clearly senior and probably one of the elders, too, but no woman she knew. The much younger shaman, he seemed familiar, and she didn’t think this was just the magic. As he smiled a greeting, she recognised the dimple in his left cheek, and took several breaths to steady herself. However many years in the future that she would be born and live in the tribe that this was the magical representation of, she didn’t not know what to call this young man who would grow into so much of mentor to her and others that he would be known as Iriko, Grandfather, to the whole village in her time. Who he had been prior to that, who he was now, she did not know. Maybe she could get away with using the honorific of ‘shaman’. She hoped. The downside of magical apparent time travel amongst a people whose names change depending on various factors. She knew she’d need to change hers when she went back north, but her current team really did not seem to understand.

“Elder, Shaman, greetings. I spoke to a hunter out in the forest and he said you were having issues with interlopers. I was passing through and would like to offer my help. Can you explain what has happened, please?”

The two local shamans told her and it was as the hunter had said, but the scale of the depredation was worse, and bigger than she had realised. The Nenets tribes had been trying to find ways to fight back, but their choice of a non-technological life was a disadvantage against the high tech machines who could destroy as much forest in an hour as the tribe could in a week – assuming they’d ever want to. The resistance had meant that armed guards were often sent with the machinery, and it was becoming much harder to find safe ways to slow down or stop the invaders. 

There was discussion between the three shamans. What could they do with the magic available to them? What was it right for them to do with their magic? Correctly applied (and where was Marius when you needed him?), a lightning bolt could at least turn off the electronic engines of a machine. Fireballs too, yes, but for Tads, just no. But was that fair or right to have the lightning or heat carry through to harm the operator, who was just doing the job they were paid for? The same broadly applied to most physical active resistance – shooting the poor joe driving the backhoe might stop the backhoe until they hired another joe, but the corporation could afford the joes and then the guns to protect them and as Tads was here to demonstrate, there were only so many Vusuls, people who were doing the best they could in a poor situation that you could kill with magic before most totems would get a bit irate. It was the high-ups, the bosses that needed to be stopped. Cut the head off a snake…. Sometimes it is getting to the snake that is the issue, which they agreed. 

A call came from outside, a report that some of the earth-movers are on the move. Tads shrugged at the shamans, and bade them at least a temporary farewell to go look things over and see what, if anything she might be able to do. She followed the signals and crested the ridge outside the village, looking down a long slope towards the coast. Down there used to be… was a small fishing village and cannery. Except that in this time and place was a much larger port facility with many more warehouses and garages, seeming to almost overflow with mechanical life-that-wasn’t. More vehicles were being unloaded from ships, and the lack of life, of care from there, compared to the happy fishing village she knew brought bile to her throat. How long would the land need to recover once these machines were gone? Poor Marius, who didn’t know anything but these machines.

Some distance away, she could see two earth-movers and a truck much like Marius’ begin to head upslope in her - and her village’s - direction. The distance was great enough that the snap of the first great tree that was broken by the machines only just carried up on the sea breezes, but carry it did, and Tads was off down the trail towards them. She might be wrong (again), but she felt that she was here to stop the destruction of her people’s lands. How to try and stop them was the question. In a normal astral quest, there were a number of different general types of challenge that could be between the questor and their goal. Although every quest was unique, they could often be recognised as a certain type of test – of moral fibre, or courage, strength of arms or magical prowess. She did not expect to face a spirit here, for example, unless the invaders had brought a magic-user with them. No way to tell until she got there, obviously, but it seemed most likely to her that this was a challenge she had to talk her way around. They’d just discussed how inappropriate it was to harm the underlings, and that was what had upset Elk in the first place, she thought, indiscriminate killing of people who were just doing the best they could. Might not be a good job, and deforesting someone’s life certainly wasn’t, but what other choice had these people been given?

Faster than should have been possible, she was close enough to see into both the earth-moving machines, and see the drivers. She couldn’t see into the truck, and that would be where the leader sat, in all likelihood. The truck that Marius would be horrified by the battered state of, but probably drool over the huge long gun in the roof-turret. She could see a man there, sticking out of the turret with the controls for the cannon, who had at times mown down the bigger trees with a hail of bullets so that the giant earth-movers could crunch them up. Time to talk. Tads stepped out from the trees ahead of the machines and called out to them in Russian to stop, to leave the forest alone. 

Apparently this was not what Elk had in mind, and she’d gotten it wrong again. The bullets coming from that gun felt almost as big as the ones Aswon used for his rifle. Not that she’d been or wanted to be shot with his rifle, but oh, this hurt, this hurt, this hurt, as she was flung backwards by the power of the bullets not only impacting on but also penetrating the armour under her furs. She landed some distance back in the undergrowth, gasping for breath and aware that a number of bullets had grazed her by the pain and the warm dampness that was her blood spilling from the wounds to soak her armour and furs and the ground. 

On the bright side (there was one?), she was familiar enough with guns now that her subconscious had picked up on the quiet whirring as the gun had prepared to fire and had been trying to move her out of the way. Her reactions against the speed of the bullets hadn’t been much, but it had been just enough, she suspected, to save her life. Maybe if she’d been expecting a fight, and not sure she should talk her way out, then she’d have hurt even less. Three people had been visible for a stunball spell. But that was the one she’d been wary of casting since Elk had told her no. Perhaps now had been the time to cast it, and because she’d thought that this was the place to talk and not the place to fight, she’d been shot. A lot. Ow. 

On the other good side, it didn’t appear that getting shot triggered her allergy to the thing they called cordite, unlike inhalation. Tads thought she could have lived without finding that out. And that they’d stopped shooting when she’d stopped moving. If this was the place to fight, maybe they’d not fire again if she didn’t move, much. One thing she did know – she couldn’t survive a second hail of bullets from that machine gun – she knew just how lucky she was not to have died from the first one, and a stray passing thought hoped the blood that she was sure was dribbling from her meat body didn’t obscure too much of the lodge’s foundations and weaken the protection. 

She was not in good shape, but she wasn’t dead, and that meant that she could still complete this. If she was very, very lucky, and her wounds didn’t completely incapacitate her. She groaned, quietly, and pulled herself to her feet, screened by bushes and the tree next to her, which was now scarred with bullet holes. She patted the tree in thanks, then gave up and used it to hold herself up, since she was going to need that energy for something else, very soon. 

She peered carefully around the tree and looked back down at the six blurry and overlapping earth movers and three blurry and overlapping trucks. She sucked in a breath, and began chanting in her head, since breathing hurt and external noise might get her shot again. The familiar cadences helped her focus and the vehicles steadied back out to two earth movers and a truck-with-gun. The vehicles hadn’t stopped, sadly, and that also suggested that she wasn’t here to talk since they weren’t appearing receptive to it. Unfortunately, she would never have been fit enough to fight the machines directly, and stunball wasn’t a spell that Elk liked anyway, and casting it in this state was unlikely to work. 

What could she do? Breathing through the pain, she focussed on her unhappiness at the destruction of the forest and how wrong it was, then channelled that to the driver of the left-most earthmover through an influence spell. It was a strain, through the physical waves of pain which felt like they were ricocheting around her body with each breath, but she held it long enough that she heard his machine stop, then she released and tried to breathe enough to get the spots in front of her eyes to go away. She knew from experience that the edge of headache from the spellcasting would take longer. The man she’d influenced was now being harangued by his colleague, and it looked to be developing into an argument between them. Still, it had stopped the destruction, at least temporarily. 

Temporarily seemed to be the key, as the truck opened up and a man in some sort of modern business suit appeared. The head of the snake, perhaps? Okay, Tads knew it wasn’t, but it was the head of this bit of snake…would that make it a hydra instead? She realised her mind was wandering, losing focus from the pain that coursed through her. She tried to focus, working out if she could stop this for now… Maybe. Chanting again in her head, she let her anger about the destruction of the natural world kindle the flames of passion within her.

She let her shame over the oil pollution she really shouldn’t have been involved in shape her fury. Although she hadn’t been there, she’d seen enough corporate types now that she could imagine the conversation the tribe had faced when the negotiator came to buy their entire village for a few Nuyen. The anger at the inevitable ignorance of their tribal way of life, their refusal to worship the almighty Nuyen. In her mind she saw the conversation as the tribe offered to mine the rocks, whatever they were – but using ancient methods, working by hand and respecting the land. The refusal of the corporate types to accept anything less than massive open cast mining, and the destruction of her habitat. Her fury rose as she knew, not guessed but KNEW that they would have refused to be reasonable, and would instead have viewed their non-acceptance of the deal as an excuse to being an armed assault, to effectively declare war upon them.

She funnelled this anger towards the snake... er, the senior person, putting much of her heart and feeling into it – if this was what she needed to do, she would accomplish this. She might not be fit for anything more afterwards, if there was more to do here, but she could do this. This was the challenge Elk had given her, and she. Would. Not. Fail. The headache ratchetted up significantly as the spell both powered through her and took from her, and she remained leaning against the tree as the spell affected the suited man, and when her vision cleared enough to look up, the vehicles were turning around and slowly heading back to the port complex. No more destruction here, just yet. It might not have been how Elk wanted her to do it, but if she’d accomplished Elk’s aims, would it be enough?

She found herself slowly sliding down the tree to a sitting position, and blinked away more spots as the solid ground below her and tree at her back wavered into nothing and left her dangling in a climbing harness with blood dripping onto the floor as the inside of her lodge and trailer wavered in and out of focus. She swung gently in the harness, her arms hanging limply by her side with blood gently trickling down them staining her arms before gathering at the fingertips for a moment. Plop, plop, plop. Blood dropped from her fingertips into a pool on the floor of the trailer. A worryingly large pool. She tried to put together enough breath to groan, and with a painful movement tried to depress the transmit button with slick fingers, but there was no response on the communication device. Typical.

Her hands fumbled for several minutes to get the right grips to unfasten the harness without dumping herself on the floor and adding more bruises. Then she leaned towards the door of the trailer, bodyweight pushing it open and gripping the handle enough that the ungraceful fall out still left her mostly upright. What would normally take her seconds instead took minutes, and she felt lightheaded and drained. Blood was splattered everywhere now, and she thought that was probably a bad thing. She glared around her, bleary eyed and vision wandering from side to side, trying to focus on her surroundings.

Still at the ranch – which was a good thing, she thought groggily. She’d probably be dead if they’d been on a highway somewhere when she’d fallen out of the trailer. Movement to the right. One of the children. Child, running and yelling – too loudly – ouch! But soon, Kai and Shimazu and a first aid kit, gentle hands holding her up and movement to a clean room somewhere in the ranch, and blessed physical relief as they used anaesthetic and stopped the bleeding. Pity mundane healing couldn’t do anything about her magical headache, but she knew that in some hours, that would ease and vanish, and then she could apply her magic to her physical body and try and reduce the damage further. 

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been away, and until she stopped hurting, she didn’t really care. She simply lay for several hours, breathing through the slowly clearing headache until she felt at least mentally normal again. Ready to try and apply her healing magic to herself, despite the challenges implicit in the situation, it wasn’t as if anyone else could heal her, and the two medics had already done all they can. At least she wasn’t full of nasty machines like Hunter and Marius. Healing them was awful as there was so little human to carry the magic. Dep breaths and it was done. Still slightly injured, but a good night’s rest would have her functioning again, and since everyone was so interested in her totem and what she needed to do, she could tell them all the story over dinner, perhaps? 

She’d done what Elk wanted her to do, learned the lesson, and now she also had to design a spell to look into people’s minds and see why they were doing what they were doing so that it didn’t happen again. Hopefully.

Outside the room, the rest of the team assembled, with a mix of concern and resignation on their faces. 

“She’s going to be fine – she’s just pretty wiped out from whatever the situation was she was involved in. Once we got a handle on the internal bleeding and sorted that out, she was out of the woods. Going to be stiff for a week or so I think though.” Kai spoke with authority, Shimazu nodding in agreement. 

“It must have been a difficult dreamwalk, for her to have sustained so much damage. I hope she considers it worthwhile.” Aswon mused, a look of respect on his face as he stared at the closed door leading to the room Tads lay in. “Still, she was victorious I am sure, and this bodes well for us!”

They split up again, returning to their training, although Kai and Shimazu kept popping back to check up on Tads through the afternoon. Towards early evening, Tads awoke, looking more alert and less befuddled, though still wincing in pain from the physical wounds. She summoned her energy, laying her hands over her abdomen and guiding the magic through her fingers – the golden glow lit up the room as her hands roamed up and down her torso, slowly repairing the damage done to her and leaving only a faint stiffness and discomfort behind.

Over the evening meal that night, Tads described her quest in detail. She wasn’t a natural storyteller, but none the less the families from the ranch listened intently, imagining a world they would never see or truly understand. As night fell, the team went to bed along with the two families – there being little entertainment yet once the sun had gone down.

The following morning, Tads seemed better, and returned to her studies as if nothing had happened. The rest of the team followed suit, continuing their efforts and concentrating on their training, making the most of the short daylight hours. This pattern became the norm – rising early for an hour’s exercise and warm up before breakfast, then training hard in the cold winter air around the ranch, before convening again for a light lunch. More practice in the afternoon, occasionally watched by the children from horseback as they toured the ranch, then all gathering for the evening meal and chat around the long dining room table, before heading to bed to recuperate from a day of hard work.

On the Friday, as the week came to a close, Shimazu touched Kai lightly on the arm as they were heading to the table for their evening meal.

“Had a message from Sato by the way. Says he has a contact in need of a team, and he’s passed on my details to them so we can expect a call, to find out if we’re available. Sato says he’s checked on the guy, and the rep is good.”

“Ok, we’ll see what the job is then when, or if, they call.”

They sat down for dinner, passing around the bowls of food and bread to everyone around the table. Over the course of the week Gungul had settled in well, and had become very friendly with Naena, and between them they’d produced a wide range of dishes from the kitchen (assisted by the selection of foods magically created by Tads). Of the two girls, Jeyran, the youngest, had bounced back the quickest. She was about five, and was busy describing her magical adventures of the day on horseback, and recounting the numbers of evil djinn she had slain with her magic wand to anyone that would listen, a constant burbling stream of child imagination pouring out of her mouth without pause, or apparently stopping for breath. Inje, who was perhaps just entering her teens was still quiet and withdrawn, having a somewhat haunted look about her. She was quick to respond if directly spoken to, and sounded normal when she did – but if she wasn’t engaged would quickly withdraw back to a brooding silence.

They were half-way through the meal when Shimazu’s commlink buzzed, the screen flashing up and showing ‘unknown caller’. He looked down at the commlink for a moment, then his eyes flashed up to Kai, who nodded and waved towards the seating area.

The team pushed back their chairs, leaving the family at the dinner table and moved into the other half of the room, sitting themselves down on the long settee, clustered around Shimazu in the corner seat. He hit the accept button, and then put the caller on speaker.

“Hello? I am looking for Shimazu?”

“Yes, this is Shimazu, go ahead”

“Ahh good. I am in need of some people to move something for me, to get it safely to its destination. A friend of mine suggested you might be a good person for this?”

The team listened intently to the caller. Hunter pulled out his screen and attached it to his tablet, and started tapping away and notes started to appear. The caller introduced himself as Patrick Van De Baas, a weapons dealer and exporter based out of Rotterdam. He described that he needed a team to go to the port of Sochi on the Black Sea, to collect eight cargo containers there, each measuring half a metre wide and high and a metre long, weighing about 150kg each and transport them to Brigadier Vasiliy Cherkenov in a military base located just outside the town of Samara, about 1300km to the north-north-east of the port.

Eyes flicked to Marius who gave a thumbs up, then watched as he added a note to the screen ‘we will need the trailer though, but weight, size and distance no problem’. Shimazu looked at Kai, offering the commlink to him, but Kai shook his head and pushed it back towards Shimazu, indicating that he should continue the negotiation. 

“That sounds ok, we can do that no problem. So what is the pay for the mission?”

“Well, I can offer you twenty thousand Nuyen for the transport, along with a chit for use at the base. The chit will allow you to purchase fuel for your truck, and basic ammunition for your weapons at cost price, in whatever quantities you require – up to 12.7mm calibre.”

While this was being relayed, Hunter had pulled up the map, highlighting both Sochi and Samara, and showing the general direction of travel. It was internal to Russian territory the whole way, but crossed some fairly remote terrain and wild areas, and ended up near the border with Yakut. Kai checked the border areas, but nothing seemed too troubling or difficult, and he nodded in approval. Hunter also gave a thumbs up, indicating that he was happy with the general concept.

Shimazu licked his lips nervously, and spoke to Patrick again.

“Ok, we’ve had a little look into this – I think it should be no problem, and we can definitely do this for you. However, the price is a little low. With the distance covered, and the weight of the cargo – we need to look at something more in terms of payment to cover our costs on this one.” His eyes watched Kai nervously, but Kai nodded and smiled encouragingly. 

“Hmm. Well. Ok, I suppose. I can go to thirty thousand then for the run, and give you an improved chit. This will allow you to purchase some specialist ammunition too – things like tracer, flechette and boomers. Oh, and grenades.”

Shimazu agreed quickly, glad that he’d not messed up the negotiation and happy with the increase in pay offered. Patrick sent over a docket, containing some information to them on their acceptance of the job, and then politely excused himself and hung up. The docket showed that they would be meeting a ship, the “MV Autumn Leaf” in seven days time at Sochi, and they were to show up on the dock to have the cargo transhipped directly to their vehicle.

Rusudan saw that they had finished their call, and bought over the remains of their dinner, letting them pick at the food while they began the planning for the journey.

After a lot of discussion, they decided to wait for four more days at the ranch, continuing their training and practice. In the four days, they would shop at the local town for any supplies they needed to top up the truck, and Hunter and Marius would download the digital patterns in use by the Russian forces at the moment to use on their truck, if needed. They were going to allow three days to move from the ranch, up through Tbilisi and to the border between the Trans-Caucus League and Russian, and for the border crossing itself. Sochi was not far over the other side of the border, so that section of the journey at least should be quick. 

Marius also revealed that he had two friends – “good friends” in Sochi, that they could probably call upon for help, assuming he could get hold of them. Hunter looked at the roads, and starting planning routes along both highways and byways, giving them a number of options. The fastest route, using as many highways as possible took them a little out of their way, but gave them a total time of just over twenty four hours driving to cover 1800km of roads. The 1300km figure mentioned by Patrick was the direct route – in fact so direct that not even air travel would have been that efficient.

Several of the team pulled out their commlinks, making quick calls.

“Germaine? Hi, it’s Kai.”

“Oh darling! How are you! If you’re calling about the holiday, I’m afraid it’s just not possible yet. I’d love to get away, but there’s just too much to do at the moment!”

“Don’t worry, it’s not about that – although we are busy sprucing up the place to get ready for when you can come. No, it’s to let you know that we’re going out of town for a bit. We’re heading up north a ways, so we just wondered if there was anything you needed taking, or fetching?”

“Well, North is a bit of a broad term dear, and takes in a lot of the world. Could you be a teensy bit more specific?”

“Of course, we’re heading to a lovely little fishing port called Sochi first, then heading north, north east from there towards the new silk road. We’re not actually following it, more crossing it, and heading further north than that.”

“Oh, that is interesting then. I have a DEAR, dear friend in Novgorod, that I sometimes do a little business with. If you’re not too far from there on your way back, maybe you could swing by and I can put you in touch?”

“Of course, we’ll work out the logistics, and I’ll send you a message then. It may be we’re not nearby though, so I’ll look into it and let you know.” Kai was careful to be clear, not wanting to make the same ‘mistake’ with his communications as Aswon had.

Meanwhile, two seats over, Marius was making his own calls.

“Hola!”

“Georgi? Is that you?”

“Of course it’s me. Oh, Marius, hi. I’m learning Spanish!”

“Oh, ok. Sorry, you sort of threw me there.”

“Hey, no worries. I’ve not got far yet. I can say ‘hello’, and ‘I want to buy a cigar’ so far. Best to cover the important things first, right?”

“If you say so. Anyway, listen…. We’re heading north of the border on a little job...” He outlined the journey, much as Kai had done, but Georgi didn’t have anything to follow up, telling him that he was laying low for another week or two, after having moved the golem on, just to let things die down a little.

Aswon called his friend Mr Hu, catching him apparently just before bed with a steaming mug of hot chocolate. He frowned, then mentally worked out the time difference to eastern china, and apologised for disturbing him so close to bedtime. He too described the journey, and Mr Hu said that he might be interested in a pickup – but was the team heading towards China as their next destination? Aswon informed him that alas no – they were heading south afterwards, returning to the League. He followed up with a call to Spook, aware that the time in Hong Kong wouldn’t be that much difference, but caught her still up and about – she was more of a night owl. 

She didn’t have anything for the team to move either, but she did ask if they could record any stamps they got on their travel visa or IDs as they went across border checkpoints, and forward her a copy so she could study the encryption and formats. Aswon agreed, as this didn’t seem too difficult, and their deck should be able to record any electronic checking well enough for their purposes. He explained to Kai that of all of the people he knew, keeping Spook happy with him might benefit the team most, as she was a people person, able to put them in touch with all kinds of interesting people with a wide variety of skills.

Marius was back on the phone with someone else by now. They heard the familiar conversation – the person on the other end having though he’d disappeared, and had been killed or eaten, and Marius saying that no, he was very much alive but didn’t want people in general to know. 

“So, Risa – we’re heading your way, sort of. Do you want anything shifted?”

“That depends, how much do you want to get involved my friend?”

“Well, I AM your friend, so I’ll help out if I can?” 

“The sort of thing we really need moving, is thermobaric rounds into Russian defence pillboxes, but that never really struck me as your style. “

“Ahh, right, I see. No, we’d rather not be involved quite that….vigorously. We’d be happy to move the ammo around from one place to another though – that’s what the crew I’m with are currently doing, you see. We’re based down in the TCL, and we’re working on a little business, moving things around from A to B, without people interfering. Not so much trying to get in people’s faces and getting shot at. I know my limits, and I’ll leave that to people braver and better than me.” There was a snort from the other end of the line, and a moment’s pause before the response came.

“Oh right, I see. So, are you near the coast?”

“Yes, we are. Not too far off where we are now, and only a little way to Baku.”

“Baku? Oh right, east coast, not west. Shame. Well, if you’re doing much near the west coast or the Black Sea, give me a shout. I’m working on setting up a new pipeline, coming in through Odesa. Might be some work for you there.”

They chatted for another minute before Marius hung up, then tried a third number, scowling as he got put through to a voice mailbox and hung up.

Kai looked around the group with a sudden start.

“Oh, just to check – nobody has any outstanding warrants or issues with the Russian government do you? No issues with being in Russia?” He looked around, seeing heads shake and a chorus of quiet denials. 

They finished up, taking their plates and cold remains through to the kitchen to be dealt with, and headed to their rooms, taking stock of personal gear and anything they might need for the coming journey.

The next morning, Tads, Aswon and Shimazu headed to the windmill in the forest to see Aslick. Aswon waited in the car, knowing that for some reason he made Aslick very nervous and quite hostile, and deciding that now was not the time. Tads and Shimazu were in the windmill for quite some time, emerging about an hour later with a couple of big bags and baskets of supplies.

“Got everything?” the tribesman asked, with an edge of sarcasm to his voice.

“Yes. We got a load of warding materials for the house, so we can keep it safe while we’re away. But Tads bought some new spells, and we had a good talk about enchanting while we were there, and the ways my sword could be improved upon.” Aswon seemed mollified, and as they headed back to the ranch they discussed this further – the main stumbling block was that Tads would probably need a full lunar month working in a workshop to properly craft any magical reagents or materials, and though it might go faster, they couldn’t count upon it. Shimazu also said that he’d spoken with Aslick about learning more about discerning magical patterns and feelings, and that he’d offered to put him in touch with someone for training. It wouldn’t be cheap, but he came very highly recommended, and that might allow Shimazu to gain some real insights into magical devices and creatures.

When they returned, they found that Kai had been in touch with the policeman in the local town, and had given them a quick brief on the takedown of the Mafia don, letting them know that they were pretty much off the hook now – but making it clear that Kai considered that they’d been given a second chance, and it was their job to look after the town now. Hunter meanwhile had caught up with Jules, and had told him about the Iranian phone left at the scene of the shooting, and the name of the Mafia overlord for the TCL, to add to their information. 

Marius was also on the phone with someone very loud and belligerent sounding, who kept calling him “little brother” and insisting that the vodka would run like water, and they were going to have a party. It turned out this was his contact in Sochi, who had also thought him dead but was happy to be proved wrong. More usefully, it seemed he was in with the local crime boss in Sochi, and had suggested that a ‘pass’ be purchased for doing business in the town, and that while offering five hundred Nuyen for the pass would be sufficient, an offer of a thousand would smooth over a lot more wrinkles and potential issues.

While they had been out of the ranch that day making arrangements, it appeared that Azerbaijan communications had sent an engineer out, who had fitted a new dish to the side of the house, running a cable down into the front room. The microwave link to a tower nearer Shirvan gave them a good solid matrix feed with a bandwidth far in excess of their cell links, and Hunter was quick to start consuming bandwidth as they downloaded data and information on their route and conditions in Russia.

They also caught the evening news, which had information on the forthcoming special election that had been called following the assassination. There were five candidates standing, of which two were acknowledged as the more likely choices – one nationalist from the same party as Aliyev, considered his number 2 man, the other a more global player, who leaned towards mega-corporate co-operation. His campaign was ramping up, and there seemed to be a lot more buzz about him than the first candidate.

“You notice how his election campaign has some new graphics, much better animation and music. Almost like he’s got some new backers with deep pockets and a vested interest in seeing him elected?” Hunter pointed out to the rest of the team – not that anyone was surprised.

Shimazu and Aswon spent the next day working through the house, using up the ritual materials to put a series of reasonably powerful wards up over the whole building to keep astral intruders out. Afterwards, they sat down with Rusudan and Naena, explaining what they had done and showing them adverts for other corporate retreats and holiday homes with similar features, pointing out that they should copy the text and descriptions for the magical defences, to add to their own adverts for the ranch to make the place more desirable.

On the morning of the 4th of March, the team came down for breakfast, and found Hunter quietly swearing at the computer. He was trying to sort out tourist visas, using their new identities crafted by Milo in Constantinople. The matrix site seemed a massive nest of bureaucracy that almost felt like it was designed to stop anyone actually getting anywhere. In the end they had to transfer his session onto the sat-link and set off from the ranch, and he continued to fight with the automated systems, redirects, requests for information and pointers to forms that didn’t exist in departments that only opened alternate days in legal jargon that defied translation.

They drove to, and through Tbilisi, then followed the road west to the coast, joining the main highway north of Batumi. Where before they had turned left and headed to the town, this time they turned right, heading to the border. Finally, as they were about 100km from the border crossing, Hunter raised his hands in victory.

“Yesssss!” Several of the team jumped as they were startled by the outburst, jerking awake in one case. “Right, I have got the visas sorted. Tourist only, for all of us, based on the new legends. Marius and I have permits for the cyber-ware, but there’s nothing on the magical side. But we’re covered to legally enter.”

They continued along the road, getting a few kilometres shy of the border before hitting a sizeable lump of traffic. They waited a few minutes, then checked the news and local reports, worrying that they’d been a crash or some kind of other accident, but couldn’t find any reason for the delay. Eventually they asked another person in the queue, and found out that this was normal for the border crossing, and it usually took a few hours.

Four hours ticked by, as they slowly started-stopped-started again and crawled closer to the border. At least it gave them plenty of time to go through the truck with a fine tooth comb, ensuring that everything that was remotely dodgy looking was hidden or concealed. Tourist clothing and other items appropriate to their cover IDs was left hanging noticeably in view to add to the veracity of their story.

Eventually it was their turn, and they pulled up at the border, where they were scrutinised by a couple of guards holding AK series assault rifles along with ill-fitting body armour and fatigues. A harassed looking clerk demanded their ID sticks, and slotted them one after another, checking names and faces against the team, getting thumbprint reads and matching them against the stored data and doing a cursory check of their back stories. The process seemed quite quick to them, and he swiped their sticks again, encoding them with an entry certificate and keying the visa start date to the current date and time, ensuring that it started to slowly click downwards for each of them.

They were waved on, and as they started to pull away, they heard the next person having to justify their work visa and a whole series of additional questions being asked and a check on their vehicle starting, in what seemed to be a much more long-winded process. They soon put this behind them though, accelerating down the quiet road away from the border crossing and towards Sochi.

Hunter and Nadia did some quick checking, and now they were safely across found them a small family run (at least according to the matrix information) family hotel – the “Rusallina”. It was cheap, but appeared to be of an acceptable quality, and unlike any of the international chains would be less likely to have top of the line security and computer systems to track their movements or record their activities.

The journey to Sochi passed smoothly, and they arrived at the hotel a little before 02:00. A rather grumpy looking man came out into the courtyard, frowning as the truck and trailer was parked over six adjacent car spaces – but the car park was nearly deserted anyway. Kai and Marius went to talk with him, apologising for their late arrival and blaming the border checkpoint for their inconvenient timing. As they handed over their IDs to check in, Marius folded a few notes of paper currency together, left over from their bribery slush fund for the trip to Constantinople, and passed them over quietly.

“We’re sorry to have kept you up so late, we’ll try to be good guests and we appreciate your patience.” The money disappeared smoothly into a pocket, and the hotelier nodded in appreciation, guiding them to their rooms. Marius and Nadia had a small double room, while Tads and Shimazu, had a twin. Aswon, Kai and Hunter had a third twin room, with a temporary cot set up along the front wall. After the long day of driving, and the week of acclimatisation to daylight hours, the team soon drifted off to sleep, alarms set for 08:00 to see what delights Sochi would bring to them.


	92. 092 - Exploring Sochi

Date Friday 05/03/2060, Location 43.5821, 39.75945

The team met up at around 8am in the breakfast room, sharing a few yawns after the short night’s sleep - all except Aswon, who looked disgustingly well rested and chirpy. The breakfast fare was basic - the "buffet" was small, with little choice and most of it was soy - but at least it was well flavoured soy and some care had been lavished on its presentation.

While the others were nursing cups of coffee of soyrange - a soy concentrate so good it even included pulp - Aswon slipped out of the room and worked through his contact list until he found the number for Mr Hu - his arms dealer in China. He hit the button and made himself comfortable.

"Hello?"

"Good morning, Mr Hu - it is Aswon."

"Ahh, good day to you. Are your stars in ascendance today?" They chatted for a few minutes, getting the polite preamble out of the way. Once protocol was satisfied, Aswon got down to business.

"So Mr Hu. We are running a cargo to this Brigadier Chernikov. I am curious - why would a legitimate army commander require black market goods? Why would he need ammo?"

"Are you certain that is what you are taking him?"

"Well, it's in standard military crates - but you're right, that's an assumption I had made. I suppose it could be anything, in a disguise. It's not like they would look out of place on a military base. But still, there is something that raises my curiosity here."

"I see. The question is of course - how curious are you?"

"I just said, quite." There was a little confusion in Aswon's voice.

"I mean, if I have to take some people out to dinner, or offer them a concession on some parts they require - how MUCH are you curious?"

"Ah, I see. Well, curious as I am, this job does not pay handsomely. I would go no further than a thousand."

"Very well, let me talk to some people, and see what I can find out. Until later."

Aswon returned to the dining room and found the rest of the team just about done with breakfast. Tads had some research to do, but really wanted to see if there were any talisleggers or magical shops in town - so Aswon volunteered to take a few of her smallest formula with him to see if he could find a buyer. Hunter wanted to check out the local hospitals, and see if he could top up his supply of anti-coagulants, and wanted Kai to go with him to help negotiate a better deal. Nadia and Marius were heading back to their rooms to relax for a while, and were heading out to meet Marius's friends later in the day. Shimazu looked around the rest, and offered to stay at the hotel and keep an eye on their stuff and the vehicle, as he could practice his katas in the car park without issue as long as the hotel staff didn't mind.

Kai approached the hotel receptionist, waiting for him to finish his entry on the computer before he coughed quietly.

"Good morning sir, can I help you?"

"Yes, I'd like to hire a car for the day, maybe two. So we can go sightseeing around Sochi."

"Ahh, well, I can help you with that sir. But may I ask, have you visited the town before?"

"No, I haven't. It's the first time for most of us actually."

"Then I would suggest not hiring a car yourself. Instead, I would recommend a taxi. The traffic here, particularly in the old town is... challenging, shall we say? We have found that many people spend more of their time in traffic, and less time seeing the sights of our lovely city. I can suggest several firms who will be happy to arrange transport who know the city well."

"If you can arrange that, that would be great, thank you. We'll probably need taxis all day, around the city."

"Then in that case I will see if I can arrange for a car and a driver for you for the day. It would probably not be any more expensive than a whole series of bookings, and then you know your car is available."

The receptionist called a company and arranged for a car, while Kai went and told the team what was going on.

The driver arrived twenty minutes later with a mid-range saloon, old but well cared for, with leather seats burnished by the movement of thousands and thousands of customers until they were smooth spots of discoloured material marking where their bottoms should be. They slid in, and told the driver to head for the tourist quarter or street - or wherever they could find the shops that claimed to sell magical goods. With a nod, the driver put the car in gear and pulled away sharply.

The next thirty minutes were an experience, and one that led Kai to believe that he'd made the correct decision in listening to the hotelier. The traffic was manic, with a typical Russian approach - those in the biggest, or most battered, or strongest cars had right of way. Or possibly those with the least blood in their vodka stream - and at every junction there was a high speed game of chicken while the drivers evaluated the complicated mix of big/strong/fast/drunk and worked out their position in the hierarchy. Mixed with that was some of the worst road planning they'd ever seen. Hunter’s internal GPS started to throw errors as they took roads not marked on maps at all, or they found themselves on roads above or below other roads that led to different one way systems. The mix of medieval old town with narrow cobbled streets and the remains of stone fortifications and ancient gateways that funnelled traffic into single file, and more modern concrete sweeping boulevards, that swept up and over other roads but turned traffic away from the direction it appeared to travel. The town had had money poured into it a long while ago, and a massive series of "improvements" made - but at some point the money had run out or more likely had been soaked up by graft and corruption, and large sections of the new construction was incomplete or had fallen to ruin, leaving the city a mess of tangled roads. The driver, however, seemed to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the area, and drove up and down narrow side streets and at one point what seemed to be someone's back yard and wove his way through the streets until they were almost down to the harbour, and pulled into a crowded street stuffed full of shops advertising all manner of services.

"Can you wait here for us?"

"I'm being paid for the day, yes?"

"Yes, the whole day."

"Then yes, I wait here for you, if you wish."

Leaving the taxi behind, they saw the driver push his seat back and recline it fully, then pull his cap down over his face, apparently happy to catch forty winks while he was being paid. The three of them wandered down towards the harbour for a quick look around. To the south was the private marina, full of a variety of boats moored to a series of plastic floating gangways. Most of the boats were small daysailers, between three and five metres long - but one row had a series of bigger and more luxurious vessels between ten and fifteen metres long, clearly a class above, and right at the far end of the marina were two yachts in excess of twenty metres long. There were obvious cameras on high poles covering the more expensive boats, but otherwise security seemed quite light. Aswon had a quick look around the place on the astral plane, and found it to be a massive sea of swirling astral energy. There were some spots of brightness, pockets of joy, love, hope and admiration. He could imagine sons learning to fish from their fathers, a couple making love for the first time on the gentle swell while the sun went down. Equally there were dark spots, fell horror and vicious hatred. A captured drug smuggler with two in the back of the head. A rival businessman who didn't realise that he was dealing with organised crime. A sociopathic youngster experimenting with drugs and killing his friends before taking his own life as his burning boat sank around him. The gamut of emotions lay over the marina like fungus growing on old food, pockets of emotions bursting and growing all over the visible area. 

Turning away from the private marina, they walked up towards the commercial area. The plastic walkways gave way to massive concrete quays, with room for large freighters to tie up securely. A couple of cranes sat at the end of the set of rail lines, awaiting their next ship to unload, and the area included massive concrete driveways for freight vehicles to load and turn in. As they walked around, they spotted a couple of dock workers watching them - but they seemed content to keep them under surveillance as long as they didn't do anything.

"Well, at least we have an idea of where we need to be to meet the boat. And it looks like security should be ok to work around. Let's go sort out what Tads wanted." 

They headed inland and back up the street they had parked on, walking past the snoozing driver, and soon found a number of "magic" shops. They quickly determined that three of them were fakes or scams, selling trinkets and magical items with no shred of actual power, clearly aimed at tourists. The other three appeared to be the real deal, though. Looking astrally, one of them had a fairly powerful ward around it, while the other two were warded but at a much lower level. They started at the most well protected, hoping that it would be their best bet.

Entering the shop it was immediately obvious that it belonged to a mage - a hermetic who saw the use of magic as a thing of order, values, formula and scientific principle. Everything in the shop was neatly ordered and categorised, described in strict categories and schema, divided into areas of specific criteria. As they studied the shop, a man emerged from the back, cloak sweeping behind him and billowing in his wake. Arcane sigils were picked out in midnight blue velvet against the black fabric. 

"Good day! Welcome to my shop - the finest shop is Sochi. Are you after anything specific?" He surveyed the small group, his nose wrinkling slightly as he took in the unorthodox trio in front of him. Aswon spoke first.

"Hello, I am Aswon. I come on behalf of my friend, who has magical formula to sell. She is a strong wise woman, with much power, but has no need of these formula anymore. She seeks cash, or perhaps trade in kind." Aswon focussed on a price list showing some common items - the magical components required to create a ward around an area, and saw they were more expensive here than typical.

"A wise woman? You mean a shaman? Oh. So you don't have a proper user of magic then?" Disdain dripped from his voice, into a sudden silence. Aswon and Kai stared at him, anger rising at the scorn he showed. Hunter leant against a pillar and smirked, happy to let the other two deal with this.

"I think perhaps we should try the other shop."

"Yes, you might find them more to your taste. Simpler, and full of more mumbo jumbo."

The three of them left, quietly with Hunter glancing back at the mage and giving him a wink, designed to confuse and infuriate him. He caught up with the other two outside.

"So, he was an ass. Next shop?" Aswon nodded, his hands trembling a little as anger coursed through him. He took a few deep cleansing breaths and the trembles faded away, and he led the way to the next shop. They entered the next shop, and found it to be a world away from the first shop - it was dark and cosy, dimly lit and with shelves cluttered with items that appeared to be laid out with no real rhyme or reason. As their eyes adjusted to the dim light, they spotted a man laid in a hammock at the end of the store. His head flopped to one side and an eye opened - just the one, to examine them. Aswon repeated his greeting, and message, staring at the man in the hammock and awaiting his response.

"Ahh, interesting. May I see?" Aswon nodded at him, and pulled out a small but intricate dreamcatcher, with coloured thread forming a complex pattern in the centre. The man clicked his fingers and an invisible force gently lifted the dreamcatcher out of Aswon’s hand, levitating it across the shop to above the hammock and then spinning it in place. After examining it carefully, the spell returned it back to the tribesman, gently lowering it back into his outstretched hands.

"Yes, I like this - I could take this. What else do you have to offer?" The trio relaxed at his much more welcoming demeanour, and Aswon described the other items that Tads had listed, giving an indication of the level of power required to successfully cast them. In return, the shop owner swung lazily in his hammock, occasionally running his fingers through his hair with an almost sensuous movement.

"I can take all of the items you list, and give you a good price in cash for them, if they are all of the same quality. Or, I could offer you slightly more than that for goods in trade from the shop. And if your friend has anything...else. Well, maybe we can discuss that, yes?” Aswon looked carefully at the figure - was he asking if Tads just had more formula to sell, or was he asking if she had other things - less legal things, that he would be interested in purchasing? 

"I will speak with my shaman and let her know the good news. We will return later, I'm sure." Internally Aswon had already pretty much decided that this was the shop they should deal with - he just got a selection of the right vibes from this one. He left the shop, with Kai smiling, nodding and following in his wake. Hunter bought up the rear, as usual. As Aswon reached the door, he called out over his shoulder.

"Is there anything you require? Anything we can perhaps provide for you?"

"A coffee would be good. Maybe one of those ones with the sprinkled bits on top."

"Coffee? Um. Ok. I think we can do that."

"How about one mixed with caramel, and a good dollop of whipped cream…” quipped Hunter.

"I'm intrigued - ok. Sure. I'll have one of those."

Back on the street, they blinked in the bright light and exchanged looks.

"Might as well check out the third shop, just to be sure." Kai looked over at Aswon who shrugged, but didn't argue. Hunter yawned, giving the very appearance of complete disinterest. With no objection raised, Kai led the way into the third shop, pushing open the door and hearing the jangle of an old-fashioned bell as the door hit a curved piece of metal. Moments later a youngish man appeared in the doorway leading to the back of the shop.

"Good morning! Welcome! Do come in! How lovely to meet you!" He strode across the shop floor quickly, one hand raised and aimed straight at Kai. Kai barely had time to raise his own hand before it was grabbed and pumped up and down vigorously. "Welcome! Yes indeed, welcome to my shop! It's a pleasure! Are you looking for anything in particular? Can I help you find it? Or are you just looking? Either way is fine, of course!" Words continued to pour out of his mouth at a rapid rate of knots, with him barely pausing for breath - certainly not pausing to let anyone actually answer his questions. Each of the team members was greeted enthusiastically, their hands shaken with gusto and great energy.

Eventually the shopkeeper ran out of either breath or things to say, and Aswon managed to get a word in edgeways, and made some general enquiries about warding materials - at which point he was firmly guided over to a shelf and was shown the various wares, one after another in rapid fire. The man darted left and right, quickly thrusting things up towards Aswon's face, and then taking them away again before he could really focus on them. As soon as it was polite - and possible - to do so, Aswon thanked the man for his hospitality and said they would have a think, and maybe come back later, then quickly pressed out through the door.

Back in the street, the intensity and energy levels were turned down from 11, and they took a breath. All three of them felt slightly dazed, as if they'd been hit by a vehicle and swept along in its wake.

"He was a bit keen, wasn't he?" observed Hunter, glancing back at the doorway and ensuring that they were not being observed or pursued."

"Yes, unless I'm very much mistaken, a dog shaman. Very friendly, very loyal normally. But if I had to guess, I'd say he was someone with a spaniel as his avatar or totem." Aswon shook his head as he replied, still somewhat bemused by the intensity of the man. 

Back at the hotel, Tads climbed up into the back of the truck and went through her preparations. Knee pads - check. Gloves - check. Climbing harness - check. Respirator - check. She worked through the mental checklist, and when it was complete, relaxed and projected out from her body - but instead of heading out into the world like she did when she was scouting, she went... well, where she went was still discussed hotly by a number of great minds. Wherever it was, it was no place on the physical world, a realm of pure magic where thought and form merged into one. She was met, as ever, by the Dweller, a strange being of immense power that guarded access to the metaplanes. He questioned her on her purpose here, listening as she proclaimed her desire to learn a new spell to aid her team, before asking her a series of magical questions. Apparently satisfied, he waved for her to proceed. No sooner had he done so than Tads found herself facing a foe - looking very similar to the enemy she had faced in her last astral quest.

Tads sprang into action, not wanting to repeat her mistake from last time. She moved to attack immediately, throwing a flurry of strikes at her opponent and immediately forcing it back on the defensive. Her hands grasped and pulled, seeking to get a tight hold on the enemy, until finally she managed to get the leverage she needed. With a flick of her hips she tossed her opponent high into the air and across the grey room they seemed to be in. The figure arced through the air, landing with a loud thud and burst of exhaled air - but only for a moment as Tads had followed the flight of her foe and a split second later her knee landed across the throat, cutting off air and defeating her enemy.

The figure gurgled slightly, and with a gasp Tads realised that the gurgles, no matter how garbled and faint made sense to her - it was the knowledge that she sought. Moments later the grey world faded away, and she found herself back in her body, hanging from the harness. Several hours had passed, and her mouth was dry and parched – but that seemed to have been the easiest, and certainly the most direct, astral quest she’d heard of. Hmm. Maybe there was something to that…

She had not long unstrapped herself from the harness and returned to the hotel for a drink and a rest when another taxi pulled up at the front entrance. Moments later, Nadia and Marius descended the steps from the first floor and headed out, waving a brief farewell to her.

“I’m off to see my friend, Alex. We may not be back until late – maybe even tomorrow morning. See you then!” His voice cut off as they pulled the back door shut and the taxi pulled away, leaving Tads to sit at the table with her water and plate of soy snacks and an open mouth. 

Back in the city, Aswon asked the taxi driver if he knew of somewhere interesting for lunch. When they were all in the car, the driver set off, quickly wending his way through some back streets and narrow lanes. He pulled up in a little dirt alley and waved for the team to get out and follow him into what appeared to be an open-fronted shack. 

The place was rustic, to say the least. Half the chairs were milk crates with scaffold boards lashed on with ropes, and most of the tables were barrels or large industrial containers with pallets secured to the top. Lightbulbs hung from the ceiling with twin braided cables covered in vulcanised rubber, and the counter was a large and badly warped piece of Formica. Everything looked old, third-hand, upcycled and then upcycled again.

The owner greeted the taxi driver warmly though, obviously knowing him well, and waved them to a choice of tables. The large woman wore a loose-fitting sleeveless dress, and her arms were covered in pocks and freckles from a mass of tiny burns. She bought over a large wok-like pan, and several old plastic tubs full of diced meat and vegetables, and a small stack of thin slices of black bread. The taxi driver meanwhile had pulled up a small circle from the middle of the table, revealing the methane burner underneath and lit the cooker, the gas making a large pop. The wok was heated up and then the food thrown on, cooked by the driver and then scooped out and served on the bread, eaten in the style of a donner or tortilla. Despite the primitive surroundings, the ingredients were decent quality soy and the food had a certain rustic charm.

Once they’d eaten, they set off towards the private hospital on one of the main boulevards to the east of town. Kai directed the driver to go around the back of the building, his nose pressed up against the window until he saw what he was after. As soon as he spied the smoking shelter, he called for a stop, hopped out and told them to park up and wait for him, then strode over to the staff enjoying their cigarettes, Hunter trailing along behind him.

Wearing his “doctor” coat, Kai put on a big smile as he approached the half dozen or so staff, a mix of nurses and porters. He saw one of the men quickly lower a flask from his mouth and it disappeared around his side – so quickly he wondered where it had gone. 

“Good afternoon everyone. Wonder if you can help me… oh, and don’t worry about the flask – I’ve had three already today! I’m from the other hospital, and I’m after a supply of some drugs for one of our patients. Turns out he’s after the good stuff instead, and he’s willing to throw a little money at the problem. Can one of you perhaps help me find the pharmacy?”

“You want drugs? For a patient? You have money to spend?” one of the porters queried.

“Yes indeed. Now, I know we’re not supposed to just come in here and swap drugs around without paperwork and all the rest of it, but the patient wants some confidentiality you see, so I was hoping we could do this without official involvement?” The porter grunted as Kai explained, then motioned for them to follow him. He led them inside the building and led them towards one wing.

“What drugs do you need, and how much?” Kai looked at Hunter and raised an eyebrow.

“Rivaroxaban, a one month supply, ideally.” Kai nodded as Hunter spoke, adding his assurance and using his body language to convey appropriate overtones.

“Wait here. I go check.” The porter disappeared through a staff door, and they waited casually for him to return, looking around them to pass the time. The hospital seemed ok – a little run-down and tired, but clean and intact, and there was a quiet air of order and process to the place. A few minutes later, the porter returned.

“Yes, they have. Not much though, so transfer fee is required. Fourteen thousand roubles.” They divided by two to convert to Nuyen, and winced. Kai coughed, and then faced the porter again.

“Oh, that’s quite pricy. A bit more than we expected. I’ll need to check with the patient. Are you on shift for another couple of hours, and we can come back?”

“You come back in a few hours, will be fifteen thousand.” The porter smiled back, his lips parting to reveal yellow and brown teeth.

“Right, right. Ok. Thanks then, we’ll look for you in an hour. The porter shrugged, and led them back to the rear door, returning to the shelter and pulling out another cheap cigarette as he re-joined the conversation with the other porters.

Kai and Hunter headed to the car, re-joining Aswon and the driver.

“To the public hospital, please. This one is a touch too expensive.” The driver pulled out and headed back into the city centre a little, into one of the older districts crammed with Soviet era concrete tenement blocks. Kai didn’t even have to direct him this time – the driver headed around the service road, threading his way through bin yards and parking areas until he found the smoking area, then waiting for Kai and Hunter to head out, before finding somewhere to wait with Aswon.

Kai went through the same routine, this time with a nurse who looked tired and drawn. When she heard what they wanted, she beckoned for them to follow her into the hospital building. As they entered, they immediately picked up on the differences between the two buildings. This one had paint flaking off the walls, and the cheap linoleum on the floor was pocked and tattered, revealing concrete in places. Graffiti covered some walls, light fittings dangled with blown bulbs and some of the doors looked to have been repaired with scrap timber. As they arrived at the pharmacy, the nurse took them to the front of the queue and waved to one of the men in white coats who was patiently listening to someone at the front of the queue.

The man came over, and gave the nurse a wan and tired-looking smile. He was in his late forties by appearance, with slightly wild and unkempt hair and a pair of cheap glasses perched on the end of his nose.

“Hi there. We’re after some medicine for a private patient. Rivaroxaban, a one month supply, ideally. There’s been an awful mix up with purchasing, you see…” The man shrugged and shook his head.

“No Rivaroxaban – is too expensive. We have Warfarin though. Can do bulk supply.”

“Ahh, excellent. Then can we have a month… in fact, can we take two month’s supply? How much would that be?”

“Two months? Five thousand roubles.” Kai heard Hunter make an approving grunt behind him and smiled.

“Excellent. I presume certified credit is ok?” As he spoke he pulled out a credstick and the pharmacist nodded. The cred stick was run through the reader and 2500 Nuyen was deducted with a thumbprint and code authorisation. The technician turned and headed to a fridge, pulling out a small tray of vials from one of the shelves and peeling off several labels and putting them onto other vials on the next shelf down, before placing the unlabelled containers in a small and flimsy plastic box, then sliding it over onto the counter.

Hunter leant over, and pulled out a small selection of paper currency from their journey to Constantinople. Grabbing a few notes, totalling about a hundred Nuyen in value, he placed them down on the counter and slid them over to the technician. As he did so, with a slow and careful moment, he reached over and pulled the flap of the lab coat out of the way, so he could read the nametag.

“Thank you, Pavel. I appreciate your help.”

Pavel looked at the money for a moment, then slid it into a pocket with his left hand, while his right hand lowered over the box, preventing Hunter from moving it. Hunter raised an eyebrow at him, but the technician ignored him, flipping open the box and then quickly looking through the vials, one after another. He seemed satisfied with all but two of them, which he took back to the fridge and exchanged with two new ones, which were placed in the box instead. When he was done, he pushed the box towards Hunter with a smile.

While Kai and Hunter were dealing with the pharmacy, Aswon had been sat in the car, just idly watching the world go by. He felt his commlink vibrate, and pulled out the small device to check who was calling – ahh, Mr Hu. He hit the accept button, and greeted his friend again. The pleasantries were quicker this time, in light of their recent communications, and Mr Hu soon got to the point.

“It was actually somewhat easy to find out some information – and it’s intriguing. Brigadier Vasiliy Cherkenov is in charge of the 38th Motor Rifle Division, a fairly recent appointment. They’re regarded as a good unit – not elite, but a solid and well regarded one with a long history. He however is a long-term officer, a graduate of the Frunze military academy. He comes from a family of soldiers, and that probably helped his early career – certainly he would have been well received and looked after as a favour to his father and great uncle. However, he graduated high in his class and established a strong reputation as being a good tactician and sound strategist.”

Aswon listened carefully to the summary, scrabbling to swap the phone to his left ear so he could make notes with his right hand.

“Moreover, he has a reputation for caring for his men – really caring. Goes out of his way to get them paid, decent food and supplies. Unsurprisingly this earns him a remarkably high degree of loyalty from his troops. While a normal Russian division can normally be counted on to be only 50-60% of its stated paper strength due to equipment or personnel, Cherkenov has a reputation for getting 90% rates – and moreover, he’s been noted on in military circles as coming down hard on those who falsify readiness reports. Even when they’re the relatives of other officers – he turfs them out of his unit to somewhere else, one way or another. A soldier’s soldier.”

Aswon frantically tapped away with one hand, making brief notes of the information as best he could.

“He is also, however, a true communist with impeccable credentials and devoted to the ‘Rodina’. Possibly why he’s managed to get rid of the useless but connected hangers-on – his loyalty is without question, and he really does seem to care about his country to a remarkable degree. Noted, it seems for his endless energy, and remarkably direct and powerful charisma. The chap I talked to said that talking with him was like talking with your school teacher or mother – you just felt like he knew exactly what was going on, and was judging you to see if you were telling the truth or not. Anyway, that only cost me a bottle of decent rice wine, so pretty reasonable. Is that enough for you, or do you want me to dig deeper?”

“Thank you, Mr Hu – I think that will be fine. Certainly it’s a lot more about him than we knew before, and I think that’s enough to get a good judge of character. I’ll send you some funds when we’re back at the hotel and I’ve got access to a decent signal and cred-reader.”

Kai and Hunter returned, so Aswon spent much of the return journey to the hotel relaying the information on the Brigadier to them, expanding his notes and trying to remember everything Mr Hu had told him. One of the things he did emphasise was the loyalty to the country – and raised the question of just how the Brigadier would respond to a bunch of foreigners turning up in a Russian military vehicle. Kai had a think for a moment, before responding.

“We tell him the truth. As little of the truth as we can, but the absolute truth. We took the truck as a prize, after a force of Chechens was defeated. We don’t know who they begged, bought, borrowed or stole it from – but they had it, and we took it after they were dealt with.” Aswon nodded in agreement.

“He should respect that. Pragmatic, and strong.”

As they were heading out of town, the other taxi dropped Nadia and Marius off at a street corner. A burly man dressed in a faux leather jacket and blue jeans appeared out of the shadows and enveloped Marius in a large hug, kissing him on each cheek in the Russian fashion. He stood back for a moment, examining Marius closely without saying a word, then apparently satisfied, turned and looked at Nadia. Marius quickly introduced her to Alex, describing how they’d met briefly less than a year ago, when Marius had helped him out.

“Helped me out? Listen to my little brother! He saved me. Saved me! Pah, where it not for him, I would be dead. So, now my little brother is coming to my town, we look after him. And his beautiful friend. Come! Let us get a car and go meet Vladimir!”

Alex pulled out a shim stick from inside his jacket and walked up to the nearest parked car, then proceeded to work on the door until the lock popped open. Putting the shim away, he pulled out a sequencer and jammed it into the lock, humming a catch pop tune under his breath until the device found the right sequence to start the engine.

“Come on, hop in to my car! Let’s GOOOOO!”

Marius shrugged, with a smile and opened the door for Nadia and then climbed in after her, while Alex pulled away in a roar with a screech of tyres. He drove aggressively, making a great deal of use of the horn and not being afraid to ram other vehicles out of his way as they made their way deeper into the district, the houses becoming bleak grey monuments to a bygone era. They arrived at a café and found Vladimir, and a few other Vory members too. They descended onto a large table, staring at the two men sitting there until they left, and appropriating the space for themselves.

When the waiter arrived, one of the group pulled out a knife, and waved it under his nose.

“Bring us beer, and food. We’ll tell you when to stop. If you call the police, we’ll burn this place down, you understand? With you in it.” The waiter paled and nodded, and almost ran into the kitchens. A minute later he returned with a half dozen large bottles of cheap Vodka, and a small mound of shot glasses, then beat a hasty retreat.

They drank, and Marius told Alex, Vlad and their friends what had happened to him in brief terms over the last few months, and how he had met Nadia. He didn’t hold anything back, but neither did he give specifics of time or date, or names of targets. His story of theft from the Iranians and the Jews were met with cheers, and the rescue of Nadia from oppression to bring her into her new life of crime was applauded and toasted vigorously. The slaughter of the men at the ranch for daring to shoot at his truck was met with howls of laughter from Vladimir, who apparently shared the same love of vehicles with Marius.

They drank more, and got louder and more raucous. Tales flowed around the table of things stolen, jobs done, policemen intimidated and time served. The vodka flowed like water, and shot after shot, after shot was toasted and sunk. Marius and Nadia were ok to begin with, but my early evening were clearly hammered. The food had run out a while ago, and now it was neat Vodka hitting their stomachs and entering their blood streams.

Unaware of this, a few miles away Aswon, Kai and Hunter had grabbed Tads, now recovered from her quest and had returned to the talismongers down by the docks. They warned her of what was to come, and quickly checked back in with the dog shaman, ensuring that there wasn’t any crazy formula in there that they had missed. As it happened, there wasn’t, and they left as quickly as they politely could, and moved along to the second shop.

Re-entering the darkened and quiet room stuff full of things was like entering a different world. They spied a few other people browsing shelves, poking at things and making excited noises. The shaman was still lying in his hammock, swinging gently from side to side. He gave a minute little wave as he spied Aswon then cleared his throat.

“I’m awful thirsty man.” Aswon went wide-eyed for a moment and a look of mortified horror crossed his face as he realised that he’d completely forgotten.

“I’ll be right back!” He turned, and as soon as he was out in the street accelerated into a run, looking for a coffee shop to get something – anything – with caramel, chocolate sprinkles and a big blob of cream on top.

Back in the shop, Tads had approached the Shaman, and was showing him her formula, describing each one and its use. The shopkeeper seemed interested in them, taking each with his spell and examining them closely. They had almost reached the last one when Aswon reappeared, holding a large coffee cup with cream overflowing from the top and a rich smell of coffee mixed with caramel started to fill the air. The shaman took it and sipped at the contents, making a happy noise that rolled in the back of his throat, but no matter how carefully he handled the cup, some cream ran down the side and dropped onto his clothing.

“Eugh! Dirty!!” He concentrated for a moment, his eyes slitting and going narrow and his face broadening somewhat, and with a flick of his fingers his clothes changed, the colours going from a muted set of dark grey robes to a brighter white – and more telling, with no sign of the spilt cream. The other customers in the shop gave little gasps of amazement and looked impressed with the obvious display of magic.

Carefully, Tads pulled out the largest piece, her dreamcatcher formula for her influence spell. It was intricate and obviously far more complex than any of the other pieces, representing the greater power and control required to cast and use it, and also the greater effect it would have. The shaman sat up at that, and looked at it closely, then raised his voice.

“Shop’s closing I’m afraid. Sorry, need to restock for a while. We’ll reopen in fifteen or twenty minutes.” The other customers looked disappointed, then gave little squeals of alarm as invisible fingers urged them towards the doorway, gently propelling them out and closing the door behind them, then shoving home the bolt to lock the door.

“Ok, that’s an impressive piece. And very illegal. So, what is it you want, people?” Aswon smiled, pulling back his lips and revealing the huge implanted teeth. For a moment the shaman bristled, but then his entire demeanour changed and he smiled. Tads smiled too, and then spoke.

“Well, I’d like to get rid of these old formula, and maybe there’s some new things to pick up. I’d like to learn more about enchanting too. And of course, I’m interested in magical goods and materials, to help with the enchanting. So, let’s negotiate?”

They talked with the shaman, and established that although he could enchant, it wasn’t really his speciality. He agreed to share some matrix links with Tads, just as a courtesy. Aswon showed him his spear, but although he could see that it was a weapon focus, and that there was something ‘odd’ about it, he was unable to determine what it was. Tads tried to talk him out of his magical fingers spell, but was firmly told that if she wanted it, she’d have to buy it.

They haggled over the price of the spells, gradually coming to an agreement of just over ten thousand all told – until the shaman clicked his fingers and told her he might have something better for her. Reaching into a draw under the counter, he pulled out a large and rough looking nugget of gold.

“Mined by hand, the old fashioned way. Clean and pure – perfect for enchanting. If you want, I’ll swap you this lump, for your spells.” Tads held out her hand and the lump of gold floated over to her hand, dropping heavily into her outstretched palm. She turned it this way and that, examining it carefully on the astral plane and watching the swirl of mana around it, watching the interaction of power as it hit the pure material. It didn’t take long for her to nod her head in agreement and clinch the deal. They shook hands, and the shaman introduced himself as Toloya Popov, as he exchanged details with them. Tads purchased a couple of new spell formula from Toloya, that she thought would be particularly useful.

After that, they asked if he knew much about paracritters – specifically leeches. Toloya shook his head.

“Not really my thing. If you want to know about stuff like that, much as it pains me to say it, try the nerd a few doors up. He does have a lot of books on stuff like that.”

They concluded their business and headed up to the hermetic mage’s shop. Along the way Aswon warned Tads that she was likely to find a somewhat frosty welcome there, based on how she performed magic, but Tads just shrugged, apparently unconcerned.

Back in the shop, the mage greeted them – with a certain amount of derision and carefully veiled contempt. Aswon ground his teeth, but said nothing, and Tads examined the stock on display. The drawers and displays were all very neatly ordered, which did make finding things easier she had to admit, but it was so very…well….anal. She shrugged – each to their own.

Kai asked the mage about books, concerning leeches, particularly magical leeches from Kurdistan. The mage raised his eyebrows in surprise at the specificness of the request, but managed to find a treatise on paracritters that dealt with the area. They agreed on a price of two hundred Nuyen and left before the sarcasm returned, and then headed back to the hotel. Shimazu was still in the courtyard, working out as he had been all day, dripping with sweat and a number of empty water bottle were lined up against the wall where he’d stopped for breaks from his practice.

After showers and cleaning up, they settled down for dinner, not waiting for Marius and Nadia based on the message they had given Tads earlier. Shimazu was curious about the book and settled down with it after dinner, while the rest of the team relaxed, enjoying a quiet night.

The following morning, Shimazu returned to his training, while Tads went to her lodge and spent most of the day learning her spell, mastering the intricacies of linking her mind with another, allowing silent communication and sharing of knowledge. Kai and Aswon returned to their studies, spending some quiet time in their room with their heads focussed on the matrix.

Hunter called on the taxi driver, asking him if there was anywhere he could go to shoot, without attracting attention from the local law. An hour later, he found himself being driven up into the old Olympic villages, perched high on the hills overlooking Sochi. He found the old shooting area, which had been converted to some kind of gun club, and after coming to an arrangement with the caretaker, started to shoot.

He’d gone through a couple of magazines when he noticed that the caretaker was leaning against the wall, watching him intently – far too intently. At first he was worried that he’d been recognised somehow, but as he was getting ready to confront the old man, his reflexes jangling, the caretaker pushed himself away from the wall and sauntered over.

“It’s your back foot. You probably don’t realise it, but you twist it ever so slightly when you fire your second shot, and it throws your aim off, just a tiny bit.”

Hunter froze and looked at him, dumbly. The man continued to close, and stood behind him, wedging his foot up against his, and told him to shoot again. He did, and was amazed to find that he did in fact twist, without realising it. The ice broken, they started to talk, and Hunter found out that he wasn’t just the caretaker – he had in fact once been the coach for the Olympic pistol team, and was a dab hand with the firearms himself. 

After some further negotiations, with Hunter making it clear that he particularly valued the old man’s time, they came to a better ‘understanding’. Hunter paid him five hundred Nuyen in hard currency, and in return he got one on one coaching for the next six hours, correcting posture and shooting position, working on his breathing and sight picture. It proved to be a worthwhile day for him, and he felt that his performance was markedly better by the end of the day compared to how it had been.

When he got back to the hotel at tea-time, he found the rest of the team looking slightly concerned. Marius and Nadia were not back yet – nothing had been heard from them all day. Their comms were off, and Marius wasn’t answering his internal commlink either. As the day had worn on, Kai and Aswon had called them several times, wondering where on earth they could have gotten to.

They’d just finished dinner when they heard a vehicle pull up outside the hotel, honking its horn in long blasts. Fearing the worst they filed out of the entrance, and saw the side door of the panel van slide open. Marius fell out in a stumble that almost pitched him head over heels, and Nadia followed, not doing any better. From their expressions, they were both still absolutely hammered, their eyes unfocussed and their words slurring. The driver pulled away sharply, clipping a parked car, bouncing across the road and then weaving down the highway narrowly missing other cars as he did so.

As the rest of the team examined the two drunks they noticed that Marius had a bandage wrapped around his right hand – although when they looked closely, it wasn’t a bandage at all, but strips torn from a shirt. Underneath his hand was red and swollen, his knuckles split and dried blood caked over the webbing between his fingers.

“Oh Marius…. What have you been up to?” asked Kai.

Marius looked at him blearily for a moment, then staggered to the small conifer tree in the plant pot by the side of the entrance, pulled out his penis and urinated noisily into the leaves, smiling beatifically. Nadia cackled at the sight, and a moment later both of them staggered into the hotel, heading for the staircase leading up to their rooms. Stairs proved to be a difficult concept however, and after some stumbling and sliding, they both slumped, halfway up the wide staircase, laying their heads on the apparently very comfortable stair pillows, and drifted off to sleep.


	93. 093 - Sochi Docks

Date Saturday 06/03/2060, Location 43.5821, 39.75945

The team looked over at the slumped, slumbering pair, then across to the hotel receptionist who stood with a scowl on his face and his hands on his hips. Kai raised his hands upwards and outwards, making a reassuring gesture.

“Ok, let’s get them up to their room and sorted out.” Hunter moved over to Marius and grabbed his arms, pulling them back and over his head. With a grunt, he lifted the torso slightly and then dragged him up the stairs, none too gently, letting the German’s body bump off of every stair and corner. Marius remained unconscious through it all, collecting a set of bruises and bumps in some very unusual locations. Shimazu grabbed Nadia, but was considerably more gentle, scooping her up into his arms and slowly climbing the stairs and following in Hunter’s wake. 

Reaching their rooms, Shimazu laid Nadia carefully on the bed, rolling her out of his arms and onto the rucked up sheets, being careful not to touch the bed or bedding itself. The room was still a mess after their time together, and it was clear that the staff had followed the “do not disturb” sign, and the bed showed clear signs of two people who’d been intimate. Shimazu glanced up as he heard the shower turn on, and saw Hunter shoot a stream of cold water down on the still clothed form of Marius, who groggily waved his hands around to try and prevent the soaking.

Words of protest started to emerge from Marius as he regained consciousness, if not competence. After another thirty seconds of hosing down and feeble attempts to stop him, Hunter relented and lifted Marius up and out of the tub, then quickly stripped him down to his underwear before propelling him to the bed and letting him fall next to the still clothed form of Nadia. A hand at the back of the neck lifted slightly, and Marius’s jaw opened by reflex, allowing Hunter to pour fresh water from the complimentary bottles down his gullet. After a full bottle had been consumed, he lowered him back down and moved away, returning with a bunch of towels from the bathroom which he started to cover the damp body.

“Why don’t you put him under the sheets?” asked Shimazu.

“Do you want to touch those?” Hunter replied, not looking up from his task.

“Fair point, well made. I think Nadia is fine still dressed.” After a moment’s thought Shimazu put the second water bottle on the night stand next to Nadia, and then slid the bin over to just by her face, just in case.

With both of them safe, Shimazu and Hunter left the room, reporting back to the rest of the team on their state, finding Tads and Aswon staring at each other as they sat at opposite ends of the bed, their legs crossed and hands resting lightly on their knees.

“What’s going on?” asked Hunter, looking over at the motionless pair.

“Tads wanted to practice her new spell, lets her link her mind with the target to enable some kind of telepathy or instant message sendings. I think that’s what she said. But the other person has to be willing, and Aswon volunteered. Hunter and Shimazu watched them for a few more seconds with Kai, and the room was as quiet as a crypt.

With a start, Tads blinked and looked away, and a touch of colour flushed her cheeks.

“Do you really feel that way?”

“Of course. You are a spirit talker. And I can’t hide how I feel from you like that.” Tads coughed and turned away, grabbing a drink from her own water bottle, and refused to make eye contact with anyone for a short while. Aswon unfolded his legs and rolled lithely to the side, rising like an impossible jack in the box to his full height, his impressive mane brushing against the ceiling. “Spirit talkers hold a sacred trust, a bond with the land and the people, guardians of wisdom that guide our lives. Of course I deeply respect you.” Aswon spoke with a very matter of fact voice, as if what he was saying was obvious, and beyond contestation. 

They settled down to rest, watching a bit of local TV and brushing up on their Russian, enjoying a long bath, cleaning equipment and checking on the slumbering forms in the next room every thirty minutes or so, ensuring they were ok. During the night, Aswon and Hunter worked out an alternate route to the docks, just in case Marius had said or done anything that might have jeopardised their initial route. There were a couple of pinch points that could not be avoided, but it was sufficiently different that it avoided a number of good ambush spots, they hoped.

Tads made a point of checking on Marius and Nadia during the night as well, checking on their astral forms. Shimazu joined her, and they spoke softly, sharing information and insights as they evaluated the forms that lay before them. Their essence, their intrinsic wholeness and somatic integrity had been damaged by the abuse they had heaped on their bodies, and in the case of Marius had left him with precious little humanity left to examine. But, they seemed not to be affected by any magical taint or problem and it was likely that their essence would recover as they rested and recovered.

The night passed uneventfully, and most of the team rose with the dawn. Aswon, Hunter and Shimazu went for a morning run before returning for showers, while Tads carried out her morning rituals. They breakfasted quietly, bringing some black bread and orange juice up with them and waking up Nadia and Marius for a simple breakfast to get them going for the day. They looked bedraggled, but ok, and the room smelt of sweaty bodies and fluids, so they were left to clean themselves up as quickly as possible.

Nadia and Marius emerged a while later, having showered and changed and looking much more human. The rest of the team had packed, and Kai went down to the reception desk to check out. He winced as he saw the bill, but paid the thousand Nuyen, figuring that with the damages and cleaning cost, a lack of police presence and the cost of a taxi for two days, it wasn’t too bad. Marius climbed into the driver’s seat and jacked in, and his voice sounded steady and in control as he confirmed that everyone was ready to go.

The journey to the docks took forty five minutes – a disgusting amount of time for the short journey and a testament to the awful traffic. Still they arrived down at the docks without incident, and pulled onto the large concrete apron a good distance back from the waterfront, the drizzle sending rivulets of water cascading down the windows. Inside the truck was quiet though, the rain and wind being blocked by the heavy armour and weight of the vehicle.

Looking around, they saw three heavy tractors with twelve metre trailers, waiting in a line, presumably for the same freighter. Tads cracked open the roof hatch a tiny amount, and started to concentrate, making subtle gestures as she called on the spirit of the area to bargain with it for protection. The spirit appeared to be somewhat feisty, as Tads sat down somewhat hard at the end of her ritual, looking slightly bug eyed. Aswon passed a couple of painkillers and a squeeze bottle of water to her without a word, and she took them with a nod and a smile before bolting them down. He turned towards Marius and asked a question to fill up the silence.

“So Marius, how was your night out? Have a good time?” There was a pause as Marius listened, but it was hard to tell if Aswon was being sarcastic or not. In the end he decided to treat it as a genuine question.

“It was fine. We had a good time. And we made arrangements for doing business in the town, and paid off the Vory, so no problems there.” The truck lapsed back into silence as they looked about them.

Out to sea, they could see a small freighter on the grey and choppy sea heading towards them. Hunter raised a hand and the end of his finger lifted up on a tiny hinge. Several of the team stared at in in fascination, having never seen it before, and Tads gave a little shudder as she contemplated inserting artificial components into her body. Hunter didn’t notice though, as he was concentrating, lining up the finger with the freighter as it rolled on the waves. An invisible beam of laser energy emanated from the emitter built into his finger, travelling across the distance between them at 300,000 kilometres per second. The built in sensor detected the impact of the beam, 5.3 microseconds later, and fed the information through the router to the display system in his cybernetic eye.

“Approximately 1.6 kilometres out, and closing at 25 kph.”

“Really? That seems fast.”

There followed a short discussion between Marius and Hunter as they checked and rechecked the data from his laser designator and rangefinder, until they concluded that yes, the freighter was coming in pretty fast, and showed no signs of slowing. Marius checked on the sensors, but couldn’t see any other vessels out on the water, although visibility was pretty miserable. A minute ticked by, with the boat continuing to close with no change.

“Ok, this is weird. Tads, can you check the bridge?” asked Kai. A moment later, he saw her body slump as she catapulted her astral form across the intervening distance. First of all she checked around, looking for any patrolling spirits or mages, but found nothing in the area. Next she flew over to the ship, examining the bridge and finding the wards that protected it. She checked around, and found no holes or gaps in the ward, and then tried to press through. The ward was strong though, and resisted her efforts, the drain of bargaining with the spirit making it difficult for her to concentrate and force her way through the weave of magic. She sped back to her body to report.

“No magical activity, and strong wards on the bridge – but that means that the crew probably haven’t been affected or controlled by anyone.”

“I have also checked the boat out from here – it’s a little dirty and polluting, but there is no stain or taint on the boat, no sense of evil or death. It feels just like a normal boat.” Aswon added.

“Just with a very reckless skipper it seems” said Marius over the speakers. A moment later they saw the three tractor-trailers start up and start to back away from the dock, slowly. Marius started up the truck and followed suit, carefully backing up away from the waterfront. 

Finally, the boat seemed to do something. The nose of the ship started to turn, ponderously, heeling over slightly to port. Marius jacked out for a moment, his eyes fluttering open as he checked visually what his sensors were telling him. Hunter, too, seemed agog, his mouth open and he shared a look with Marius. The rest of the team looked confused, but picked up on the edge of tension building between them.

The boat shuddered, and water erupted from the stern of the ship, along with two smaller swirls near the bow. Slowly the boat righted itself and then lent the other way, the nose inching round, back past the teams view and turned the other way. They saw someone run out of a door on the superstructure, looking down at the dock for a moment, talking animatedly into a handheld radio. A few seconds later, the figure turned and ran back inside, sealing the hatch behind him. The boat now slid sideways towards them, a large bulge of water rising up several metres and racing towards the shore driven before the freighters bulk.

They could only imagine the frantic activity on the bridge and in the engineering spaces, and how close the manoeuvre came to going horribly wrong. The ship shook – visibly, with containers on the deck bouncing around a little as the deck vibrated underneath them. Even past the wave racing towards the dock they could see the huge churning maelstrom as the docking thrusters laboured to halt the movement of tens of thousands of tons of ship.

The wave hit the dock, rocketing up into the air in an explosion of spray nearly eight metres high, temporarily obscuring the ship. As the water descended, thousands of litres of brackish sea water raced across the dock – but the force of the wave had been broken, and the flood water was only a few centimetres deep, posing no real threat. There was a deep booming noise as the hull of the freighter impacted with the concrete wall of the dock, but the sound was muted and flat – the result of the entire side of the ship hitting the wall, rather than just one area. Impressive as the noise was, it meant that there was not likely to be any major damage.

As the rush of water dissipated into the drains, the three tractors started up again, and drove slowly forward, pulling closer to the ship. Above them, the port crane swung into action, and with the direction and assistance from the ship crew, plucked a twelve metre container from the deck and swung it gracefully through the air, dropping it onto the waiting trailer. A man walked down from the small office at the end of the dock, a tablet tucked under his arm. As the locks were engaged on the trailer, mating the container to the chassis, he reached the cab and spent a few moments obtaining a thumbprint and ID swipe from the driver, before backing away and giving him a thumbs up. The first tractor pulled out with a roar of diesel engine noise, to be replaced with the second, and then the third – each time the crane dipping like a huge mechanical claw onto the deck and selecting its target.

The third truck pulled out, and the crane dipped one last time, this time selecting an olive green container only six metres long. It dropped it onto the dock, just inside the painted line for the holding area. The dockmaster looked at his tablet for a moment, then glanced over to the truck and the waiting team. He tucked the tablet back under his arm, and turned on his heel, heading back to the office. A second later they spied movement in the crane and watched as the operator swiftly slid down the ladder, dropping from floor to floor, and then walking swiftly to catch up with the dockmaster. 

They watched and waited as they both entered, then a few seconds later, emerged from the office again, this time with their coats on. Neither looked back as they started to wander up the road, heading towards the coffee shop on the junction.

“Think this is our cue. Everyone get ready. Let’s go, Marius.” Kai looked around as he spoke, checking that everyone was in position and ready to move. Marius kicked the truck into gear, smoothly driving over and pulling up next to the container so the back of the trailer matched up with the doors and then stopped – but left the engine running. Tads looked out, keeping an eye on the astral plane and looking for attackers or observers, while Aswon, Hunter, Shimazu and Nadia moved over to the container and examined the doors, finding them unlocked – just latched shut. Kai headed to the trailer and opened the back door, then climbed inside, ready to help push the cargo into position.

As they opened the door to the container, they saw embossed onto the inner surface a subtle logo – Ares Arms. It was not entirely surprising to them, Ares was one of the ten biggest corporations in the world, with fingers in every pie, and Ares Arms was a premier supplier of weapons, ammo, arms and armour. Inside the container were eight dark green boxes, each about a metre long and half a metre wide and high. Made of a dull and heavily granulated plastic, they were corrugated deeply, and had a handhold at each end, with the lid being hinged along the long edge, and secured with several clasps on the opposite side. Through a small hole, a slender wire ran in a loop, the loose ends being inserted into a digital cypher lock. The boxes were devoid of markings, symbols or logos.

“Marius, got a six digit electronic lock on these crates, feeding into some kind of wire loop that is holding them shut. Reckon you can crack that?”

“Six digits shouldn’t be too hard, is the lock on the outside? Can I get at the back face?” He heard Aswon grunt in response. “Sure. Do I need to come over and do that?”

“No, I just wanted to know what our options were. I think I’d prefer not to know what the cargo is – but it’s good to check.” He grunted with the effort as he grabbed one end of the first container, while Shimazu leant over to grab the other end, and they manhandled the heavy load out of the container and over to their truck. With a certain amount of flexing and effort, they got one end lifted and onto the load bed, and Kai took over, pulling the crate in whilst the other two pushed.

It took a few minutes, but one by one the eight boxes were lifted from the container and carried to the trailer, then stowed on the floor in two parallel lines. Kai climbed down, making room for Marius to slip inside with his bug scanner, which was carefully run over each of the boxes. Three minutes passed as every side of the containers was checked, but then Marius turned off his device and gave a quick thumbs up, before climbing down and returning to the cab and jacking back in. 

Shimazu and Tads stopped for a moment, and then flipped into astral space, to examine the cargo containers and be sure that there was no magical tracker present. As they did, both of them gasped at the sight. The bright ward around the trailer filled their peripheral vision, the edge of Tads’ lodge clearly visible from the inside as a blinding white barrier of force. But the boxes in the middle of the floor were the opposite. A pit of blackness, all engulfing and consuming, with no astral energy visible at all. Tendrils of darkness worked around the outside, an event horizon of negative energy that plucked and pulled at motes of mana from the air. Tads pulled out from the sight by reflex, turning away from the source of the mana warp and taking a step or two, physically distancing herself from the horrible sight. Shimazu was not so lucky.

With limited experience, and his natural curiosity driving him to examine everything, he continued to look. He saw patterns emerge in the darkness as his astral sight steadied, a whirling vortex of power sucking in mana from the world into the maelstrom of astral blight centred on each box. He stared at the patterns, the lights, feeling himself drawn into the middle of the nearest whirlpool, wanting to peer closer and closer at the very centre of the effect, where surely there were things to be seen that were a true glimpse of power.

The others saw him totter, then suddenly fall forward as if struck with a powerful blow to the back of the head. Their outstretched hands missed him as he fell, poleaxed to the floor. Neither of his hands raised to arrest his fall, and his gaze was locked far away, looking at something alluring in the distance. The impact, and shock as his head slumped forwards and impacted the concrete jarred him from the astral, returning him to a world of damp and pain. Fortunately his body armour and well developed chest muscles had absorbed most of the impact, and after wiping his face to get rid of the road dirt, he escaped with only minor scrapes.

“Ok, don’t look at the box in astral. Kinda sucks you in a bit, it seems.” Nobody seemed inclined to argue with him or test it out, and after checking he was ok, they got ready to leave. Aswon and Shimazu climbed up into the trailer, and pulled the door shut behind them, while the rest of the team climbed back into the cab. Marius pulled the truck and trailer round in a tight loop and headed out of the dock, onto the main road and past the coffee shop, past the two dock workers who sat with their backs to the windows, nursing a steaming mug of soycaf.

“What do you think is in the boxes? Could it be… could it be nukes? Would that make that kind of effect?” Kai’s question hung in the air, but nobody answered. Whether that was from ignorance, or from not wanting to know the answer, was something that was hard to say.

“Ok, Marius, as long as you drive steady, yeah, push that bit under there Shimazu, we should be ok in the back putting up a ward around this bit, ok, wait a second, let me hold this down, try again, so that should stop whatever nasty is in the boxes from getting to us, and the lodge would definitely stop it getting out, good, yeah tuck it in tighter.” Aswon sounded distracted, as he and Shimazu rolled out the chicken wire over the boxes, bending and folding it in multiple layers to create a poor man’s Faraday cage – just in case Marius had missed a bug. It also gave them a defined outer edge to apply their ward to, a clearly marked barrier between inside and outside.

“Hey Shimazu, what did you bring with you?”

“In here? My sword, just in case, and some food. Why?”

“Hmm. Well, I got my rifle, and a bottle of water, and an empty bottle. You know. To fill.”

“Oh. Yeah, no toilet in here. Well, how far are we going?”

“I want to get as far from Sochi as we can, as quickly as we can – so we’re not stopping at services until we have to. So you might need to share that bottle.” Marius interrupted the conversation in the back, and they heard the dismay in Shimazu’s voice.

Aswon and Shimazu finished the cage, and then started the warding process, trying hard to ignore the boxes and the subtle pull they exerted and concentrating on shaping a powerful barrier between them and the boxes. It was a somewhat hasty affair, made difficult as the trailer swung and lurched through traffic as Marius navigated out of Sochi. About twenty minutes into the journey they felt a crash, and the trailer kicked up into the air as it drove over something, but with no windows and no information from the front, they ignored it and concentrated on forming the barrier – aiming for speed rather than longevity.

Up front, Marius cursed the local who thought that he had a more nerve than Marius and had just found out how wrong he was. The front quarter of his car was wrenched off as the trailer caught it, riding up and over the bonnet and compressing the cheap plasteel into a mangled ruin that certainly wouldn’t drive. Marius looked around, but nobody seemed the bothered, mostly fighting to get into the space now available in front of the butchered vehicle. It seemed the locals accepted this was the price of running the risk of cutting up a bigger truck and making a bad call.

They headed north, following the coast road and managed to make it out of the city without further incident, driving amongst heavy traffic along the highway. The heavy-duty suspension on the truck and trailer made light of the mangled road surface, and they kept up a decent speed, then slowly accelerated as they got further and further from Sochi and traffic took junctions and side roads off to the smaller towns and villages along the coastline.

Tads kept the intercom open to the trailer, listening as the two adepts worked to put up the ward, ensuring that they were not suborned by some malevolent spirit or force. The camera was not in an ideal place, but she saw them moving around often enough that she was happy they were still progressing with the work.

“How much are bio-monitors, Kai?”

“Well, it depends how good you want them – why?”

“Just thinking, for situations like this. When we have people in the back working on something. Might be worth getting some monitors to help keep an eye on them, let us know if something happens. Even if they’re magically possessed by some evil spirit, chances are there would be a major spike in their vital signs as it happened.”

“Hmm, good call. One to add to the list. Of course, normally, the monitors are not the main expense, it’s the receiving unit that interprets the data. But we can look into it.” Satisfied with Kai’s response, Tads returned to keeping an eye on the two in the trailer. The truck sped north, making good time along the slick road and ignoring the drizzle and grey clouds. About 110km north of Sochi, they turned off, heading for a minor village and leaving the motorway behind.

Their speed dropped dramatically as they headed up the small lane, then dropped further as they travelled up a rutted and eroded track, the truck brushing against hedges on both sides of the road and leaving a swathe of broken branches and leaves behind them. Marius followed the directions, travelling up the shoulders of a hill, and finally leaving the track and just driving across some pastureland, completely off-road. He had to drop the speed again, until they were crawling along at around ten kilometres per hour, but that allowed the two adepts in the rear to keep working, building their ward around the chicken wire sculpture.

They circled a small copse of trees standing atop a rise, marked as a checkpoint on the map. As they doubled back on their trail, Marius ran a full sensor sweep and the crew in the front scanned the area – nothing. No sign of pursuit, no drones, no watcher spirits. Satisfied there was no tail, they hit the controls and the truck rippled, changing colour and shape as the smart materials responded to new commands.

It took them two hours to cut the corner and head down the other side of the shoulder and back to the highway, but that gave them ample chance to ensure that they really were not being followed. Just as they pulled back onto the highway, they heard the team in the rear call out that they had finished. They’d managed to erect the ward in just over three hours of concentrated effort. Shimazu risked a glance in astral, ready to duck out the moment he saw anything nasty – but the ward held the horror at bay, and all he saw was the outline of the ward on the wire. He most definitely didn’t probe too hard, having no interest in piercing his masking on the ward.

They picked up speed again, heading north east now on the old M4 road. True to his word Marius pushed the pace, flashing past the turn offs for Defanovka, Moldovanovka, Khrebtovoye, Kluch. The truck charged on, the diesel engine roaring as it dragged the armoured vehicle along at just below its top speed, chewing up the distance. As they approached the junction for Korenovsk, Marius hit the intercom.

“Ok, rest break coming up, there’s some services here just off the main road. Twenty minutes, and I’m going to top off the fuel, just in case.”

The services were small, a single shop and gas station, with toilets that were very definitely third world – though a biologist might find them fascinating as an example of bio-diversity in a small eco-system. Marius refilled the fuel tank, watching the counter on the pump rise and rise. Fortunately the certified credstick had plenty of funds on – at least as far as fuel costs were concerned. They stretched their legs for a few minutes, topped up on bottled water and some snacks, and hit the road again eighteen minutes after stopping.

Picking up speed, those in the truck watched the countryside flash by. The weather was still dismal, and the grey clouds and drizzle limited their view considerably. The land to each side of the truck was divided into regular fields, and they saw automated machinery crawling back and forth over the fields of soy, planting and plucking, spraying and distributing fertiliser. It was an uninspiring view, and the small settlements they saw from time to time were just as dismal, grey concrete blocks put down with no thought or love.

The road was agreeably straight though, and traffic was moderate – some trucks, but mostly private cars. Half of them were old and battered, labouring the pass the truck and looking ramshackle in the extreme. The other half were newer, corporate drones driving to or from enclaves, thundering along the highway in high performance vehicles and trying to cope with the ruts and potholes that littered the surface of the road.

The truck drove on, and as the day drew to a close and the sun set behind the heavy clouds, the light grew dim. Ahead of them, the clouds grew blacker and darker. Marius examined the sensors as something caught his eye – a large fork of lightning in the distance.

“Storm ahead, might get windy.”

Tads cast her eyes forwards, away from the fields on the side of the road, and by habit flicked into the astral.

“Sweet earthmother! Stop the truck, turn us around!”

Ahead of them, stretching from one horizon to the other, was a huge mana storm. The currents of astral space, normally flowing like a gentle stream instead were a raging torrent, a river full of spring melt water. Lightning erupted from the dark clouds, striking the land to both sides of the highway.

Marius started to slow, then they felt the truck drift for a moment, as all his attention went elsewhere.

“We have a problem. According to my readings, that storm is generating winds over 110kph. And it’s coming straight for us. Wait.” They waited in silence for a moment, while Tads continued to stare in horror at the approaching behemoth. “There’s no way we can avoid it. If we turn, it will catch us, and if we go to the sides, we can’t get enough distance to avoid it before it over-runs us. Pushing through is probably the best option.”

Kai and Hunter both turned to Tads, while Nadia clutched at Marius, tightening her seat belt. Tads swallowed visibly, then looked at the storm again, then round at the truck.

“He’s right. We should be ok in here. The ward will stop anything but the most powerful magic from entering the vehicle, and it should blunt the effects a great deal. And I can put all my defensive power on Marius, to try and keep him and us safe. As long as he can handle the physical effects, we should be ok. Unless it gets really weird in there.”

“What do you mean, really weird?” asked Kai, hesitantly.

“Well, if the storm flinging out spell-like effects, it really depends. If we’re lucky, it will be making the trees grow faster, or making nuts appear on the side of the road. If we’re unlucky, it’s meteors, fireballs and layers of grease a hundred miles wide. Can’t say for sure what it will be. How lucky do you feel?” Kai winked at her, smiled and sat back in his seat with a wry little smile. 

“Lucky. Always lucky. Push on Marius, but take it steady.”

They drove on, and watched as the storm approached at a frightening rate. They could see the storm edge; sheets of water fell, obscuring the road ahead and they watched as the cars ahead of them disappeared, their rear lights fading into the storm front. Then it hit. The sound was like being shot at, and they realised it wasn’t just torrential rain but hailstones the size of marbles, pelting down at speed and bouncing off the ground, adding to the obscurement. Forks of lightning flashed, and then a peal of thunder rumbled across the sky. Even with the powerful lights from the truck, visibility dropped sharply, and combined with the vicious scything wind made the highway treacherous. Marius was forced to slow, dropping the speed to around 40kph.

The truck suddenly veered hard to the left, running onto the slushy ground to the side as Marius avoided a car spun out in the nearside lane. They had a moment to catch sight of the occupant, scrabbling out of the vehicle and clawing at his eyes as he was pelted with hailstones that drove him to his knees before they were past. 

“Why the hell was he doing that?”

“Stick your head outside the ward around the vehicle, and I suspect you’d see things you’d rather not…” Tads responded. “Imagine, Kai, if you saw the thing we found down in the temple, in the passenger seat – wouldn’t you want to get out of the car? I suspect the storm is releasing huge amounts of mana and creating illusions – that’s why we’re not seeing them. They’re not powerful enough to get through the ward. At least not yet.”

They continued, and Marius had to swerve several more times. They spotted vehicles overturned and spun out, a few lorries that had run off the road and ended up in ditches or fields, and more people strewn around the road, several of them badly wounded or dying from the savage beating of the hailstones. Yet if they’d stopped, if they’d opened the doors to the truck, they almost certainly would have succumbed to the same horrors that befell the other drivers. They pushed on, and the mood was grim in the truck.

Twenty-five minutes after entering the storm, they burst out of the other side. To their left and right they could see the edge of the storm, a clear line of intense weather rapidly marching over the countryside and leaving devastation in its wake. The line stretched on for kilometres to each side, dark clouds roiling in the air and forks of lightning illuminating the night sky.

Ahead of them they saw the results of the storm – passing more vehicles that had crashed or spun out. Some drivers were battered and bloody, and trying to recover their cars, while others had clearly perished. Mutely they stared at the number of crashed vehicles as they passed. Tads looked at the first few vehicles, and clearly wanted to stop and help, but after they had driven past a dozen, she realised that it was futile. They would have lost days if they’d tried to help everyone who had been hurt or injured, and it would have left her unable to function if she’d tried to heal them all – and on an event this widescale, surely there would be official response. And if the authorities did come, no doubt they would ask why the team had made it through unscathed and want to know what was in the trailer.

They drove on, and another fifty kilometres passed. Suddenly they realised that there were no more crashed vehicles, the road was clear – though empty of traffic. The storm had appeared somewhere in the area they had just passed, sprung up from nowhere and headed south, and would presumably (and hopefully) peter out just as suddenly. 

With the road clear, Marius accelerated back up to top speed, continuing along their pre-selected route. It took several more hours to reach Volgograd, with the outskirts of the city appearing as the clock read 22:30. Hunter got on the matrix to find them somewhere to stay, looking for a cheap motel that probably wouldn’t ask too many questions. It didn’t take too long to find a truckstop that advertised rooms on the south west side of the city – aimed at truckers it meant that they would have plenty of room for their vehicle, and the rooms would be basic but functional. He slotted his ID chip and reserved a couple of rooms, then marking the address on the map and pushing the updated route through to Marius.

They arrived at the truck stop, finding it to be as basic but functional as expected, and checked in to their rooms. Cheap plastic furniture, thin walls, peeling wallpaper and rattling pipes with limited hot water put the place into perspective compared to the hotel in Sochi – but the door locked, the beds were vaguely comfortable and it was at least clean – there was no requirement for Tads to stun the place to neutralise the bedbugs.

They split up into their normal rooms, and were starting to settle when Kai got a call from Marius, asking him to come to their rooms – and to bring a med-kit. Somewhat alarmed, Kai grabbed the med-bag and bolted from the room, with Hunter following, hand inside his jacket on the grip of his pistol, assuming the worst.

When they got to the room, Nadia was in the chair, her knees pulled up under her chin, rocking slightly back and forth. Marius sat on the bed, his left leg jiggling up and down, but mostly focussed on Nadia. He waved Kai over, then froze as he saw Hunter enter the room behind him, staring at him for a few seconds. Realising there was nothing for it, he returned his attention to Kai. “Nadia is not feeling well. She’s itching, and having hot and cold flushes, and feels like her head is pounding.”

“Have you broken her, Marius” Hunter smiled, removing his hand from the grip of his gun and leaning against the wall. Marius scowled at him, but the disapproval washed over Hunter like water on a duck’s back. Kai tried not to smile, and knelt down, breaking out the medkit and pulling out the diagnostic computer.

It took him a good ten minutes to get the results, with a fair bit of checking and paging through the diagnostics database.

“Well, there’s good news, and bad news. The good news is that it’s not life-threatening, or contagious. The bad news is that you’re going into withdrawal, from your addiction.”

That news was enough to jerk Nadia out of her fugue, and Marius joined her in denying the possibility that Kai was correct. It didn’t help that Hunter was now openly smirking, a big grin plastered across his face. 

Kai went over the results again, pulling up the pages detailing the chemical composition of “Nitro”, the effects, symptoms and after-effects – all of which matched what Marius and Nadia was going through. It seemed that during the all-night bender not only had the vodka flowed freely, but they’d also ended up taking several doses of Nitro. A common street drug, it lead to increased aggression and waves of euphoria, diminished sense of consequences and a resistance to pain and fatigue. It also, caused blackouts and unconsciousness when the drug wore off – unless the user took another hit, to start a fresh cycle. 

As he described in cold clinical detail, flashes of memory fired in both Marius and Nadia’s minds, fragments of the night, of drinks, pills, food, fights. Running, laughing, and collapsing into seats. It was all fragmentary, disjointed and without reference. Marius frowned, finding it frustrating – normally his memory was phenomenal, but in this case there were large parts of the night and day that he had no recollection of at all.

“The good news is that although you’ve probably taken a good number of doses during your night out, you should be able to kick it fairly easily. Without access to the drug, you’ll go cold turkey, and that might not be fun at all – but as long as you don’t take any more, you’ll be fine in a few days. You just need to stay clean. Until then, there’s not a lot we can do for you. Though maybe Shimazu should do the driving tomorrow.” Kai grabbed the medkit and headed to the door while Marius spluttered, and excused himself from the room, followed by the smiling Hunter.

Tads meanwhile had summoned a new spirit, asking it to guard and protect the three rooms for the night, and had agreed to stay up for the next few hours on watch, while Aswon slept. Once he’d had his usual three hours or so, they’d swap and she’d sleep until dawn. 

In one room, Hunter and Kai climbed into the tiny single beds – Hunter falling asleep with a wry smile on his face. In the middle room, Tads stared out of the window at the moon, listening to the gentle sounds of breathing from Aswon and Shimazu as they slumbered. In the third room, Marius and Nadia sat, sipping from their water bottles, scratching at their arms and fidgeting as muscle spasms and nervous tics drove them into a quiet rage. Unable to relax, unable to concentrate on anything productive, they fidgeted and moved restlessly, drinking and going to the toilet, and trying to avoid talking to each other – at least after the first argument had left them both feeling aggravated with the other’s inability to see just how wrong they were. 

They both had enough sense to realise they were snapping at each other due to the reaction of their bodies as it craved the hit from the drugs – and by unspoken agreement after the first row, decided to avoid talking and saying things they would almost certainly regret later.

On the wall, the old fashioned analogue clock ticked, the second hand moving around the carved wooden face in jerky motions, counting off time with a steady inevitability. Slowly the minutes crawled by, with both of them sweating and itching, trying to cope with the feelings that crawled through their bodies. It felt like it was going to be a very long night indeed.


	94. 094 - Volgograd

Date Sunday 07/03/2060, Location 48.4913, 44.552

Marius and Nadia were left in their room, and the rest of the team headed into the middle room to confer. There were some snide remarks and crude jokes, talk about becoming their dealers and such like, but gradually the mood sobered as they contemplated the situation. 

After a few minutes, Kai realised that both Shimazu and Hunter had gone quiet, both staring off into space with looks of concentration on their face. A minute more passed, then Shimazu leant over towards Hunter, and started to talk about non-specific volumetric uptake of endorphin receptors. The two of them started to confer, discussing how they could best address the removal of the chemicals from their system and the physiological conditions that could aid this. Quickly Kai was left behind in the conversation as they went beyond his knowledge of biotech - the practical applications of treatments and the immediate work of dealing with wounds and saving lives, into the field of medicine and holistic therapy. After a few minutes though, they came to a consensus and approached Kai with their plan.

Kai listened, then sighed deeply, before pushing himself to his feet and returning to see Marius and Nadia. When he entered, he could sense the tension in the air, along with the faint smell of the two – their bodies struggling with the after effects of the drug, sweating and shaking in response to chemical needs. Kai adjusted his posture and put on a slight smile, but kept it dialled down to something subtle and reassuring. Speaking carefully, he told them what Shimazu and Hunter had discussed, about the effects of the drugs on their system and how best to get through the ordeal.

While he was doing this, the others bought in a number of bottles of water and some food, then left quietly. 

“So, both of you – what we need is for you to drink at least a litre of water an hour, more if you can stomach it. Go to the loo as often as you can, and help your kidneys flush this stuff out. And it’ll not be fun, or exciting – but do situps, crunches, jog on the spot, star jumps – whatever. Push your body, make yourselves sweat, get the heart rate up and exercise hard. You’ll feel like crap, but it’ll distract you from the cravings for one, and it’ll help metabolize anything left for two. Don’t worry about tomorrow, Marius – Shimazu will drive, and he’s promised not to scratch it. You both get to sleep all day, if you can power through the night.”

Nadia looked rebellious and Marius didn’t look impressed – but he nodded in acceptance, and laid a hand over Nadia’s, shooting her a look and she kept her peace. Kai left the room, and as he turned to shut the door, saw Marius starting a series of deep squats, encouraging Nadia to do the same. He pulled the door closed quietly, and returned to the others to let them know how it had gone.

In the morning, they grabbed a quick breakfast from their supplies in the truck, and got back on the road around 09:00. Marius and Nadia looked awful – pale and wan, tired and very grumpy. However, they had both obviously showered not long ago, and when they were examined, there was no sign of the tremors that had been present the night before. They both climbed straight into the back of the truck and into bunks, wrapping themselves up in blankets and strapping in, then falling asleep quickly.

Aswon and Hunter headed into the trailer again, to keep an eye on the cargo. Kai leant around the rear door, with Shimazu by his side.

“Can you check the cargo over? Carefully?” Aswon and Shimazu looked uncertain, but then Shimazu nodded.

“Keep an eye on me, just in case.” He stared at the boxes for a moment, penetrating his ward and examining the swirling mass of mana underneath. He wobbled a bit, and Aswon and Hunter started to move towards him, ready to catch him – or restrain him as needed. A moment later he blinked, then looked around at them.

“Just the same as before. No better, no worse. Still awful.”

Aswon and Hunter returned to their places, strapping themselves into the harnesses set up while Kai shut the door and headed to the front. With the two of them in the back, it left Shimazu to drive, with Kai and Tads in the front of the cab, stretching out in the unaccustomed space. Shimazu spent a minute or two adjusting the ‘trode net onto his head and ensuring that it was properly set, then thought about starting the engine. In response, the massive diesel engine rumbled to life, making the truck vibrate. In the back, Marius stirred slightly in his sleep, clutching his pillow tightly.

Tads concentrated for a moment, establishing her spell and linking her mind to Shimazu’s, feeling his thoughts as he piloted the truck out of the car park and onto the main road, heading north east along the highway into the centre of Volgograd. As they drove along, Tads experienced what Shimazu was feeling, the weird dichotomy of feeling the truck respond to the power of his thoughts, and the sensation that he should be driving using his physical limbs.

Kai gave a start as Tads moved suddenly, then his face broke into a genuine grin, as she too raised her arms to grip the imaginary steering wheel, and her feet started to press on the floor on peddles that existed only in her mind. They moved in perfect synchronisation, the truck sweeping around bends and changing up a gear as they performed their pantomime, fighting through the early morning traffic of heavy industrial vehicles and smaller commuter cars.

He was distracted by a call from the back, as Hunter cleared his throat.

“I’ve been working the numbers, and I think we’re about 670 clicks from Samara as the crow flies, or around a thousand clicks actual travel distance. If we push on for the day and don’t run into anything, we’ll arrive at the base around midnight or so.”

“Hmm – I don’t like the sound of that. I think we should try and do a midday arrival. Is there somewhere we can get to today that’s close enough to make that possible?”

“Let me check…” There was a sound of key pressing just audible over the link, then Hunter spoke again. “Ok, we can get to Saratov. That’s well over half way, and past a lot of the worst traffic and road conditions. If we stop there, we should be able to leave early in the morning and get to the base just after midday.”

“I favour this plan. It means if we are looking at option two, we have more chance.” Kai frowned as he heard Aswon speak.

“What do you mean, option two?”

“Well, the way I see it, we have a number of options for this job. Option one – this is a milk run. It’s actually really straight forward, and he just needed a trustworthy set of couriers who wouldn’t ask questions, and that’s why the pay is fairly low. Option two – it’s a horrible double cross, and we’ll get to the military base and find ourselves under attack for trying to sneak a nuclear bomb into their grounds, or something like that. Option three, we open the crates to find out if it’s a bomb, or zombies, or canisters of anthrax or VITAS dispensers, and have to decide what to do with them.”

“It could be option four – cryogenically cooled hookers, being taken to the base for the troops as a reward,” added Hunter with a snort. The banter continued for several minutes, and by the time they got to option fourteen, it was well out of the bounds of reasonableness or probability. While they’d gotten silly, the fact remained that the first few options represented good possibilities.

Kai saw something in his peripheral vision, and turned to look carefully out of the front window, watching as a second snowflake landed on the thick armour glass, then was joined by some more. He looked over to the sensor panel, and watched as the temperature sunk another degree or two, then craned his body down, so he could look up at the large grey clouds overhead, hanging low over the city.

A change in terrain caught his attention and he looked over to the right of the truck, to the area bordering the river. A huge corporate enclave took up all of the land from the waterfront to the main road, surrounded by a four metre high wall of plascrete, adorned with graffiti and tags in places. Beyond the wall, huge chemical tanks; pipes and fractional distillation towers rose in a jumble, filling the space like a maze. Kai poked Tads in the ribs gently to get her attention, then pointed over to the walls.

They drove past a gateway, and saw three men standing guard, one of them holding two large Alsatians on quick-release leads. They were armed with submachine guns and were wearing heavy long coats that bulged and hung strangely – almost certainly layered over heavy body armour. Tads sucked in a breath as she stared at the scene, looking at the magical plane rather than the physical.

“That’s not somewhere we want to be. There’ a background count over the whole area, rising in some places. Those dogs are dual-natured – they’re astrally-sighted and can see spirits and such like. They may have other abilities too – running fast, or leaping, or even paralysing howls or something like that. But there’s also a fairly powerful air spirit over the top of the facility that looks on the verge of being toxic. It’s badly polluted and warped, that much I can tell you.”

“Zeta-Imp Chem. Massive chemical company, they make loads of chemicals obviously, but also drugs, treatments, advanced plastics, weird metals, nano-machinery – all kinds of stuff. But it’s all advanced manufacturing, and I guess, polluting industries. That’ll explain the taint on astral space.”

In the trailer Aswon watched as Hunter tensed up. His normal wry smile vanished and he took on a slightly haunted expression for just a moment. With a breath, it was gone, and he was back to his usual self. 

“Something wrong, Hunter?” asked Aswon, keeping his attention on the warded boxes, and avoiding direct eye contact.

“Um… they’re my ex-employers. We didn’t part on the best of terms.”

“Well, unless they can penetrate a pretty massive ward, and see through solid armour plate – don’t worry about it.”

The truck rumbled on, keeping up with traffic for the next kilometre, then another. The compound to the right remained as forbidding as when they first saw it – stark walls, rolls of razor wire, frequent patrols and sensor pods and every ten metres or so was a large clear sign marking it as corporate property, and forbidding entrance. They knew what that meant of course – inside the boundary of that line, they were on corporate property – not in Russia. Corporate law applied, and if you were caught, then summary execution was well within their rights. They drove on in silence, until finally they reached the end of the ZIC compound, and the city returned to a normal mix of smaller companies and corporations, side roads, decrepit housing and run down shops. Down by the waterfront they could see docks and cranes, boat yards and chandlers and a host of businesses related to the boating industry. Closer to the road were a cluster of mechanics and vehicle workshops, selling spare parts or doing repairs. Kai gave a start and looked again, then tapped Shimazu on the shoulder.

“Pull over, quick as you can, I think that’s someone we should say hello to.” Shimazu found a spot to pull up in, and angled to the side of the road, ignoring the honking of the traffic that got caught behind him. Kai pawed at the window for a moment, then remembered that they didn’t open, and instead flipped the door open, leaning out and looking back at the figure which had emerged from a shop entrance a few moments ago and was now walking up the road, clutching a number of large boxes.

“Hey! Hello there. Momma Bear, isn’t it?” Tads slumped in her chair as her astral form left the truck to go and hover next to the figure, examining her and the area around her.

“Oh, hi. Kai isn’t it? I see you got your truck repainted. Nice… oh, in fact nice mods. Today’s colour of the day, hey?” The heavy-set ork female was wearing a pair of denim dungarees still, under a large heavy overcoat. As she spoke she adjusted the boxes and examined the truck, and Kai, carefully.

“We like to mix things up, what can I say. Out for a bit of shopping I see?”

“Yes, just picking up some spares and supplies we had to get ordered in, then heading back to the quarry.”

“The quarry?” As soon as Kai said that, he realised that he’d said something dumb. Momma Bear stared at him for a moment, as if expecting him to crack the punchline, but when he continued to look at her blankly, she shook her head in amazement. 

“Wait, you DID get the card from Rocket, right? You’ve not lost it?” She looked at him sharply, shifting the boxes again to stop the top container from sliding off and falling.

“No, no, we still have it. Well, Marius does, anyway.”

“Oh man, just wait until Rocket hears about this…” She snorted, and then started to walk, and her large shoulders heaved as she chuckled, walking down the path away from them in the steadily thickening snow. Kai leant back into the truck and pulled the door closed, and then waved for Shimazu to continue driving as he pondered the discussion. They pulled out into a small gap in traffic and continued their journey, and as they passed the first side street he saw Mamma Bear loading the supplies into the back of the dune buggy he’d seen them with back in the valley.

Back in the truck, they dug through Marius’s gear, pulling out the card and examining it again. Kai filled in the two in the back on the other half of the conversation that they’d not heard – Mamma Bear had been too far from the microphone in the front.

“Do you think – any of these numbers might be a set of co-ordinates or something?” asked Shimazu. Kai read them out, and they could hear Hunter tapping away in the background, checking on maps.

“Well, if you take the figure of 50114 kilos max weight, and use that as a northing, and the figure of 43202 listed as max altitude and use that as an easting, then the spot highlighted is an old quarry, about 200 kilometres north of here.” The truck fell silent for a few moments while they digested that.

“Nice thought,” Kai rubbed his brow for a moment. “I think we might add this to our list of things to investigate, once we’ve dropped off our cargo. But for now, let’s crack on.”

They pressed on through the city, and the road gradually bent from heading north to a more easterly course, following the banks of the Volga River. The houses changed in style as they went from one district to another, but they all had a rundown air to them. The city seemed vibrant, but poor – as if the massive corporate presences here were leeches, draining the financial blood from them and leaving them poor and sickly. The number of commercial vehicles on the road was incredibly high and traffic was heavy, blanketing the whole city with a dense smog that coloured the snow as soon as it landed, forming grey and brown slush that piled up by the sides of the road. 

They finally made it past the city centre and the turn off for the E119 to the North West, the route of the New Silk Road, and the traffic eased up slightly as they continued on the smaller R229 to the north east. It wasn’t long before they spotted another huge conclave by the waterside – following the same pattern. Enormous walls topped with razor wire, oppressive armed guards, signs twenty foot high emblazoned with the Saeder-Krupp logo. Tads checked, and found the magical security was slightly lighter than on the ZIC compound to the south – but judging by the electronics panel in the back of the van, it was more than made up for by the massive number of sensors and drones deployed, in depth, across the facility.

“If you listen carefully, you can hear Marius’ butt clench, even in his sleep,” quipped Hunter over the intercom, getting a few snorts of laughter in response. The compound was, if anything, even more massive than the ZIC area, including a number of quays and floating docks that jutted out into the massive river. As they finally reached the end of the wall, and watched it turn sharply in towards the coastline, Shimazu checked the digital odometer in the corner of his vision.

“Nine point nine four kilometres long. That’s from the first corner, to the one we just passed. I’d guess about one and quarter wide or so. So easily over ten square kilometres for the whole place.” Hunter confirmed after a little check on the maps, and they idly discussed the kind of work they could be getting up to in a place like that.

It wasn’t far until they reached the end of the city, and came across the Volga dam, a massive concrete structure sprawling across the four and a half kilometre wide river. On the far side they could see two enormous sets of locks, one of which contained a small container ship that was slowly rising to bypass the dam. This area had no wall – but it did have a double chain-link fence nearly six metres high, topped with more rolls of razorwire, and dangling signs claiming it as the property of Russia Hyro-power, a division of Shiawaise. Passing the dam appeared to be some kind of threshold – maybe a change in zoning laws or ownership.

Housing and businesses stopped abruptly, and the land became a mix of various shades of brown. Unlike the land to the south west that they’d been driving through, rather than small fields laid out in a patchwork, here the fields were gigantic, tended by automated machinery with long boom arms that drilled and tilled the fields, getting ready for the spring planting. Around each of these vast swathes of lands were simple wire fences, again with frequent signs claiming ownership for one agri-corp or another. Clearing the mass of traffic in the city and fighting through the narrow streets had taken them over two hours, but they accelerated now, pushing ahead on the clearer road and the truck rumbled through the deepening slush as the snow continued to fall.

They trundled along the road, travelling roughly parallel to the Volga as they headed north into the Russian interior. The road dropped in quality quickly as they left Volgograd behind, with long stretches of the road only having one usable lane. While the truck kept pace with the other commercial traffic heading in the same direction, this often lead to long queues of cars bunching up behind them, waiting to overtake and be on their way. The drivers seemed accustomed to taking crazy chances though, and despite several near misses, there was no trouble along the way.

Around 14:00, they spotted a building across the road in the distance, and as they closed the traffic bunched up and slowed down. A kilometre or two short they managed to get the sensors zoomed in enough and spotted that it was a checkpoint. Hunter informed them they were getting near the administrative border between Volgograd and Saratov Oblasts, the equivalent of county borders or prefectures. They slowed more and prepared themselves to join the queue – at least this one was nowhere near as long as the one to enter Russia. From time to time they saw a vehicle get checked, and then pull out from the queue and leap straight down to the front of the line, where it was checked next and allowed on its way.

They hadn’t long stopped when they saw an official working down the line towards them, tablet in one hand and a radio set over his head. He stopped at each vehicle, and appeared to do a quick ID check – perhaps gathering the details to be processed by the checkpoint ahead. 

“Tads, can you go and listen in on what he’s saying, magically?”

“Yes, I can Kai. But if they have astral spotters out, or any spirits – they’ll see me very obviously, and may assume we’re attacking.”

“Oh, right – don’t do that then. I guess we’ll just wait our turn.” They watched him work down the short list of vehicles ahead of them, and then it was their turn.

Shimazu pushed the door open as he arrived, and the man climbed up the steps lithely and efficiently – clearly at home climbing up to talk to lorry drivers.

“Good afternoon Comrades, welcome to Saratov. Do you have a priority pass?” Kai slid over towards him, holding their collection of IDs from Milo, and with a sheaf of their paper money. All told there was around 250 Nuyen, or 500 Rubbles worth.

“Hi, here are the IDs. And we don’t have a pass, but we’d be interested in buying one?” He gave his best high-intensity smile at the guy, and put earnest appreciation into his voice. The IDs were quickly slotted one after another, each making the machine give a happy beep and a flash of green light, and the small bundle of bills disappeared into an inside pocket.”

“Enjoy your journey.” The man started to climb down the steps, and as soon as he’d reached the ground, they heard him say into the microphone “Ygevny! Sending one down, all cleared.” Before he waved at Shimazu to pull out and head down the road. They pulled out and motored down the side of the line, passing the line until they reached the checkpoint. To their surprise, they were just waved straight through, not receiving the same check the others had. Maybe their bribe wasn’t as generous. Either way, once Shimazu had squeezed the truck through the narrow opening, he put his foot down, literally, and they picked up speed again, continuing along the cracked roadway.

Another hour saw them closing in on Saratov, and Kai went into the back to rouse Nadia and Marius, ensuring they didn’t sleep too long during the day and stay up all night. Both looked a lot better, and a few minutes later they climbed through into the cab with a cup of coffee, looking somewhat awake.

They arrived just in time to spot the airbase off their right side, a huge flattened area clearly visible from the slightly raised surface of the main road. One long runway ran across the huge airbase, several thousand metres long, with a taxiway at each end leading to perhaps a dozen hard-standing pads. Four of the pads contained silvery jets, just visible through the snow blowing in the rising wind.

“Fast jets, probably could launch inside ten minutes of an alert being raised. But nothing on the end of the runway, so they’re not on alert.”

“We’re only about a thousand clicks away from the top end of Turkemistan from here.” Hunter called from the rear, and they could all picture him, intently staring at his computer and the nav-screen.”

“About forty minutes flight if you stayed low, maybe twenty minutes if you hit altitude. Easy strike distance, and far enough back to make a strike against the base here difficult. Makes sense.” Marius seemed torn, half his attention on the airbase to the right, and half watching Shimazu drive the truck along.

Driving past the airbase they entered the city proper, finding it to be a sprawling affair of typical Soviet construction. Drab and dreary, uncoloured concrete thrust up from the ground in a brutal and unappealing format, fashioned into factories, warehouses and apartment blocks that went back in rank after rank from the highway. They followed directions from Hunter to a hotel he’d found, travelling through the city centre and out of the city on the road to Samara. 

By now the snow lay nearly 15cm deep across the ground, and as they turned into the white carpet that lay over the hotel approach road, for a moment the truck felt like it was about to slide. The deep tread bit into the soft snow, driving through to the concrete underneath though, and Shimazu let out a silent sigh of relief as he regained control and they drove up the road. The hotel looked good – in fact it looked great, considering the general state of the surrounding areas.

“The Hotel Mirage. Four stars. Cheapest you could find eh, Hunter?” Kai shook his head, wondering how much this was going to cost for the night. At the sound of their vehicle approaching, a valet in immaculate uniform appeared from the hotel entrance and descended the short flight of steps, braving the wind and snow and stood waiting patiently for them to pull up.

“Good afternoon! Welcome to the Hotel Mirage. I assume you’re from the base?”

“Um... yes! Yes, that’s right. We need a couple of rooms for the night, while we arrange our travel. And of course, somewhere to park the vehicle. Some of our team will be staying with the vehicle as we’re carrying live cargo, so if we can park somewhere good, that will be appreciated.”

“Of course sir. Would you like… me? To park your vehicle?”

“No, that won’t be necessary. But if you can show our driver where to pull up, that would be good.”

Shimazu felt a stare on the back of his neck, and vacated the driver’s seat to allow Marius to jack in. While the poor valet walked around the hotel, guiding Marius to a parking place, the rest of the team grabbed their bags and entered the luxurious hotel lobby. After a few seconds, as he took in the scenery, he realised it was nice – but wasn’t actually as good as it first appeared. Decorations were laminated, or coated, or on second inspection cleverly textured plastic. 

What they lacked in original or genuine furnishings though, they made up for in service. Quickly they were checked in, and ended up booking two twin rooms and a single room for the night. A number of bellhops tried to assist them with their meagre luggage, helping them to their rooms. The hotel appeared quiet, and they didn’t see any other guests on the journey to their rooms. Along the way, Aswon studied the pictures hanging on the wall, most of which had an aviation theme, or showed people in various military dress.

“I’m getting the impression, this place was aimed at the Russian Strategic Command and their staffs. I worked with some of them once, when we were contracted in the Urals. This place is typical – looks nice, staff to fawn over you, far enough back from the front lines that there’s no real danger, but close enough to be able to go an make some commands life a living hell with your micro-management.” Aswon’s voice had a hard edge to it, and it was clear what he thought of such “rear echelon” warriors – or at least the ones that interfered with operations.

They made the most of their stay – discovering the billiards room, the swimming pool and the small gym. The restaurant cooked them a fine meal in the evening, and they staggered their shifts in the normal fashion – Aswon grabbing 3-4 hours sleep and then covering the rest of the night. The truck had ended up parked over four normal spaces, but was positioned right under a camera, clearly in view from the hotel security point. 

They ordered breakfast for 6am, and after Kai settled up the three thousand rouble bill and recovered, were on the road by 7am, continuing on the road towards Samara. The snow had continued overnight, building up slowly until everything was covered to a depth of around thirty centimetres. The sounds of the city were muted by the white blanket that lay over the land, and the road was quiet. They saw a few snow plows out clearing the main road, and it looked like the city adjusted to a later start during the winter months.

As they headed north, Kai discussed the plan with the team. He had deliberately dressed in a very clearly civilian outfit, and had written a note, with the Brigadier’s name clearly marked on the top in giant letters. He intended to get the truck to stop a hundred metres short of the gate, then walk up on his own, making it abundantly clear that they were no threat. Nobody had an issue with this – they were all a little nervous about just marching into a military base, given their legal status.

Now that Marius was driving, Shimazu re-joined Aswon in the trailer, freeing Hunter to return to the cab of the truck. He kept an eye on the weather reports, and monitored the condition of the road, keeping an eye out for problems and planning alternate routes in case they were needed.

They’d travelled about a hundred and eighty kilometres from Saratov, putting them near the half way mark, and the powerful truck and massive tyres, along with the surety of a rigger driving had let them keep up a good speed – they’d averaged over 60kph so far, despite the deep snow. The section of highway they were travelling angled inland, around a low but steep section of hills and crags between them and the river. This side of the ridgeline was covered in heavy forests, the massive evergreens laden down with snow forming a patchwork of green and white in a surreal herringbone pattern. 

A glint of light in the forest ahead drew Hunter’s attention.

“Marius, just ease off a minute, will you?” He felt the engine revs drop off, and the truck slowed gently in the snow, while he raised his assault rifle to his shoulder and peered through the scope ahead of them. “About 1200 metres, left side of the road, 352 mark 8. Looks like the front end of an SUV sticking out of the treeline, on a slope.”

Having called out the position, the others checked through binoculars and Marius slewed the sensors and ran a sweep to confirm, while the truck continued to plow through the snow towards them. They never even noticed Tads vaulting from her body, and a split second later she was hovering over the waiting flatbed in astral space, examining it. In the back were four men, armed with some kind of gun – they were just grey blobs in astral space, but they looked about as big as Hunter’s gun, though not as big as Aswon’s. But she could feel the anticipation dripping off of them as they waited. A second later, she poked into the cab, finding three more men and a woman in there, also with guns. The passenger in the front seat had his hand up, telling the driver to wait, his attention focussed on the truck as it laboured up the road through the snow. Quick as a flash she headed back to her body, managing to merge with it first time at the low speed.

“Eight of them, four in the cab, four in the back. Nervous, anticipation, watching the truck, expectant. The one in the front is telling the driver to wait, and they mostly have guns about the same size as yours. Hunter. Nothing magic that I could see, but I get a really bad feeling from them – they mean us harm.”

Marius hit the accelerator, and the engine roared, blue smoke bursting from the exhaust as he dumped fuel into the cylinders. The truck surged ahead, regaining speed and with expert control Marius danced between the six wheels, ensuring that all of that power went into driving them forward, not spinning out. The speedo rapidly climbed, and the bow wave of snow grew higher and higher as they rammed through the fall.

Ahead of them the SUV accelerated down out of the treeline, sliding onto the road and the doors were just starting to open to allow the attackers to get out – which just meant they could see the look of horror on their faces as they realised they’d miscalculated badly. Not only was the truck not going to stop – the team being pretty certain that none of their guns would actually penetrate the heavy armour installed. But also, that the truck had accelerated hard, which had thrown off their calculations. And now the behemoth was almost upon them, travelling faster than they’d thought possible in this weather.

Marius took great delight in aiming, and with exquisite care rammed the truck on the back left corner. The impact speed and weight of their truck sent the SUV spinning through the snow like a rotor blade, and the four hapless souls in the back were flung clear by the apparent centrifugal force. They arced through the air, and at least two soundly struck trees, sliding downwards in a broken and mangled form. 

The truck continued along the road, sticking to it as if on rails, while Marius crowed with delight. The ram bars on the front had a slight extra angle to it, and a mass of white paint deposited, but otherwise the truck showed no sign of the impact. Tads once more left her body and went back to survey the scene. The four from the back were clearly dead, having hit the trees at far too high a speed. When she checked the bodies in the cab she found they had spun off the road and smashed into a boulder concealed in the snow by the side of the road. The two in the back were dead, their heads lolling at odd angles and their lower legs almost severed where the car doors had crushed them during the crash. The two in the front were alive, though badly wounded, barely moving in the cushion of the deflating airbags. 

She manifested, appearing in front of them. The woman driver screamed, making the sign of the cross at her, while the passenger managed to raise his assault rifle and uselessly empty the magazine in her direction. Once the chattering of the gun had stopped, she could hear him mumbling in a dazed voice about robbing them, repeating himself over and over again in his delirious state. She looked around, and saw no other vehicles in sight, no life signs anywhere nearby. There was nothing she could do astrally, and she wondered if they’d be able to make it to a farm or some other civilisation.

But, on the road in weather like this – they were unlikely to last long on their own. She headed back to the truck and reported in, and the truck drove onwards, leaving the failed ambush behind.

“We not stopping to check the bodies?” Shimazu called over the intercom, once they’d been appraised of the situation.

“Negative. It’ll slow us down, and I doubt they have anything we want or need.” The German’s normally dour voice still had an undercurrent of glee to it, that made it clear he considered this a good morning so far.

“Oh. I was just thinking that if they were dead, we could get some food for the leeches…”

“Shimazu! I’ll make you some steak if you want. But please, can we stop desecrating the dead!” Tads sounded exasperated with him, and slightly disappointed. Shimazu muttered for a few seconds, but then went quiet again.

They drove on for another forty minutes, then spotted another checkpoint ahead. There was almost no queue at this one, and they saw an officer wading through the snow towards them, in a fashion similar to the first. They braced themselves for the bitterly cold arctic winds as Kai opened the door and reached down to great the official. Again they were asked if they had a priority pass and again Kai slid over a sheaf of notes along with the ID sticks. The remaining stash of notes, all the hard currency they had left came to about 200 Nuyen, and he hoped it would be enough.

Whilst Kai had been doing the negotiations, Marius had been examining the sensor data, and quietly shunted the output to the rear screens, so Hunter could see it too. Ahead of them, tucked in behind the checkpoint was a heavy duty APC, painted in current cammo patterns. There was also an extra squad of guards moving around in battle dress, along with the border guards. 

With a curt nod, the officer told them to drive around to the front of the queue, but rather than letting them straight through, they were given the normal checks and questions. The IDs held though, and their stories were accepted, and after a quick external check of the vehicle, they were waved through. As they pulled off, they saw the troops mingling with the border checkpoint guards, and it looked like cash exchanged hands – they wondered what proportion of their bribe had been taxed by the army unit…

As they pulled away, Tads asked Hunter if he could configure the computer to record the current shape, colour and location of the truck.

“Of course, I can – but why?”

“Well, just imagine that guard remembers Kai and his winning smile, being in a blue truck that looked like a fuel tender. And a week later, we come back this way and finds him in a yellow truck that looks like a grain truck. Wouldn’t you find that unusual, if you were a guard. Or expensive. Or likely to report to higher authority.”

“Oh, I see what you mean. Sure.” Aswon suggested adding a tag to their GPS location, and storing the data for a user defined set of time before auto-deleting it. Hunter and Nadia were busy for the next thirty minutes, knocking together a program to record data as requested, and building in some safeguards to auto-purge the information in the event of damage or remote keywords.

Time passed, and the truck rumbled on, then Marius called out, asking for a distance and ETA. Hunter did some quick maths, and provided the details – they were more or less on track, perhaps eighty kilometres short of their objective and just over an hour away.

“I want to top up with fuel. At least get enough so that if we have to leave the military base at speed, we have enough fuel to get to a major city.” They kept an eye out for fuel stops along the main road, but the only one they saw was a small affair, and the fuel price was thirty percent over the odds. Tads pointed out that assuming it wasn’t the ‘option 2’ scenario, they had a chit to allow them to purchase fuel – not just at normal price, but at cost price. On a tank the size of theirs, that was a significant amount of cash they would be saving. In the end, avarice overrode caution, and they pushed on without buying extra fuel.

Arriving in Samara, the directions took them away from the actual city, and into a large area in the loop of the river. As they pushed into the loop, they found the whole area covered in dense forestry, covered in a network of paths and trails. As they drove around the perimeter, they saw the occasional squad of troops jogging through the snow in their uniforms, looking pretty miserable while PT instructors bellowed at them, or smaller squads performing navigation exercises. In at least two places they saw trucks almost the twin of their own, though with no trailers.

As they drove around the woodland, they reset the vehicle shape and colour, reverting to the basic military truck and trailer – figuring it was better to be open about what they were driving, rather than to try and disguise it. The pulled up as planned, about a hundred metres away from the camp gates, and Kai got out of the vehicle, pulling his coat tightly around him to try and keep the biting wind out. As he walked towards the gate, a trooper emerged from the gatehouse, his AK held across his chest, and started to head out to meet him. 

The team watched as Kai spoke, then handed over his letter to the confused-looking trooper. The Russian turned on his heel and headed back to the gatehouse, leaving Kai to stand in the middle of the road, the wind ripping through his hair and blasting him with sleet. He stood there for a minute, then two – then the trooper reappeared and pointed at Kai, then the truck and waved them towards the gate. Marius rolled forwards, slowing to let Kai jump up and climb in, before he rolled towards the entrance and drove past the opened barrier. A jeep was waiting for them and led them into the base, driving along the gravel road awash with slush and ice.

As they drove down the approach road they could see the layout of the camp more clearly. Each side of the road appeared to be a mirror image, a collection of large huts in two rows, facing onto a large parade square or exercise ground, with a further hut positioned sideways on, on the third face – presumably for the company commander or headquarters troop. The pattern was repeated several times, the companies forming into battalion groups. In between them, at the far end of the road was a large brick structure, which looked like the base HQ, with room for all the administration staff and lecture halls, kitchens and other requirements. To the rear of the area there appeared to be a small harbour and dock area on one side, and on the other they saw a number of shelters – then a helicopter rising above the trees amidst a blizzard of snow thrown up by the rotor wash. Unsurprisingly, Marius perked up at this and the sensors watched it carefully.

They drove up towards the brick area, and an officer in dress uniform came striding down the steps, ignoring the wind and sleet. Reaching the bottom, he stopped and came to a position of parade rest, waiting for the truck to come close, following the jeep. As they closed, he barked out an order and pointed, and the jeep led them around the corner. The jeep pulled up and the officer strode around the building, closing on their position. Kai dropped down, and discovered that as they had driven into the lee of the building, the wind was blocked, letting the snow fall straight down. 

The officer approached, greeting Kai with a firm handshake, and enquired if they had the goods as promised – to which Kai nodded, and with a wave of the arm gestured the officer to the back of the truck. Opening the back door, he showed the officer the eight containers – Aswon and Hunter were both standing discreetly to the side of the door, just in case. 

The officer leant around the truck and bellowed at the troops in the jeep.

“Call the Brigadier. Advise him the shipment is here! Then get the technicians over here on the double.” Things started to move quickly then – possibly a little quickly. The team watched carefully as the officer bellowed at a passing platoon of troops who were marching in formation past the building, and they doubled over towards them, standing in formation at the back of the truck in a double row. A small GAZ truck then arrived, and a half dozen engineers or technicians climbed out with a bunch of equipment too. It felt very claustrophobic all of a sudden, and the tension mounted in the team as they felt hemmed in by the Russians.

Then the Brigadier arrived.

He appeared around the corner, and a sharply barked order from the Captain bought everyone to attention – including Kai who wanted to appear respectful and Aswon who just seemed to be having flashbacks. He was a big man, barrel-chested and in great physical shape. Beyond that, though, he just seemed to exude energy, and dominate the scene. He snapped a sharp salute without breaking stride, then approached Kai and thrust out his hand, grabbing Kai in a firm handshake and pumping the arm up and down three times, then releasing. 

Aswon, Shimazu and Tads realised that the Brigadier was magically active, his aura glowed brightly. With another start, they also realised where they’d seen that magic before – in Kai. Pieces of puzzle clicked into place, and the reason his men were fanatically loyal and his battalion was not plagued with deserters became obvious. Watching as his will and Kai’s were going to meet was going to be…interesting. He also appeared to be moderately powerful – certainly more powerful than Kai in his own way, though Tads wasn’t sure he was stronger than her, not that she wanted to challenge him.

“He’s the only magical thing I’ve seen so far,” whispered Tads into their radios, “no spirits, no wards, no mages, nothing at all. At least until him.”

While they had been looking at the astral, Kai and the Brigadier had finished their discussions, and Kai waved for Hunter to start pushing the boxes towards the back door. The Captain, the Brigadier’s aide called for the troops, who arranged themselves in a double row, quickly moving the boxes out of the trailer and down to the ground and the waiting technicians.

The team watched as the techs moved to encapsulate each of the boxes in a large transparent bag, with hoses attached to a small pump, the pipes from which led to a gas cylinder. As the first box was sealed in, the technician reached through some gloves that were built into the bag, and tapped in the six digit code as it was read out by the next man over. The bag suddenly inflated, growing in size as a colourless gas erupted from the box. The small pump was engaged, and the bag slowly deflated, collapsing in until the box was effectively vacuum packed. After ten seconds more, the pump was silenced, the valves closed and the bag unsealed, letting the atmosphere rush back in, allowing the techs to slide the bag off.

The Brigadier moved in, and flipped the lid back, examining the boxes inside. He reached in and grabbed one of the inner cartons, pulling the lid up and examining the contents, then removed it – revealing a standard looking magazine – probably sized for an assault rifle. The tip of the round was painted a luminous green, what that signified was unknown to the team. The Brigadier replaced the magazine in the carton, and grabbed a phone from his pocket, and sent a quick message, then looked up and smiled at Kai.

A moment later Shimazu felt his pocket vibrate, and on checking his comm saw a message from Patrick of “Payment approved”. A second later, they saw Kai twitch as his pocket vibrated, as the funds were deposited into their account.

“Troops, if you’d be so kind as to get this lot moved to the armoury as each box is cleared. Corporal, I think an extra hour in bed for your platoon in the morning, to make up for having to stand in the cold today. Now, I need to get back to my office.” Smiles broke out amongst the ranks, but were quickly covered as they got to work, moving the boxes and carrying them carefully to the base armoury as they were cleared by the techs. The Brigadier nodded at the team. “I’ll leave you in the capable hands of the captain, who will see to your needs and make facilities available to you.” 

He turned on his heel and strode off through the snow, heading back towards the building, and the Captain stepped into his place.

“Now, I believe you were to be given fuelling rights, and to be able to draw on basic loads at the armoury. Will you be staying overnight and need bunks, or are you leaving today?” The question sounded neutral and genuine, with no inflexion either way.

“Yes, we’d like to buy some fuel – and avgas if we can?” The Captain nodded. “And yes, stocking up on ammo would be good. We’d also like to visit your infirmary if we can, and purchase some medical drugs, if we’re able – specifically anti-coagulants.” The Captain stared at him for a moment, then shrugged and nodded.

“I see no problem with that. May I ask a question?” He waited for Kai to nod. “You appear to have completed this work effectively, and efficiently – both traits that the Brigadier, and I, value. Do you have another mission or task lined up – or are you available to discuss some possible work.”

Kai grinned at him. “I think we can hang around a little, and make ourselves useful.”

“Excellent – perhaps you can give me a thumbnail brief on your skillsets and experience.” Kai looked thoughtful for a moment, then grinned again and turned towards Aswon.

“Time for some straight speaking, I think.” Aswon looked at him for a moment, then stepped forward.

“I am Aswon, a mercenary, with experience in many organisations and several theatres of war. This is Tads, she is our spirit-talker. Shimazu is a bodyguard, specialising in close quarters defence. Hunter is a fighter, working at medium to long range. Marius is our rigger and drone force multiplier, Nadia is our logistics and computer operator, and Kai – Kai is our team leader and negotiator.” He pointed to each of the team in turn, and the Captain examined them carefully, clearly making an appraisal and filing away details for future use.

“I will sort out some – opportunities then, and discuss them with the Brigadier, and we will speak again. But, for now, let me take you to the fuel depot and we’ll get you gassed up.”

He headed for the jeep, and the team mounted back up into the truck, and they followed him over to one side of the base to a large set of fuel tanks and pumps. After converting the price shown to them, they nodded to fill the tanks up to the brim – the cost of fuel worked out to about 6 Nuyen per litre, 60% of the street price. Marius also managed to get the fuel tank on the drone filled up, along with a canister of spare fuel.

As they were waiting for the fuel transfer to complete, Marius moved to the edge of the depot and looked out into the woodland, bordering the edge of the brigade area. In a clearing though the trees, he spotted a whole collection of helicopters, lined up.

“What’s that over there?”

“That? It’s the graveyard. Where we put the equipment we lack the parts to fix, or with issues.”

“May I see that?” Marius asked, fighting hard to keep a poker face.

“I’m sure we can work something out...” The captain ushered them back into their truck as the fuel transfer finished, then led them to the armoury to fill up on ammo. But he noticed that Marius kept looking back over his shoulder, back towards the helicopters.

He turned to Kai. “You know? I think we might have some missions available to you that will benefit both of us.”


	95. 095 - Samara base Part I

Date Tuesday 09/03/2060, Location 53.38042, 50.27575

Tads caught up with the Captain as he turned and headed back to the building.

“Excuse me. What is the position about use of magic on the base? Are we permitted?”

“Well, that depends. If you’re licenced by the Church, then yes, you can practice your magic. If you harm anyone, or affect the troops, then you’ll be considered to be using a weapon in a pre-meditated fashion.”

“Well, actually I am authorised by the Church. So providing I don’t hurt anyone, then we’re good, yes?” She watched the Captain nod. “Ok, thank you. I’ll let you get back to your tasks.“ The Captain continued his route, striding off quickly towards the barracks blocks.

Tads grabbed Shimazu and asked for him to come with her, setting off towards the main administration building.

“Sure, where are we going, and what are we doing? And do I need my sword?”

“Um, yes. Yes, you will, but keep it hidden. Just enough contact that you can astrally perceive. I’m heading for the infirmary – they must have one here somewhere. There’ll be lots of people needing help, with lots of things wrong with them. I thought it would be good practice for you to assense them.” Shimazu grunted in agreement, and fell into step with her, and they strode off towards the oppressive looking central administration building, only pausing to grab his sword from the truck in passing.

Grey and drab, stained with weather marks, it rose up at least four stories over them, brutal concrete with an unfinished surface. The windows were thin, and covered with an adhesive film to block sight into the building, indicating a retrofit of old glass rather than replacement with polarised units, giving them the impression that the building was decades old.

They entered the lobby, and saw a sign board, then followed the guide towards the base hospital. As they walked down the corridors they saw plenty of uniformed troops, and drew some stares – but it seemed that now they were on the inside, they were assumed to belong here; at least nobody challenged them openly. The hospital was on the ground floor, at the western end of the building, and they entered the reception area, finding it as stark and utilitarian as the rest of the building. Shimazu wrinkled his nose as he tasted a sense of despair and pain in the astral realm, and squinted slightly in unconscious response.

Tads swept up to the desk where a female nurse sat entering data into a terminal, and ask to speak to the duty doctor. She was told to wait, and the nurse placed a call, asking Doctor Tolyev to come to the entrance. While they waited, she pulled out her commlink, and sent a message to Marius. ‘Magic ok on base. Let me know when you go to look at aircraft. I can cast a spell on you to let you catalogue and index whatever you see near you – might make things quicker. Tads’

It only took a minute after hitting send, then a middle aged woman with her greying hair pulled up into a tight bun on the top of her head entered through a set of double doors. Wearing a standard white medical coat, she saw the nurse point, and followed her pointing finger towards Tads and Shimazu.

“I’m Doctor Tolyev. How can I help?”

“Actually, I’m here to offer my help. I’m a state and church licenced mage, with some ability to heal. I’ve spoken with the Brigadier’s aide, and he said we were ok to offer some help with healing your men.” The doctor blinked rapidly, and her eyes flitted from Tads to the silent form of Shimazu then back again.

“You can make our patients well again?”

“I can probably make some of them at least some part better. But there are no guarantees with magic. I can surely try though, and they won’t get any worse, that much I can be certain of.”

“Well, any step on the road to recovery is a good one. And you can fix all of them?”

“That depends. The more gravely they are wounded, the harder it is. It requires more mental energy, and I might become fatigued. So we need to work out some kind of order to address the people in, and try to do it steadily. “

“Hmm. So, it’s like asking you to perform a long run or a route march, and perform operations? The further you go, the harder it will be?” Tads thought for a moment, then nodded – it was close enough. “Then we shall see. I wish to supervise this – these people are under my care.” Tads nodded.

The doctor beckoned them to follow her, and led them through the double doors into a short corridor and to a t-junction. They turned right, into a ward full of basic metal beds, with soldiers lying in various positions, limbs bandaged, IV drips hanging from stands and metal bars and ropes forming traction apparatus in odd cases. Some of the soldiers were sitting up in bed, or in chairs by the sides of their beds, nursing lesser wounds, and a couple were slowly walking up and down the ward, some with crutches or holding on to the bed frames for support.

The doctor guided them to one patient, who lay on his bed slowly raising and lowering his leg, a look of pain on his face. Doctor Tolyev examined the chart carefully, then nodded.

“This should be a good test subject.” The soldier stopped, and a look of concern crossed his face. “We have here a rip of the muscles, sustained after a fall onto the leg while completing the assault course. Restricted movement, moderate levels of sustained pain. This is a fairly simple injury, but moderately painful and limiting on their abilities.” She turned to address the soldier, rather than Tads. “This is a mage, she is going to heal your wound. I will supervise.” The soldier turned to Tads and looked her up and down.

“Nyet! This is not a priest. I reject this treatment.” Tads blinked at the venom and certitude in his voice and wondered what his issue was. She watched him grab what looked to be an Orthodox Bible from his nightstand, which he held to his chest, with a fierce look of determination on his face. Shimazu took a step forwards and glowered down at the man, but he didn’t seem the slightest bit intimidated and simply stared back with a look of defiance.

“I’ll volunteer,” came the voice from the next bed. Doctor Tolyev looked to have been about to overrule the dissenter, but instead she turned and took a step or two over to the adjacent bed.

“Hmm. Broken ankle, landed in a pothole while jumping down from a transport. Compound break and some tendon damage. Very well.” Tads came over, and perched on the edge of the bed, holding her hands just above the proffered leg. All sounds on the ward had stopped, and everyone craned to see what was going on. Tads concentrated, calling power into her and trying to ignore the taint in the ward from the years of suffering and pain. The golden light extruded from her hands, suffusing the air around the leg, pulsing and growing brighter. There was an audible “ahhhh!” that rippled through the room as the soldiers saw this, and looks of concern on some faces. Tads concentrated, spending perhaps a minute performing the healing rite, letting the power flow through her, before it slowly faded away.

The room was so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop. For a moment, everyone was frozen in place, and dare not move. Then the soldier swung his legs over to the edge of the bed, and gently lowered them to the floor, gingerly putting some weight onto the bandaged ankle. Slowly at first, but then with more confidence, he increased the pressure, then pushed himself up from the bed. A look of joy crossed his face, and he suddenly strode out into the middle of the walkway, into the space between the two rows of beds and jumped up in the air, his feet landing with a slap onto the bare floor. He sunk into a deep squat, his buttocks almost touching the floor, then sprang up again, his ankle flexing entirely normally.

“Удивительно!!!” he called out, and there was a small cheer from a few of the soldiers.

“He said ‘Amazing’ Shimazu”, Tads said quietly, and they watched as he strode up to the end of the ward, apparently heading for the doors out.

“Err, didn’t your mother teach you to say anything?” she called out after him.

“No, I am from the orphanage. I had no mother….”

“Well, a thankyou is considered polite.”

“Oh, then yes, thank you. I must go now!” And he did, pushing through the doors and almost skipping down the short corridor. Tads watched him for a moment, then sighed, and turned to the doctor.

“Treatment approved. If you need me, I’ll be in my office.” She pointed to a room at the other end of the ward, and then left in that direction, leaving Tads to continue her work. One other person appeared to object on religious grounds, someone who had managed to pour scalding water over his hand and arm. The wound was painful, but superficial, so Tads didn’t bother arguing with him – it was his body, after all.

The rest of the ward had no such objections, and she went from bed to bed, triaging the cases and working her way up from the lightest wounds to the more serious, trying to pace herself and ensure that she didn’t become drained and fatigued. The hamstring injuries, shin splints and muscle tears were fixed, one after another, leaving delighted patients in her wake. Slowly she moved on to the more serious wounds, the broken legs, fractured kneecaps and puncture wounds sustained from various falls and exercises.

For each one she explained that she would do the best she could, but magic was not a science, and there was no guarantee. She worked through the ward, and though not everyone was healed to the point they could leave, everyone ended up better than they had been, shaving weeks off of their recovery time. A good third of the ward was healthy enough to return to duty, and they emptied out their lockers, grabbing their gear and getting discharged by the Doctor. The remainder had their pain and suffering eased, and were well on the road to recovery.

It took nearly an hour, and Tads looked slightly woozy by the end of it, but insisted she was ok to Shimazu. The two objectors remained defiant, so she ignored them, and after filling in the Doctor on her progress, she and Shimazu left the infirmary, heading back to find the others.

Back outside, Kai waved for the rest of the team to head to the fuel depot and armoury and go stock up, then headed for the back of the truck.

“What are you doing, Kai?”

“Planning. Just working on something that’s been bothering me a little. Don’t worry, I’ll fill you all in when I’m done.” With that he climbed up through the back door and into the rear of the truck, pulling the door shut behind him.

The rest of the team shrugged, then carried on, actually climbing up into the truck and staying in the cab, then driving round to the vehicle park at the rear of the main building. It was a large sprawling affair, full of chunky four by four jeep analogues, heavy transports with cavernous storage areas, rag top trucks that clearly showed a common heritage with their truck, armoured personnel carriers lined up in neat rows. They had common markings and numbers that incremented smoothly stencilled on the side, and it became clear that the 87th Brigade was a motorised infantry unit, with enough integral transport to keep the whole detachment mobile. 

The fuel area was huge, designed to allow the vehicles for an entire company to refuel at the same time. It was deserted at the moment, so they had the pick of the pumps to choose from. As Marius pulled up and stopped the truck, a beefy looking staff sergeant emerged from a small building at the edge and double-timed over to them. He had apparently been warned of their arrival, as he entered a code into the pump and activated it, then headed for the fuel tank – knowing exactly where it was of course.

While the truck’s vast fuel tank was being filled, Marius walked over to him.

“Can I also purchase some aviation fuel? For a drone?”

“Kerosene? Sure. How much do you need?”

“Well, if I can top off the tanks, and maybe fill two portable containers, that would be good.”

“Yes, we finish fuelling here, then you drive around the end, head for the next pad over, next to the blue pumps. I’ll meet you there.”

They waited as the truck swallowed twelve hundred litres of fine Russian diesel, and after securing the fuel cap and resealing the pump, the Sergeant headed off. Marius started up and followed him at a crawl, the truck in first gear and the torque of the engine pulling them along, without him having to touch the accelerator. They found the pumps easily enough, and after a few minutes wrestling, managed to get the drone out of the launcher and the fuel tanks lined up, then filled with high quality aviation jet fuel. 

Marius thanked the sergeant, and remounted, then they made off towards the squat and low shape of the main base armoury. Massive ribs of reinforced plascrete decorated the building, casting shadows along the entire length of the structure. Around the front they found somewhere to park up, as close as possible to the front doors without blocking them – after all, ammo was notoriously heavy.

They buzzed on the outer door, looking up at the camera when requested by the metallic sounding voice that emerged from the battered speaker. A deep buzz sounded, and the electronic lock clicked open, allowing them to pull the heavy door open and gain entry to the building.

Inside it was as unfinished as the outside, the walls rough where they had been shot-blasted with concrete mix. Cages lined the walls, and inside rough shelves of unfinished timber – actual real wood rather than sculpted plastic – held box after box of ammunition, neatly stacked and ordered, sealed with plastic ID tags. A desk sat in the centre of the space, with a heavy duty set of scales on each side, along with a small computer.

A corporal approached them, and beckoned them over to the desk, asking what it was they required.

“I would like a hundred rounds of 12.5mm by 73, for my rifle. Oh, and 500 rounds of super-blast plus in 18.5mm shotgun. Thankyou. I am Aswon.” The corporal tapped away, then pursed his lips.

“I have nothing of that brand name, but we have an equivalent – ‘Массивный взрыв’ that I can supply?” Aswon considered for a moment then nodded.

“I have a chit here, for 100 rounds of 12mm pistol, with tungsten penetrators.” Hunter waved his terminal at the man, who scanned the barcode and nodded. “I’d also like two sets of BDUs with assault plates please.” Again, the corporal nodded, adding them to his list as if Hunter had just ordered a couple of coffees. 

“Oh, and we wanted to get Tads some grenades right?” He looked over his shoulder at the rest. “So she can throw them in that sling of hers?”

“Yes, but not incendiary grenades. That would be… unwise.”

“Of course not Aswon. I was thinking about 50 flash grenades, 50 flash-bangs or concussion, and 50 standard anti-personnel. Or whatever the local equivalent is.” Nobody argued or suggested anything better, so he nodded to the Corporal to add that to the tally.

“Marius, what are you after?” There was a pause. “Marius?” 

“Oh? Sorry, 200 rounds of standard assault rifle, 7.62 by 39” Marius went back to staring around the room, spending a few moments looking at each box, cage or shelf, then moving on. It was like he was trying to commit to memory the exact look and style of the building. As he was doing this, Nadia leaned over, and whispered something in his ear that distracted him.

“Sure, you can get that, go ahead. It might be a good idea, yes.” Emboldened, Nadia turned to the Corporal.

“Another 200 rounds of 7.62 by 39, but in tracer.” The corporal made a note, and then looked up expectantly.”

“Can we buy helmets? Boots? Things like that?”

“We don’t hold them here, but if you want them we can get them for you. It’s all on the same system.”

Aswon checked what everyone’s boot sizes were, and ordered a spare pare of military style boots, along with a standard anti-fragment helmet. Shimazu wanted to know why he needed his shoe size, and after explaining, passed on his own request from the supply catalogue.

“My friend, he’s not here at the moment, would like one of your heavy duty breaching shields – the ones you use for entering the kill-houses with.” Another notation was added into the growing list. “Oh, and our mage wanted to know if you had any magical supplies?” At the look on the Corporal’s face, he quickly spoke again. “I expected not, but she asked me to check, so now I have. I think that’s everything.”

The Corporal totted up the amounts and then spun the display round to show them. Hunter blinked, but quickly ran through the numbers, then sighed and nodded, handing over a credstick, which was quickly slotted and debited, removing just over twenty thousand Nuyen. The door at the back of the area swung open, and a sergeant and two privates appeared. Behind them the armoury appeared to continue, but they could see the heavier munitions, belts of 20 and 30mm ammo for rotary assault cannons and larger rockets lined up against the wall. Another desk was laid out much like the corporals. Behind that, a further door led into an area where they could just see the edge of a milling machine and gun vice, and a rack of tools.

The sergeant came and looked over the list on the computer screen, then nodded in agreement, adding his thumbprint alongside the corporal’s. The two technicians saw the light go green, then started to open cages and remove box after box of ammunition and supplies, crates of grenades and other supplies from the stores.

The sergeant stood at parade rest while the privates did the heavy lifting, and watched, his eyes surveying the operation carefully. In return, Marius studied him carefully, examining the differences in rank tabs and badges between the different soldiers. 

As the loading progressed, apparently to satisfaction, the sergeant took a few steps over towards them, then waved at the ammo, specifically the rifle grade stuff.

“What do you shoot?” For a moment Hunter and Aswon wondered what he was asking - then to avoid trouble, they decided he wanted to know what kind of gun they shot, not what kind of targets. They described their respective weapons, and the sergeant seemed genuinely interested, so they offered to show him. The sergeant thought for a moment, then asked them to bring them into the armoury – but unloaded. They both headed to the truck to grab their weapons of choice.

They returned to the armoury, and noticed they were being very carefully scrutinised, and the sergeant had his hand resting on the handle of his service pistol – casually, but clearly ready. Hunter turned his weapon so the bottom faced the officers, showing the empty magazine well, and then worked the action, showing the chamber was empty. Aswon followed suit, and they saw the Russians relax. 

“I’m guessing that normally you’re not allowed to enter the armoury with a weapon at all, especially not if you’re not actually in the army. But that you also don’t get chance to see odd weapons like these either, so sometimes rules get bent a little?” Hunter smiled to take the edge off the question, but still got a sharp look from the sergeant, that was all the answer he needed. He walked over, and presented the Ares Alpha to the sergeant, who took it carefully and then began to examine it.

The officer hefted the gun, checking the balance and then turned away from them, bringing the gun up to his shoulder and checking the sight picture, before lowering back to a ready position, the barrel safely pointed away from everyone. He repeated the move several times, then twisted slightly and held a hand over the charging level and looked to Hunter, waiting for his nod, before smoothly working the action and checking the mechanism.

“Nice, very nice. Of course, is typical of Western guns. High tech, and complicated, over-engineered. Accurate and fast, I grant you – but if you show it a field, it will jam. Hunter nodded and smiled, humouring him if not actually agreeing.

They talked for a few minutes, comparing the roller locking mechanism and design of the sears with the much simpler and cruder manufacture – but cheaper and more robust – construction of the latest generation AK. He handed the rifle back to Hunter with a quiet but heartfelt thank you, then turned towards Aswon.

“Wellington, Mark 2, Manufactured by Purdey. This rifle was designed and manufactured in 2014 as part of a triple set of guns, marking the bicentenary of the companies manufacture. At least that’s what I’ve been able to discover about it so far.” He offered it over to the wide eyed sergeant, and found the corporal looking in for a closer look as well. The two privates were also stealing glances at the beautiful rifle, while still looking like they were working. 

Calloused, but gentle hands brushed across the fine engraving and stroked the burnished and lacquered wood, traced the gentle curve of the cocking handle and the smooth rolled lip of the ejection port, admiring the craftsmanship of the hand-produced gun made by a dedicated gunsmith.

“You don’t have to tell me – I would not want to put this in the mud and then try to fire it. But to get mud on this would be a shame, would it not?” The sergeant nodded, then repeated his drill, turning away from them and raising the gun to his shoulder and sighting through the mounted scope. The gun rose smoothly and nestled into his shoulder easily, a testament to the superb craftsmanship and balance.

Aswon spoke again, describing in extremely loose terms that he’d received it as a gift from someone of English origins, in exchange for some work, and that he too admired the craftsmanship of the weapon. Hunter nudged Aswon in a friendly way, looking up at the towering tribesman, standing with his head bowed slightly to avoid the light fittings.

“My friend here is a real good shot – most of the time. Sometimes though, even he misses. I like to put a few more rounds down range and make sure of things, so I tend to make a bit more noise, even than his beast of a rifle.”

“You should get a suppressor fitted then, to cut back on that.”

“Oh I have got one, I just haven’t had chance to fit it yet, at least not properly.” The sergeant looked at him, then at Aswon.

“How about… an exchange?” He looked at them both, and saw that he had everyone’s attention. “I will fit your suppressor for you. In exchange, we go to the range, and I am allowed to fire each of your weapons.” Aswon and Hunter exchanged looks, and then nodded.

“Excellent! We shall go, shoot, then maybe later drink some Vodka. Da?” Dutiful nods. “Come then my friends. I am Sergeant Tomaz by the way.” Handshakes were exchanged, with everyone, including Nadia

Tomaz led them back through the heavy weapons armoury full of rockets and missile pods, along with a few Dragunov sniper rifles and 25mm anti-material behemoths that drew looks from Aswon, into the machine shop. There he expertly clamped up the Alpha, taking care not to distort or scratch the casing, and tapped and drilled the barrel out, using deft and gentle touches on the wheels of the drill press and tapper to attach the mounting collar tightly onto the barrel. The team watched carefully, realising that they were watching a very skilled operator at his craft, and about twenty five minutes later, they saw him quickly fit the suppressor onto the newly fitted locking mechanism on the front of the rifle, sealing around the barrel with incredibly tight tolerances. It had been done on the most basic of machines, but they could see a number of custom guides made from wood, baling wire and metal offcuts, each one shaped for a specific purpose. Low tech, but great design – perhaps there was a lesson here.

The sergeant led the way out, collected a large selection of ammo, and unlocked a cupboard, grabbing his own weapon – a heavily modified rifle that looked like a bastard offspring of the Dragunov and an AK-94 AK series. Aswon coughed discreetly.

“Excuse me – I was looking at these shotguns – they are for door breaching, yes? I wonder if you could show me how they perform?” Tomaz grinned and unlocked a dull green shotgun from the cage, hefting the beast out onto a shoulder, and added a box of shells to his ammo selection. He escorted them to the range, stopping by the truck to allow them to gather their other weapons. Aswon toyed with the idea of breaking out the purloined sniper rifle, but decided to leave that hidden, just in case.

For the next hour they shot on the range – Nadia working on the shorter range and firing her submachine gun, receiving some coaching from the range officer. Marius kept a close eye on him after he seemed a bit…familiar with her, standing very close behind her and adjusting her grip, his arms stretched around her and his mouth almost touching her ear.

Aswon, the sergeant and Hunter headed for the longer distance range and put a number of rounds down towards the pop-up targets. The sergeant’s hybrid was not as accurate as Aswons’ rifle, and not as fast as the Ares Alpha – but it competently did the job, coming a credible and close second to both of them and proving to be a very capable weapon system. The sergeant was also a great rifleman – not as good as the long shots as Aswon, to be sure – but he responded like a snake and could raise his rifle, acquire the target and fire off two three round bursts with remarkable accuracy and smoothness.

They swapped weapons around, engaging in a little shooting competition that soon turned quietly serious as they each tried to outdo each other. Tomasz edged ahead on points, being more generally skilled then both of them – though each of them held their own in their respective specialities. Whilst shooting, Aswon pointed at the kill houses, and expressed a desire to learn more about those, maybe even watch the troops running through exercises – Tomaz said he would see what he could do.

Meanwhile, Shimazu and Tads had just about finished in the infirmary, and were heading back, taking their time and looking at the building and the grounds as they wandered back to where they assumed the truck still was. As they passed the front of the building, Shimazu felt his pocket vibrate twice, then stop. He fished around and pulled out the commlink, then checked the message – it was from Aslick, the talismonger back in the windmill near the ranch.

‘I have secured an introduction for you, with Dr Wael Mohamed, of Pharos University in Alexandria. He is a world expert in psychology and parapsychology, who I once helped with materials for some work. He normally has a significant signup queue for his lectures and focus group sessions, but you should be able to jump this with my recommendation. However, he will *not* be cheap, and you will have to pay for your sessions at the university rate.’

There followed a matrix address and contact details, along with a short public biography for the Doctor, including page after page of published works and bylines for research papers. He certainly seemed to fit the bill for “world class”.

They meandered over to where the truck had been, and clearly wasn’t anymore, but then followed the wide track marks in the gravel around to the fuel depot and eventually over to the armoury, and asking around there, then on to the ranges.

A private appeared at the edge of the range, and once the range master had given him leave to enter, he ran over to sergeant Tomaz and braced to attention, quickly rattling off that he’d come to escort the guests to the heliport. The team gathered together, thanking Tomaz and the range officers for their hospitality, and headed off after the private – dropping weapons back in the truck. It was strange – the planning that Kai was doing sounded an awful lot like snoring, but they were content to let him be. At least this way he wouldn’t be accepting some strange mission for twelve Nuyen to get some tartan paint or something equally daft.

The private led them over to the helipad and reported to an officer. Marius studied the rank tabs and style, then lowered his voice.

“If I’ve got this right, this is a Warrant Officer or an equivalent. Not part of the Infantry brigade. Might be attached to the base, or a separate unit that is paired with them for air-mobile operations perhaps.” The rest of the team nodded, and shrugged. It didn’t really seem to matter, at least not to them.

Marius sketched out his desire to see the graveyard, explaining that they might be interested in trying to salvage some parts in exchange for some assistance to the Brigadier. The officer pursed his lips, looking uncertain about this, and studied the team carefully. 

“Ok, I show you around. Looking ok, touching ok. No taking though, not without written authorisation.” Marius nodded in approval, and followed him along the path, while the rest of the team dawdled along behind them. They exchanged smiles as Marius started to ask what the officer flew, and described the craft he’d flown in return, quickly establishing some rapport with the rotor-head.

They headed down the path through the birch trees, smelling the moss and peat, the dampness in the air of the woodland carrying the vague tinge of kerosene from the airbase on the other side of the woodland. It wasn’t a long walk, interrupted only by a series of sneezes from Tads, who wiped her nose a few times, complaining that she’d gotten too close to the range without her mask.

When they emerged into the clearing they saw a vast array of helicopters in various states of disrepair. Some had clearly been here for years, having weeds growing up the landing wheels and into the fuselage itself, whilst their skins were rusted and streaked with age, while others were newer and looked much more serviceable. The warrant officer waved his arm to them, and moved to the side of the concrete apron, settling himself down on a tree stump and leaning back against the broken timber whilst he crossed his legs in front him, watching the crazy foreigners.

The team huddled together and Tads cast her spell on Marius, her shamanic mask glowing and covering her face whilst she channelled power, but shielded from view by the bodies of the rest of the team. With her first spell cast, she concentrated again and cast another spell. The first gave Marius a sense of clairvoyance, a magical ability to detect the presence of things – things that he “knew of”, while the second linked his and Hunter’s minds together, allowing near instant flow of information. With that done, and concentrating hard to keep both spells in operation, she found somewhere to sit quietly out of the way, whilst they went to work.

Marius approached the first chopper, and listed the major components, working down some memorised list in his head. Annoying as he could be at times, Hunter had to give it to him – he knew his helicopters. As Marius catalogued the contents of the first chopper, and listed the parts missing, Hunter pushed the information through his cyber-router into storage memory, transcribing the thought information into a readable file that could be extracted later.

It took hours, with Marius and Hunter criss-crossing the apron, checking each aircraft in turn, walking back and forth to get some aircraft out of range of his magically granted ability and others in, slowly working out what was in what aircraft though logical deduction. Occasionally they crawled inside an airframe to check on something, or assess the condition of an unusual part or something particularly desirable. The sun wore on through the sky, and the afternoon grew chill as the wind rose from the east, pushing grey clouds ahead of it, promising more snow before the day was out. Tads sat curled into a ball, concentrating on her spell, whilst Aswon stood next to her like a giant, but equally still, showing the stoic patience gained whilst hunting on the vast plains of his homeland. Shimazu moved away quietly to the edge of the wood and went through his katas, working out with his sword for a few hours, leaving Nadia to fidget and pace back and forth, until she went and grabbed a data download from Hunter to start entering the data into a database for later use.

Eventually though, they were done, and the team regrouped. They all looked at Marius, clearly expecting him to lead the conversation.

“Well, this is doable. There’s over twenty craft here, and I think we can make at least six of them airworthy, inside a week. We’ll need some assistance to do so, and a lot of sweat and lubricating oil, but we can do this. And better, we have a choice of craft to think about.” Whilst he spoke, Hunter quietly sent a stream of the last data to Nadia, who quietly continued amassing the database for later analysis.

“First off, we have that one there. It’s a Hip, an Mi-8 troop carrier. Probably room for about two platoons and a couple of technicians, and can carry about 4000 kilos all told. Should cruise at about 130 kph, and we can push that to maybe 200 plus if we hammer the engines. Good for 600km on a standard tank, and we can mount weapons on the winglets, if we can get hold of them. If we adapt if for riggers I can fly it solo, but it’s designed for a crew of three.”

“Next off is that one, two down from the Hip. That’s technically also a Hip, but it’s the Mi-17 version. A tiny bit smaller, similar load capacity, but this one has a strengthened airframe that allows it to carry a 5000kg load from an underbelly hook. The crew compartment is a bit smaller like I said, but that’s because the fuel tank is larger, giving it another hundred and fifty, maybe two hundred clicks of range. However, the weapon options are a bit more limited due to the reinforcement for the hook. Again, ideal crew of three, but can be flown by a single rigger.”

“After that, it’s the massive one at the end – the twin rotor job. That’s an Mi-26 Halo, room for a full company of troops in that, and will carry about twenty thousand kilos – absolute beast of a machine. Not pretty, sure, but it would carry the truck if it was a different shape. Similar sort of range and speed, despite the size, but not normally armed at all – it’s designed to be escorted by attack birds. Crew space for five, due to the electronic warfare potential and additional systems that can be loaded in.”

“Working down this side, look by the thin birch tree growing out at an angle – the one just behind that is a Mi-6 Hook. Another beast of a machine, can also carry a company, and designed to be run with a crew of 6. Less overall load on it, and a lower overall operational range – but it’s supposed to have two heavy duty autocannons mounted in the doors – this one doesn’t need any escort to go in harm’s way. “

“Then the next one – this is the only attack bird we’ve seen that’s vaguely salvageable. It’s a KA-60 Kastaska. Two crew, you could just about fit a squad in if you don’t mind them being really close. It’s fast – much faster than any of the others. We can probably push 300 kph in that, and keep going for two and half hours on a tank of fuel, and it’s also got enlarged intakes – it’s been modified for high altitude flight. Might be an important factor if we’re thinking about doing runs to places like that guy was setting up in the Iranian mountains.”

“Last of all, there’s this one here – a Mi-14 Haze. Another troop carrier, big one that could maybe carry three or four platoons. Similar kind of speed to most of the rest, but a decent range, though they’re not great at altitude. Room for four crew, and it can carry a reasonable cargo, at least 10,000 kilos.”

Marius took a breath, and licked his lips, then took the proffered water bottle from Shimazu with a nod of thanks.

“So, we can get them all flying. Our choices as we see them are to go for the smallest bird, and kit it out as a high speed courier for small cargos, get some decent weapons, and rely on speed and stealth. Or second, we get one of the main troop carriers, work on minimising the noise and signature as much as we can, and load up on ECM and other electronics gear to help us spoof radar and such like, for general cargo. Or third, get one of the biggest choppers, forget stealth almost entirely but be able to carry just about anything, anywhere, and have enough capacity that we can turn them into horrible armoured beasts with extended ranges. It really depends what we’re going to do.”

They chatted for another twenty minutes, with each of the team asking Marius to expand upon the finer details of the various options, and the likely time and effort to get them working. They didn’t notice Captain Zarkorov walking down the path until he was almost upon them – in fact it was the warrant officer springing to attention that made them look around for the source.

“Good afternoon. I hope you found what you were looking for in your little tour?” He sketched a salute at the Warrant Officer, who took the hint, returned the salute and then left the area. “I wonder if I can talk to you about some possible options. Where is your captain?”

“He’s back in the truck, working on some possible future missions for us. But we’re happy to discuss alternate plans,” Marius quickly responded. “I’m sure we can relay things to him and get his agreement.”

“Walk with me, if you will then.” The Captain turned and headed back down the path, back towards the main building, with the team falling into step with him. “Now, the Brigadier has some ideas that you could assist him with. If you were willing, we would be… grateful. And could see our way to releasing additional material to you.” Marius nodded, and the team exchanged glances, then decided to let Marius take point on this one.

“First of all, we know the base is not defended against magical incursion. Are you able to do something about that?”

“We can, but it would only last for a few weeks – unless we can get hold of some materials. Then we could make them last on an indefinite basis. It would take some time to complete a ward on each of the buildings you have though, at least at a rating that we would regard as ‘secure’ against most threats.” Aswon said.

“Oh, that sounds better. Draw up a list of your required ingredients then, and I will see what can be procured. Now, the next thing is, that although the core of the Brigade has been with us for over a year, we have a number of new recruits and transfers that have arrived with us to bring us up to nominal strength. The Brigadier would like to ensure that we do in fact have the loyalty of the men we have under our command. Is that something that can be done?”

He listened as Tads explained in a somewhat rambling fashion that although there was a spell that could peer into the mind of a subject and determine such facts, it was not one she had – and the most she could do was to share thoughts with a target, and exchange information voluntarily.

“Pity. Oh well, it can’t be helped.” Shimazu coughed to get the Captain’s attention.

“Well, that could still work. After all, they won’t know we can’t read all their thoughts, if we don’t tell them. And if Tads can get some information that makes it clear she’s got access to their mind, if we ask the right questions, we might get you what you want?”

“Ahh, I see. A feint, as it were. Psychological warfare. Well, that might be sufficient. Now, is there anything else you have or can offer, that I can propose to the Brigadier?”

One by one the team offered their suggestions – Tads described the fact that she’d walked from the northern part of Russia clear down to Chechnya, living off the land and offered to share her survival skills with the soldiers. Shimazu offered to do some hand to hand training or work with bayonets or combat knives. Hunter detailed some stories about covert surveillance and electronic information gathering that might be useful for scouts and recon troops. Marius described his command and control experience and mechanical skills, and then described Nadia’s excellent logistics and analysis abilities. She looked annoyed to be spoken for at first, until Marius heaped on the praise, and then found herself in the odd position of wanting to speak for herself, but enjoying being described thus. Aswon rounded out the party, offering to work with the designated marksman on long range shooting, and stalking.

“Ahh, good. Tomaz reported that you were a ‘fair shot’. That’s high praise from him.”

“We can also check over your troops I suppose, looking for anyone with magical talent that might have been missed in screening. I assume you do screen your population for sensitivity, like they do in other countries?” The Captain nodded at Aswon, confirming this. “If we do find someone with talent, we can help nurture and develop this, shaping it into a useful tool.

“Good, good. All good points. The Brigadier will be pleased.”

“Oh, one other thing – the special ammunition we bought with us. I’d suggest that we put up a ward around that first, even if it’s not a permanent one. Keeps it safe, and stops it affecting anything else. And we might want to consider doing the same for the Brigadier’s quarters as well.” The Captain nodded at Tads, and then took on a thoughtful look.

“We should do my quarters as well then. I’m his operations officer, so generally I know as much, if not more about what we’re doing than he does. Yes, that sounds like a very good idea – let’s go ahead and do those three places immediately.”

“I’d also suggest the infirmary as well. Though it’s emptier than it was previously, it’s a weak spot in my opinion. People there are wounded, trying to heal. Often drugged. They’re weaker, and less able to resist manipulation. If I were going to try and subtly affect your troops, that’s where I would start.”

“I see, fair enough then – that’s add that to the priority list. Now, as you appear to be staying a while, I have arranged some quarters for you. There’s only one brigade on base at the moment, and room for two – so we have a lot of billets empty. I’ve arranged for you to stay in the Brigade HQ building, hopefully it will be sufficient for your needs.”

The Captain led them over to the building, and then handed them over to a corporal and a number of troops, telling the corporal to help get them settled in and see to any immediate needs, then escort them to the officers’ mess for 20:00.

With only an hour to go, the team moved quickly, pulling the truck around and unloading some personal kit, grabbing showers and getting changed, then finding something decent to wear. It looked like they were going to be busy for a while on the base.


	96. 096 - Samara base Part II

Date Tuesday 09/03/2060, Location 53.38042, 50.27575

Back in the barracks, they examined the rooms they had been assigned. They were not particularly big or lavish, the furniture basic and clearly mass-produced. The walls had a few prints placed on them, presumably of famous field marshals or figures of renown in the Russian military, but were otherwise bare, though noticeboards were covered in thousands of holes from notices past. It was clear that this was not a permanent base, but a temporary transient home for units that cycled through, with the building being stripped after each unit left.

Each room had a plastic locker next to the single bed, a cheap looking desk with a spotlight, and a simple swivel chair, a small hand sink and mirror with an overhead light, and some curtains that were presumably incredibly hi-tech nano-engineering - it was hard to explain a fabric so thin otherwise.

Tads looked around her room, then came out into the corridor and called out loudly.

"I'm going to stay in the truck. Just in case I'm still being stalked. I want to be inside my lodge, or behind the ward, that's for sure." Aswon popped his head out of his room and looked over at her.

"Are you sure?" he held up a hand, pausing Tad's response. "I don't mean it's a bad idea - but do you even know if they're still looking for you? If you're behind the ward, then you won't know, as they'll probably just fail. If you're outside, as long as we have someone on watch magically, we can spot a ritual trace forming way before they get a lock on you, and wake you up - THEN you go inside the lodge and cut them off."

Tads considered a moment, and thought about what he was saying - it did make sense. But if they got a sniff of her, it could encourage them - assuming it was the Iranians still after her, she had no doubt that their fanatical beliefs wouldn't let them give up easily if they thought they had a chance.

"I think for now, I'm going with the truck. If they did manage to track me and do some kind of magical attack, the last place we want that to happen is on a base full of Russian troops, surely." Aswon paused, then nodded emphatically, having thought about the likely trouble that would bring. A moment later, he returned to his room, continuing to unpack his meagre supplies onto the washbasin, anticipating a few nights in the room at least. No more than ten seconds had passed before he heard Tads call out again.

"We told them we needed magical supplies for making permanent wards. Do you think we ought to tell them about the dog shaman in Sochi?" He sighed, placing his flannel next to the small container of unscented soap, then leant out of his door again.

"No. Not only no, but hell no. Can you imagine how pleased he'd be to be able to help that many people? He'd wag his astral tail off." He adjusted his voice, changing to a higher pitch and speaking quickly, his words coming out in a jumble. "Can I sellyouthings?OfcourseIcan! Reallygoodstuffhere,letmehelpyou!" He shook his head, imagining the scene, his long dreadlocks splaying out behind him and whipping through the air. Tads was reduced to giggles at the mental image created. "Let them know about the mage - he and the army probably deserve each other!"

"I guess so, maybe that's not a good idea. I'm sure they do have ways of getting stuff like that - I just wondered how long it would take. Or what happens if they can only get a few sticks of chalk for instance." Aswon shrugged, not being drawn into a debate for which he had no answers. He waited, checking to see if Tads was going to say something else, then returned to his room as she continued to stare into space, clearly lost in her own thoughts. Just as he'd once more picked up his kit to unpack it, he heard her voice once more.

"I think I should speak to the base chaplain, or whatever they call it here. Talk to him about what happened in the infirmary. Find out if they can make people happy to be healed." There was a pause, and Aswon took a deep cleansing breath, then slowly unclenched his hand from the small bottle of shampoo, before he split the casing. He could swear he heard a snigger from the direction of Hunter's room, opposite. After two more breaths, he looked out, only to find that Tads had wandered off into her room, chuntering away to herself about the idiocies of people refusing help.

Having set their rooms up, Aswon, Hunter and Nadia set to work cleaning their weapons, getting rid of the accumulated muck from their time on the range. They ended up sitting on the swivel chairs, on the edge of their rooms, with Hunter and Aswon coaching Nadia on how to thoroughly clean her sub-machine gun - as she'd put more rounds through it in five minutes on the range than she had in total since picking it up. Marius meanwhile was out checking on the truck, ensuring that it hadn't picked up any damage on the journey from Sochi, including through the manastorm. He also looked over for any bugs or transmitters, just in case - but despite a thorough search, he found everything ok and no stowaway devices. 

Twenty minutes later Nadia reappeared in the corridor, wearing a smart dress, with her hair freshly washed and tied back and a small amount of makeup applied. She wandered down the corridor and stopped abruptly, staring at Aswon who was gathering his dreads into a bundle to tie together, but was otherwise wearing his cammo fatigues still.

"Aswon, when are you getting ready?"

"What do you mean? I am ready."

"You're going for dinner with a high ranking officer, wearing that?"

"Um, I thought we were just going to the mess. Hey! What do you mean, ‘wearing that’? This is my suit. Look." With that he opened the locker and revealed the two spare suits of patterned body armour and combat trousers, identical in cut and colour. Nadia just shook her head at him, then stared at Hunter who appeared out of his room, washed, but again wearing his combat gear that he normally travelled in.

"We want to make a good impression with the Brigadier. And end up working for him, and getting paid in helicopters, so Marius is happy, yes? So perhaps we ought to, I don't know, not turn up for dinner looking like a squad of his troops fresh off of exercises?" There was grumbling and muttering, during which Tads walked out of her room, also in her travelling gear. Nadia just stared at her.

"All of you, why not go put on those nice suits we bought, back in Batumi - the ones you got for meeting with the crime boss up on the hill, with the cable cars. Remember those?" Lightbulbs went on, and it was clear that most of the team had in fact forgotten them, and there was some frantic rooting around in gear. Aswon found his trousers and shirt rolled up and stuffed inside a bag that he'd been using as a pillow. Fortunately, irons and ironing boards were still to be found in army billets, and the corridor was soon filled with the hissing of steam irons and quiet swearing.

With ten minutes to go, the team rolled out of their quarters, to be met by a couple of troops who were to guide them to the officers’ mess. Most of the creases had been worked out of their suits, and overall they looked quite presentable. Shimazu had slung his scabbard onto his belt, and it appeared intended to take his sword to dinner with him.

They were led over to the main building, and up to the third floor. Turning into a corridor from the main thoroughfare they noticed an increase in quality of furnishings almost immediately. The carpet was thicker and of higher quality, the walls were smooth and well-painted, and the prints on the walls were all framed and highlighted by the downlights positioned above each one. Their escort swept them along the corridor to a set of double doors, old-fashioned wooden affairs with big brass handles and push plates that gleamed in the lights, marked with only a few fingerprints. The lead trooper knocked on the door then braced to attention, as did the rest of the escort.

A few seconds passed, and then the doors swung open smoothly, revealing Captain Zarkorov on the other side. He released his grip on the doors and fired off a sharp salute back to the escort.

"That'll be all, thank you." They did a sharp about face and marched down the corridor - in step and much smarter than when they'd arrived, leaving the team with the Captain. "Do come in. I hope the accommodation is to your taste? If there's anything you need, we can try to arrange it."

The team filed into the room, looking around with interest. The rich and thick carpet ended at the doorway, replaced with a block wooden floor that was stained dark with age, but polished to a high sheen. The walls were a deep orange, reflecting the warm light from the overhead bulbs and making the room feel cheerful and welcoming. Wall fittings were the same brass as on the door, polished and gleaming, also reflecting the lights. On one wall a set of large picture windows looked out over the barracks area - one side was a mass of lights from the occupied brigade area with the companies laid out in rows that receded away from them, while the other area was dark with no sign of the mirror image layout. The walls on either side were dominated on one side with a massive oil painting of a Russian officer sighting some kind of rocket against a German Panther tank amidst a war-torn and ravaged city, whilst the other wall had a huge fireplace. There was no fire, instead there was a large metal set of tubes in an X formation, with a large flag hanging from a pole resting in each tube. The flags looked old, and were decorated with golden trim and tassels, the cloth hanging down in deep furls that prevented them seeing the design - but they guessed they were the Brigade colours. The centre of the room contained a large oval table, with room for perhaps twenty people. A snowy white tablecloth covered the wooden table, and nine places were set around one end - rows of silver cutlery flanking small and delicate looking china plates, while crystal decanters were laid out with geometric position down the centre of the table.

The Brigadier had been staring out of the window at the camp, but turned as they entered, and gave the team a smile. He and the Captain were in their dress uniforms, and his left breast was covered in ribbons and medals, while the shoulders of his uniform were dotted with specialism tabs - the Brigadier had "seen the smoke" so it seemed. Both he and the Captain fixed their views on Shimazu for a moment, then they exchanged glances. Neither of them said anything, the Brigadier taking a deep breath then welcoming them too.

"Good evening. Thank you for coming. I do hope you're hungry, though of course, we need to get you a drink first."

The serving staff must have been waiting just beyond the door, listening carefully. At their cue, four of them entered the room, with a variety of drinks which were offered around - glasses of white or red wine, chilled ice water and orange juice. Once everyone had a drink, the service staff disappeared back through the discrete doorway, and the Brigadier continued.

"I suppose the first thing to do is to enquire as to your schedule. Do you have other tasks or commitments following your delivery here, that mean you have to leave by a specified date?" Kai sipped his orange juice, then responded.

"Well, we do have some other jobs that we're looking at, but nothing is set in stone, and there's no real time pressure. As long as they don't contravene our rules, then I'm sure we can at least discuss them."

"Your rules?" The Brigadier asked, clearly asking for clarification.

"Well, there aren't many. We don't smuggle people - at least not unwilling people. So no kidnappings or unwelcome extractions - we're fine with getting someone out of a situation if that's what they want, though. As a general rule, we tend to stay away from 'wetwork' - we're not assassins, and though we have killed, and will kill again I'm sure, it's not something we want to do on contract." The Brigadier snorted a little.

"I don't think that should be an issue." He waved his hand, wine sloshing from one side of the glass to the other as he moved, towards the window. "I have plenty of people willing to engage in 'wetwork' as it were."

"Of course - but sometimes people want very specific, or hard to reach people dealing with - and again, I imagine you have some snipers who are adept at that kind of thing. But other people like ourselves can sometimes bring other things to the table there - being able to fly magically while invisible and silent for instance. But anyway, I digress. So, we prefer not to do wetwork as a primary goal, but we have no issue with property destruction and material damage. However, in light of the beliefs and backgrounds of several of the team, we won't engage in jobs that lead to massive environmental damage - no setting fire to forests, blowing up oil refineries or bombing chemical plants for instance." The Brigadier looked around the team, clearly spotting the look on Tads face, and also glancing at Shimazu - who just returned his gaze with a blank expression.

"Well, I don't think that any of those would be an issue. And it does mean that I have some interesting options to discuss with you."

Tads quietly translated to English for Shimazu, who'd just been listening to the babble of conversation and letting it wash over him, paying more attention to the body language. Captain Zarkorov turned to face him, and also spoke in English.

"I'm sorry - I had thought everyone spoke Russian. I take it that you're unfamiliar with our language?" He saw Shimazu nod. "Ah, my apologies - I should have checked. I'd made the assumption that since so many of you spoke fluent Russian, with a variety of interesting accents," his eyes flicked over to Tads, "that it was a common language. We will continue the discussion in English." Shimazu bowed towards him, and murmured a thank you. The Brigadier dropped smoothly into English as well, speaking with a cultured tone that indicated he’d learned formally, and almost certainly from a native middle-class speaker.

“I’m led to believe that we already owe you a certain amount of gratitude for your work in the infirmary? Dr Astirdar spoke highly of your abilities and reports a number of personnel returned back to their platoons with others showing signs of increased rehabilitation rates.”

“Well, I don’t like to see people hurt if I can do something about it. And besides, we want to be on your good side, not your bad.” Tads decided that a little bit of brutal honesty probably wasn’t amiss here, and hoped the Brigadier would appreciate her candour.

“Well, we are grateful. Even though not everyone probably recognised what they should have been saying at the time. However, I have a question – I understand that you explained to the doctor and then the men about how your appearance would change, when you performed your abilities.“ Tads nodded in confirmation. “May I see? I must admit to being intently curious?”

“Of course – I can cast a spell to let my mask show. Have you ever experienced a joining of two minds?” She saw the look of alarm on the Captain’s face, and spoke rapidly before he could interrupt. “I assure you that it’s voluntary, and only information that you actively choose to share becomes known to the other person. If you don’t ‘send’ it, I can’t ‘hear’ it.”

“Will it tickle?” The Brigadier seemed fascinated, and waved for Tads to proceed regardless. She smiled, then gathered some power, and let her Shamanic mask show, actively choosing to try and enhance the effect. The two army officers watched as her eyes grew large and dark, her nose elongated and grew and the ethereal antlers manifested on her head.

She felt the link to the Brigadier form, and then almost staggered as she received a tumultuous wave of excitement and joy from him, a crashing wave of genuine amazement at the wash of information. Tads took advantage of the speed of communication and level of intertwined thoughts to share how the spell worked with him, and how it could possibly be used to check on the loyalty of the troops, if they were careful about what they told them. In return she felt edges of his personality leaking through – it wasn’t much, but it was enough for her to confirm that everything that Aswon’s contact had told them was true. The Brigadier was a true patriot – loyal to his country and his people, and devoted to the men under him. 

“That’s incredible. And no doubt of great use when you are on a mission? The ability to send information this completely, intentions as well as situation must be a powerful force multiplier. How far will this reach?”

“Ahh, that unfortunately is not very far – at least not yet. I’m continuing to work on refining my power, and learn more from my totem. So at the moment, only a handful of metres. But it’s possible that with sustained effort, that could be pushed to a kilometre or more.” She saw his face drop slightly, and felt the wash of disappointment over the link. “As you said – more than enough for us as a small team, but unlikely to be quite so useful for moving a whole Brigade around.”

“Indeed. So – can you hear me now?”

“No, you’re not sending anything I can hear. I presume by deliberate choice?” She saw him nod. “See how easy it is to stop someone hearing you? That’s why we would need to be careful with how we used it to question your men. Though I do have another suggestion for that.” The Brigadier smiled and nodded for her to continue and took a sip of his wine.

“Well, I can project my consciousness out of my body into astral space. I could visit the mess sections of each of your companies, and watch your troops, looking for any odd magical taints or effects while they are relatively relaxed and not aware of the potential of being seen. That would allow me to work through your troops in a shorter time frame, and perhaps direct our attention towards anyone that stood out.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea. Out of your body? That must be an interesting experience.”

“Well, I can’t show you the full experience, but I can show you some of it…” Tads dropped into the astral realm, supplanting her normal vision with the astral overlay of the world. The walls of the room pulsed with emotion, and the flags became burning icons of glory, shining brightly in astral space with the infused energy of over a hundred years of history and passion. The Brigadier glowed, his aura radiating energy from his magical talents. Tads swung around the room, letting her vision wash over Hunter and Marius, showing their implants suffusing their auras. As she reached Aswon, he too opened himself to the astral realm and waved at her, and through the link, to the Brigadier.

“How did he do that?”

“What, waving to you? He just has to open himself to…”

“No, no – he didn’t look like I did. Then he did. Now it’s gone again!”

“Ahh, there is a technique – commonly we call it masking, though different people call it different things. But it allows you to shield your aura from casual view, and lets you hide amongst people who are not magically talented.” Aswon helpfully dropped his masking, then hid again, showing the Brigadier via the mindlink the effects.

“Is it infallible?”

“No – it can be broken. A sufficiently powerful observer can ‘pierce’ the effects – but the person you are targeting knows that their masking has been broken. And if someone is magically active and they cross a ward, they have to be skilled at hiding their aura to force it through the ward – otherwise they’ll still be detected. That’s why we want so many materials to build your wards – to make it unlikely that anyone but the most determined and skilled of mages could get in.”

Aswon meanwhile was looking around the room, taking in the astral signature and content. It was the first he had seen of a room like this, and his mind wandered, trying to establish what would cause the mix of emotions present – there were dark eddies of sorrow and destruction mixed amongst the desire and power, and he guessed that from this room, people had plotted the deaths of thousands, or contemplated spending the blood of their troops like water to achieve the aims of the state. Fascinating as it was, it also sent a tingle down his spine, a little warning that the Brigadier did have a purpose and aim, and would be ruthless in pursuing it.

“So, can you teach me this skill, how to mask myself?”

“Yes, that’s something we could help you with. Amongst other things, if you’ve had no training.” Tads turned towards Captain Zarkorov “Excuse me, I don’t mean any disrespect by this – I ask only because this is likely to be incredibly personal to the Brigadier,“ she turned back to the senior officer “but how much do you want the captain to know?”

“Everything. He is my operations officer, so what I know, he knows. In fact, he probably knows more. Including the size of my shits.” Both men let out hearty belly laughs, their eyes twinkling and they toasted each other, while the team looked on in confusion – presumably there was some personal shared history here that they were not privy to.

After a small pause for them to compose themselves, Tads continued to explain the concepts behind masking, until the Brigadier courteously interrupted her. A moment later the serving staff returned to the room, pulling out chairs for the team and the officers to sit in. They swept from the room, returning moments later with a pair of serving trollies loaded with a silver tureen, and started to serve a fragrant-smelling soup. The Brigadier and Kai were served first, then they worked around the table carefully ladling the broth into the bowls. Once all the serving staff had cleared the room, closing the door behind them, the Brigadier motioned for Tads to continue, discussing the concepts with her, Shimazu and Aswon between mouthfuls of the tasty vegetable broth. Hunter spent some time carefully sniffing his broth, sampling the mixture through the advanced cyberware built into his nasal cavity and reverse-engineering the recipe, just because he could. Aswon meanwhile savoured the dish, trying to work out how it had been cooked the old-fashioned way.

The main course was roast boar, served with a medley of winter vegetables, and was just as tasty as the starter – the Brigadier obviously had his cook well trained. During the meal, Tads continued her explanation, trying to clarify Shamanic magic. After a couple of false starts, Aswon coughed and looked at Tads, and she gladly let him try to explain it from his point of view.

“Well, mostly Shamans are based on a type of animal totem – not all of them, but most of them. And the Shaman and their approach to the world is based on the characteristics of the animal. People of a certain mindset are drawn to a totem – cat shamans like to be clean, and laze in the sun, but also will toy with their enemies. Snake shaman like secrets, and to worm their way into places they’re not supposed to be. Dog shaman tend to be remarkably loyal. Not all of them of course, this is magic, not a science – but often enough that you can normally count upon it.”

“Now, when a Shaman casts their magic, they call upon their totem, and channel power through that belief structure. “ Tads stared at him, shaking her head. He carried on regardless. “As they do, their belief and their tie to the totem manifests as an astral mask that protrudes into the physical world, matching that of their totem. As you saw with Tads when she cast magic. Of course, there are the other type of mages – hermetics. They work from formula and believe that all power is derived from force and application of rules, and sometimes we just don’t know the rules yet – so they don’t have a mask at all.” From the tone of voice, it was clear that Aswon didn’t have much time for those that believed it was all formula.

“The other main thing you need to know of course, is that while a totem and a mindset often go together, there’s also a significant and noticeable tendency for Shaman to cast magic more strongly that’s associated with their abilities. Elk is a protector of the herd, a guardian of the land, and favours defensive magic more. A shark shaman is all about the attack, about doing the most damage. Snake shamans have a way of insinuating themselves into your mind. And so on.” The Brigadier and Captain listened carefully, asking a few questions around the excellent food and expanding their knowledge of the magical arts – clearly it wasn’t a required or common part of Armed Forces knowledge, at least not out in the field.

The Brigadier suddenly turned his attention to Marius, fixing him with a grin, and a stare.

“Enough now of magical musings, and to more mechanical matters. I understand that you’ve seen our rather tragic collection of grounded craft, and have some interest in them?”

“Yes, they’re most interesting. And with the assistance of some of the team, I have determined that potentially, some of them could be returned to service – with a lot of work, perhaps – but I certainly feel we could get at least two, and perhaps three back in the air.” Marius thought for a second, then decided to follow the lead set earlier. “And, being upfront about it, I was hoping that we could persuade you to part with one, if we ended up with enough work done to balance the books.”

The Brigadier sat back from the table, and flicked a sidelong glance at the Captain, getting a slight nod in return. He took a moment to wipe his mouth with his napkin, then take another sip of wine.

“That sounds like an excellent idea. If you could return even one aircraft to operational status, then that carries a significant Rouble value, and also provides me with increased tactical opportunities. And I’m sure that while the Soviet military is not in the habit of giving away vital defence assets, from time to time, scrap metal and surplus parts are disposed of for recycling to independent contractors.”

“The question of course, is which helicopter would you want? For recycling, that is.”

“Well, we’re still somewhat discussing that – as our operational patterns would be formed in response to the available lift and flight characteristics of the craft. However, so far I believe that the Mi-6 on the right hand side of the apron looks ideal, assuming that it can be returned to operational status of course.”

“That’s a big aircraft – plenty of lift capacity there! I would imagine that would give you various options with regards to taking work for heavy lift capacity to remote locations, or machinery deliveries for instance.” The Brigadier chatted with Marius for a few minutes, discussing air-mobile operations and options, displaying considerable knowledge. Marius in turn also talked at length, describing some of the work he’d previously carried out delivering things like drilling derricks to remote locations. The Captain joined in the conversation, reminding the Brigadier about an assault they launched against the Alliance for Allah, back in the Eurowars, where the then Captain Cherkenov and his Staff Sergeant Zarkorov had launched a daring flank attack across the Volga, using a reinforced helicopter wing, taking them deep behind enemy lines where they’d wreaked havoc on the enemy supply area.

The conversation flowed freely over the course of dinner, with the Brigadier singling out each of the team and asking them a question or making observations about subjects they had an interest in, skilfully engaging every one of his guests and giving them an opportunity to speak. It was easy to see how he generated loyalty – he had the same charming nature as Kai, and he was a charismatic and entertaining host. 

Once more the conversation paused as the mess staff returned to remove the plates and replace them with small dishes, then wheeled in the serving trollies loaded down with cakes and sweets. Centre of attention was a large Napoleon cake, delicate layers of pastry with fresh cream, coated in pastry crumbs – but there were also a selection of chocolate covered apricots, sculpted Pitchye Moloko cakes and Kissel, strongly flavoured jelly in delicate containers. 

Once the staff had departed, the conversation resumed. Shimazu and Aswon had a hurried conversation, and then Aswon turned to the Brigadier.

“We have a suggestion for you. You might want to consider getting some wards or other magical defences around the ammunition we bought up. They exert a powerful warping effect on the nearby environment.” The Brigadier raised an eyebrow and then exchanged a glance with the Captain. Shimazu related what had happened to him back at the docks in Sochi when they had picked up the cargo, and how noticeable it was in astral space. Once again the two officers exchanged looks, and it was clear that there were things unsaid.

“It’s a horrible, terrible thing – the feeling of death and destruction radiating from them was truly awful.” Shimazu spoke quietly, but with feeling.

“Well, if it feels like that, imagine what they’ll do to the enemy!” Again, both officers laughed, and the team were reminded that they had a different viewpoint on war and conflict. “Still, I think it would be good to get them under some kind of protection. So we need a ward putting up then?”

“Yes, and to set a permanent ward up, we need some magical supplies. We can, and will, put up a temporary one to get things covered now. But we need to get some supplies shifted in. And the closest place we know about is a good six to seven hundred klicks away.”

“The Captain will make arrangements, I’m sure.” The Captain nodded at Aswon, then pulled out a dataslate and made a few notes, tucking it back into his inside pocket of his jacket.

“Well, we’ll put up some temporary wards then, to tide us over until the supplies arrive. Then of course we need to work out how strong we’re doing a ward.” He exchanged glances with Shimazu and Tads. “I think we should probably look at a three tier structure. A powerful ward, the best we can do, around your offices, and the armoury. A more reasonable one around each of the brigade headquarters, still something strong, but without consuming too many resources. And then something you might find in a corporate compound, a basic ward, around the company buildings and basic blocks, until we run out of materials. Sound reasonable?” Everyone nodded in agreement.

The Brigadier studied them for a moment. Then he put down his glass, and rested his cigar in the ashtray, placing both hands behind his back in a close approximation to parade rest.

“You gentlemen and ladies. Mercenaries is not the right term. Um.”

“Private contractors?” suggested Kai.

“Very well, you’re clearly…private contractors. And as we’ve been candid this evening, allow me to continue. You had a contract to deliver some goods to me here – but the contract was with someone else. And whilst I am sure, you would be…professional, and not discuss things you have learnt here without good reason – there is no actual reason for your silence.”

“So, I propose that we change things. I wish to engage your services, for several unspecified actions and magical assistance on the base. A contract between us, if you will. As we are then engaged as client and contractor, there is an implied expectation of confidentiality, and secrecy.”

The team exchanged glances, and Kai stepped forward. They could feel the tension between them, the subtle movements of stance and schooling of features as each sized up the other – it was like the meeting of two Lions, vying for dominance. Then Kai smiled, and nodded, his shoulders dropping slightly and he seemed to shrink a little.

“Of course. We’d be happy to be engaged upon some services to assist you any way we could. And it would of course mean that we would not discuss any business here with any other client or third party, as you say.”

The Brigadier smiled, and held out his hand to Kai, shaking it firmly. The Captain pulled out his data-slate again, and Kai examined the text, then nodded and authorised it with his thumbprint. Over the next few minutes, they hashed out what each of them would be doing over the next few days.

Aswon and Shimazu would engage in the temporary warding, moving to secure the officers and armoury as a priority. Tads would spend time surveying the troops from astral space, looking for anomalies. Hunter was going to familiarise himself with the assault courses, shoot houses and other facilities and then share that information with the team to plan their training. Nadia was to get together with the Commander of the Air Group, and work with her database and establish a list of parts requirements, tools and equipment. And last of all, Kai and Marius were asked to make themselves available at the front of the building at 09:00 for travel.

Once everyone had agreed, and the Captain had uploaded and backed up the contract, the Brigadier turned to them, lowering his voice slightly.

“In a few months, we will be moving to the front line – to the borders of the rogue separatists that call themselves Yakult. Our Brigade will be a fast moving, heavily armed air mobile strike force, and as we have performed before, will engage in deep strikes and raids upon the enemy. But we’re not alone – there is a general push, with two full divisions of troops attacking on a wide front, aiming to push back and destroy the foul creatures that have stolen our land. And we need to be ready – ready to fight those creatures of magic and fairy tales. My men need protection now, and training – they need to be ready to take war to an unconventional enemy, and you will help me do so.”

The serving staff returned, clearing away the desert plates and returning with snifters of brandy and a box of cigars. The conversation flowed for another half hour, making idle chit chat and not discussing the coming mobilisation at all. Aswon regaled the officers with the tale of Nadia and her first combat operation, describing in detail how she’d annihilated a magical being with excessive and brutal application of lead poisoning at point blank range – and then how they’d had a long overdue talk about firearm safety with her. It served to lighten the mood a little, with Nadia looking both embarrassed and pleased as Aswon described her prowess in the fight. They continued to chat until there was a knock at the door, and the Captain excused himself and cross the room, opening it to reveal the escort, braced to attention with their gaze firmly fixed on the wall. The team recognised the signs, and filed towards the doorway, each receiving a firm handshake from the Brigadier as they passed. Once out of the room the escort took them back to their barracks blocks, and settled them in, with an honour guard standing outside the door. At least, they chose to believe it was an honour guard – and not a security detail.

Hunter pulled his chair out into the corridor, and settled down into position with his rifle, keeping an eye on the rest of the quarters, while the rest of the team bedded down – Tads returning to her lodge as she had earlier stated and locking herself into the armoured trailer. After a few hours, Aswon came to replace Hunter, standing guard for the rest of the night. Regardless, the night passed uneventfully, just the occasional shouts carrying on the wind as some squad was urged to run faster on some night exercise out in the woods.

As the day broke, the team assembled and confirmed their plans, ate breakfast and checked comm frequencies and times to check in with each other – just in case. Once all the details were sorted, they split up and went their separate ways.

Aswon and Shimazu headed out to meet their escort and instructed him to take them to the base armoury. They were swiftly marched over to the building they had been in yesterday, and were checked and admitted, passing through the first room and the corporal’s desk, and into the second chamber where the larger munitions were stored. They set to work marking out the area they could cover, quickly finding out that between them they could easily protect the entire armoury. Talking while they measured, they explained to the Sergeant and Corporal how the marks they would make on the ceiling would form a protective barrier against evil spirits and invaders from outside the Motherland – and how important it was not to disturb them. Then came the painstaking work of cleaning and flattening areas of the shotcrete to inscribe magical runes, carefully drawing them on with chalk and then spraying with a fixer to hold them in place as long as possible. They worked quickly and surely, expanding out from the ammo storage area to include all of the main armoury, until three hours later they were done. Dropping into astral space, they saw the shimmering ward clearly lining the inside of the rooms, forming a near solid barrier that was hard to pierce.

“I think that should be good for a week, give or take a few hours. Hopefully long enough to get some decent materials in and do a proper job.” Shimazu nodded in agreement, and he and Aswon gathered their materials together and cleaned up from their work. Meeting their guide outside, they were taken to the Brigadier’s quarters next, in the main building. Again, they saw a marked increase in quality in the furnishings and surroundings, but the quarters were remarkably bare of luxury items, reinforcing what they knew of the Brigadier. What they did see was a variety of photos, laid out around the room. The first showing a young soldier in a dense birch forest in the middle of winter, rifle in one hand, helping an aged man struggle along the snow-filled path, and as they moved around they saw the Brigadier age, grow in rank and be placed in different parts of the country – here patrolling a mountain pass, there surveying the land from a sand-bagged emplacement.

Once again they set to work, aiming to build another ward of equal strength to the one at the armoury. On the smoother walls of the well-constructed room they found the going much easier, and a mere two hours later the ward sprang into being, forming an barrier of reflective energy over the rooms perimeter. They stopped for a quick lunch, then pushed on, warding the Captain’s accommodation next, until that too was protected by a strong ward with a duration that would easily last out the week – perhaps two. The sun had long set by the time they were done and were escorted back to their quarters, the stubs of chalk rattling in the boxes where that morning they’d had full sticks.

Tads returned to her lodge after breakfast, and laid down, making herself comfortable – ensuring that food and water were in easy reach of her body. With a mental push, her spirit rose from her physical form and she floated through the air, heading down to the mess house for the first company. She floated in through the roof, the physical form of the building being no better at stopping her than a chain-link fence could stop smoke. Her form settled over the serving counter, and then she started to survey the soldiers as they sat at their tables, slowly casting her gaze down one side of the table and up the other, then across to the next table, repeating her pattern. Over and over, she looked at the soldiers, each one getting a full five seconds of scrutiny before she moved on to the next.

She watched as the platoons cycled through for breakfast, the later ones having returned from early morning PT or exercises. When all the soldiers had left, heading off to their duties she turned her attention to the kitchen staff and cleaners, supply officers and maintenance engineers, subjecting them to the same scrutiny. All told, she spent just under two hours out of her body watching people, checking them over and looking for a spark of magic, finding none.

She returned to her body, and sipped at her water bottle. Once she was rehydrated, a handful of nuts was consumed, while she stared blankly into space, going over what she had seen mentally. Certain she hadn’t missed anything, she set an alarm and then settled down to snooze, letting her body recover from the effects of her essence being withdrawn. As she rested, the link between flesh and thought was renewed, strengthening her magic once more and restoring power to her.

At lunchtime, she returned to the building, checking over the troops once more. Some of the platoons were the same as at breakfast, but she checked them again anyway, continuing to work her way through the room seat by seat. Again, she found nothing, and ninety minutes later found herself back in her body, refuelling again and settling in for another snooze after she’d taken care of a call of nature. 

The evening meal was much the same, but by the end of the day she’d covered the entire first company, having checked over each man at least twice, possibly three times – all without finding a trace of talent or any strange magical taste or taint. 

Hunter had headed over past the armoury into the area beyond, past the rifle range and the kill-house structures, until he found himself at the assault course. The area was boggy and muddy, banks of snow heaped on the side but long trenches and patches of heavy sticky mud on the low ground, areas so moist that the snow had broken down and turned to mush. He walked around the area slowly, examining the course.

First was a climb up a rickety looking tower, then a slide down a cable perhaps thirty metres long, ending in a large bog that was going to give a very soft landing – but also cake a set of boots with thick, cloying, heavy mud. A short run led to a smaller tower and a scramble net suspended perhaps a metre high and five metres wide leading to a second tower. A climb up a short ladder, then there was a swing rope that led to a vertical scramble net that went up five metres. 

At the top of the second net was a pair of wires strung one above the other, bridging the gap to a third tower. Down below was an icy pit full of muddy water with a thin sheet of ice across the surface, radiating cold. After two ten metre sections of parallel wires strung between poles, there was a single rope angled downwards to slide along for ten metres, to a fourth pole. Then there was again two wires – this time horizontally spaced rather than vertically, about a shoulder width apart, to inch along with hands and lower legs. 

The next pole transitioned again, the two guide ropes suddenly just over head height, while a thin and very loose rope ladder was stretched out horizontally, leading to another tower. Finally then, was another single rope forming a downwards angle to slide down, back towards ground level. Now only a metre off the ground again, a long concrete beam, perhaps ten centimetres wide covered another icy pit that was ten metres long. This had to be taken at a run to give enough momentum to leap off the narrow tower at the far side onto another vertical scramble net, with a three metre climb and then descent, another run and then a swing over a set of logs.

The path then led down into a gully, where metre after metre of thick black mud and chunks of ice would soak the recruits to their knees at least, forcing them to plough through the slush with slow powerful strides, before climbing up the slippery slope at the far side. The path at the far side curled around a few gentle hills, with perhaps a fifty metre run all told, before arriving at a set of holes set into the hillside.

The concrete pipes were half a metre high, and ran for five metres before turning sharply into a chimney, emerging slightly higher on the hill and leading into a second tunnel, repeating the form of the first, and then a third tunnel to bring the trooper to the top of the hill. A sharp downward path looked treacherous and slick, and Hunter could well imagine the number of arses that had slipped and scraped their way downwards. The next obstacle was a steep wall, sloped at around 75 degrees, with a rope pinned to the top to allow you to walk up the wall, hand over hand, and then jump down the metre high steps on the reverse side. 

A water jump, nearly two metres wide lay beyond, then a set of monkey bars nearly ten metres long over another massive icy pond stretched to the far end of the course, then the path curved around a spinney of trees and arced back in the direction of the start. A series of scaffold bars formed a set of giant hurdles, nearly two metres high, then another set of brick built steps, each a half metre high. Hunter winced, imagining the burn in the legs and the pounding heart at this point, trying to force the legs to climb up steps that would feel twice the size they actually were. Another sloped wall, this time a full five metres high with a knotted rope to pull yourself up by lay after the steps, with the descent being a rope that was suspended out a metre from the structure, with a landing in another of those muddy bogs.

From here, another set of tunnels led down at an angle, and he could see the water in them that started at perhaps 1/3 of the height of the pipe quickly rose to fill it – walking around, he could see the exit, and thought that the tunnel was around ten metres long, with the centre section completely submerged.

Now thoroughly soaked of course, from head to foot, the next obstacle was a ten metre scrabble under a crisscross tangle of barbed wire, strung no more than thirty centimetres above the ground, necessitating the legs and arms to be splayed wide to lower the body. Emerging from the scramble net, there was another wide pond, with a rope stretched across the top, just clear of the surface – just enough to keep you upright while you half swam, half walked through the neck deep channel. 

The final obstacle was a series of poles buried in the ground, with rising and falling heights and larger and smaller gaps between them, and finally a twenty five metre dash to the finish line. Hunter had no idea how long it was supposed to take, but he guessed you’d have to keep up a good pace throughout to meet the standards of the infantry.

Having walked around it and seen the obstacles now, he returned to the start and shucked off his top layers, laying them in a neat pile. His body tried to shiver a little in the brisk icy wind, but he ignored the urge, and started jogging on the spot, warming his limbs up in preparation. After five minutes of exercises, his heart was pumping and he felt loose and ready, and set off at a fast jog along the course. 

The first time he hit the water, he almost let out a cry. He’d never felt anything quite so cold and painful in his life as the frigid muddy water penetrated his clothing, and he felt his core start to cool almost immediately. Ignoring the pain, he pushed on, relying on his muscles and exertion to warm him back up. All was going well, and he progressed through the course well, his athleticism and physique standing him in good stead. That was, until he reached the V-tunnels.

As he progressed down the tunnel the water rose higher and higher, lapping at his throat, his jaw, then his philtrum. Finally there was no choice and he had to take a deep breath, close his eyes and submerge himself fully into the frigid filthy water. The cold felt like icy knives prickling into his skull and the shock almost caused him to cry out. He pushed on to the bottom, and tried to transition from the entry pipe to the exit – and found himself stuck.

The two pipes were joined by an angle piece, and this was a few centimetres smaller it seemed. Just small enough that his wide shoulders jammed into position. With the cold water making his limbs feel like lead weights, and making everything slick and slippery he really had almost no purchase to work with. He felt his lungs starting to burn as his body cried out for fresh air.

“Bugger this,” he thought. With a mental command the filter snapped shut across his trachea, and his implanted air reservoir came online. Fresh oxygen coursed through his system, and the screaming desire of his body vanished immediately. “Now, let’s work the problem. Take it steady…” He calmed himself, and then wiggled, gradually working himself loose from the pipe, and then adjusting his shoulders, until he was more like a rescue swimmer doing a side stroke. Finally he had enough room to get his bulky orcish physique through the pipe, and up the other side, emerging out into the wan winter light, then pushing himself along to finish the course.

By the time he had finished it, his heart was pounding, his limbs were covered in the most severe goosebumps he’d ever had and his hands and feet felt numb. Nonetheless there was a huge endorphin rush at having finished the course – and also a little elation at not dying. He wondered how the orcs or trolls in the army managed the course, feeling sorry for anyone that didn’t have his advantages and finding themselves in that kind of position.

He set off at a jog, keeping moving and ran around the outside of the course, pushing three laps out at a steady pace to warm back up and work out most of the water, then tried the course again, making sure he used the new technique in the tunnel. Even accounting for the time difference for not getting stuck, he improved his time noticeably as he honed his technique for the different challenges.

He continued for the rest of the morning, pushing himself until he felt bone-weary and every step was like lifting lumps of concrete, before finally heading back to their barracks. He wandered into the shower block fully dressed and just hit the button, letting the hot water cascade over him and warm him up, whilst also washing away the black mud. After thirty minutes of getting himself cleaned up and warm, he dried off and climbed back into his bed for an hour, letting his body rest and stabilise while he mentally worked through the course again, working out what he could do better next time.

After an hour in bed, he got up and put on fresh clothes, ignoring the pile of wet and manky fatigues he’d worn for the morning. Grabbing his gear from the room, he headed for the range, checked in with the range officer and then set himself up on the pistol range where he continued to work out on his technique, trying to put into practice the lessons given to him back in Sochi.

Marius and Kai reported to the reception desk in the admin building first thing in the morning, as requested by the Brigadier, and soon found their escort leading them, and Nadia, to the air-wing. On the far side of the woods they found the giant shelters for the squadrons of choppers being maintained by a small army of technicians. There were a variety of types here – small and light scout birds with huge radars and surveillance pods above the rotors, fast attack birds with stubby wings mounting rocket pods and chainguns, light and medium transports with heavy armour and cannons, all the way up to the large troop birds that could transport a whole company into battle.

Nadia was called off into the air-wing operations office, where a warrant officer sat her down with a computer to start working through the data she had gathered and started working on the previous day, comparing notes with the base logistics system. Marius and Kai were led to a chopper sitting on a landing pad, the rotors turning as the engine idled, while the pilot completed his pre-flight checks. Their guide indicated the troop compartment, but Marius ignored him and climbed into the co-pilot seat, grabbing a flight helmet from the rack and quickly clipping in the five point harness. The pilot stared at him for a moment, but didn’t object. The guide strapped Kai into one of the rear seats, carefully showing him how to check his harness, where the intercom switch was, and how to operate the door.

A few minutes later the pilot spooled up the engines and lifted off, with Marius watching him carefully. The pilot was pretty good, and Marius watched as he expertly shifted into forward flight and headed south west, skimming over the trees. He asked for permission to lay his hands on the flight controls, and after a curt agreement from the pilot, let his hands and feet rest lightly on the controls, so he could feel the movement of the pilot.

The chopper headed back along the Volga, quickly accelerating to around 300kph as the pilot pushed the engine to full speed. The heavy duty turbojets had power to burn with no combat troops loaded or other cargo, and the chopper accelerated like a champ. After a few minutes, the pilot keyed up the intercom, mentioning that Marius had a “good touch”, as he couldn’t feel him fighting on the controls. Marius in turn complimented the pilot on his flying abilities, discussing techniques with him. Once it became clear that he knew exactly what he was talking about and had a significant and deep understanding of helicopter flight dynamics the pilot opened up a great deal, and soon they were nattering away about the chopper and how it handled. In the back, Kai looked out of the window, studying the ground and the terrain as it whipped past in a blur.

Two hours later, the chopper crossed over the city of Sochi, slowing slightly as they entered controlled airspace. Marius and Kai got to see the roads from above, and saw the chaotic mess of roads and highways, the medieval remains of the town, the half-finished upgrades and the bizarre three dimensional nature of the city, and wondered how it worked at all.

The pilot took them over the city centre and down to the docks, landing on the same concrete apron they’d been at only a few days before. The dock-master emerged from his hut, accompanied by another stout fellow they approached the chopper, waving their arms furiously. However, when the pilot emerged from the cabin, his sidearm conspicuous on his hip and holding his military ID in his hand, their objections were silenced. He turned to Kai and Marius, and then dug into the thigh pocket of his flight suit, pulling out a chunky ID stick which he passed to Kai.

“I was told this is a military requisition permit for you. You are to go to the magical shops, and take possession of the materials needed to defend the buildings from attack. The Brigadier has countersigned the orders, so you should have no trouble.”

They strode up the street, Kai marching past the tourist traps and visiting the true magic shops. They started with the dog shaman where they were enthusiastically greeted, as if Kai was his long-lost friend. The joy leeched out as they presented the procurement orders though, but the owner complied, gathering a large bag of supplies before slotting the stick into his terminal. This was repeated at the cat shaman’s shop, and finally the mage emporium, each being less than impressed with the presentation of the stick, but gathering supplies and slotting the order to generate a record of the transaction. Eventually they made their way back to the chopper with a large selection of materials in a variety of bags, meeting up with the pilot who had managed to get hold of some fuel to refill the chopper’s tanks.

After the pilot checked the aircraft over, he rose smoothly from the docks, watched by the angry gaze of the dock-master. Once he had her up to about a hundred metres, he turned at looked to Marius.

“You wish to take the controls?” Marius nodded quickly. “Co-pilot’s aircraft.” Marius firmed up his grip, and gently transitioned into forward flight, increasing the engine power as he adjusted the cyclic control, twisted the rotor actuators and applied a tiny touch of rudder to stop them spinning. The Hind started to move through the air gracefully, picking up speed and Marius was as gentle on the controls as he was with Nadia in bed, caressing the joystick and gently feeding power into the engines, his eyes flickering back and forth from the readouts and dials of the display to the surroundings.

In a mirror image of the outward flight, the pilot kept his hands and feet on the controls, ready to resume control at any moment, but after the first few minutes when Marius had proved that not only did he know the theory, but that he was dammed good in practice too, the pilot removed his hands entirely from the controls, folding his arms and making himself comfortable in the chair. As Marius followed the flight plan back towards Samara, the pilot keyed up the intercom, and described the land they were flying over, talking about some of the cities they flew past and generally just chattered away. Kai listened carefully, soaking up the knowledge, while Marius mostly ignored him – instead soaking up information on how the Russian chopper handled, getting valuable experience for his coming project. When the base finally heaved into view, he bought the craft into a perfect hover over the helipad, then slowly descended, his hands flashing over the controls like a virtuoso as he bought the Hind in for a gentle landing precisely in the centre of the pad, to the pilot’s approval.

It was late when they all met up, sharing a meal at the end of the day and describing their activities. Aswon and Shimazu checked through the supplies, finding that there were over sixty bundles of raw materials they could use to enact permanent wards – which told them what they were going to be doing for the next few days. Hunter recounted his excitement on the assault course, Tads detailed the soldiers in the first company and Nadia complained at length about the evil and misguided sadists who had programmed the logistics system the Russians were using to manage their fleet. 

Repeating the plan from the previous night, they settled down to sleep while Hunter took first watch, his assault rifle laid by his side ready while he broke down his pistol and reassembled it over and over again, until he could do it by touch alone.

Outside, the pair of privates stood watch on the door, they too, not quite sure if they were prison guards or honour guards. In the woods, creatures snuffled and snorted, and the hoots of owls echoed across the base as they hunted their prey, whilst deep in the woods the occasional curses of corporals encouraged the troops to complete their night marches and navigation exercises or reprimanded troops that were not sufficiently vigilant in their sentry duties.

The wind shifted in direction, and the temperature dropped once more, and in the distance looming clouds stared to race down from the north, slowly blocking the skies until the base was covered in a dense cloud layer, and snow started to gently fall once more.


	97. 097 - Samara base Part III

Date Wednesday 10/03/2060, Location 53.38042, 50.27575

In the grey light of pre-dawn, Aswon sat in his wheelie chair, motionless. Barely breathing, he was almost as still as a statue. Only the slight rise and fall of his chest gave away his respiration, and his eyes flicked around the passageway, his attention flicking around the doors looking for the slightest change. It wasn’t anything he saw however that disturbed that routine, it was something he heard. The sound of gravel crunching, as someone walked quietly on the path outside the barracks block. Slowly he turned his head to the side, then back, letting his ears move around to try and gauge the location and distance.

Slowly he rose, his feet rolling from the side onto the flat, silently pushing him down the passageway into Shimazu’s room. His hand extended down over the sleeping man’s mouth, pressing down slightly to wake him and keep him quiet. As Shimazu blearily blinked and began to struggle, his eyes blinked open blearily to focus on the Nigerian standing over him.

Aswon raised his other finger to his mouth, then moved it to his ear, then pointed outside. It returned to point at Shimazu, then made a slashing motion. Shimazu nodded, and Aswon removed the hand from his mouth, ghosting back out into the corridor. Shimazu rolled out of bed, sword appearing from under the pillow in one smooth motion.

A black finger adjusted the radio, lowing the volume to the bare minimum, then gently pushed the transmit button.

“Tads, this is Aswon. Tads, come in. I hear motion outside the barracks, possibly closing on your location. Stand by, stand by.” He spoke quietly, but didn’t whisper, his voice barely audible, hoping that Tads was being her normal self and rising with the new dawn to pay her respects to the spirits. His motion had carried him to the door, and his spear was clutched in one hand. He sensed Shimazu behind him, ready to back him up. One deep breath, then another, taking in a lungful of air and ensuring his body started off with a surfeit of oxygen.

Striding quickly he pushed through the door, his hand pulling his spear to him into a ready position. As he turned to the left slightly, he felt Shimazu brush past him, turning to the right. He saw the sentry on his side start to turn towards him, moving like he was in treacle to his heightened senses. And ahead of him were three more troopers, the source of the sounds of movement. They too turned, a strange look of surprise and something that looked like guilt on their faces, turning away from the back of the trailer.

“What’s going on out here?” Aswon asked. His voice was quiet, but clear – carrying across the clear air. His customary accent was almost absent as he enunciated clearly and looked at them. The three unexpected visitors stood there for a moment, the strange looks still on their face, their hands held out in front of them. Aswon and Shimazu both dropped their gazes to those hands, examining just what it was they held – and blinked in surprise.

The three troopers held a strange mix of items – a bowl of what looked like milk, a small handful of wild flowers, still dripping with dew and melted snow, a plate loaded down with oatcakes and a small selection of twigs bound together by twine into a very crude pentagram. They stared at the trio of troops, who in turn stared back at the two team members casually holding their spear and sword – not quite ready for combat, but clearly indicating it was a possible option.

“We came to see the wise woman, to give thanks and offerings.” Silence. The moment stretched out, as they looked at each other, the seconds ticking by. Then Aswon depressed the transmit button again.

“Tads, you have visitors. You might want to get out here.” The back door swung open gently, and Tads stood there, looking down at them. A spirit was by her side, clearly visible to the team members, but invisible to the troopers in the physical world. The trio turned and held out their offerings, then bowed their heads – but in the moment before they did, Tads recognised at least two from the infirmary that she had healed the previous day.

“It’s ok, I think. These people were hurt, and in the ward where I went to help out yesterday. The hospital ward that is.” She slowly climbed down from her lodge making sure the heavy door didn’t hit anyone, and took an oatcake from the plate, gave it a sniff then bit into it. She chewed for a moment, then took the proffered bowl of milk and washed it down.

“Thank you, that’s good. Why don’t you tell me who you are and why you’re here?” She smiled at them, then made a gesture to Aswon and Shimazu, who relaxed their stances and lowered their weapons completely. 

The three troopers finished making their offerings, which Tads accepted with a slight blush but a sincere expression on her face, then introduced themselves as Iosif Lebedev, Kiril Pavlov and Anfim Novikov. Iosif had been healed of a particularly nasty ligament tear on the side of his knee, while Kiril had been suffering from an excruciatingly painful case of shin splints – Anfim was a new face, though apparently a friend of them both.

“We’re grateful you came and cured us of our ailments of course – but we’re more grateful you came to us at all. Many of us follow the old ways, quietly believing and keeping our faith in the land. We do not often worship, as the Church frowns upon us even now, though they claim to allow people freedom to pray as they please. But we think your coming is a sign – we know we’re training up for a new conflict somewhere and your presence is a gift from the land, letting us know that we fight for Mother Russia. Will you lead us in prayer and affirm us?”

“Marius and Hunter are going to love this,” Shimazu whispered into Aswon’s ear. The Nigerian nodded in return, then looked back at Tads, watching as she struggled to find the right response.

“I will have to speak to the commander of the base, and ensure we have his permission. But provided he does not mind, then yes, we will find a place and give thanks to the land. I’m just not sure when. I will see what we can arrange – but we’ve already been given some tasks to perform around the base, so we shall have to see.” She glanced over the soldiers, dropping into astral and looking at them and their auras. She spotted some cyberware implanted into them – mostly minor repairs and replacements, with a few small utility items – but she detected no deception or dissemblement from them.

Shimazu and Aswon headed back inside after a nod from Tads, happy to leave her chatting with her new acolytes – or whatever they were.

“Well, at least something good has come of this.” Shimazu said as he pulled open the door and stood to the side, letting Aswon precede him into the corridor. 

“What’s that?”

“I’m picking up some of the language – I followed a reasonable amount of what they were saying to Tads there. I wish I had your ear though, you seem to pick things up really quickly.” Aswon just beamed a smile at him revealing his fangs while he headed back to his chair and resumed his watch post. Shimazu checked the time, then decided to crawl back into bed, seeing if he could get a little more sleep before everyone else started to rouse.

An hour later the alarms started to buzz and the rest of the team roused, emerging from their rooms to use the toilet and showers, then start to get breakfast ready from their supplies. Aswon filled them in briefly on the visit to Tads, and as predicted both Hunter and Marius pulled faces indicating what they thought of the worship of mumbo-jumbo.

After food, Aswon, Shimazu and Hunter got on some fresh fatigues and then headed outside into the chill morning air. Once more gentle flakes of snow were falling, and the air was still and quiet, the sky a solid blanket of grey. They did a few minutes of exercises, gently warming themselves up under the watchful eyes of the sentries, and then when they were suitably ready, took off at a steady jog in the direction of the forest edge. The two sentries exchanged glances, then one of them sighed and broke into a similar jog, following in their trail through the blanket of snow that covered the ground. The other sentry, the senior of the pair (though only by three weeks – but it was enough) stood at his post, watching the other man slogging after the trio.

“I was thinking maybe of going to run the assault course a couple of times today. From what Hunter said, it was pretty good fun and sounds like a challenge.” They heard a stumble from behind them, as if the pursuing sentry had just skidded in surprise at hearing someone wanting to run the course ‘for fun’.

“Well, you can do it alone, then. I don’t fancy inflicting that on my fingers and toes. I’m not designed for this climate, you know.” Hunter ginned at Aswon, then picked up the pace a little as if to prove the point. The long-legged tribesman just extended his stride a little though, easily keeping pace with a ground covering lope that had been perfected in years of travel through the scrubland of Africa. Behind them Shimazu thundered along, his bulk and physique coping with the snow and conditions with brute force rather than technique – but proving to be equally adept and able to handle the new pace. Behind them, the unlucky sentry slogged on in their footsteps, his weapon held across his chest wondering what kind of people went for morning runs through the snow when they had the option to stay tucked up warm in bed…

Back at the barracks, the remaining four of the team left the shelter of the building into the snowy landscape. They split into two pairs – Marius and Nadia in front, heading towards the air-wing, while Kai and Tads followed them in the general direction of the admin building. The remaining sentry watched the two pairs as they started to diverge, his head turning between them. After a sigh, he started to stride after Marius and Nadia – deciding that anyone walking towards the central building was probably going to be watched by someone else. 

Marius and Nadia made their way across the base, walking in silence. Marius was happy to keep his thoughts to himself, thinking about the task of rebuilding helicopters almost from the ground up using old parts and limited resource. Nadia meanwhile looked around her with a childlike smile. She’d seen snow of course – the mountains and highlands of the Trans-Caucus League were high enough to suffer frequent snow storms and blizzards and they had the trideo in their house. But living so close to the coast, it was not something she’d really experienced for herself, and the walk across the quiet base laid under a covering of overnight snow, while evergreens had their boughs weighed down making the forest appear like it was covered in white blanket. She held onto Marius’s arm and let him steer, while her eyes sparkled with joy as she looked around her.

It took them a while to reach the hangers, and by that time, the joy had worn off slightly, to be replaced with a creeping chill that made her pull her coat more tightly around her. The sentry broke off as they reached the main admin building, happy to stand post outside rather than risk the wroth of the air force if he ‘trespassed’ onto their turf. Marius and Nadia continued on, ignoring him though, and asking to see the commander of the air wing as they reached the main officer. The junior officer who was running the office that morning, asked them to wait, then knocked on the door of the Group Captain’s office, entering at the barked command. He was in there for a few minutes, then appeared at the doorway again, and waved them inside.

Marius and Nadia entered the office, again noting the slight improvement in quality of furnishings and comfort. A figure in immaculate uniform sat behind the large desk, fixing them with a basilisk stare. The triangular plaque on his desk proclaimed him to be Group Captain V. Gorchenski, and Marius saw a large stack of chips lying in his in tray, indicating that he was as buried in paperwork as most other senior officers tended to be. He also, for some reason, had a face like a smacked arse, and there was a palpable air of distaste as he looked at them.

“You asked to see me?”

“Yes we did. Thank you for seeing us so promptly.” Marius stood upright, making sure he presented himself smartly – not quite bracing to attention but in a close approximation of it, hoping to give the right impression without opening himself to a charge of impersonation. He made sure he spoke with his best Russian accent and explained that he had volunteered to try and assist the base with his mechanical skills, aiming to repair some of the equipment and return at least one, and possibly two helicopters to active service. The Captain responded with sneers and curt dismissal, casting doubt on his abilities and chances of success. Marius bit down on his temper, resisting the urge to snap back at him and just restating that he was only trying to help, and that the Brigadier seemed grateful for his offer of assistance. 

The meeting ended mercifully quickly, with the Captain saying that he could take a bare minimum of tools to go and work on a chopper – but that it would have to be in the graveyard, as there was no room in the workshops at the moment. Marius stood for a moment, his nose flaring in anger as he was dismissed – it had been a long time since his talents and abilities had been questioned, and then ridiculed in such a fashion. Without a word he turned on his heel and stalked out of the room. Nadia gave the Captain one more long hard look, then strode after him, closing the door gently behind them. She caught up with him outside, and just as he opened his mouth to speak, Nadia interrupted him.

“Well, there’s a worried man – and it’s no real surprise he treated you like that.” Marius’s moth snapped shut and he stared at Nadia in shock. “Think about it, my love. Here you come, someone that looks like his son, and you promise to get two machines back in operation, after only a few hours of examination – and do something he has failed to do in several years. If you succeed, you embarrass him utterly in the eyes of the Brigadier, showing him to be inefficient and unproductive at best – and at worst, someone who doesn’t care about the defence of the Motherland. Now, from what we’ve discovered about the Brigadier – just how is he going to react to someone who he thinks might be trying to sabotage the defence of his homeland?”

Marius blinked at her, then exhaled sharply. He stepped back from the engineering problem he’d been contemplating, and the fury he’d felt at not being given the tools to do the job, and considered it as a political and human problem, realising that Nadia was right. He leant forward and kissed her, thanking his decision taken on the spur of the moment all those weeks ago.

“I suspect you are entirely correct. How we handle this will be interesting – and delicate.” He thought for a moment, studying her face, and thinking about the skill she had shown in reading the Captain’s fears and worries. “I need your help working on the helicopters today – but I also need your help in working out how to handle the Captain. If we’re to get these craft fixed, we need those resources – both parts and access to the workshops. Will you help me work out how to handle him?” Nadia smiled at him, and for just a moment, all thoughts of engineering and flight dynamics were driven from his mind as his sense reacted to her unconscious release of pheromones and his (remaining) hind-brain reacted to her happiness at an instinctual level, dumping dopamine into his system and rewarding him with a shudder of joy. Nadia found herself in a similar position as the man she had chosen treated her as an equal, a partner with valued skills and of intrinsic worth rather than a second-rate citizen.

They gathered the tools they’d been permitted, loading them onto a trolley and pushing it down the path leading to the graveyard, leading behind two sets of footprints and a wobbly set of parallel marks that slalomed back and forth as the wheels jumped and wobbled with a mind of their own – in accordance with some strange rules of the universe that seemed to govern such things.

Kai and Tads climbed the steps at the front of the building, pausing just in front of the sets of double doors to look over the base behind them. Kai snorted with humour, and when he saw Tads look at him in confusion he extended a finger towards the edge of the base. When Tads looked in that direction, she saw Aswon, Shimazu and Hunter in the distance, jogging along through the snow with the hapless private following them, his great coat billowing in the wind. They turned and entered, knocking the snow and slush from their feet on the giant mat and then crossing the large hallway to the waiting clerk, announcing their wish to speak to Captain Zarkorov. 

A few minutes later once the call had been made and an escort sent for them, they found themselves led back upstairs to the third floor and into the officers’ wing, along quiet corridors where a thousand dead eyes stared at them from photographs along the walls. Their escort bought them to an operations room, where half-a-dozen NCOs worked away at terminals and charts, updating the thousand and one details about the brigade and their readiness and ensuring the mighty engine of bureaucracy was fed. The Captain was waiting for them in a side office, his computer screen blank and his desk clear of paperwork.

“Come in, take a seat. Tea?”

“Thank you, but no – we’re fine, we’ve not long had breakfast.”

“Very well. I’m afraid I don’t have a great deal of time this morning, so let us get straight to business then.”

“I’ve been approached by a few of your men,” Tads said, taking over the conversation from Kai, “and they’ve asked me to perform a service. I wanted to make sure that it was ok to do that.” The Captain tilted his head at her with a somewhat surprised look on his face.

“I can’t see any problem with that as long as it doesn’t disrupt training. If they’re held outside the core training hours and nobody wants special allowances, I really don’t care. I mean, don’t hold them inside the chapel or church, and I can’t see it being a problem.” Tads nodded at him, then changed tack.

“And I also understand that you’re wanting me to go scouting for you. I’m trying to find out some information and get that done sooner rather than later, so that if there’s any issues with the journey I have time to recover. When do you want me to…” The Captain raised a hand to interrupt her.

“I am preparing a dossier and briefing information. As soon as it is prepared, I will let you know.”

“Oh. Right. Ok then.” Tads fidgeted a moment. “That’s everything from me then I guess.”

“Good. Is there anything else I can assist you with this morning?”

“Well yes. In a roundabout way.” Kai settled back in his chair. “I’ve noticed that the Brigadier doesn’t have any bodyguards. Why is that?”

“Bodyguards? Of course not. Why would he?”

“Well, who defends him against threats then?” The Captain snorted, then spun around a little on his chair, pointing at a picture showing the brigade formed up in battle dress, weapons held at port arms in front of a podium with some visiting general. “Well, ok, good point. But I mean who is around him, who is closest to him on a daily basis?”

“Well, I and the other staff officers, a selection of NCOs and administrative personnel.”

“It just so happens that Shimazu was trained at one of the finest bodyguard academies in Japan, and I think it might be a good idea for him to conduct some extra training for your staff close to the Brigadier, teaching them on what to look for in terms of counter-intelligence training, looking for saboteurs and infiltrators, and techniques of close protection. All he’d need is some time, and a classroom mainly. Maybe some clear space to demonstrate some techniques for restraining and capturing suspects.”

“Hmm. Ok, maybe that’s not a bad idea. I’ll arrange a room and some time – it will certainly have to be in the evening to avoid disrupting our normal schedules. Anything else?”

“Well. Is there anything else you need? Personally I mean.” Kai spoke softly, and his body language changed slightly, seeming to somehow exude a seediness that was surprising. The Captain sat back and stared at him for perhaps ten seconds, his eyes like gimlets.

“No. Nothing at all.”

“Ok, fair enough. I just wanted to check. Well, we’ve taken up enough of your time, and you’re obviously busy, so we’ll get out of your hair and leave you to it. Thank you, Captain Zarkorov, for your time today.” The Captain stared at him again for a moment, then nodded in dismissal, and they both stood and left the small office, while the Captain turned his matrix screen back on, diving back into his work. They were escorted back to the central lobby by one of the Corporals from the main office, before being left to head back to the barracks block on their own.

They’d been back for about ten minutes when they heard the joggers return, watching them enter the building steaming slightly from the exertion. Outside the trooper was flapping his coat back and forth, trying to wick away the sweat before he lost too much body heat to the cold air. Hunter dumped his top layer and grabbed a water bottle and a couple of small chocolate bars then went outside to the sentries, giving them each a water bottle and a random flavour bar, then passing the still sweating sentry his towel.

“Good pace this morning eh? Same again tomorrow?” He grinned, and then turned away before there was a response, coming back inside the building. The last they saw of them before the door swung shut was both sentries looking at each other, trying to decide if the risk of being caught eating and drinking on duty outweighed the lure of gifts.

Moments later the showers were running, filling up the block with steam and the three joggers stripped and headed to get clean. After two months of being crammed in the truck together, Tads and Kai barely noticed as they wandered past almost naked, with wash kits in hand. Instead they focussed on the rough plan of the base they’d found, working out the order of buildings to work on protecting.

Over in the graveyard, Marius and Nadia had worked up a bit of a sweat themselves, clearing away the weeds from around the KA-60 attack chopper and dragging tools up towards the top of the craft. The morning rushed by as Marius worked on the craft, explaining to Nadia as he worked the principles of flight and engineering, describing what he was doing and getting her assistance as he stripped down the rotor shaft and swash plates, showing how the control rods adjusted the angle of attack and gave the pilot control by adjusting the pitch – or at least how they were supposed to.

Much to his disgust, despite copious amounts of lubricating fluid and working the mechanism, the crude Russian design required a certain amount of percussive maintenance to free the frozen rods and get things moving. As they worked down the rotor shaft, he looked in horror at the equally frozen and seized gearbox, realising that this was going to be a long job. Minutes turned into hours and the cold seeped into their bodies, fingers growing numb in the relentless cold. Marius continued to work on the gearbox while Nadia grabbed loose scrap from nearby and fashioned a shelter over the top of the rotors, using scraps of plastic and tarp to stop the snow from settling into the area they were working.

Once showered, the three astrally active team members – Tads, Aswon and Shimazu - gathered the materials they needed and headed out to the first barracks block, accompanied by one of the sentries. They spent their morning gently chiselling designs into the brickwork, filling them with coloured sand and burning incense, wafting the smoke into the runes and then sealing with spray varnish. As they worked around, they inscribed unique sigils into each block, working from a pattern sheet that recorded the blocks done and the pattern assigned. 

“How will this help?” asked Shimazu. Aswon responded, displaying once more his theoretical knowledge of the magical world.

“With a ward in place, forming a barrier on the astral plane, you have a couple of options. If you have knowledge of masking, you can attempt to slide or sleaze through a ward, interpenetrating the strands of magic and working through protective fields without disturbing them. Otherwise, you have to batter at the ward, using your sheer power to supress it, forcing it down to allow you to pass through. If anyone forced their way through a ward put up by us, then we’ll know – we’ll feel the magical ripples as their might pushes the ward out of the way.” Shimazu nodded in understanding – he knew this much, but he sensed Aswon was just covering the basics before leading up to something.

“So, we’ll know one of our wards has been disturbed – but we’re looking at doing over twenty of them over the next few days. What happens if someone disturbs a ward, and we get on the phone to the Brigadier, and say ‘hey, there’s a magical being breaking into one of your buildings!’ and he says ‘Great – which one? It’s kind of a big base…’ So, we’re putting a unique twist or flavour on each ward, trying to make each one distinct. If we can call up and tell him that the ward on building number 5 is down, because we felt the ward with the Hyena running being disturbed, that’s a lot more useful to him.” Shimazu nodded in understanding, looking over at the ward that had sprung into place over the first barracks block – an almost undetectable shimmer in the air, hidden from casual view and observance even to magical beings.

They pressed on, working around the first battalion area, warding one barracks block after another. Each took about an hour, and though they got funny looks from some of the troops leaving or returning to their barracks, the presence of the sentry prevented anyone from bothering them. Every building got a unique rune, inscribed almost like a keystone as the finishing touch, which was checked and marked on the map, making sure that the wards tallied up with their map of the base. 

Hunter headed out, looking around but finding no sentry left for him – something he figured would change by tomorrow morning. But for now… he shrugged, then headed off at a brisk walk towards the back of the assault course, finding the large sheltered area full of birch chippings and sawdust in the barn-like structure, where he found a class undergoing instruction in hand-to-hand combat techniques. As he stood at the edge of the barn, the instructor fell silent mid-sentence, and all eyes turned to him, making him feel like the lone gunslinger walking into the tavern in some cheesy trideo western.

“I’m looking for Nikolai Petrovich. I’m told he’s the best instructor on the base?” It never hurt to try and make a good impression he figured. As he spoke, a figure emerged from around the screen at the end of the combat area, dressed in a white vest top despite the chill snow filled air. His huge arms were covered in tattoos that lead up to his neck and curved around the back of his bald head. His mouth sneered, framed with a bushy moustache and revealing a mouth full of obviously metal replacement teeth.

“I am Nikolai. Who are you that comes to my training area?”

“The name’s Hunter. The Brigadier said I could come and watch, maybe train with you – if that’s alright with you.”

“Here there are only men, only participants. You stay, you fight – clear?” Hunter shrugged, nodded, and then moved over to the bench with the class, sliding onto the empty end of a row next to a small troll that none the less filled out his uniform quite nicely. He watched as the drill instructor continued to demonstrate the moves he was teaching, then called up a student to show a slow motion demonstration. Nikolai stood in the back of the sparring area, arms folded and watched them demonstrate.

Soon enough, the demo was over and the troops were split up into pairs, working together to go through their set of programmed attacks and counters, forming two loose lines across the training area. The instructors stalked up and down, correcting errors and occasionally taking over, all the while haranguing and shouting at the troops. Hunter sighed a little – it was clear that the instructors here believed in “old-fashioned” teaching methods – shouting and beating, hammering lessons home with pain and humiliation. It worked – that couldn’t be argued with – but it wasn’t the most effective or quickest of techniques. Still, given the culture, it was something he was expecting.

The troll he had been sitting next to seemed to come in for a lot of punishment, finding himself used as a meta-human punchbag and demonstration model far more often than anyone else. Fortunately, he was a tough cookie, and seemed to absorb all the physical abuse thrown at him, without suffering any lasting damage. Hunter watched and learned, practicing and trying to keep up with the class as best he could. It was clear they were a trained combat unit, not basic recruits as they were being shown some fairly advanced take-downs and combat moves, rather than the basics – but like the troll, Hunter was pretty tough, and absorbed everything thrown at him. 

When they stopped for a break and water, Hunter sought out the troll, striking up a conversation with him. Most of the unit were human, though there was one dwarf and one orc along with the troll. The troll seemed surprised that Hunter should approach him, and was somewhat guarded to begin with – but opened up after a minute when he realised that Hunter wasn’t trying to set him up for a fall or a practical joke.

When they resumed, everyone shuffled around, finding new partners to spar against, so Hunter squared up with the troll. The training was hard, especially against someone with arms that long, but that just meant that Hunter had to redouble his efforts. A couple of times the drill instructors came over and corrected his technique, and he found himself flying through the air and landing on the birch shavings hard enough to drive the wind from his lungs, or smoothly taken down by a leg sweep and ending up with his arm twisted to what felt like breaking point, forcing him to quietly tap-out. By the end of the session though, he’d managed to get a few licks in on his opponents, and felt he’d learnt something – and had struck up a cautious acquaintance with Dimitry the troll.

Hunter chatted about the assault course, telling Dimitry how he’d found it, and Dimitry confirmed that the bend in the pipes was well known, and a common source of trouble for the orcs and trolls on the base, due to their larger physiques – and one they dealt with in exactly the same was as Hunter had managed, though without the benefit of his air-tank. Hunter also learnt what the course record was – realising that he was several minutes off the pace if he wanted to set some records.

Their discussion came to an end as the platoon headed back to their barracks to eat and get ready for their next programmed activity, so Hunter waved goodbye to the few troops he’d spoken to and followed suit, heading back to a hot shower, soaking aching muscles and gently kneading the couple of bruises that were showing already from the arm-bars and strikes. He heard some of the rest of the team return and went to go have some food with them.

After lunch, Tads, Shimazu and Aswon returned to their warding, grabbing some fresh supplies and heading to the next building on their list. Marius and Nadia hadn’t returned, and the team assumed they were up to their elbows in grease and helicopter parts. Hunter headed off to the range again with his pistol, looking to get some more practice in, leaving Kai on his own. As they started work on the next ward, Tads saw Anfim hurrying out of the building, and called over to him.

“We have permission from the Brigadier for a meeting. We just need to find a place now.”

“I know of a place – a clearing in the woods, natural and quiet. I can show you?”

“Excellent. I’ll meet you and the others tonight then, at 21:00 – you should be done with your tasks for the day by then, right?” He nodded, then looked at his watch and excused himself, heading off at a run to fall in next to his platoon on the central square.

Kai was just wondering what kind of mischief he could get up to, when there was a knock on the barracks door – a sharp rapping that carried throughout the building. He sprang up from his bed and headed over to open it, revealing a mid-rank NCO standing in pristine fatigues. He had a few extra rank patches and a red beret rather than the normal black the rest of the troops wore – though Kai had no idea what that meant.

“I am looking for Kai. The Captain sent me over to find him.”

“Ahh, that’s me, what can I do for you?”

“The Captain advised me to speak to you over a strange crime we’ve had reported. He said you had ‘alternative skills and experience that might be useful’. I’m not sure what that means, but it doesn’t really matter.”

Kai grabbed his coat and motioned for the trooper to lead on, following him out of the barracks and headed towards the other brigade area. Along the way he introduced himself as Sergeant Oryn, a member of the MP force attached to the base, and he explained that they’d had a report of a theft, that seemed unusual.

The MP angled them slightly, aiming towards a unit marching in formation towards the admin building, calling for a halt, then telling the corporal he needed one of his men, beckoning the trooper over with a crooked finger. The trooper fell out and double-timed over to them and fell into parade rest while the rest of his unit resumed their march.

“This is Ivan Kuznetsov, D company 1st Platoon, who has reported the theft.” Kai looked the trooper up and down, then carefully altered the pitch of his voice, emphasising certain sounds and modifying his vocal range to more closely match that of the average Russian. While he stared into the forest, his face subtly morphed, changing the skin tone slightly and becoming a touch less Asiatic, a touch more European. 

“Tell me about it. Tell me everything you remember.” The words rolled out of his mouth, a subtle tang of command underlying them, strange harmonics at work that trigged a reaction in the subconscious. Ivan started to speak, almost before Kai had finished asking the question.

Kai listed as Ivan detailed the simple and plain looking gold wedding band, a slender thing that was not ostentatious nor particularly valuable. He’d taken it off before they went to the range, putting it into his locker nice and safe. When he’d returned it had gone. His platoon had laughed at first, while he’d turned his locker upside down, then searched the bed and surrounding floor, but slowly they’d stopped, as he’d become more and more distraught. At any moment he’d expected one of them to produce it, to reveal the joke – but they hadn’t. More and more frustrated, he’d yelled, then cried as the minutes went by. His section helped, moving lockers and beds, and the others joined in, one by one until the whole platoon had turned the barracks upside down looking for it. Way beyond the bounds of a joke, he’d said he was going to the MPs, a last chance for a joker to reveal themselves – but nothing.

There was sorrow in his voice, mixed with rage and a sense of loss. He described his wife, back home in Moscow, and how he had met her after seeing her perform at the Opera. How the wedding band had a line from that Opera delicately etched into the interior surface. Their wedding, with him attending in his uniform, and her accompanied by her fellow performers. How he kept it clean and safe, not wanting to risk it being damaged anywhere.

Kai listened, making mental notes about the facts relayed – but paying more attention to how he was being told the information. Ivan probably didn’t realise how much he was giving away, but it was clear to Kai that Ivan had no idea where his ring was, but he was sure that nobody in his platoon had taken it. Next he quizzed him about the locker – and Ivan suggested showing it to him instead.

They headed to the barracks, and Kai saw the similarity to their own accommodation, right down to the identical lockers. Ivan had a fairly decent padlock on his locker, keyed to his fingerprint and a 5 digit code. Kai was sure that given time his team could get through it – but they’d probably leave some kind of sign of their attempt, and it might not be quick. Looking around though, he saw no cameras present, or alarms – then realised that with the external fence, armed guards in the towers and a thousand trained killers on the inside – the average army base barracks probably made for a quite unattractive petty theft target.

He clapped Ivan on the back, and then kept his hand on his shoulder, staring into his eyes.

“Don’t worry Ivan. We’re on the case, and we’ll do everything we can to get this back to you. Now, where was the rest of your platoon going?”

“The Assault course.”

“Ahh, then what I want you to do is stay here, and maybe search your bed one more time – for about as long as everyone else is running that assault course ok? It might take so long, you only get to catch up with them when they’re on the way back here.” Ivan’s eyes opened wide for a moment and he glanced over at the MP, who decided not to say or do anything except turn on his heel and leave. Ivan went and picked up his pillow and looked underneath. “Good man, we’ll see you later.” With that Kai headed off after the MP.

“Ok, that does seem a bit odd – why go to the trouble to break into his locker, and take just a wedding ring, but leave everything else – I saw the pile of cash he had in there. I mean, sure a gold ring has some value – but why not take the real, actual, cash?”

“Yes, exactly. And it’s the same with the other one?”

“The other one?”

“Yes, this is the second petty theft we’ve had, in the last few days.”

“Ok, right. Can we go see someone in the admin building, someone with access to the training schedules?” The sergeant nodded and escorted him over to the main building, leading him into the large admin pool on the ground floor. He found a clerk and asked him to get ready to filter the training schedules, then looked at Kai for the criteria.

“Ok, let’s see. Can you filter out the names of all the people who were on some kind of training exercise outside of the base, or unable to leave their activity yesterday between 14:00 and 15:00…” the clerk tapped away furiously on the keyboard, building some kind of arcane text string to enter into the control system – it looked utterly unlike anything that Nadia or Hunter did, “and also who was off base on Sunday between 10:00 and 11:00, that’s when this first one happened yes?” The sergeant nodded, “ok, can you show me who was on base at that time?” The clerk finished constructing the abomination of a query, then hit the submit key, pushed their chair back and wandered off.

“Hey, where are they going? Where are you going?” The sergeant wandered off after the clerk, leaving a confused Kai standing by the empty desk. He watched them wander up to the water fountain, grab a cup each and fill it, then wander back to the desk, all without a word. The clerk sat back down, and waited a few moments, sipping gently at their drink, before the computer made a rough sounding beep noise, and a wall of names flew past, too quickly to read. At the bottom of the list, a summary line showed 429 names matching. “Damm, didn’t think it would be so high. Ok, that’s not the answer. Can we go see the person who reported this other theft?” The sergeant nodded, finishing his drink and crumpling the cup in his hand before launching it into the bin at the end of the desk.

The second case was another trooper, found in a glade in the forest about a kilometre from the barracks. He and his platoon were being assessed on cleaning and preparation of wild game caught in snare traps, it seemed – or there was a very strange ritual going on that only required 10 rabbit sacrifices. As with Ivan, the trooper was summoned over by the Sergeant, and told to report to Kai. He was Dobry Smirnov, a youngish lad, not yet even twenty. His locker too had been raided, with no sign of damage or forced entry, and the only thing that had been taken was a gift - a spent bullet case on a leather thong, from his first kill out hunting with his father nearly ten years ago. His father had died several years later of pneumonia, and the bullet had great sentimental value to him.

Like Ivan he was from D company too, but he was from the 3rd platoon. He’d taken off his necklace before they went to go and do some amphibious warfare training down by the river – worried that during his dunking there was a chance of losing it, he’d stashed it carefully in his locker before they headed out for the day’s activities, noticing it gone immediately on his return – three days ago now.

Kai asked some more questions, getting more detail on the history of the item, and re-asking some questions – but the story didn’t change much. 

“Listen, Dobry – that’s not much to go on. I might need to get my wise woman to come and talk to you, to cast a spell on you to find out more information. That’s ok right, you want to get your things back and find the crook, so that’s ok, right?”

“I… I guess. It won’t hurt will it?”

“No, no, don’t worry about that. It’ll be fine. For now though, I need to check your locker out.” Leaving Dobry to his camp fire cooking, they headed back to D company and climbed the stairs to the top floor, going to investigate Dobry’s locker. Like the first, it was locked with a padlock with fingerprint and 5 digit code, but it was from a different manufacturer to Ivan’s.

Even more perplexed, Kai told the Sergeant he’d get on it, then wandered off, turning over the various aspects of the crime in his head. He looked up after a few minutes of wandering and found himself outside the central building again. Bounding up the steps, he retraced his steps and found the clerk again.

“The sergeant sent you for more information?”

“Something like that. Pull up the bio for Ivan please, D company.”

“Ivan Kuznetsov, D company 1st platoon?”

“Yep, that fella. Place of birth, date of birth, former jobs, parents’ names – whatever you have.” The clerk typed frantically, and then a record appeared, the text listed in green on black on the ancient screen. “Ok, great, now can you pull up Dobry Smirnov, D company, 3rd platoon. Same details.” More rapid fire typing, then a second window appeared. Anticipating the next request, the clerk hit a complex series of keys and they separated, into half the screen each. As the clerk scrolled down, both windows moved in unison, keeping track.

Kai traced down – place of birth – different. Date of birth – very different. Career before entry – different. They scrolled down and found no common factors between them. Kai looked disappointed.

“I was sure I was on to something. Nothing at all the same between them. Dammit!”

“Sorry, no – they are very different people. Nothing the same between them except their job.”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing the same. Is there anything else you need?”

“No, you said they had the same job – that’s not here. Look, one of them was an engineer in a repair shop, the other worked in media.”

“No, that was their former job. Look here – military occupation code – DK39-V1. Radio Operator. Will that be…” the clerk looked up, but saw only Kai’s back retreating as he briskly walked towards the doors, heading outside without a word. He kept up the pace all the way back to the barracks. 

Marius and Nadia were finishing off their work, numb, cold, tired and hungry. The recalcitrant chopper was finally succumbing to their efforts though and now not only the rotor shaft, control rods and pitch controllers were working, but they’d managed to get the gearbox unjammed as well. They were both filthy, wearing as much engine grease and lubricant as you’d normally put in a car, and pretty short-tempered. Nadia coughed and pointed, and Marius turned to spot the Captain of the air group. He took a deep breath and calmed himself, remembering what was at stake.

“Good afternoon Captain. Thank you for the tools – we’ve made excellent progress today on repairing this craft. But it’s no wonder it’s been here so long. Now I have seen how short-staffed you are, and how limited your resources, it’s no wonder you’re overstretched keeping up with their unreasonable demands.” It took every ounce of self-control to keep his voice sincere as he spouted his lines, but was gratified with the arrested look on the Captain’s face. It was obvious this wasn’t what he expected to hear.

“I intend to tell the Brigadier, via my commander that he needs to emphasise your department in his budget – you cannot make a house without tools, and you cannot keep a complex aircraft operational with too few parts and insufficient labour. I mean, I’m only one man…” he felt a nut spang off the back of his head, “with one exceptional assistant and logistics expert, and it’s taken us all day to get just this far with one machine. Honestly, I don’t know how you’ve done it.” Marius waited, wondering if he’d laid it on too thick.

“Well, as you say, these are complex machines and we are short of trained engineers and parts. And yes, we struggle to keep our craft working in these conditions.” He waved around the graveyard and the layer of snow now 75mm deep on any flat surface. Marius leant back and squeezed Nadia’s knee and shared a glance with her, and neither of them mentioned that it was much nicer inside the massive hoop like structures that the regular crew worked in on the main repair area.

The Captain climbed up the side of the chopper, and they showed him their work, and what they’d achieved so far that day. Despite himself, they could tell that he was impressed with their accomplishments.

“Well, it seems you do want to really get things working for us around here, and as you say, we’re very short of engineers. But I’ll have some men come over to assist you tomorrow and bring some parts, and a tent or something to put over the chassis. Good work.” They watched him climb down and turn away from them, starting to walk back to the heated officers and workshops. Nadia held another nut in her fingers, twirling it back and forth.

“I can hit him from here, right on the back of his stupid fat head.” She said quietly.

“I know. Come on, let’s go back and tell the others what we’ve achieved. Maybe they’ll be more appreciative.”

As it happened, they walked back in at around the same time as Tads, Aswon and Shimazu got back from their warding. Both Tads and Shimazu looked shattered, while Aswon looked his usual chirpy self.

Aswon and Marius both started talking at once, trying to tell the team about their day, talking over each other and clearly both expecting the other to stop. Kai emerged from his room though, and spoke loudly.

“Everyone shut up.” To their surprise, they did. “Listen to this – I think it’s important – really important. He spent the next few minutes describing his chat with the MP, and then each of the troopers that had been stolen from.

“Why steal something with so little value, but so personal. Surely the thief would not get much for such a thing, unless they are going to ransom it back to the owner?” Marius mused. He was distracted from continuing his chain of thought though as Aswon’s mouth fell open and his eyes opened wide, displaying the white around his dark brown iris clearly. 

“It’s not that – possibly. Maybe. There is a type of magic I have heard of – rumours and whispers on the wind, tales told by my tribal elders. Where if you take a thing, a normal thing from a person, but a thing that hold great value to them – you can use it as a link for magic. A connection or bond between them, a way to force magic to hunt down the owner. A way to channel magic TO the owner, no matter where they are.”

They fell silent for a moment, then Kai continued his story, revealing that they were both radio operators. They exchanged glances, and now all of them were thinking along the same lines.

“Well, they are going to war, with Yakut. A nation of considerable magical power that has resisted the Russians’ attempts to recapture half their country for some time. Of course, it could be a coincidence, and it could be local sprites or pixies from the woods, or magpies looking for shiny things. But I don’t think anyone believes that, do we.” Aswon glanced around each of their faces. 

“But if these magical enemies manage to get a hook into the radio operators, infiltrate their communications net and compromise that – across a systematic front…” Hunter fell silent, as his imagination followed that chain of events.

“Then we could be looking at the Russians losing several Brigades. Not just this one – but the ones either side, taken out by the artillery calls or mortar fire directed on them by the compromised calls for support from magically controlled radiomen. I hate magic.”

“Not when it’s keeping your truck safe, you don’t!” Tads looked indignant.

“That’s different.”

“We have to tell the Brigadier. We need to get the word out, and get other Brigades to investigate and find out if this is going on just here, or in other Brigades and Divisions too.” Aswon said emphatically.

“No – not yet. Think about this – as long as we get this wrapped up before they start the actual assault, it’s easy to disarm the entire strategy – just replace the compromised radio operators. It’s no good having a hold over people that aren’t in the attack on your land. But if we leave them in place, we don’t tip our hand. Sure, let’s tell the Brigadier that we suspect we’ve found a major problem, and that we’re investigating it – but let’s not be hasty.”

They considered his words, and slowly nodded – that made sense. They needed to do something, and investigate for sure – but it wasn’t perhaps quite as time critical as they had first thought. And not tipping off their enemy was also a factor, after all they had no idea who might be involved in the conspiracy – if there was indeed one at all.

The team crowded into a room, finding seats and space on the bed to sit, and thrashed out ideas for a while. Kai suggested that they work with the admin staff, going back over records looking for any examples of petty thefts, no matter how small or insignificant they looked in terms of monetary value, to see if there was a pattern, or to establish how long this had been going on for. 

Tads covered the role of Domovoy and Leshies, spirits of house and forest in Russian folklore and since the awakening documented spirits and forces of nature, found in rural areas and forests – such as the camp they were in now. Domovoy were the guardians of the house and hearth, and provided they were respected and acknowledged would keep a house safe from harm – but if spurned would cause accidents, loss and grief to the inhabitants. Leshi meanwhile were more wild, spirits of the forest known to abduct children to feed to the wild animals, with a noted propensity to lead travellers astray and confuse them from their paths. Either could be the cause of these losses, punishing the men for their transgressions.

“On the other hand, I can also summon a spirit, and ask it to look for these items. Particularly if I do a mindlink with the two victims first to get a really good idea of what we’re looking for. We can search the base for them, though that will take a while for how big it is – and we won’t necessarily tip off any enemy that we’ve rumbled them. And if we can’t find them, it might tell us something – that they’ve been shipped off the base?”

Next up they tried to work up how the thefts had been done – but the field was wide open here. After all, as Kai had pointed out, the padlocks were only a sufficient deterrent for a regular person – for anyone that walked on the darker side of the law, there were ways and means, tools and techniques that could be used. 

Kai led them upstairs in their barracks, walking them around the top floor and identifying the layout in the troops’ quarters where they were the same, pointing out the minor differences. As they examined the lockers, Marius disappeared back to the truck for a few minutes, returning with his electronics toolkit and some spare parts. While the rest of the team talked and discussed, he fashioned a tiny camera triggered by a slender reed switch. Fitting the switch to the hinge side of the locker door, and putting a camera on the back wall, they could be assured of catching a view of anyone that opened them.

“D company has three platoons – and platoon 2 is the one that’s not been hit yet. Why don’t we go plant this in the radio operators locker, nice and quietly. And just wait for it to be tripped?” Marius suggested.

“Now that’s an idea – and let’s not let any of the troops know – it’ll help with trying to get a read on their reactions.” Kai added. “Hey – when is D company scheduled to have their wards put up?”

“Thursday – it’s one of the last set of buildings on the list. Not for any particular reason, we were just working across the map.”

“Ok Aswon, no problem. What happens if we let people know that – do you think that will force their hands? Make them strike quicker than they wanted, if there is any magical element to this?”

“Um – I still think we ought to tell the Brigadier. No, listen, wait a minute. Say we find someone on the base, some enemy – whatever kind. It’s going to end up in a fight. A fight, where foreign civilians on a Russian military base, surrounded by a thousand armed Russian troops kick off, and nobody knows what’s going on. We’re going to get shot. A lot. Think about it.”

“Ok, you’re right. Let’s go talk to the Brigadier.”

The emerged from the barracks, and Kai informed the sentry that they were heading to go and see the Captain, then the Brigadier – and that it was important, and no he wasn’t cleared to know why. Looking at their expressions, the senior of the pair nodded, sending the junior running ahead towards the admin building. By the time they reached the third floor, the Captain was waiting for them. 

“Captain, sir. Trust me. You and the Brigadier need to hear this. Right now.” The Captain examined Kai closely, then his eyes flicked to the others – Marius and Nadia still covered in oil, Tads and Shimazu looking pale, drawn and wan, and Kai looking incredibly intensely at him then sighed, and waved for him to follow him, leading them back to the Brigadier’s dining room.

Kai explained to the Captain and Brigadier, explaining what had happened, what could happen, and what they were going to do about it. The rest of the team chirped in to add depth and insight, and through it all the Brigadier stood silent, listening and assessing them. When they had finished, he stood silent, the second ticking by. His eyes flicked back and forth between them, staring at them as if he could see through their flesh and into their souls. For all they knew, maybe he could actually do that – they weren’t entirely sure what other abilities he had, after all.

“Interesting. Dangerous, alarming – but interesting. And you think you can investigate this and bring it to a successful conclusion?” Kai nodded. “Very well, please do so.”

“It’s be really handy if we’re able to carry our weapons on the base – if this does turn nasty, the other side are going to have no issues with killing people, whoever they are.” Hunter stated. The Brigadier pinched the bridge of his nose and contemplated the request.

“Do you know how many rules that breaks? You even being here is bad enough – but to let foreign nationals run around with guns, on a military base. No, no – quiet. I’ve not said you can’t. I’m just making sure I’m not going mad. Keep them discreet, and if you have non-lethal weaponry then that should be your first choice.” He looked up, and his face had changed. His eyes were cold, his jaw clenched and his voice was quiet. “If I find you taking the lives of any of my troops or the people of Russia, without good cause, you will answer to me.”

It wasn’t a threat, and there was no drama – but that made it all the more chilling. Not even Hunter smirked or made light of the statement, they just gave sincere nods. After a moment, he waved his hand, and his eyes warmed, his face softened a little and he seemed more like his normal self.

“Perhaps go and see the MPs and requisition some of their stun batons. Oh, and if something does happen, then the codeword is ‘Sputnik’. Captain, see to it that this is passed down to the officer core only, and the reason is not discussed – but that if the codeword is given, they are to tread carefully and treat our… guests, with some restraint and trust.” The Captain nodded agreement. “Well, I’m sure you have plans to make – I know we do. I won’t detain you.”

The team took their cue to leave. As they filed out, they heard the Brigadier musing to the Captain, wondering if the plot was as real and as widespread as they feared, where they could take advantage of it as a false-flag operation, and use it to feed disinformation to the enemy. The rest of the conversation was cut off as the door swung shut and they headed back towards their barracks.

“Nadia, can you knock together a little program to record video as soon as an input sensor is triggered, to stream that video out to one of our devices and to also trigger a text alarm when it happens?”

“Doesn’t sound too difficult, I’ll get on with it when we’re back. Though I might want to grab some sleep tonight you know. It is nearly nine.”

“Oh crap!” Tads looked at her watch and then turned and ran off into the darkness, confusing the team as well as the accompanying sentries. They suddenly remembered that she’d agreed to meet some of the troops in the woods for a service. 

Quickly the form of the shaman faded into the night as she ran in the general direction of the woods, though Aswon could make out her cries of dismay for some time.

“Oh crap, crap CRAP…”


	98. 098 - Samara base Part IV

Date Wednesday 10/03/2060, Location 53.38042, 50.27575

Tads strode across the base towards the woods at a brisk walk, her breath misting around her as the temperature dropped. As soon as she stepped into the forested area, she stopped and took a deep breath, calming her mind and her breathing, then called upon the spirits. In astral space ahead of her, a sylph appeared with limbs and body made of tightly twisted vines and leaves, dark pits for eyes. Tads imparted the knowledge of the three people she sought, giving it a perfect image of their faces from her memories and send it to go and search the woodlands for them. It vanished, and she waited, concentrating on breathing deeply to calm her pulse. No more than fifteen seconds had passed before it reappeared and told her that it had located them, before it zoomed off at a speed she couldn’t hope to match. 

With a sigh, she started off down the trail in the direction it had gone, waiting for it to realise that she couldn’t move that fast – at least not in the physical realm. Sure enough, moments later it returned with an exasperated expression on its face. It saw her following then zoomed off again, to return a few seconds later. After this, it stayed with her, leading her down the trail and past several forks, before guiding her into a clearing. She saw her three ‘acolytes’ standing under a small lantern hanging from a plastic stake, their faces relaxing into a welcome as they recognised her. The weak light from the hanging lamp illuminated only a few metres around itself, revealing a clearing in the pine forest, with snow now lying over thirty centimetres deep in a crisp white blanket.

“Sorry I am late!”

She paused to catch her breath and looked over the gathered troops. How did she want to do this, and how would it be best that she handled it?

“Before we go too much further, there are things I must tell you and information you must have, to understand and to make correct judgements, both now and in the future. Are you prepared to listen for a short time?” She saw them nod, and continued.

“I am Ivana Wolchock, known as Tads to my colleagues. I learnt of my magic whilst with the Nenets tribes of the far north for a period, and since I did not have expectations of being seen in the manner that they would see a tribal Elder, I was not prepared for this. But I have seen this work for them and it is their model I will follow, and if not - you will tell me what you need.”

“I am a shaman of the totem Elk, and Elk’s beliefs and teachings affect how I do things, what I do and sometimes even how I see the world. What does this mean to you and why should you care? You asked me here as wise-woman, but as any Elder, any person of authority that speaks to you, I have my own thoughts, biases and agendas. You must know this, because I will not be here for long, and if you choose another Elder, whether from your number or from another passing shaman, you must be aware of their biases and agendas.”

“What do I mean by biases and agendas? In totemic terms, my benefactor Elk is an honourable guardian and protector of the land, who stands proudly against threats, and does not fear to fall in combat because he knows that others will follow to defeat the threat. When not fighting, Elk thinks and prepares. Other totems have other priorities. Bat is a traveller, who cannot stay in one place long. Mouse is clever, resourceful and curious. Wolf is loyal to his pack. But some shaman may embody less positive traits. Rats can be thieves and cowards, to pick a self-centred one, and others can be worse.”

“What am I telling you? Beyond the military, be wary of whom you put your trust in. If they want something from you, ask yourself why and what they can do with it before you give. I don’t say not to give, not to trust, just to be aware of the motivations of those you choose to put your trust in. You have come here to trust me, and I appreciate that, but I do not want to leave you to be taken advantage of by someone less scrupulous who might follow me. This does not mean that you should not follow lawful military orders!”

“I am not sure about me personally, but Elk is actually a really good fit for you. You are here to fight and defend your lands and your people and when not fighting, you train and prepare. You behave with honour in following commands given by your seniors and supporting your comrades. As long as you behave appropriately, I am sure that Elk will watch over you and be there to support you, even if you cannot feel or see him as I do.”

“Now, you asked for this – what do you require of me?”

While they contemplated her speech, she had a moment to collect her own thoughts and look around her. She dropped into the astral realm, and her breath caught. Along with the three men who had seen her this morning, there were a dozen or more men standing out in the darkness, unmoving and deathly quiet. She’d had no idea they were there – and she reminded herself of where she was. Of course the soldiers would be trained in ambushes, moving quietly in the woods and remaining stealthy. But, as she examined them carefully, looking at their auras that glowed bright as day in astral space, she detected only curiosity and contemplation on what she had said, with no trace of belligerence or hostility.

“We want to you lead us in prayer to the Motherland?” said Iosif, who appeared to be the spokesman for the trio. “It’s been a long time since any of us had someone to perform a sermon.” Tads listened carefully, and thought she detected a note of pleading in his voice. They appeared to be sincere in their beliefs, but she guessed that without practice, without regular experience of expressing that belief, they felt uncertain about what it was they actually wanted. That was going to make things tricky...

She called them forward, into a rough circle and got them to link arms with the men on either side. She took them through a series of movements – shuffle left a step, shuffle left a step, stamp left foot. Shuffle right, shuffle right, and stamp right foot. All timed to match a steady cadence, kept by her clapping hands, she kept them moving, making sure they didn’t get cold, then mirrored their movements in a smaller circle inside of them, making sure SHE didn’t get too cold either. Once they were settled into a strong rhythm, she started to chant and let her thoughts pour out. It was a little outside her comfort zone to be sure and she wished that Kai was here. He just seemed to have a way with people that she wasn’t sure she could ever emulate, but she did her best. Talking about the land, the roots of the mountains and the ancient bond between the people who guarded and protected the land, and the land that nourished and fed them in return she ensured she stayed well clear of discussing organised religion and the military as far as possible – she didn’t need the Brigadier or the Captain having issue with her for undermining their authority or being seen to foment rebellion.

She kept the rite going for about fifteen minutes, thinking that it was long enough to feel authentic and meaningful, without going too long that they got bored or would notice that she really didn’t know what she was doing. She stuttered a few times, and found herself wandering down tangents, having to fight to get herself back on track – but overall it wasn’t terrible. At least they continued to chant and move, stamp and sway along with her. She wrapped up the ‘service’ and the group broke up, some of the soldiers seeming to quickly shun the body contact with others as if they felt slightly embarrassed – she guessed they were used to paying their respects to the land in a more quiet and solitary fashion than she had. She shrugged, and snorted a little to herself. Well, that’s what you get for asking a tribal clanswoman to teach you her ways.

Iosef, Kiril and Anfim approached her, and as before it was Iosef that spoke.

“Thank you. That was… unexpected. But good!” He seemed to rush out the words in response to the frown that had started to form on Tads’ face. ”It was your own style I suppose, and we had not experienced it before. But I liked it. We were all together, and one with the land. So, when do we meet again?”

Tads took a deep breath, trying to work out what to do. But hey – at least they were asking her back again, so it can’t have been that bad. Iosef spoke again before she had worked out what to do.

“How about in two days time. It’s a new phase of the moon?” He spoke hopefully and a little hesitantly. When she nodded though, his look of worry turned into a smile.

“If something changes or comes up, or we end up called onto a mission – how do I contact you?”

“Just leave a note pinned to your door. The sentries will pass the word along to us.”

Tads looked around and realised that most of the other troops had gone, slipping away quietly into the night. She hadn’t heard them go, and they didn’t leave that obvious a trail, and it drove home to her that she was dealing with professional soldiers. Certainly she didn’t want to have people like this after her – they seemed quietly competent in their movement and stealth skills, so she could only assume they were just as good with breaking things and killing stuff – and she didn’t want to be the target of that!

She asked the three if the sermon had been acceptable, and saw them squirm a little, before they struggled to find a few things that they had liked about it. She suspected they didn’t want to offend her, but that it really hadn’t been what they had expected from her. While they chatted, they grabbed the lantern, and the three of them escorted her out of the clearing and along the twisting paths back to the edge of the wooded area and out onto the gravelled path, before they split up and headed back to their individual barracks. Tads looked around, then headed for the darkened and hunched bulk of the admin centre.

She wound her way through the ground floor corridors again, retracing her steps to the infirmary. It was quiet at this time of night, with most of the patients either trying to sleep or reading quietly under angled lights. She saw a few waves and smiles from the people that she had treated and helped along the way, which she returned as she walked the length of the ward to the Doctor’s office. The door was slightly ajar, and she could see Dr Astirdar tapping away on her computer – presumably catching up with her notes. A gentle rap on the doorframe was enough to inform her of her presence though, and the Doctor stretched and then stood up, coming to the door.

“Oh, it’s you! Hello. Have you come to check up on your patients?”

“Well, not really. I’d mostly come to see if you had any new patients that needed some help with their recovery.”

“Ahh, right. Well in that case, come with me. I have something that your talents can probably help with.” Dr Astridar led her to three beds all on the same side of the room. In the beds were three sleeping men, swaddled in bandages around their midriffs and shoulders, with neck braces on and significant bruising showing on their arms and shoulders. “These three were caught in an accident in the motor-pool. Working on an APC, and there was some kind of mishap with a jack, and it rolled back off the ramps and caught them. Severe crush injuries, with damage to ribs and lungs…”

Tads listened with mounting discomfort as the Doctor read out the injuries and effects in a dry and emotionless voice, cataloguing the damage done to their bodies as if she was reading a cake recipe. For Tads, her imagination provided the gruesome details of their injuries, but also helpfully filled in the feelings of horror, pain and despair as they were trapped by the heavy vehicle, feeling the pain and injuries mounting up under the crushing vice like force. She held up a hand to stop the doctor from continuing.

“I just need to know if they’re all ok with me using my magic on them, that they don’t have an objection to this on a religious basis.”

“Well I don’t know about tha…” the doctor broke off for a moment, and stared at her. The seconds ticked by, then she turned the page of notes over, and looked at it carefully her eyes tracking back and forth a few times. “Oh no, look – here it is.” Despite what she said, the clipboard was still angled away from her, and the Doctor made no effort to actually show her. “It says here that the nurse has checked with all three, and they expressly gave their permission for magical healing to be performed. Well, that’s all cleared up then.” The doctor raised her eyes, staring straight at her. Tads felt that she’d missed something here – but drained from a busy day of warding and then the pressure and stresses of an impromptu sermon, she just nodded her head in acceptance.

“I need to take them out into the woods ideally. Or at least out of this building.” The Doctor looked bemused by this, so Tads tried to explain the concept of the mild mana warping in the infirmary, caused by the general nature of despondency and gloom. She wasn’t sure she made much sense, but the doctor eventually nodded when she didn’t give up, and agreed to have an orderly push the trolleys to the edge of the building but no further.

As it happened, they only needed to go up the corridor as far as the junction for the background count to die away a little and for Tads to perform her healing without impediment. One after another she cast her magic, pouring golden energy into their sleeping bodies and accelerating the natural healing process. They all had similar injuries, having been extensively crushed by the fifteen tonne vehicle, and she thought they were lucky to be alive at all. Their injuries were widespread and serious, but not complex though, and her healing energies worked well on them. The first trooper was left with some bruising and would be tender, but likely to recover within a day, the second man was left with barely a sign of his injuries at all. The third proved to be more tricky – the effort catching up with her, and restricting her efforts somewhat. She was successful – just not as successful as the first two. He would have perhaps a few days of recovery needed to cope with the bruises and strains, though she thought that all the ribs and collarbone injuries were dealt with, and the internal organs were fine. After the effort from all three though, she had a pounding headache, and her vision was slightly blurry.

Returning the third patient to the ward, the Doctor came to examine them all and update their charts, and she seemed most pleased – insisting that Tads came into her office and enjoyed a toast with her. Too tired to refuse, Tads threw back the shot of Vodka and then pulled a face as the fiery liquid rolled down her throat. She made her excuses shortly afterwards, and headed back towards the barracks, swaying and weaving a little as she did so.

Aswon sat on the office chair in his room, his rifle laid out over the desk in pieces. With a thin rod, some lubricating oil and a selection of rags and swabs he was meticulously cleaning the barrel, breech, trigger sear and the other moving parts. Kai had hopped up onto his bed and lay there, staring at the ceiling as they chatted.

“So, what exactly can they do to the radio guys then if they steal their stuff?”

“I know of some things that can be done – but not how they are done.” A quick squirt of oil onto a part, and he selected another cleaning rag to carefully clean the dovetail grooves. “I was a hunter, not a shaman. But I have heard of the tales. Normally to find or affect a person with your magic, the group must send an astral scout out, a spotter if you will. They follow the questing tendrils of magic, riding the winds of fate and following the heartbeat of the land to track down their prey. They act as the eyes and ears of the shaman, focussing their will on the target.”

“When the shaman has access to a sample of the target like a lock of hair or some blood, or they have a treasured object of great meaning, then the scout’s job is much easier. They can comb an entire desert in minutes instead of hours, following the trail of belonging that leads to the target. The link glows brighter, like a river in flood. And that allows the shaman to concentrate more of their power on the spell, and less on the search.”

“So, whatever they do, they can do it better – faster and quicker, stronger?”

“Yes – they can focus more of their ability and power on the effect, and less on the search for the target. As to what they can do, that depends very much on the group and their aims, as well as what training they have received. If they wanted to spy on the person, they could probe their thoughts and listen in on their conversation, even the words that remained unsaid. They could try to control their thoughts and move the body like a puppet, forcing it to dance against their will. It would be possible to subtly influence them to change their behaviour, to report things wrongly or make mistakes. If they are punishing a transgressor against the land, they could channel bolts of pure power against the target to fry their brain and destroy their soul, to make them shrivel and wither like a plant under the noon-day sun.”

“So, they can make them explode into a fireball?”

“Ahh, no – not like that. Not like the mage on the trideo, from the show. No – the magic that they show are manipulations of energy. They control the mana to make a fireball or a lightning blast in their hands, that travels from here to there.” Aswon waved his hands around, demonstrating with the can of oil and a rag. “The fireball is created by magic, but then it exists in the world – and it must travel like a normal ball of fire, if there was such a thing. So windows or walls will impede it, things may catch fire as it passes. When it hits, it will explode and damage all around it, causing death and chaos. But those spells cannot be cast by ritual means. You can still kill, still harm – but the spells will channel the mana from the casting shaman, to appear and be focussed by the spotter on a specific target. The magic appears THERE, there is no travelling – but that is why you need the spotter to view your target, whoever has offended your tribe, to control it and focus it.

“And while they are doing this ritual – can you spot it?”

“Yes, it is possible. If the target is magically aware, then it is easier. But as the power builds up, sometimes you can spot a shimmer in the air, or the hairs on the back of your neck will stand on end. Sometimes you will get that strange sense that you are being watched.”

“Ok, interesting. So, if someone has already cast a spell on the radio guys – would we be able to tell? Can we detect it?”

“Perhaps – it very much depends on the time. After a spell has been cast, there will be a taint, like a flavour to the mana. It can be sampled and categorised, like the spoor of prey that you are tracking across the Serengeti.” Aswon looked back over his shoulder and saw the look of confusion on Kai’s face. “Ok, another way to describe it….hmm. Imagine if a man walked past you that hold a freshly roasted leg of met, dipped in herbs and spices and roasted over an open fire. As he walks past you, right there and then you can smell it, and detect the flavour – you know what beast it was from, and what herbs are on it. Now the man walks away, and the smell starts to fade as the wind catches it and spreads it far and wide. The longer you wait, the weaker the smell gets and the harder it is to determine the type of meat and herbs, and to identify what they were.”

“So if you found them just after a spell had been cast on them, it’s easier to spot and tell what it is, and what type of magic it is, if you get to them sooner rather than later. And if you leave it too long, you might not spot it at all?”

“Exactly!” Aswon dropped the used rag into the bin and selected another from his pile, feeding it through the slot on the end of the cleaning rod and then pushing it into the barrel of the rifle like a ball of wadding.

“So, what type of things can they do otherwise, other than just killing them? And how do we stop it?”

“Well, like I said earlier, there are lots of different ways to spy on someone and listen to their thoughts and opinions. But you could also perhaps mute them, take away their power of speech entirely. Or scramble their language to make it so that others can’t understand them – for a radio operator that would destroy their purpose, and throw their platoon or company into disarray. As to stopping them…” Aswon considered for a moment, idly twiddling the cloth back and forth in the barrel of his rifle. “If you got them into a warded area, like our truck, while the spell is still building up – it may well cut them off entirely.”

“That is what Tads has been doing with whoever is trying to track her, right?”

“Yes. And she’s likely to spot the power build up early, while the scout is still trying to find her, which leaves them likely to know only a vague direction she lies in, rather than the specific area. But if they are sending a spell, rather than just tracking your location – if you do this only a second before the spell hits or four hours before – the result is the same, in that it makes the spell so much more difficult to complete it will likely fail.”

“So we need to put wards on their vehicles as well then, really. So we need some more bits of chalk and stuff for you three.”

“Indeed. And it depends how many vehicles they have and how strong a ward we need, but that will get very expensive, very quickly. There is another thing that can be done, a technique mostly known as ‘shielding’. Tads can do this, and she extends her magical defences over people, granting them protection with her power. “

“Like her holding an umbrella over them to stop someone hosing them with water.”

“I suppose so. Though magic is not really like a hosepipe. But sure – close enough for this purpose. She can do that, but the size of her umbrella is limited, and can only be in one place at a time.” Aswon stopped and considered for a moment. “Actually, ok, an umbrella is a good analogy after all. You can get a thicker umbrella if you’re a better mage, and it’s stronger and stops a more powerful attack. Of course that means that Tads has to stay with a radio operator, which means travelling with them to war. And if she goes, I assume we go – which means we’re all going to the front lines. And that’s not really what we do, is it?”

“No, no it’s not. I don’t want to go to war, and I suspect that neither Shimazu nor Tads would either. I’m not so sure about the others though…”

They continued to chat, the conversation ranging back and forth over the nuances of magic used to both attack and defend. After a while they heard a door open and footsteps approach, and Marius appeared around the doorway, looking a little bleary-eyed.

“Can’t sleep” asked Kai.

“Not with you talking that loudly about people’s heads exploding and wondering if we’re going to war. The answer to which is ‘no’ unless there’s a serious amount of pay involved by the way.”

“Oh, sorry. Guess we should have closed the door.” Kai pulled a face. “I think though that we need to work out what this attack is, and track it back to the source – I think the Brigadier will be very impressed if we can do this, and that’s got to earn us a lot of leeway with getting hold of something like a helicopter.” Marius nodded in agreement, and the scowl leeched away a little as he contemplated the image in his mind. On the bed, Kai let a millimetric smile tug at the corner of his lips as he neatly defused the social landmine.

“So, we’re putting these wards up – do we go completely overt and get some spirits summoned as well, to be obvious guards?” Aswon started to tidy up the rags and cleaning fluid into their case, and then with deft fingers slotted parts together, beginning the process to rebuild his rifle.

“I like the idea – it does show that we’ve spotted what is going on, but on the other hand it makes them react to us, and puts them on the back foot a little, getting inside their head and making everything they do a little more dangerous.” Kai looked around as he hear Marius shift, leaning in from the doorway.

“Can we have a spirit on standby, set to listen to someone? So that if we detect the door to the locker opening, we can send the spirit there to arrive in a fraction of a second and get a look at what is going on?”

“I don’t think Tads would have an issue with that, and with her power and ability, I think that’s well within her reach – so I would assume so.”

They continued to chat about magical responses and defences, including spending a little time working out just how big the whole battalion area was and if putting a warding dome over that was remotely possible. When they realised how much area that included, they put that plan on the back-burner, as something perhaps a little optimistic for the number of people available to complete the ward and the difficulty involved.

It was at this point they heard Tads come in, still wavering and looking shattered. She grunted at them, and headed straight for the showers, and not long afterwards looking cleaner but no less grumpy or tired, to bed. The others took this as their cues. Aswon woke Hunter to cover a few hours of watch duty, and the rest of the team headed to sleep. 

A few hours later, Aswon awoke feeling refreshed and ready, so he relieved Hunter and took over his position. Hunter headed to the outside door, leaning out for a minute into the cold night air and gave the sentries a big smile as they turned towards him.

“Evening guys. Don’t worry – just checking you’re ok.” They looked at him unsure of how to respond, but he ducked back inside the door and let it swing shut behind him.

“Why do you do that?”

“Keeps them on their toes, Aswon. Keeps them guessing.” Aswon shook his head at the irrepressible grin on his face, and watched as Hunter headed back into his room and heard him settle back into bed.

The night passed with incident or disturbance. As Tads left the safety of her lodge to join the others for breakfast, she found that there were a few choice offerings again, laid out by the truck. They couldn’t have been there too long, as the small bowl of soy-milk was not completely iced over yet, despite the cold outside.

Over breakfast, Hunter asked Marius just how many cameras he had in the truck, and Marius informed him that they had six cameras overall, with three of them mounted and converted to send the images wirelessly, ready to go. Their plan was to put one in the locker, pointing straight out towards anyone that opened it, while the other two would go in opposite corners of the room, and point at the locker itself, so no matter where the thief stood, they’d be visible.

“You’ve got a full set of cammo fatigues, haven’t you, Marius?” asked Kai. Marius nodded in response around a mouthful of porridge. “I wonder if we can have a word with the Captain, and get you some rank badges or something. That’d let you wander the base without being challenged by any of the troops, for use.” Marius nodded in approval again, and continued his chewing.

“I could make you invisible as well, if you wanted?” Marius swallowed hastily and turned to face Tads.

“Nein! That would cause more problems than it solves, I think.”

They finished their breakfast, and Aswon, Shimazu and Hunter went to get changed into their running gear. As they came out into the corridor, they were somewhat surprised to see Marius and Nadia had also gotten changed.

“I thought we’d join you this morning – get some practice in.”

“Sure, we can go slow for you…”

“You just run as normal, Hunter, and we’ll keep up.” He scowled at the grinning Ork.

The headed outside, and the team received another surprise – the guard had doubled this morning, and there were now four sentries standing ready – and two of them had their PT kit on under their great-coats. As the team warmed up, two of the sentries dumped their bulky top layers and stripped down to patrol webbing and their firearms, and did some stretching alongside them, and then followed along as the team started their morning run.

Hunter did slow the pace, if only slightly, and led them on a nice gentle circuit around the base. His powerful legs broke the snow at the front of the group, closely followed by Shimazu who was not much smaller. Following them came Aswon whose long legs propelled him easily through the trail left by the first two. He also had a gait that suggested he could run for hours upon end, keeping up a ground-eating lope that could cover huge distances. Nadia followed along, now running through compacted snow and slush in a clear trail battered down by the three team-members ahead of her, while Marius bought up the rear.

After a while, Marius seemed to be lagging behind more and more, with the escorting troops getting closer and closer behind. Aswon dropped back and took up station by his side, his legs rising and falling higher than normal as he ran through the undisturbed snow to his side.

“Your breathing – it’s all in the breathing. Try and pull in through the nose, and out through the mouth.”

“I know”… “how to” … “breathe!”

“Of course you do. But not how to breathe and run. Panting just wastes energy.”

Aswon coached him, trying to get Marius to follow his instructions. He noticed that the normally pale skin of the German was flushed and mottled. Aswon thought about it a little and realised that though Marius was trim and in reasonable shape, he wasn’t really used to running around – that’s what drones and vehicles were for. As far as he was aware, Marius didn’t really ‘do’ sport, and running around like this was anathema to him. That in turn made him wonder just what Nadia must have said to make this appear to be a good idea… He resumed his efforts to teach Marius how to control his breathing more effectively, coaching him as they went.

Ten metres behind them the pair of sentries slogged along the track left by the team, wondering what kind of idiots willingly went for runs in this kind of weather when there wasn’t even a corporal shouting at them… They had watched the German falling behind slowly over the course of the run, and could see the tall black man talking to him now, but they couldn’t hear what he said.

“Hah, you can tell he doesn’t know how to run. Look at his arms and legs, floundering about. No wonder he’s tired, he’s spending half his energy like a drunken windmill.”

“Yes, can’t argue with you. And it’s costing him, he’s losing ground all the time.”

“The rest are fit, mind – good pace. Not this one. I think he’ll give up soon, and cry.”

“No, I don’t think so. Look at him – look how much tension is in the body. I mean, that’s not helping him either – but he’s got guts. If he was going to quit, he’d have quit a while ago. No, he’s going to see this through to the end, even if it hurts him.

Aswon listened to the conversation behind him, his ears easily filtering out the ambient sounds and amplifying their quiet conversation. He thought about telling Marius, but decided to wait until the end of the run before he did so – it’d probably make him feel better.

They ended their run near the assault course, slowing for a quick turn about the course at a brisk walk, then slowing more to a gentle walk to let their muscles relax without freezing up. As they walked around, Hunter described the obstacles in detail, relaying his experience and thoughts about how to handle them and how he’d found it to the others. Sometimes he had to speak up a little to drown out the laboured breathing from Marius, but he carried on regardless, choosing not to make jokes about his performance.

After all, there was plenty of time for that later…

Tads returned to her lodge to prepare for the day’s magical efforts, leaving Kai on his own. After clearing away the dishes and tidying up a little, he headed out and smiled at one of the sentries.

“I’m off to see the Captain or the Brigadier, whichever is available. Coming?” The sentry fell into step with him as they strode across the snow covered path, and Kai saw him discreetly calling in the movement on a small radio. He knew the way by now, climbing to the third floor up the grand staircase that flanked either side of the huge entrance hall, and then heading down the corridor into “officer country” as he thought of it. 

The Captain was in the mess room where they’d had dinner previously, finishing a breakfast of toast and eggs, and waved for Kai to sit down. While he finished his meal, Kai went over all the options, threats, risks and counters they had discussed the night before, breaking down the options as simply as possible for the Captain to understand and relay to the Brigadier. Zarkorov waved over one of the mess staff and quietly spoke into his ear, then continued his meal, waving for Kai to continue expanding on the plan to bug the lockers and then respond to any intruders.

As Zarkorov was just mopping up the last bit of yolk with the end of his crust, there was a knock on the door and the MP from the previous day came into the room, holding two radios. He double-checked the settings matched, then set one on the table in front of Kai.

“Ahh, thank you Sergeant Vostok. Now, Kai – take this radio with you. Sergeant Vostok will keep the other, and it’s on a discrete frequency, only these two sets. If any of your alarms are tripped, raise the alarm and the Sergeant and his men will come with you. Not only will they be there to perform any capture required and ensure that prisoners are taken into custody – but they can also ensure that none of the troops make a mistake about who YOU are working for and there’s no unfortunate incidents.”

“Oh, excellent plan, Captain. That should make things easier. Now, there was one more thing – I wondered if I could get an extract from the computer on the lineage of each of the troopers, to see if we can detect any other common threads or confluences…”

“No.” The word came out flat and final sounding, and wasn’t expanded on. Kai blinked a little, wondering what kind of situation would cause the conversation tone to shift that abruptly and what the background was. He couldn’t think of anything, but decided not to push – his grasp of language was good enough to detect a final answer when he heard one. Instead, he pushed himself away from the table, excused himself and left the officers’ mess to head back to the barracks block.

After their walk around the assault course, the runners headed back to shower and change, and the team assembled again in their normal daytime gear. Marius and Nadia were both heavily dressed, anticipating working outside again for most of the day and learning from the previous day’s experience. Tads, Shimazu and Aswon were dressed in a similar vein, also planning on working on the buildings inside and out. Kai was in his usual gear and was going to stay in the truck, monitoring the cameras and communications for the team, while Hunter was planning on going to the range to do some more shooting and some hand-to-hand lessons.

Kai looked over the team, and saw that most of them now carried either tasers or stun batons, along with their extendable staffs and such like – keeping them fairly discreet but to hand if required. Tads also told them that she had a powerful spirit on standby, and could send it over to the building in a heartbeat to find the intruder, if one was detected. With that, they split up and went their separate ways.

Kai called in the details, and Sergeant Vostok went with Marius and Nadia. The platoon was told to open their lockers, and then sent down to the parade square, leaving only Marius, Nadia and the sergeant in the barrack block. After a quick but thorough look at the contents of the radio operator’s locker, giving him a chance to memorise the contents, Marius carefully planted the micro camera to look out of the locker and positioned the activation switch in the hinge. After that was set, they put up the cameras in the corner of the room, ready to capture the image of their burglar. With the work done, the platoon was allowed back into their barracks and told to secure their lockers. They could see the burning curiosity in their faces, and were sure that the conspiracy whispers would start the moment they left – but they were fine with that.

As they left and the MP Sergeant headed back to the admin block, Marius turned to Nadia.

“Did you notice anything funny when we were putting up the cameras in the corner of the room?”

“The painting was done very poorly. But other than that – no, not really.”

Marius spent the rest of the walk telling Nadia about the design of the building, and how strange it was to find – in this day and age – a building without security cameras of their own for starters, but how there was no provision for extra cabling and security features to be built into the fabric of the building. Nadia walked along in silence, soaking up the information like a sponge, as they headed past the warding team and headed towards the graveyard.

Arriving at the KA-60, they found two junior technicians, sheltering in the lee of the aircraft and stamping their feet to keep warm, guarding a trolley of spare parts, tools, lubricants and a rugged waterproof data-slate with the technical specs for the helicopter.

“Captain Gorchenski detailed us to assist you today, sir!” Marius snorted as they applied the honorific to him. Clearly their status was still uncertain, and the techs were not taking any chances of causing offence. Well, it didn’t bother him. He and Nadia set to, ripping into the engine of the wounded aircraft and with the assistance of the techs pulling out engine panels, cowling, sumps, and the thousand and one other parts that made up a modern aircraft engine.

As they progressed, Marius realised that he was looking at a minimum of three days work to overhaul and certify the engine for even a test start-up. After that there was certainly another couple of days work to attend to a lot of the more cosmetic or non-essential damage. Technically they could skip that and still have a working aircraft, but Marius was pretty much decided that if he was going to hand over an aircraft as repaired, that everything would be as good as he could get it.

The warding team had headed over to the next building on their list and started work, continuing from where they’d left off the previous day. As before, with three of them working on each building, they managed to get the sigils drawn and the runes inscribed in fairly short order, working through each floor in a pattern that kept them out of each other’s way and let them finish the ward in around an hour. It wasn’t that strong, but it was there at least, and would take ‘some’ effort to overcome. 

The team, apart from Marius and Nadia, returned to the truck for lunch, checking in and seeing what was going on. Hunter put in a quick call over his com to Marius to confirm they were ok, and confirmed that to the rest of the team. As they finished their lunch, and were about to split up again, the radio squawked, and Sergeant Vostok asked Kai to head over to the MP’s office. Hunter grudgingly postponed his plans for more combat training and agreed to watch the cameras until he returned.

In the MPs office, Kai sat down and Vostok told him that there had been another theft – this time in B company, 2nd platoon. Looking on the map of the base they had sketched out, this was from the company block to the north of the one they had staked out. The victim this time was a Gleb Popov, who had reported the theft of a fountain pen from his locker. Kai examined the slightly blurry image taken by the MP who had examined the scene, and saw another 5 digit cypher lock with a thumbprint reader through the hasp and of course one of the standard issue lockers. 

Kai spent a few minutes going over the time line of thefts, ensuring that he had the locations and order of attacks correct, and then marked up the rest of the platoons and companies with the names of the radio operators in each.

Deep in thought, Kai headed back to the truck, and got Hunter to call up Marius, discussing the new development with him. They worked out if they pulled one of the cameras from the setup this morning, taking a bit of a risk with visibility, and with some quick work to configure the other cameras, they could probably cover Bravo Company Platoons 1 and 3, as well as Delta 2 – giving them three times the opportunity to catch the thief. 

Marius headed back from the chopper, leaving Nadia and the two techs working on cleaning the manifold, and headed to the truck to set up the remaining cameras. According to the schedule, Bravo 2 were out somewhere in the woods doing a navigation exercise, so Marius grabbed his toolkit and headed to the barracks on his own. It only took him a few minutes to recover the camera from the corner of the room, then he put in a call to Kai and met up with the MP to repeat the earlier placement. With the practice and experience gained earlier that morning, the two new installations went like clockwork, and in an hour he was back at the graveyard with the aircraft and was back to work.

Kai went to try and find the Captain to update him but was told he was unavailable. Instead he had to leave a message with his desk sergeant. Having a think, he constructed a somewhat vague message that would hopefully not reveal too much to anyone except the Captain, making sure the desk officer wrote it down word for word.

As the warding team moved from building to building, Tads and Shimazu saw Aswon stop and bend over, picking something up from the ground. He examined it for a moment, then put it into his pocket.

“What was that?”

“Found a rock. If we see a thief, it’d be nice to have something I can use at range.” Tads and Shimazu thought back to the few times they’d seen Aswon throw things – particularly remembering the shot from the truck to the idiots that had been trying to shoot them up with paintball guns. Oh well, if they did find the thief, it’d be amusing to see how they coped with a high-speed rock to the back of the head.

With Kai back on the cameras, Hunter headed back to the combat ring and the gentle ministrations of Petrovich. The hard faced DI nodded at him and pointed to the bench, so he could sit and watch the platoon fighting and training. This platoon was 100% human, but didn’t seem bothered by his presence. He sat and watched until someone tapped out after a bit of heavy contact and had to go sit down for a few minutes, at which point Petrovich shouted over to him to replace the miserable excuse for a man that was the wounded trooper. 

An hour slipped by, then another. Two more buildings were warded by the team, and they moved onto the next. They were about a ten minutes into the task, which now felt like a fairly routine operation, when all three of them froze as they felt a sensation – it was hard to describe, yet apparently shared across cultures and time, some primeval sensation that was part of their DNA. Most people described it as feeling like someone had walked over their grave – but for the team they knew that it meant that someone had crossed one of their wards, having to batter it down to allow them to pass. After a moment of quiet surprise and shock, they burst into action.

“Stand to, stand to. We have a ward breach, Brigade Alpha, um…building antelope. Second company, it’s second company, the southern building on the left side as you look at the admin block!” Aswon called in the position over the radio, heading out of the second floor barracks room with stick of worn chalk still in hand. He heard the clatter of feet and looked down, and saw Shimazu sliding down the stairs at breakneck speed and hitting the ground running, arms and legs pumping as he accelerated around the corner of the building. 

Kai gave a start of surprise at the sudden burst from the radio, and then scanned the sensor feeds carefully.

“I show no open lockers, no activity on the cameras planted. All buildings show as secure. Wait, which building?” Aswon repeated himself, and Kai double checked the plans. “Ok, that’s one of the first ones you did yesterday then, yes, southern side of the top brigade area.

Tads had laid herself down on the floor, tucked out of the way and projected out of her body. She didn’t want to be too long – her body was going to get very cold laid against the side of the stairwell, open to the elements – but moving in astral gave her unparalleled mobility. With a blink of motion, she moved, covering the hundreds of metres from one brigade area to the next and then looking down to survey the area. It was all quiet, and she couldn’t see anything moving across the landscape. In the edge of her vision she saw Aswon and Shimazu heading across to join her, sprinting across the snowy vista.

To the north west, Hunter suddenly and unexpectedly tapped out of the hold that the trooper was practicing.

“Sorry, mission call. I have to go.” He turned on his heel and jogged out of the barn, threading his way between the benches and equipment, then breaking into a run of his own as he headed down towards the barracks area.

Over to the north east, Marius and Nadia heard the call also, and slid down the fuselage to the ground.

“Keep working on the main engine shaft, it’s nearly out. We’ll be back soon!” Marius called to the two surprised technicians, then broke into a run to try and catch up with Nadia who had shot off along the path. As he ran behind her, his eyes looked over her and noticed a strange bump under her back, bought into highlight whenever her arms pumped. His eyes widened and with a mental command he changed frequency to the one he used to communicate just with Hunter.

“Hunter, this is Marius. Just to make you aware, we’re running down your way from the graveyard – and it looks like Nadia has her sub-machine gun strapped to her back. Keep your eyes open.”

“Oh shit.”

“Yeah,” Marius was glad of his router and advanced comms equipment – he wasn’t sure he had the spare air to actually speak those words at the moment, but he concentrated on what Aswon had taught him that morning and it seemed to help a little.

Tads swooped down from her high perch, and started to go through the building. She dived in through the roof into the corner of the barracks and looked around the top floor – it was barren and empty of life. She surveyed it for a moment, then dropped down a floor and repeated her slow and deliberate examination. Still nothing. Down one more floor – then she spied a target. A man, crouched over by a bed and fiddling with something. She flew over to the other side of the room and examined him, being careful to keep a few metres away from him. His aura was a bright swirling mass of colours with dark spots radiating out from him in angry flickers. He had some kind of device by his feet, a grey box that he kept reaching into.

Aswon slowed as they ran across the quad, watching as Shimazu continued to accelerate to his top speed. He seemed intent on reaching the building with the same speed as a cannon-ball, but something told Aswon to slow down and think. He dropped to a walk and looked around him, and spied a platoon of bedraggled and miserable looking troops as the turned the corner of the admin buildings, walking 2 abreast and heading towards the barracks block. 

Shimazu reached the building and charged up the stairs, taking them two at a time and reaching the top floor in record time. He barged through the door, sword in one hand and taser in the other, ready to unload on anything and anyone in his way – but saw nothing. 

Tads saw Hunter approaching from the other side at speed, Shimazu entering the stairwell and leaving her line of sight and Aswon slowing as he approached from his side, and then flitted back to her body. She dived in, and as soon as she had control over her physical form, keyed up the microphone.

“Alpha building, one life sign on the first floor. Repeat one life sign, in Platoon one. Be careful Shimazu, he has some kind of box or device or something in front of him and he’s reaching in and out of it!” With her message relayed, she leapt out of her body once more, vaulting skyward and back over to the scene.

Shimazu spun on his heel and pounded down the stairs, dropping the two flights in a matter of seconds and then throwing the door wide and charging in, at reckless speed. If the opponent was ready for him, it could go badly – but it might also give him the edge to get in before they had a chance to react.

Private 3rd class Kazimir Kulikov jumped in surprise as Shimazu threw open the door and entered the barracks with weapons drawn. His knee hit the bowl of water in front of him and soapy suds sloshed sideways suddenly, spilling onto the floor. The toothbrush he’d been using to the scrub the bedframe clean with dropped from his fingers as he turned to face the Chinese man that had burst in.

Shimazu barked out a command in Russian – “Stop what you’re doing, drop any weapons and turn around slowly.” At least that’s what he meant to say. Unfortunately, he did what the rest of the team now called ‘doing a Kai’. 

“You will end! My weapons will twist your body in half!” he half-yelled, half-screamed at the Russian trooper. He watched in astral space, and saw the flicker of anger, fear and adrenaline spike through his body. 

Kazimir slid over to one side towards his locker and pulled it open, grabbing his bayonet from within and then holding it out towards the brutal-looking thug that had threatened to kill him. He didn’t have the same reach as the nutter with the sword, but he’d had years of bayonet training and was determined to go down swinging.

Shimazu looked at him, his aura now flickering with fear and rage, and realised that whatever this was, it wasn’t who they were looking for. It just felt wrong – the massive wash of shock and surprise that exuded from him was completely wrong for a thief caught in the act. So, he turned on his heel again, and barged back out of the room, and headed up the stairs and aiming towards the roof for a better vantage point.

Hunter sprinted towards the barracks block, the concrete building growing larger and larger as he approached, until he could start to make out details on the shape of Aswon, closing from the other side. Then he slowed, catching his breath and starting a rhythmic scan of the windows on his two sides of the barracks. With his relative position, he could see what Aswon could not, and vice versa – if the thief was somehow lurking in the building, they had them contained, he hoped.

Aswon meanwhile had spotted the platoon closing on their position. It seemed that they were heading directly for the building they were currently investigating – and that simply wouldn’t do. He headed over in that direction, walking sideways so he could maintain a view on the building until he could reach earshot of the platoon.

“Sergeant or Corporal – please stop your platoon. There is an intruder in your barracks block, and we’re waiting for the MPs to arrive and investigate.” He had his finger on the transmit button as he called out, releasing as soon as he was done. He was rewarded a moment later as Kai did the same, keying up the base radio and the teams comms so they could all hear him calling in the alert to the MPs. A sharp barked order called the platoon to a halt, and the NCO approached him. Aswon felt a little sorry for them as he took in their state – they looked to be coming back from the assault course, and looked tired, wet and cold and were now being told to stand in formation in the cold wind. Some days it just sucked to wear a uniform.

“Thank you. I’ve just heard that the MPs are on their way. There’s one subject in the bottom barracks that we want to detain for questioning. But for now the barracks block needs to be treated as a crime scene, and not contaminated.” The NCO nodded, then turned on his heel and headed back to his men and started to bark orders. They responded a little raggedly, obviously tired and somewhat dulled from their dip in freezing water, but their two abreast line split down the middle, flattening out in the direction from which they had come. Once they’d formed a somewhat straight line, they started to spread out, forming a picket line on the north side of the barracks block, each man about two metres from the next. 

Tads had zoomed into the building again, and was working her way down. On each floor she assensed the barracks and the lockers, carefully peering around for a spell signature or trace, something to work on. As she checked over the middle floor, she picked up a faint ‘whiff’ of magic that made her stop and backtrack, then carefully examine the area again.

Focussing her attention carefully she picked up a trace of a weak magical affect. She turned over the ‘feel’ and ‘flavour’ in her mind, examining it and establishing the subtle nuances, locking in the signature into her brain. During her examination she tried to quantify what the spell was – but it was not one she had encountered before. She was fairly sure it was some kind of telekinetic manipulation – magic that changed the physical environment in some way. She continued to study it, hoping to glean more information. With a sudden thought, she called her spirit to her, asking it to look for wielders of magic or power in the nearby area – that was not her team or the Brigadier. The spirit nodded in agreement and then disappeared from view.

Shimazu had made it to the roof, and checked around to ensure that there was nobody up here hiding. Satisfied that he wasn’t about to be ambushed, he carefully moved up the steep slope and clambered over the ridge, peering around the barracks block. There was a dead area immediately around him where the edge of the building blocked his view, but otherwise he had a commanding position. 

Marius and Nadia emerged from the tree cover and the path leading from the graveyard, and took in the scene before them. In the distance they could see the line of troops forming a picket, and the first of the red caps emerging from the HQ building racing down towards the barracks. A chunky but indistinct figure on the roof could be seen, sword in one hand. The even chunkier shape of Hunter was on the far side of the building, and the towering form of Aswon on the near side. He knew Kai was in the truck on the cameras, so that left only Tads unaccounted for – he figured she was flying around the place invisible.

He concentrated and bought up an internal menu, selecting an option and his vision suddenly swam and distorted. His cybereye beamed out a series of ultrasonic pings, painting the landscape around him and sensitive detectors fed back the echos to create a wireframe map of the surrounding area. With Nadia at his side, he started to walk from north to south, down the treeline, casting his head back and forth as he did so. It was a trick he’d heard about from another pilot back when he was flying for Sader Krupp – good for detecting mages and creatures that had used magic to render themselves invisible. While they could bend light around them all they liked, or the adaptive colouration of a creature might make them almost impossible to spot, very few creatures or spells seemed to have any defence against echo-location. It was short range of course, and subject to noise – but he figured that if any potential thief was lurking around under some kind of invisibility cloak, this was his best chance of finding them.

Returning from the vehicle pool, the air corp, the small marine dock or the rifle range, more platoons appeared around corners or along paths, heading for their barracks and then stopping in confusion as they saw sword armed men on the roof, civilians standing with tasers drawn or staffs extended, and other platoons forming picket lines. For a few minutes the scene teetered on the edge of chaos as more and more men poured into the area in small isolated platoons with no idea what was going on.

“Ok guys, do I need to make the Sputnik call? Someone talk to me?” Kai kept his eyes on the cameras, just in case, but had his hand over his earbud, making sure he heard every sound transmitted.

“I think we’re good. Save it – honestly, it’s confusing out here, but nobody is shooting or looking like they’re about to. I think it’s probably on any officers minds already and they’re trying to work out what’s going on. Just everyone, be cool. Lower your weapons, but keep them to hand.” Aswon’s voice sounded calm and business like, and he led by example, lowering his spear to his foot and leaning on it, making it clear he wasn’t threatening anyone.

The red-capped MPs that had run out from the HQ building, started to reach the platoons, passing information to the NCOs, and one after another they, too, shook out into a line abreast formation, slowly forming a larger and larger picket line around the barracks blocks, closing off access to the forest and major paths out. 

Through it all they could hear Kai on the radio to the MP, dual-transmitting to keep the team up to date.

“We have detected a magical breach on one of the barracks. We suspect an agent has committed another theft. We believe that magic was used in the 2nd platoon barracks. We have no sighting of the thief, and have no idea what they look like. Our team has spread out around the building to try and sight, capture and detain the thief. The thief may be impersonating a trooper or using a disguise, but our team are armed only with non-lethal weapons, and we intend only to stun and capture any opponent.”

The door burst open and a man emerged, flak jacket half on and with his spare uniform top wrapped around one arm like a buckler. In his other hand he held the bayonet, blade glistening and gleaming with the last rays of sunlight. He looked around with a crazed expression, clearly looking for some kind of foe, his eyes skipping from one person to another. 

Aswon looked at him, focussing all of his will and mental discipline and trying to penetrate to the core of his being. He felt a moment of clarity, and saw the astral form of the confused man, saw deep into his soul – and saw just a man. Not a mage, not a shaman. Not anyone with protective magic wrapped around them – just a scared man who didn’t understand what the hell had just happened, or quite why some huge Chinese guy had threatened to unscrew his spine before running off and disappearing. A man who was quite clearly as mundane as they came, with not a single shred of magical power in his being.

They heard the slightly weird echo as Kai keyed up the team comms to relay a received message from the short range radio issued by the base.

“Ok, Kai. Just what the hell is going on?”

The team looked around at each other and the hundreds of Russian troops now forming an uncertain picket line around the barracks.

They all wished they knew.


	99. 099 - Samara Base Part V

Date Thursday 11/03/2060, Location 53.38042, 50.27575

There was a moment of quiet, then they heard Kai start to explain.

“Ok, we’ve a bit of a situation here. We have definitely detected a magical intruder in the base, and we’ve deployed to try and detain them to determine what the threat is. We’ve got the target building under surveillance, but we have no sight of them yet. They’re likely to be extremely dangerous though! At the moment, we have the building sort of surrounded, and the troops have been shaken down into a long drag line forming an outer perimeter. By the way, excellent response to an unusual situation - it speaks volumes to your training and control. Let me tell you what I know while the rest of the team continue to search…” They heard the voice cut off, as Kai shifted to the other frequency and placated the powers that be, leaving them to get on with the mission at hand.

“Aswon, its Tads. I’ve just shifted back to my body, I’m lying on the top of the stairs outside the barracks we were warding. I’m just about to head back for surveillance. But can you get my body bought over somewhere closer please? I don’t want it to freeze outside, and I don’t want it to get possessed either – if there IS an enemy mage around, I don’t want it stealing my body and running off with it.”

“I’ll get it done now.” Aswon turned towards the platoon closest to him, and called out to the NCO in charge.

“I have to go move the body of our wise woman. Watch the building, carefully. Look for shimmers in the air, or distortions, anything that seems out of place. If you see something, raise the alarm, with the others and they will engage it. Especially him, on the roof.” Aswon gestured up at the form of Shimazu standing on the roof with his sword held high and ready while he scanned the ground around him. Without waiting for a response or argument, he turned and sprinted off, heading towards Tads.

He found her body and slung it carefully over his shoulder, then descended the stairs slowly, balancing the comatose form of the shaman, who was surprisingly stocky it seemed. Still, she was manageable, and he headed towards the nearest completed building, pushing through the warded door and finding a comfy place to lay her down. With her body behind the ward, it should slow down anything getting to her and provide a modicum of protection – but she would be able to reach it just as easily.

Aswon went to activate the radio, to call Tads and advise of where the body was, but then stopped halfway, shaking his head in amusement at himself. Of course he couldn’t contact her – the radio earbud was in her physical ear, but her spirit was elsewhere and couldn’t hear it. He’d have to hope she drifted near him sometime soon so he could let her know.

Tads had returned to her position, high above the snowy landscape and was carefully watching the scene below. In her astral sight, the buildings were almost featureless grey blobs of man-made material, lifeless and dull. The team glowed with various levels of brightness, from the shining beacons of Aswon and Shimazu to the dull flickering embers of Marius and Hunter, their cyberware disrupting their essence and shielding their life-force. Around the perimeter she saw the waiting troops, their astral forms shimmering with radiated emotions; confusion, concern, fear, wonder, curiosity and determination, along with a whole host of others that varied from troop to troop. But they were spread out in a loose net around the barracks area, and hundreds of pairs of eyes scanned the area. 

She examined them and smiled. If there was a mage under some kind of invisibility spell, then they would be taking a chance trying to get through them. Each additional watcher improved the odds that someone would get lucky and penetrate the spell, notice something that was off or unusual. Certainly she wouldn’t want to risk such a move – which potentially meant that the intruder was still trapped inside the barracks block.

In the truck, Kai spoke to Vostok over the radio, filling in the MP on the procedure to use. Unknowingly, he duplicated Aswon’s explanation almost word for word – describing how a concealed target might appear, or to look for footprints with no source, branches pushed out of the way with no wind to explain it. While he spoke, his eyes flicked from one set of cameras to another in a cyclic pattern, checking for any other disturbances. The last thing he wanted was for one of the other lockers to be raided during the confusion!

Aswon returned to his position, checking in with the NCO and seeing the shake of his head. Looking past him, he could spot a couple of the red-bereted MPs walking towards him, including one talking on a radio. As the part approached, Aswon heard Kai’s voice coming from the set, and realised this was Vostok.

“Your commander has briefed me on what is going on – what is your next move?”

“Well, we seem to have this somewhat contained at the moment. Our wise woman is keeping watch from above, and we’ll move in and do a careful search of the building to see if we can find the intruder. Can we find out who the radio operator is for this building? Maybe speak to them?”

“Already done – it is Konstantin Mikhailov. I have an MP going to collect him now, and they will bring him here. What do you need from us?” Vostok stood with his hands on his hips, staring directly at Aswon. 

“I think we can stand down the rest of the troops – if we’ve not seen anything by now, we’re probably not going to. And we’ve got this building under observation, so as long as we proceed cautiously, we should be ok.”

Marius and Nadia headed over from the perimeter to join the rest of the team as the MPs passed the word and the troops headed back to their barracks. They could see the animated discussions going on in every squad or platoon – this day had certainly provided plenty of excitement for the base, and it was unlikely to be forgotten quickly. They saw Hunter head off towards one of the other barracks, and Aswon gave him a call.

“Hunter? Where you going?”

“I’ve got a hunch – I’m going to go keep an eye on one of the other lockers, one of the buildings we haven’t warded yet, and don’t have surveillance in. Just something bothering me. I’m listening in though, if something kicks off, I’ll be over quickly.” Aswon shrugged, listened for a moment in case anyone else was going to say anything, and then focussed back on their building. By this point the half-dressed trooper had been taken away by a couple of MPs, who were quietly explaining the translation error to him and prying the bayonet from his clenched grasp, clearing the way for the team to approach the building.

Shimazu climbed down the roof stairs and entered the top floor of the barracks and started to poke around. As he entered the barracks by the wide door leading onto the exterior staircase, he stopped and just looked at the barracks, comparing it to their own.

The room was laid out symmetrically, with ten beds in a line down each wall. The metal framed beds looked old, with thin mattresses and uncomfortable looking blankets made from some synthetic material. Next to each bed was a locker, made from a dull grey plastic compound, a half metre wide and deep and nearly two metres tall, with a large tab sticking out of the right hand side and door for the padlock to go though. Strip lights ran down the length of the roof, set against bare plascrete surfaces with the power cables tacked directly into the grey pitted surface.

The barracks was clean and tidy – all the beds perfectly made and conforming to the ideals of the Red Army’s standards it seemed. The floor was spotless, the walls clear and the beds and lockers were all spaced so evenly that Shimazu couldn’t spot any variance by eye – and presumably neither could any officer coming for an inspection. He spent a minute just looking, his eyes roaming around the room looking for anything out of place, any flicker of movement, shimmer or other unexplained visual artefacts. He dropped into astral and examined the scene for a second time, letting the faint emotions wash over him – a weird mix of anger, frustration, joy and pride. 

“Aswon, I know most of the troops have gone. But can you get any that are left with you, or the MPs, to keep an eye on the air? I’m suspicious about how they managed to get away, and if we’re thinking spell casters, I’m wondering if they’re hiding up on another roof or something?” Aswon acknowledged Kai’s request and passed it onto the MPs, confirming that it was passed around to the troops remaining nearby.

“Right, now we’ve got the sky being watched, can you get Tads back on comms, if you can reach her?” Aswon acknowledged again, then looked around astrally until he could see Tads circling the area a few hundred metres up in the air. He waved at her, his long arms scything through the air until she saw him and swooped down close enough to hear him.

“We’ve got people watching the sky – Kai says can you get back to your body – it’s over in that block by the way, ground floor just inside the door, and give him a shout.” Tads nodded and then just seemed to vanish. Aswon knew she’d just accelerated to her top speed for a second or two, covering hundreds of metres as she did so and felt a brief flash of envy, knowing it was something he could never experience. A few seconds later he heard her croaking over the comms, clearly having found her body propped up against the wall in the barracks block.

“Great, now – Tads. You had a look around, yes? Did you see anything suspicious?”

“Not really, Kai – but it was a fast look, I was trying to cover a lot of ground quickly, and get sight of whatever it was that triggered the ward.”

“When the ward was affected – what can you tell me about that? Were they trying to break it, or just walk through? Or cast a spell through it?”

“Umm… not really. We know the ward was affected by a magical force crossing it. It wasn’t a spell, that wouldn’t trigger it like this. So it was a creature of some kind, trying to get through the ward with a magical effect. But we can’t tell if it was going in, or coming out – it doesn’t work like that. We just know it was broken.” Aswon spied Tads walking around the corner of the barracks and heading over their way, talking into her commlink as she did so. His attention was drawn to more movement, as an MP appeared with a cold-looking trooper.

The trooper had doffed his jacket and had a blanket wrapped around him, but it was clear that he was still muddy and wet from the assault course. He shivered a little in the cold wind that blew across the barracks area in the gathering dusk, and Aswon motioned him to go stand in the stairwell, in the lee of the outer wall to get out of the wind, while he waited for Tads to catch up.

When she did, they headed up the stairs to the first barracks room, Shimazu dropping down the stairs to meet them. As they entered the barracks, they fanned out and again spent a minute just looking. Aswon, Tads and Shimazu all checked both physically and astrally, looking around the room intensely from their position by the door. The radio operator watched and went to speak, but a touch on the arm from the MP and a shake of the head bade him into silence. 

“Nothing. Exactly the same feel as upstairs in the other barracks, with the exception of the tiny trace of magic on the locker of course. Some kind of transformative magic I think. Very hard to tell though.” Aswon and Tads nodded along with Shimazu’s statement, not noticing the sudden sharp look from Konstantin at the mention of magic on his locker. 

They moved down the barracks, heading for the third bed down on the left hand side, and then turned to face the locker. Shimazu and Tads again looked at the scene astrally, evaluating the locker carefully and looking at the fading wisps of magic that betrayed the casting of a spell some time ago.

“There’s not much there – either it was a fairly low power spell, or the caster spent some time trying to hide the trail. Not much to go on.” Shimazu muttered.

“It’s enough – I’ve got a sense of it now. Enough to lock into the signature. If I see them casting again, whoever it is – I can tie them to this.” Tads relaxed as she finished her intense scrutiny of the locker, the lines on her forehead fading but not disappearing.

“Ok – you guys inside. Can you get this man to check his locker, spot for anything taken, but also see if there’s anything extra. Maybe we’ve been looking at this wrong from the start. What if they’re planting magical trackers in there as well?” They considered this for a moment, then Tads shook her head.

“No Kai – that doesn’t feel right. They’d have to have something magical in there, and we’d spot it quickly. And that would give us something we could track back to them using a ritual of finding. No, I don’t think that makes sense at all.”

“Unless they’re just leaving something personal, and using the same sympathetic linking to track the other way. Either way, I need everyone out of the building for a minute. Oh, and I need your code for your lock.” Aswon turned towards the radio operator, who had been listening to the conversation and was clearly trying to work out what was going on.

“You want my code? To get into my locker? I can enter it for you, but I want to see what you are doing with my things!” He started to step forwards but then froze as Aswon moved with snake-like speed, his hand grasping Konstantin’s wrist and gripping tightly – the blackness of his skin contrasting with the pale flesh of the Russian. The trooper started to pull away angrily, and the MP shifted, his hand dropping towards his holster.

“No – I need to check your locker for bombs, explosive devices, toxins or other little gifts that our intruders might have left for you. We know they are in some way magically active, and we suspect that they may be using some kind of spell to melt through your locker wall to get inside without using the lock at all. I’d hate to find out that they’ve left a hand grenade leaning against the door for instance.”

Everyone froze for a moment as Aswon calmly laid out a number of explosive and unwelcome futures for them, and the trooper relaxed and nodded, pulling his hand back slowly.

“I will swipe my fingerprint for the first part of the lock then, and then go stand in the corner, and call out my code.” The MP shrugged, but nodded and turned to leave, moving to the door and holding it open for Tads and Shimazu, then following them out.

Aswon spent a minute examining the locker carefully, looking for any tell-tale wires or reed switches, sticky pads or any of the other more inventive ways of booby-trapping an item. Thinking back to how Marius had set up the cameras, he paid close attention to the tight fitting seam on the door by the hinges. Despite a thorough look, he couldn’t see anything at all so he waved Konstantin forwards to swipe his finger over the sensor. 

The light flashed green as he moved his finger over the reader, then he rapidly moved away, heading towards the other end of the barracks.

“Five-one-eight-five-three” he called, as he crouched down at the far end of the room, using the bed frame as cover. Aswon entered the code and saw the second light go green as the lock popped open, then slowly and carefully he extracted the lock from the housing. For a moment he just waited, standing by the side of the locker with his reflexes straining and ready to thrown him to the side at a moment’s notice. But nothing happened. He eased forward and moved the door a millimetre, checking carefully, then another, then another. After thirty seconds of slow careful moment, he pulled the door open fully, his eyes scanning intently, before letting out a whoosh of air. 

“All clear. Ok, I’m not touching anything. Can you come and look and see if anything is amiss? But try to look only – not to touch. TADS! SHIMAZU! LOOKS CLEAR!” The door pushed open again, and the others came back in, looking around as they did so. Konstantin came and peered into his locker and then muttered under his breath, an unhappy look forming on his face.

“My Bible. I think my Bible has gone.” Before Aswon could respond, Tads interrupted.

“That’s odd. No spell residue inside. No trace of the spell that we detected. So whatever was cast was definitely cast on the locker itself. Now, tell us about the thing that’s gone missing please?”

They listened while Konstantin described his Bible. It wasn’t a traditional book, hundreds of pages thick and bound, but more of a pamphlet the way he described it, and no thicker than an exercise book. From his gesticulations it was around 15 by 20cm in size, thin enough to slide into a pocket and carry with you, but with every page covered in densely packed text in a very small font. It had been a gift from his grandmother, and had been with him for years.

The team exchanged glances – clearly another theft of an item with little monetary value or use, but of an intensely personal significance. Before they got to speak though, Kai called them over the commlink, having been listening in on the conversation.

“Tads – can you see if you can get a mindlink with this guy, and get a good mental picture of exactly what this looks like. That way you can get your spirit to search the base for it, yes? And see if it’s still here?” She didn’t bother answering him, instead turning to the trooper and smiling gently as she motioned for him to sit on the bed, while she sat opposite him.

“Konstantin, is it? We’re very sorry your book has been taken, and we’d like to get it back for you. But to do that, we need your help. If you’re willing to help us that is?” She saw him nod, then continued before he could say anything. “Well, I’m a shaman, and I know that sometimes people from other religions don’t view us well, but really we’re nice people. We just want to help. So what I want to do is cast a spell, that will let me see what your book looks like, from your thoughts. I can’t see anything you don’t want to show me, but if we know exactly what it looks like, it will help us find it. And hopefully quickly, before it gets taken away. Are you happy for me to do that?” She paused, and held her breath, wondering if his religious views would stymie her like it had in the infirmary. 

“Of course – we’re all different, and know God in different ways. But if this will help me get my Bible back, then go ahead.” Tads didn’t pause or wait for any further explanation, summoning the mana and forming it into the spell, linking their minds together.

“Great, ok, now think of the book. Think about taking it out of the locker and opening it. A beige or orange tint to it, a cover, sort of cardboard like, but it bends and flexes. Inside there is text printed on the inside cover, in Russian. Ahh, an address of the printers, and a number of the printing, and saying who did the translation. What is that – on the top right, written in ink? Remember that and think about it please. To my grandson, with love. Remember our teachings, and always do the right thing.” Her voice choked a little as the wave of emotion hit her as Konstantin thought about his grandmother and a whole jumble of memories battered at her through the link, then turned to despair and sadness as she watched through his eyes as the cheap cardboard casket disappeared through the curtains into the crematorium.

She took a moment, then guided him to think about the next page, and worked through a few more, getting a sense of the layout and how the tiny text looked on the page. She dropped the spell and sat back, considering as she looked at the trooper.

“Thank you, that will be an enormous help. I know how important this is to you, and we’ll do everything we can to get this back to you.“ She moved around to the other side of the bed, facing away from them to give her a moment to think. Behind her, Aswon and Shimazu got Konstanin to do a physical check of the locker, confirming that nothing else had been taken, and nothing else had been left. They queried with Konstantin on the layout, learning that just like the approved method of bed-making, that the lockers had a specific layout – dress uniform at this end, combat uniforms at this end, PT kit folded and stored here, towel and wash-kit there. It confirmed that there was only a small shelf area for “personal items” and matched their descriptions and experience so far – but that also meant that anyone who got into a locker would know exactly where to look to find the things they were looking for.

Tads concentrated and drew in mana again, shaping another spell. She felt her senses expand around her, stretching out metres in each direction in a sphere and a pool of data bombarded her. She suddenly knew that there were 89 blankets and bed sheets, but 90 pillows in this barracks block, and knew that room D on the ground floor had the extra pillow – why she couldn’t say, but it was there. There were also eight bibles in the block, but they were all traditional in form, not like the travel version she had seen in the mindlink. She concentrated, trying not to count lightbulbs, boots and the assortment of sundry items, focussing her catalogue spell and pushed herself to her feet.

“Going looking for this book. Will be wandering around each of the barracks. I can probably cover each one by doing a quick tour of the outside.” With that, she wandered over to the door, concentrating on keeping the spell focussed and controlled, and headed down the stairs.

Aswon and Shimazu took a few pictures of the locker, just for the record, then told the MP that they’d done all they could and from their point of view they could let the troops back in – unless the MPs had any forensic kit they wanted to use. From the snort on his face, it was clear that fancy kit like that was well beyond their means. With one last look around the room, they headed outside and down the stairs, heading back towards the building they had been warding.

“So, guys. If they do steal these things, they can do rituals to try and track the guys, which would be useful in their own right, but also cast spells on them. So how do we stop that?” They could hear the sound of the kettle in the background as Kai got himself a brew together.

“We’ve got a number of things we can do. First, would be to find out what vehicles they are going to the front in, and make sure that the vehicles that each companies radio operator is in is warded as best we can. Second, we could find one of the vehicles if materials are tight, and ward that as best as we can, then get them to go in and out a couple of times a day.”

“But surely they can be affected the rest of the time?”

“It’s… it’s a little hard to explain. Um.” Aswon lapsed into silence for a moment. “Ok, let me explain it from our point of view, and see if this makes sense. Say we wanted to find someone – I don’t know – imagine that Marius had been kidnapped, and we were trying to find him. So we get a bunch of mages or shaman together, to do a ritual finding. We know what he looks like, and have a good magical image of him, but we don’t know where he is. Ok?” There was a snort of disdain over the radio, that sounded somehow offended that he could be taken hostage so easily, which Aswon ignored.

“Now, we know he was only kidnapped a few minutes ago, so he’s got to be somewhere nearby – that limits the focus of the search. But it’s not like we’re actually searching and looking, it’s more abstract than that. Like I said, it’s a bit weird. But that’s like trying to throw a spear and hit an elephant, it’s pretty easy. If it was a few hours since the kidnap, then it’s like trying to hit a hyena – much harder, much smaller target. And if it was days since we had seen him and he could be anywhere in the world, it would be like trying to hit a fly with a spear. I mean, you might get lucky, but it’s difficult. Very difficult. So you get a big group of mages to help and pour power in, and that’s like a whole tribe throwing spears at the hyena, or the fly. You’re much more likely to hit. Make sense?”

“Go on…” Kai smiled as he poured milk into his tea, thinking about Aswon’s choice of analogy. You can take the man out of Africa, but apparently…

“So, putting the target on the other side of a ward is like trying to hit them with a spear through undergrowth or trees. Stuff gets in the way, and it makes it harder. Now this is where it sorts of breaks down a bit, and doesn’t make sense. Because the ritual takes hours, if the target goes in or out of the ward at any time, then it becomes more difficult for all of the time. You’re just less likely to succeed at all.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s how magic works. Maybe there’s a reason, but you need to find some great shaman or university mage to explain it to you. I just know it does. Ok?”

“Well. Ok, I guess. If that’s how it is. So go on…” Kai sounded somewhat dubious.

“So if they travel for three hours say by their trucks, but then all the radio operators go in and out of one truck that has a really strong ward on it, then it makes any ritual, cast on any of them massively more difficult. Whether the team doing the finding were one minute into the ritual, or one minute left on their ritual – the whole thing suddenly becomes as hard as hitting a fly with a spear. So if they can do it every couple of hours, it will completely disrupt any ritual aimed at them. That’s what Tads is doing by going in and out of her lodge so frequently. The Iranians, if it is them, will suddenly lose their ability to find her or cast a spell at her, and throw them off their game.”

“Ahh, right. Ok. So it’s more difficult – much more difficult – but not impossible?”

“No. Not impossible. If someone wants you found and they’re willing to throw money at the problem, or resources, you’ll be found. Sooner or later. It just matters how important you are to them.” They chatted for a while longer, with Aswon explaining about how they could also change security cyphers, rotating through codes and sequences on a more regular basis, so that if one of the radio operators was compromised, then the effects would be shorter lived before the codes changed again – assuming they were detected.

“So, I guess they’re starting this now so they get advance notice of when the troops are moving to deploy? I mean, I guess the radio guys will know first, right?”

“No – they’ll find out the same as the other troops.” The English accent was a giveaway, and Aswon held his peace to let Hunter speak. “The Brigadier’s comms team will find out first, probably via a land line warning order. That’s going to be delivered via fibre optic relays on a permanent base like this, and they’re next to impossible to intercept. The comms team will pass that to Zarkorov as the ops officer, who briefs the Brigadier. From there, the warning order will probably go down to the major or captains in charge of the stores and motor pools first, to get them spun up and ready for the move. Then it’ll be a whole bunch of logistics work needed to get fuel, supplies, materials, ammo, water – all those things, sorted out. There’s a massive amount of work to do to get a couple of thousand men moving and supplied for combat.”

“After that, there’ll be warning orders cut to the Majors and Captains for the actual Brigade. They’ll get their ops teams involved and start planning, working out routes, stopping points and things like that. Once they’re done, then it’ll filter down to Lieutenants, then finally down to the actual NCOs and platoons to get themselves in gear. So the radio operators will be about the last to know – though anyone watching activity on the base will know and there’ll be rumours. They’ll know they’re moving, but not where.”

“Oh.” Kai sounded a little despondent, as his assumptions were knocked over like a house of cards.

“But that does tell us something. Or actually a really important thing. If they wanted to compromise when and where they were going to – then they’d be targeting the base staff and the headquarters troop comms technicians and command staff. Now sure, that’s possibly a bit riskier – but for how well they’ve done so far, probably worth the attempt. But they haven’t done that. They’re going after the unit radio operators, and that means that they’re after operational intelligence and intend to compromise them once they are deployed. They want to find them when they’re out there, and do something about it. So that means it’s only going to really matter when they get to wherever they end up going.” They could hear the sounds of the wind from his microphone, and it was clear that he’d left whatever building he’d been investigating. It went quiet for a moment, then they heard the wind noise again – but it wasn’t Hunter again, it was Tads.

“Just as a thought – if they’re doing training, then they don’t need their radio net really, do they? How about if we moved all the radio operators into the infirmary for a few weeks? Once we’ve warded that, if they’re going in and out, it would disrupt any ritual on them, like Aswon said earlier?”

“Or how about if we went around to all the radio operators and got their personal gear, locked them in a box and put them in our truck? Then we take away the source of all the possible links?” Hunter queried. This sparked a fresh conversation, where they tried to work out if they could persuade people to give up their treasured possessions – the consensus being that if the order came down from the Brigadier, they probably would, but it would almost certainly cause some resentment.

“What are you doing Hunter, anyway?”

“I’m checking out the buildings. I’ve been looking at the buildings that have been targeted, trying to work out the pattern. Up until today, they’ve all been on the eastern side of the base, close to the forest. I’m wondering if there’s an observation point where someone could be watching to see when the barracks are emptying, or to count people out – which might lead us to some intel.”

“Hey Aswon – if they broke the ward on the way in, we’d surely have caught them. So that means they broke it on the way out – so why?”

“Maybe they got unlucky. Or made a mistake – maybe it was the remains of whatever spell they had cast that triggered it. Or maybe they were sending a message.”

“They’d have to be fairly confident to send a message,” Shimazu interjected, “because that implies that they’ve seen what we’re doing and we don’t worry them. Unless they were probing to see what our response was like. And personally – given how quickly Tads was on scene, then joined by the rest of us, and how quickly we ended up with a large perimeter watching them, I’d feel quite intimidated if it was me doing the job.”

“Could it be an inside job, then – and we’re forcing the pace because of what we’re doing? And they’re trying to throw us off by causing chaos on the base with the troops.”

“I don’t know, Hunter – sure, if it was an inside job then they’d probably pick up on the rumour mill. But if they’re operating solo, it’s a gutsy call to make. And if there’s a whole team, the Brigadier has got some pretty big problems to worry about.” Kai sounded a little distant, as if he was trying to work out which was more likely. “Say – could we plant items in the lockers for them to steal? Fake personal things? Things that we could track ourselves?”

“No Kai – sorry. But they’re looking at these items, and working out they have an emotional attachments – they’re not going to pick up a fake. And we don’t have the means to do our own ritual of finding.” They could hear the regret in Aswon’s voice as he shot down the plan.

“On the other hand, though,” Tads interjected, “we know that they definitely can cast spells of some kind – at least some transformation magic, but they also have full astral sight and can read auras well. All of which points to a strongly magical intruder. Unless they’re really good as masking, sooner or later we’d scan them if they’re on the base, and that covers the inside job side of things – or we’ll spot them doing a raid. It’s just a matter of making sure we keep our eyes open.”

Hunter listened with half an ear as Tads, Aswon and Kai discussed magic – specifically transformation magic. Apparently there were dozens if not more of different spells that were known about, things that changed temperature or caused something to freeze or ignite. Tads identified that her spell that created food was of this type, as was the spell used by the golem recovery team when they coated the windscreen of the truck with glue. Tads started to discuss theoretical stuff about spell design that sounded like woolly mumbo jumbo mostly, so he started to tune out – especially as he’d reached his destination.

In the 4th Battalion area, two of the barracks had been hit, and two hadn’t. He was in the Bravo Company building, down on the ground floor. The officers’ quarters were through the door ahead of him, which meant the main communal toilet and shower area should be off to the sides. Well, there was something to be said for the Russian mania for building everything to the same template – the conditions were the same everywhere and it made things easy to predict.

Wandering into the showers, he examined the tiled room carefully, noting the size and spacing of the drains. He ran the cold water for a few minutes and watched as it pooled and then drained away slowly as he shut off the taps, indicating that the drain pipe was pretty small. The toilets had a wide bore pipe, but that wasn’t much better and with the tightness of the turns he doubted that much above the size of a snake would be able to make it though.

Next he went outside, and stood with his hands on his hips, ignoring the cold wind that plucked and tugged at his jacket, as he considered sight lines. He wandered back and forth in the gathering gloom, trying to work out what was bugging him. As he did so, he found a spot where he could see most of the barracks, now lit up against the gathering night with pools of yellow spilling out of the tiny high set windows into the night. He turned on the spot, and looked at the forest, taking in the dark mass of trees that reared up before him.

Loosening his pistol in the holster, he strode over to the edge of the woodland and worked his way through the undergrowth, kicking at the brambles and dense weeds that grew just outside the cleared area, and soon reached the bottom of a huge conifer. Standing at the bottom, the wind had dropped to nothing and the forest was quiet. His feet sank into the dense carpet of dried pine needles, year upon year of shedding and falling laid over one another forming a spongy surface that absorbed noise. No snow had managed to make it through the multiple layers of branches above, and the ground was a multi-hued brown of decaying matter and loam.

He looked up at the dried and sparse branches directly above him, brown and spindly and starved of nutrients as the tree directed more of its energy higher up where it would receive more sunlight. He could do this… he grasped the trunk and started to climb, his large and powerful hands grabbing the trunk firmly and his heavy combat boots being stiff enough to wedge into the knots and junctions of the branches. He had to be careful, as many of the branches were too slender for his full weight, but by keeping three points of contact he climbed the tree as if it was a ladder, ascending higher and higher until he found a decent perch. Leaning back to peer over his shoulder, he looked down upon the base and the barracks, and the view was far better than at ground level. From here he could see many of barracks blocks and their exits, and it would make a great observation point.

He spun around again, and as he did so, movement caught his eye. The moon was just starting to rise, and was visible through the clouds, and he saw an owl flying over the trees, soaring silently on outstretched wings. It must be close he thought – then watched as it flew behind a treetop that just looked wrong somehow. He lifted a finger and the inbuilt laser rangefinder fired off, returning a value to his retinal display a split second later. Three hundred and twenty seven metres. But if the tree was 327 metres away, and the owl had flown behind it – he shouldn’t have been able to see the owl – unless the owl was huge. Like, really huge.

“Team, I’m on the eastern edge of the base, up a tree. I’m looking east, bearing 094 mark 12. I’ve just spotted an owl, has to be some kind of paracritter – its ruddy enormous. It flew behind a tree that was a third of a click away, and I could see it clearly, so by my estimates it has to be the best part of seven to eight metres wingspan.”

“I’m going to check it out!” Tads stopped sustaining her spell and turned towards the MP that had been silently accompanying her as she wandered around the base. “Sorry, I have to go, we may have found the magical intruder. I’ll be back to my body as soon as I can!” With that, she sat down and leant back against the wall, then her spirit leapt out of her physical form into the night air. She saw the look of confusion on his face as she whipped past the MP – oh well, nothing to do about that now. Hopefully he’d not move her too far or do anything rash.

She turned and oriented herself to the east. She had no idea about the precise bearing that Hunter had given, but he’d said about a third of a kilometre, roughly…thaddaway. The world blurred as she accelerated to speed, and then swam back into focus about one tenth of a second later. She looked around, and saw the owl swooping low, not that far away from her. She was behind it, and moved to follow, travelling at her normal speed now, sending her astral form gently gliding down behind it. She was dead behind the huge feathered body, and was pretty sure she couldn’t be seen at all, and watched as it twisted its wings and started to gently flap as it flared to come in for a landing on an exposed branch, landing in a break in the canopy caused by the clearing below.

She adjusted her position slightly, moving to remain behind it and continued to approach, closing the distance so she could examine it as closely as possible. It still faced away from her, giving no sign of being aware of her in any way. When she was just a few metres away, she stopped, ready to fly off at a moment’s notice – then slowly extended her senses to try and determine what it was. She blinked in surprise as she evaluated it – it wasn’t a paracritter at all – it was a shapeshifter. Something able to take human form. Or a human able to take owl form, it was hard to tell really. But it was definitely sentient and likely to be quite powerful. 

She was focussed on the owl – too focussed. She never saw it coming at all. Talons raked her back, and she screamed in pain, twisting as she did so. A mass of black feathers smothered her face, sharp talons clawing at her and a savage beak tearing at her astral form. It was either some form of awakened bird, a paracritter, or possibly another shapeshifter – not that it really mattered now. She fended off the wing buffets and claws, focussing her magic to duck and dodge, dip and dive as they engaged in a swirling 3d melee. She beat at it, trying to disengage while it continued to harass her, and again a moment too late realised what it had done.

The massive talons of the owl slammed into her on her unengaged side. Vicious claws twenty centimetres long ripped at her, opening up huge wounds in her back and side and she staggered through the air from the impact. Distracted by the bird, the owl had had time to take off and fly up in an arc, placing his attack carefully.

Tads made a judgement call – there was no way she could stay here and engage these two creatures, not at two-to-one odds. Especially not as she’d been savagely wounded already – she could feel the pain coursing through her brain, her reactions slowing. But there was something she could do…

She manifested, appearing in the material world as a ghostly figure. To an observer, where before there had been two massive birds swooping and clawing at nothing, now they would see the fight for what it was. But now she was manifested, she was also present in a way that means she could interact with the physical world – she could be seen and heard. She let out a scream of pain, air projecting from her lungs as powerfully as she could, and she surged upwards, accelerating as best she could. Her astral form rocketed upwards, and a moment later she was nearly ten kilometres above the fight.

Far below her, the two birds circled, and the owl banked sharply, its face looking upwards at the tiny astral speck far above it. But it could see her – and that was all it needed. Gathering mana to it and shaping it with its rage, it flung the magical attack upwards.

The spell erupted around her – not travelling through the intervening space at all, just being cast there, and arriving here. The roiling ball of mana battered at her, trying to stun her insensible so she would plummet down to earth. But this was her kind of fight. Her magical shields were raised, guarding her against spells cast directly against her and she felt the magic slide around her, over her, past her… but not into her. She felt the vitriol and hatred focussed into the spell, the intent to cause her death – but she also realised that the spell was comparatively low in force. Certainly the spell she used to take out the mafia back at the ranch had more mojo in it.

In the tree, Hunter suddenly cocked his head as the distant scream reached him.

“CONTACT!!!”

A moment later Kai called over the radio, his voice stressed.

“We have a problem. An MP has just called in an alert – he’s with Tads and apparently her body has just been ripped open and there’s blood everywhere. He’s called for a medic team, but he’s saying that she’s dying.”

The team sprang into action.


	100. 100 - Samara Base Part VI

Date Thursday 11/03/2060, Location 53.38042, 50.27575

The MP stared down in horror at the body of the strange witch. She’d said she was going off to do something, then had just sat down in the snow and slush at the side of the building and become comatose. He was supposed to be keeping an eye on her, but had no idea how long she was going to stay there, or quite what she was doing. He’d watched for perhaps twenty seconds, and was just leaning forwards to shake her by the shoulder, when she’d lurched suddenly and arched her back, her lips pulling back to reveal a grimace.

He pulled out his service pistol in one hand and grabbed the radio in the other – he wasn’t sure what to do with this, he normally dealt with petty thefts, fights and troopers going AWOL. As he looked down and considered, blood erupted from the woman’s mouth, a torrent of crimson spilling down her front like a waterfall of pain. A high pitched keening noise emerged from her body, a lonely sound of pain, tinged with a little fear. He pressed the button and radioed in.

“Vostok! I am with the woman, she was walking around the buildings, but then said she had to go look for a magical threat and sat down. Now her face is bleeding – lots! She is dying! I need a medic unit immediately to building 47, south side.”

“Acknowledged. Keep calm, and maintain her airway. Dispatching the response team now. Backup is on the way, too.” Steadied by the words of his commanding officer, the MP gingerly reached down and pulled the head forwards, making sure the blood didn’t pool in her mouth and block her throat. He watched as steam rose in wisps from the hot blood into the cool night air and looked at her – but for the life of him, he didn’t know what he could do to help. There weren’t even any wounds…

“Kai, I need my rifle – stat. Heading into the woods now to try and reach that scream.” Kai was about to respond when the team’s commlink activated again.

“And my dagger as well, oh and Aswon wants his spear – we’re heading down the treeline now to try and catch up with Hunter and find Tads – she’s got to be somewhere down there.” Kai could hear the sound of pounding feet and the slightly breathy edge to Shimazu’s voice indicated that he was already running. Kai looked around and grabbed the Ares rifle and the two melee weapons, then clambered down the steps from the truck and turned to the east, breaking into a jog with the three weapons clasped to his chest. As he looked across the base, he saw the forest edge in the distance and tried to pick up the pace a little – maybe he should have started to go on the morning runs with the rest, but it was a little late for that now.

“Kai…. You need to warn the medics that she’s magical. Be careful with the drugs and what they do to her – in fact, do the bare minimum to keep her stable until we get there. Or they can mess up her body and she’ll lose talent.” Kai clicked the button on his transmitter twice, then keyed up the MPs radio.

“Sergeant Vostok, please pass on to the medical team….”

Marius dropped the arm full of spare parts on the counter, then pushed them back over towards the storesman with a frown. He’d only just managed to wheedle them all out of him to repair and replace the broken bits in the KA-60.

“Sorry, we have to go. One of our team members is under attack.” He didn’t say anything further, and ignored the query from the storesman, turning swiftly and striding over towards the door with Nadia scurrying along behind him. He opened up the comm link to Hunter, using their private side channel. “Report?”

“Bearing 031 mark 2, range 321.9m, sighting of large para-critter, Tads went to investigate, then a few seconds later there was a scream that only just reached me, from a bearing just under a degree further east. Moving to intercept and assess now.” Marius nodded as Hunter gave the concise brief, striding swiftly towards the woods. He didn’t run – he knew he just wasn’t up for a run like that and he needed to be combat capable at the end of the journey – so he walked. Fast.

In the woodland, Hunter had just dropped the last few metres to the ground, landing on the soft and spongy bed of pine needles, when Tads appeared in front of him. Her form coalesced out of thin air, but he could spot the paleness of her face and the winces of pain easily enough.

“There’s an owl shapeshifter, it’s a spellcaster for sure, and they regenerate. And something else – also magical. I didn’t get a good look at it. I’m going back to keep them spotted.” And with that, she was gone – before Hunter could say anything to her. He adjusted his radio to the team channel instead, and relayed her message to the rest of them.

Kai jogged across the snow covered tarmac, listening as the chatter intensified over the radio, voices becoming clipped and direct with the stress. He reached the decision quickly enough.

“Vostok? This is Kai. We have confirmed enemy activity in the woods, and one of my team is under attack. I have people moving to intercept, but the enemy have magical protection and backup. I request assistance – mortars, infantry, an air strike – whatever you have. All of my team are moving in now, but let us know when we need to duck.”

“Acknowledged, Kai. Higher has been notified and is aware of the situation. Stand by.” Vostoks voice was cool and unruffled, though there were the sounds of more excitable voices in the background. “Response medics are heading for your woman now, and backup is spooling up.”

Marius was nearly to the path leading into the forest when he heard his name yelled. Turning, he saw Anton – the pilot that had flown them to Sochi - waving frantically at him, then making a chopping motion at a nearby chopper. As Marius watched, he headed for the pilot’s door, and made another beckoning motion to them.

“Come on, Nadia!” Now he broke into a run – after all, if he was in the chopper, it didn’t matter how out of breath his body was, his mind would be razor sharp. They raced across the tarmac, skidding and sliding on the ice and slush. Anton had the door propped open and was jacking in, the engine whine rising as he ran through his emergency checklist. Behind, two more choppers were also spooling up, their own pilots following suit. As they got close, Anton leant out of the door and shouted.

“You in the front with me, you in the back, get in the jump seat and strap in tight!” Marius didn’t need to be told twice and circled round the nose of the aircraft, ducking slightly as the rotors started to turn lazily. Nadia climbed into the back, pulling her submachine gun out from under her coat and then fiddling with the restraint harness as she struggled to buckle in.

“May I?” Marius gestured at the co-pilot’s rigger interface jack. Anton stared him in the eye for a split second then deliberately turned away, concentrating on the checklist that was flickering up one of the multi-function displays. Marius understood the unspoken message – he hadn’t said yes, but was “not noticing” officially. He pulled out the fibre optic cable from the concealed reel and jacked in, feeling the real world fade away and his metal and composite body shudder around him as his engine RPMs came up. As he examined the systems, he discovered the weapons systems – the two missile packs on the short stubby wings were disappointingly unloaded – but the nose-mounted minigun was not. He took control of the gun, pitching and yawing it in the mount and checking the diagnostics. The six barrelled rotary gun span up briefly in response to his test commands, and flicked from side to side, sixty degrees left and right of the centre line and with thirty degrees of vertical travel each way. Marius felt a round travelling from the ammo bin into the chamber as he armed the weapon, and the heavy ponderous weight of another 1999 rounds behind it made him mentally smile. Someone was going to get some…

To the south, Aswon and Shimazu started to diverge – Aswon continuing down the tree line, looking for Hunter and the path into the forest. Shimazu meanwhile headed for the buildings, searching around for Tads and the MP that had better be looking after her. Shimazu found his target first – the MP standing with his torch out and waving it in an arc above his head. He pointed mutely to the side of the building, but remained where he was, continuing to flash his light back and forth. Shimazu realised he could hear the sounds of an engine approaching at high speed, and hoped it was backup and not more trouble.

He looked down at Tads and blanched – no wonder the MP had seemed flummoxed. There was a lot of blood here, and Tads was drenched in it – under the faint moonlight she looked ashen and grey. He checked around and as the MP had discovered earlier, found no obvious external wounds and nothing much to treat. A few seconds later, he realised he wasn’t going to get anywhere fast while she was laid out in the darkness of the cold night, lying on blood stained snow. He crouched and lifted her almost effortlessly, her head and limbs flopping down like a rag doll, and blood trickling down her to drip to the snow below.

“You, door. You, medkit. Follow.” His Russian might not be up to much, but it didn’t need to be, and accent or not, his tone of voice told them all they needed to know. He carried her inside and turned right, straight into the shower block. It might not be comfortable, but it had hot, clean, running water and was actually likely to be in a decent state. He set her down and the medics pulled out their large backpack medkits, ripping open the seals on fresh pads and trying to find the source of the blood. “Magic woman, blood from inside. Careful drugs.” Dammit, his Russian wasn’t up to this – but he saw them nod.

One of the medics pulled out a bag and ran an IV line into her – he was about to stop him when he saw the bag was labelled in a bunch of languages and he caught sight of the English – ‘Blood Expander’ Ok, that was cool – that would keep her system going, give her something to work with, but wouldn’t pollute her body. They connected up a second bag and started to squeeze them, forcing the liquid into her body as fast as they dared. One turned on the shower, rinsing away the blood as best he could, and the other pulled open her clothes. Neither of them blinked or missed a beat when her burned and scarred flesh was revealed, concentrating instead on checking for wounds, foreign objects or other pertinent details.

They checked her blood pressure and vitals, and they were still worryingly low – Shimazu couldn’t understand the labels, but could see clearly how bad things were. One of them pulled out a vial of drugs, and pointed at the results of the medkit sensors, and all he could do was close his eyes and nod. Better to be alive with loss, than dead.

As the drugs were pumped into her system, the vitals rose a little, then steadied – and remained steady.

Outside in the darkness, Aswon skidded to a halt and readied his telescopic staff as his senses tingled. He couldn’t see, but he could feel something watching him. He made ready to spring and strike, then relaxed a little as the hulking form of Hunter formed out of the darkness.

“Where’s Kai?”

“Still coming. Not here yet.”

“Dammit – we can’t wait. Let’s go!” Hunter broke into a run, and Aswon was hot on his heels, racing down the winding path into the forest. The faint moonlight lit up the topmost limbs of the trees, but under the canopy it was a dark and confusing nightmare. Trees swaying slightly in the wind gave the darkness shape and movement, making it seem as though enemies lay in wait around every corner. They pushed on, Hunter sticking to the right of the path and Aswon to the left.

“Hunter, these creatures. They’re likely to be magical. If you shoot – no matter how good the shot, be ready. It may still get up!” Hunter snorted in response, but his fingers gripped tighter on the polymer grip of his Ares Predator, his large hands wrapped around the pistol tightly. His cyber-eyes scanned the darkness, overlaying information from different senses over his normal vision, while his estimated distance counter fell rapidly. As they reached a more open part of the forest, his radio squawked in his head.

“Hunter, we’re airborne. If you spot targets, lase them for me, and I will bring the rain.”

“Copy that, Aswon with me, we’re about 100m short of target point, slowing to close.”

The path continued ahead, but the forest on either side of them was less dense than before – not a clearing, but the space between trees was enough that you could no longer touch two trees at once, even with outstretched hands. Above them they could see the high clouds skidding through the air on the stiff breeze, illuminated by the pale moonlight. There was a sudden crash in the forest ahead – the sound of something large and angry. By instinct, they spread out a little further, Hunter moving to the right, while Aswon tracked left.

Marius released the transmit button as the chopper rose swiftly, engines hovering just under the redline. He felt the nose go down and they started to pick up speed – but then they turned east, away from the fight – away from the forest. He sent a query to Anton, and almost instantly the response came back, their two minds almost melding in the machine. ‘More passengers to collect.’

Barely fifteen metres high, the chopper accelerated hard, heading towards the admin building. With a deft touch of the rudder, they swung around, missing the corner of the building by scant metres, and roaring down the front of the large concrete structure. Well, no matter what, none of the officers were sleeping through this noise. Seconds later, the nose rose and Anton dumped the collective, the chopper dropping like a stone towards the ground, and Marius spotted a dozen or so troops racing towards them. Examining them through the low-light cameras he saw them wearing their uniform trousers and blouses, but not their combat smocks – it looks like they’d scrambled from the barracks or their station with whatever they could grab. But each of them held the distinct form of a rifle – he wasn’t sure if it was a member of the AK family, but they seemed pretty big, with long barrels. 

Anton ramped the power back up, and their descent stopped just short of the surface, the chopper almost bouncing on the cushion of air trapped under the rotor blades. The troops dived aboard, quickly attaching safety lines and belts to themselves and checking each other – not that Marius cared. He felt the chopper rise and bank hard, and then they were heading towards the forest. Anton was good – probably as good as he was, Marius thought – but clearly he had hundreds if not thousands of hours in type, making him acutely aware of how much performance he could wring out of the helicopter and just how much he could push it. They drew away from the trailing choppers whose pilots were either not as good – or not as fearless – as Anton, made a beeline for the combat zone.

Hunter raised his pistol, grabbing it in a two-handed grip as he feet turned slightly into the shooting stance – his body working on the muscle memory he’d been drilling into it recently. ‘What I wouldn’t give for my rifle’. The thought crossed his mind, but before he could do anything more, the forest erupted. The dark shape roared and sped towards him, closing at a frightening rate, a grim mass of claws and teeth and primordial fury as five hundred kilos of bear burst from the undergrowth and charged towards him. He sidestepped, putting a pine tree between him and the onrushing target, resting his outstretched arms on the side of the trunk.

Hunter waited, twisting his hands ever so slightly right, then up, just a little. In his vision, the features of the bear were rendered as a wireframe rendering as his ultrasound emitters painted the target with sonar-like pulses, while the low-light sensors added depth and colour to the picture. His advanced analytics unit crunched the numbers, displaying a closing speed that was frighteningly high for a creature that size. More importantly though, the shape of the bear had a cursor overlaid, as the cybernetic link from his Ares Predator fed precise aiming information through the induction pad in his palm and into his cybernetic systems.

He saw the tiny set of chevrons he favoured as his SmartLink-II designator go from red, through amber to green. They worked in, until they bracketed the eye of the bear as his own eye zoomed out in response to the creature’s movement, tracking the motion and compensating, helping him keep his aim rock-steady. As the brackets met, forming a box, there was a moment of pureness, and with a thought, the gun fired. The heavy 12mm round punched out of the pistol and slammed into the bear, penetrating the right eye and starting to tumble. It blew through the back of the optic cavity, spinning and tearing through the bear before distorting the fur on the back of the head. The roar stopped midway, turning into a noise of agony, and the massive legs crumpled, the body driving forwards another two metres purely on momentum as it carved a trail like a meteor through the forest floor.

Aswon started to circle, hoping to hell that Hunter remembered his warning. With his staff extended, he moved to flank the massive bear, ready in case it twitched again. He never knew what alerted him. Maybe it was a fleeting shadow, maybe a tiny smell on the air, maybe a raise in the air pressure. All he knew was that he suddenly dropped to his left knee, his right leg extended outwards from him in a straight line. As he collapsed downwards, the staff moved to jam into the floor, wedged in place by his right foot and his hands slipped down to grasp the lower non-conductive area, fumbling for the button.

The massive Siberian tiger leapt through the air, aiming for where he’d been, powerful muscles sending it leaping from the branch where it had lain in wait with deadly silence in a shallow arc. As Aswon moved though, the tiger discovered that annoying factor of physics – with no contact with any object, it was unable to adjust its trajectory in any meaningful way. Instead it slammed into the top of the staff, just as Aswon’s fingers found the discharge stud, and thousands of volts surged through its body like coruscating wildfire. Aswon pushed, and the tiger continued its arc, riding the top of the staff like a pole-vaulter – but instead of a comfortable and planned landing, it was flipped into a solid pine tree, landing with a messy thud and bouncing off to fall backwards to the ground, limbs still twitching and trembling from the massive electrical discharge. Aswon was stunned with the rapid assault, and glad that his years of combat training had let him react without thought, working on reflex alone. He pushed up, with his left leg, rising from the low stance as Hunter stepped around the tree, pistol still extended outwards towards his target.

Before either of them got a chance to say anything, both creatures flexed and roared, moving to attack again. Hunter laid the cursor back over the bear’s head, concentrating and aiming carefully as it started to build up speed towards him. A tiny part of his mind struggled, clearly looking at the bear’s face and seeing no trace of the wound, no sign that the eye and skull had been blown open only a moment ago. Another round exited the barrel, burrowing once more into the face and blowing open an equally large hole, dropping the bear once more.

Aswon found himself just as busy, as the tiger twisted and leapt again. It was quick, easily two metres long and a metre high, rippling muscle and massive teeth highlighted in the streaks of moonlight that made it down through the trees. It leapt for his face, and only the trembles from the taser let Aswon avoid the swipes of the enormous claws, and jab at it with his staff, discharging again and hitting it with a further zap. It howled and twisted, throwing itself over its own back in apparent rage as traitor muscles misfired, making it twist and shake.

Above them, Tads saw the movement in the trees, the flash of creatures and the roar of gunfire. She swept down, trying to get a better view, but then suddenly banking and jinking to the side, checking her own surroundings – aware that there were at least two more magical creatures, both of which could fly, it seemed.

She circled the area, one eye on the combat below, one eye out over the forest. Unheard to her, Aswon spoke and triggered his throat microphone.

“Baggsy the pelt of the fracking huge magical tiger attacking me!” There was a moment of silence as the rest of the team digested this, before Shimazu’s response came back, in-between pants.

“Baggsy your stuff when it rips you a new one!” Despite trying to keep his response lighthearted, he understood the intent of the message. With one last look at the body of Tads, he turned and burst through the door, leaving the two medics to look after her and ran through the outside door, almost knocking Kai off his feet. 

Kai gasped for breath, unable to speak as his lungs rebelled and demanded significant increases in delivered oxygen before they would allow anything as mundane as speech. He managed to hold his arms up for a moment, the weapons catching the light from the yellow lamp over the barracks door. 

“Nice work Kai, come on, follow me!” Shimazu grabbed the dagger and spear from his arms, then exploded into motion and charging into the forest along the same path that Hunter and Aswon had taken.

“Whaaa, *gasp* *gasp* seriously?” Kai struggled for breath, holding the assault rifle in both hands as his body folded over his knees a little, but then he managed to struggle upright and follow in Shimazu’s footsteps, jogging after him while tiny little stars formed at the sides of his vision.

In the clearing, the bear and the tiger leapt again, their wounds healing with supernatural quickness, driving towards their foes. Aswon parried and struck again, energy driving the tiger to the ground and the stick slamming down across its spine with a sickening thud. Hunter fired again, the bear falling to the ground barely a metre from him. He started to back up, keeping the pistol raised and held rock steady on the target, his back leg questing behind him for a clear place to stand. To trip now would be death…

“Hurry up will you, these fuckers won’t die!” As Hunter snarled over the radio, another shot rang out, smoke curling from the end of the gun barrel and curling upwards through a moonbeam. Tads found herself in perfect position – clearly behind the Tiger which had all its attention focussed on Aswon who looked to be flat-footed after his last attack. She swept down and used her hands to tear at the creatures astral energies, raking it with her anger and fury. Despite her wounds, her blindsided attack was devastating, and the tiger flopped once more, struck down by its wounds – but as she swooped up and away from the combat, she saw the flicker of life suddenly burst into full blown flame, its energies renewed. At another time she would have been fascinated by the magical creature and its ability to pull in raw mana to repair its form – but now was not the time.

“Watch out, there’s two more about – both flyers.” She manifested as a ghostly form, just long enough to shout out an audible warning, before letting her body image fade away and return purely to the astral plane, rising on diaphanous wings of magic to examine the top of the forest canopy. There! Swooping towards her was the owl, and a huge raven, flying almost wingtip to wingtip as they sped across the trees towards the sounds of fighting below. She rose higher, trying to clear their attention – she knew she was in no condition to fight either, never mind them both.

The tiger and Aswon continued to circle – Aswon weaving the staff around him in a complex pattern, ready to strike while the tiger tried to outflank him, still shuddering from muscle spasms. It struck again, and was rewarded with another zap, along with a two-handed strike to the side of the face, hard enough to snap off one of the mighty incisors and send it spinning into the darkness, driving the beast to the ground.

On the other side of the clearing, Hunter ran out of time and space – the bear lurched forwards and there was just nothing he could do. One paw struck his gun hand, forcing it wide just as he was about to fire. In his vision the SmartLink system flashed an angry red as it lost target lock, refusing to fire. The other massive paw raked down his body, from shoulder to waist. Claws fully 7cm long ripped at the armour, rucking and pulling at the combat vest with the massive power of the enormous beast. But the armour was strong – the very best synthetic fibres available on the open market, and though the armour sagged and ripped, it wasn’t defeated – not utterly. It absorbed much of the impact, ameliorating the damage and Hunter’s enormous physique did the rest. He was hurt – he could feel the wound bleeding under the vest – but he was still functional.

He chopped with one hand, bringing the knife edge of his massive hand down on the bear’s outstretched limb, striking with the butt of his gun onto the skull of the creature. Over and over he struck – not hard, but rapidly, swaying his body from side to side and bellowing it its face. He wasn’t fighting to win – he was just trying to confuse and distract it now, hoping to hell that reinforcements would arrive soon.

On the forest path, Shimazu sprinted through the darkness. He felt a faint touch on his face, and his brain thought ‘branch’. A split second later, he twisted, years of martial arts training coming to his rescue as he ploughed into the tree at full speed. He didn’t try to stop though, but instead rolled, pirouetting on his feet and letting his momentum roll him around the tree, snapping branches and spinning on the moist forest floor, before stepping back onto the path and continuing his headlong run through the dark. How he envied the others with their night vision now!

Aswon continued to pummel the tiger, taking the offensive now. Again and again he struck, zapping the creature with shock after shock. While the physical damage he did seemed to vanish as soon as he caused it, the lingering effects of the taser made it slower and slower, and he started to push the pace – eventually he’d get lucky, and hit something hard enough or magical in nature that it couldn’t repair the damage. He was worried though – Tads had disappeared again, and it sounded like the bear was eating Hunter. Turning his back on the tiger, muscle spasms or not though, was not on the cards.

Across the clearing, the unusual tactic had in fact confused the bear, and it paused for a moment, shaking its massive shaggy head to remove the effects of the slaps and pokes it had received. Hunter jumped up and let his arm rise, then as he fell it scythed down, fist clenched into a massive overhead hammerstrike. It landed painfully on the top of the bear’s head, sending pain lancing through his arm from the shock – the bear roared, but in anger, not in pain, and didn’t seem to care one bit. For the first time, Hunter started to feel really worried – he just couldn’t hit this thing hard enough, at least not in unarmed combat.

As she circled above, watching the Owl and the Raven close in, Tads extended her magical protection over Aswon and Hunter, protecting them both with her magical shielding. Her bottom lip quivered and shook, but her resolve was firm… not on her watch! She saw the bear claw at Hunter again, catching him across the ribs and saw the blood spurt from his side, little droplets of his limited essence spraying out into the forest and fading, life fading into death, and felt frustration rising. This was not her kind of fight.

There was a burst of motion at the edge of the clearing, and for a moment Aswon too felt fear and doubt – then he made out the shape of Shimazu, his arms and legs pumping as he erupted out of the darkness. In his right hand was the long and slender spear found in the depths of the darkened temple, the broad leaf blade glinting in the moonlight.

“Aswon, spear, catch!” Shimazu flung the spear underarm, trying to pitch it up and across Aswon’s side, rather than at him. He knew he wasn’t the most accurate at throwing, but prayed that he’d get lucky. As soon as the spear was on its way though, he put it from his mind – he could make out the huge bear clawing and biting at Hunter, clearly driving him backwards – and the tangle of trees that were about to trip or catch Hunter and stop him dead in his tracks. As he ran he swapped the punch dagger to his right hand and charged. It might not have the same reach as his katana, and he certainly felt clumsier with it – but it was a magical weapon. Granted, not one intrinsically bound to him and his life force, where he would truly be a master in its use – but from what Aswon had said, he had a better chance of killing these creatures and keeping them dead with that.

In the darkness above the trees, the chopper flew in a straight line. The sensors picked up the forms of two targets, birds, and the system started to filter them out until Marius overrode the software and painted them as Bandit-1 and Bandit-2. He sent a mental command, and felt the minigun start to spin, building up speed ready to spit automatic death at his enemy.

His VCR linked him to the machine, and through that his own SmartLink interfaced with the gun. The Russians favoured the default ‘skin’ for their system it appears, a series of concentric boxes that strobed inwards as his sensors locked onto the target and calculated the optimum lead he had to give them to send a dozen 7.62mm bullets ripping through their bodies with a squeeze of the trigger. As he watched the targeting box grow tighter and the lock noise rise in pitch and duration, he saw the icon climbing, rising higher and higher in his field of view. What was going on?

He pulled out of the gunsight, looking at the chopper and realising that not only were they losing altitude rapidly, they were only a metre or two above the trees. A glance to his left and he saw Anton staring forwards, unblinking, a moronic grin on his face while his hands rubbed back and forth on his thighs, stroking the material of his flight suit apparently with glee. Marius had time for a muttered expletive, before he dived back into the interface and wrested control of the craft from the pilot’s station, putting in more power and gaining altitude before they struck the trees, flipped and ended up in a fiery ball of death.

He heard a noise from the back of the craft, and then the command over the intercom. “Turn us, get us eyes onto the target!” Cursing again, he mentally jammed his foot down, and the tail rotor whipped the craft sideways. He angled the controls, manipulated the collective like a concert musician, and the chopper hurtled sideways through the air, barely losing any forward momentum while the troops in the back raised their rifles towards the enemy.

Back in the forest, Kai followed the path, the bright spots swimming around his vision now, the rifle feeling like a lump of lead in his hands. Snow, mud and foliage tore at this feet and he staggered forwards, wondering when this pain would ever end. But, he drove on – one foot after another, into the darkness. Further along the path, towards the screaming and shouting.

Aswon dropped his staff – it was probably almost drained of power now anyway, and danced two steps over to intercept the spear in mid-air. He caught it on the move, and spun, thrusting outwards with the tip and aiming to impale the tiger through the mouth as it leapt at him. For the first time, the trembling muscles worked for it, and instead of the impale attack he sought, he instead opened up a massive gash down the tiger’s side as it stumbled towards him.

Up above, the Raven soared up for a moment, then folded its wings, beginning a dive like a bird of prey, aiming directly at Aswon’s back as he fenced with the tiger. The owl didn’t rise up – instead it just swooped down, taking the shortest path towards Shimazu that it could. As it plummeted towards him, strange guttural noises echoed through the air, and a moment later the bird was engulfed in fire, the orange flame trailing out behind it as it flew. Shimazu took one look at the approaching comet.

“Fuck this noise.” He dropped the punch dagger, and his sword materialised in his hand, the motion so swift it looked like a movie trick. As the owl swept in, the sword rose, wielder and weapon in perfect harmony. The razor sharp blade, crafted by Japanese swordsmiths by hand, hundreds of years ago using techniques honed and handed down from master to apprentice proved their worth. Driven by his physique, optimised by training, the sword cut through the body of the owl as if it was butter, severing it into two parts. The body slammed into Shimazu, driving him back a step or two, and fell to either side of him, a fine mist of entrails and blood exploding over him. A few flames caught on his clothing, wicking for a moment before being starved of fuel by the modern fabric and petering out.

The bear swung again, catching Hunter once more, opening up a gash on his leg and driving him to one knee, while he desperately tried to fend it off – but the mounting pain and effects of his wounds slowed him and reduced his chances, moment by moment.

The raven swooped down, expecting to rake Aswon in the back – but the wily mercenary had born Tads’ warning in mind, and was ready. He sidestepped neatly, rolling out of the way as he used the momentum from the attack on the tiger to clear the range of the raven’s massive claws. There was a flash behind it as Tads swooped down on its back, clawing at its essence as she had before and ripping chunks of its body off, before swooping to the side.

The chopper slid into view, four troopers leaning out on their harnesses, trusting the slender belts to stop them from plummeting to their death. Each of them swung their rifles up, aiming at the raven as it staggered in midair from the attack, momentarily flying a steady path as it tried to recover. Each of them aimed, and had their fingers depressed on the trigger guards, waiting for their SmartLinks to lock onto the target and fire. But between the motion of the bird, the velocity of the chopper, the darkness – first one, then another, then the third saw their targeting carets swing over the target, not getting enough of a lock to send the round. There was a sudden Ker-ACK! The fourth trooper found his target, and muzzle flash illuminated the front of his rifle. The raven was hit, sent tumbling to the ground its wings flapping and scrawks of agony bursting from its beak.

Shimazu ran forward, shouting loudly and trying to draw attention from Hunter, offering himself up as a threat – or a target. The bear swung around angrily, distracted by the new threat and threw himself forward. Shimazu was stunned by the speed of the bear – nothing that big should move that fast! Little did he realise that people often thought the same thing about the like of Hunter and himself. He raised his sword, but the headlong rush of the bear bowled through his defence, and a swipe ripped across his flank. Fortunately, he had the same armour as Hunter, and it served him just as well. Aramid derivatives tore and shredded, but they blunted the attack. He was driven back a step, and the wound oozed blood through his armour – but he was still functional.

Tads continued her swoop, arcing away from where she had swung at the raven, and saw the bear clawing at Shimazu. Beyond it, the bloody and battered form of Hunter was struggling to his feet, ready to charge back into the fray. She could see the bear clearly, a shapeshifter for sure. Its magical nature made it straddle the divide between the magical realm and the physical – it was in both places, could not be anywhere other than both places – and that meant she could hurt it. She swooped in, trying to slow it down a little, to give Shimazu time to attack.

The bear saw her coming.

She flew in, reaching for its essence to claw and rip, but instead it rose up on hind legs, the massive paws engulfing her, pinning her into place for a moment, and the head struck down, engulfing her own and bit down with crushing force.

Shimazu saw her astral form wink out of existence with heart-stopping suddenness.

The world seemed to stop for a moment as horror leeched through him as he watched her disappear. He could see only one result from that attack. He knew how damaged her physical body had already been, how weak she was. A shame ripped through him, his mind rebelling as his team mate went down, while he stood so close. All his bodyguard training was for nought. Anger rose in him and with a scream he spun on the spot, both hands on his sword as his body twisted. Legs drove his hips around, his torso flexed and then the arms whipped around as his body uncoiled, driving the sword through the mass of the bear with ferocious rage, cutting through the massive sinewy neck until it burst from the other side. The body slumped one way, while the head fell next to it, mouth still slightly open.

Then the unthinkable happened. The head writhed and deformed, the body twisted with arcane energies, and slowly the two fused together, a deep grumbling growl forming in the massive chest cavity. Shimazu stared down at the beast in horror as the flesh knit back together before his eyes. He could barely imagine the force or power that would do such a thing.

Hovering above the fight, the soldiers hadn’t seen any of this happen. All they knew was that the pilot had continued to move the helicopter around the clearing, and now they had good shots against a huge, angry bear. Four shots rang out, and four shots hit, penetrating the bear’s hide.

After seeing the creature arise after being decapitated, both Shimazu and Hunter didn’t expect some dinky little 7.62 rounds to be much of an inconvenience to the creature. They were wrong.

A moment later the bear bellowed. No – the bear screamed. It was a cry of pure anguish, ripping out across the forest. While the Raven was much larger than normal, it was still a bird, with most of its size being the wings – and the lungs having only so much air. The bear was another matter, and the huge bellows drove sound through the bear’s throat to rival a megaphone. The bear twisted and writhed, flipping onto its back and deforming, legs straightening and then curling, one of them straining so much they heard the knee joint snap.

The snipers fired again, and the tiger went down, starting to convulse in much the same way. The creatures flexed and writhed so much they literally snapped their own spines in half, pink foam exploding out of their mouths and eyes bulging out of their sockets. It was the most awful thing any of them had ever seen.

With a wheezing noise, Kai staggered into the clearing, barely able to hang on to Hunter’s rifle. He looked around at the scene of devastation – burning split corpses, tigers and bears and massive ravens contorted in death, Shimazu standing with his sword raised and a shocked expression on his face, Hunter limping towards him to collect his rifle, blood pouring down one side between the fingers held over his ribs. Aswon standing with his spear, frozen in place while his head scanned the area, looking for more foes and trying not to stare at the horrifically twisted corpses on the ground, and above them the trees bent outwards from the rotor wash as Marius held the chopper in place while the 4 snipers searched for more targets.

“Tads! The bear killed her spirit!” Shimazu broke the silence, turning on his team mates with a look of loss and sorrow on his face. Aswon ran over towards Kai and ripped the radio out of his pocket, as Kai continued to gasp for breath. He depressed the button, and pitched his voice carefully.

“Listen to me. Give her the drugs. Give her everything do whatever you have to do, and do it now.”

“But we got told not to give her…”

“GIVE IT TO HER NOW. PATCH HER IF YOU HAVE TO! BUT DO IT NOW!”

The radio went silent, and they looked at each other.

“Shit. Back to the barracks!” Aswon grabbed Shimazu as he spoke, and started to drag him towards the path. Inside a pace or two, Shimazu’s legs caught up with him, and he managed to match Aswon’s pace – but Aswon didn’t let go. He kept one hand on Shimazu’s shoulder, guiding him through the darkness, his enhanced vision keeping him on the path. Aswon knew he wasn’t a patch on Shimazu in medical terms, and he had to get him back to her body quickly – every second that passed lowered the odds.

Hunter checked the rifle over, plugged in his SmartLink and then with a wince broke into a jog, chasing after the other two. Kai looked around at the area, at the still writhing corpses.

“Nope. Nope, nope, nope.” He turned and walked quickly down the path, leaving the devastation behind him. Overhead the chopper continued to circle. Marius pulled his attention back to the mundane world, and saw Anton still playing with his trousers – now examining his map pocket with great interest.

“Team, we have a problem. My pilot is still out of it. So, we still have active enemies – magical enemies.” He stopped, and thought about it – it wasn’t his area of expertise, but he’d heard Aswon and Tads talking about it often enough, and he was a child prodigy, after all. If the enemy couldn’t see you, they couldn’t hurt you. The windows of the chopper were polarised, so they couldn’t see him. QED – the enemy was inside the chopper. Shit. “Team, I have a serious problem. I think there’s a spirit, or some magical creature, in the chopper. It’s in here. With me. Right now. It’s probably looking at me.”

He applied more power, taking the chopper up, and gently spinning it around. A moment later, he had a plan. Keying up the radio, he told the other two choppers to stay on station and look for more hostiles, hoping that they would hear his nigh-perfect Russian and assume he was Anton. Then he dropped the nose and headed for the barracks. If he timed it just right….

Aswon and Shimazu emerged from the path just as Marius dropped the chopper down to the ground and flung the door open. Aswon let go, leaving Shimazu to keep running on his own now he was in the light, heading for the barracks block. The four wheel drive response vehicle was still there, red and blue lights spinning and casting rotating strobes of illumination along the wall.

Aswon peeled off and ran towards the chopper, letting his vision expand to include the astral realm. As he did so, he saw the nature spirit, floating in the roof of the chopper with its attention focussed on the pilot. Aswon felt sort of bad – it was only doing what whoever had summoned had commanded, but it was still the enemy. 

“Lean back, Marius!” As soon as the German was clear, he thrust the spear into the astral form, running it through. It wailed as it died, dissipating back into the ether, and a moment later Anton snapped to, doing a double take as he took in the situation around him, and wondering why there was a spear just in front of his face.

Inside the barracks, Shimazu burst through the door once more, and saw the medics working frantically on Tads. One was doing CPR, and the other was squeezing blood into her – the second bag by the looks of the discarded packet next to her. There were also a number of spent vials rolling around, but the tell-tales on the bio-scanner showed the news – no pulse, no respiration, minimal brain activity.

Hating himself for what it might do for her, he unzipped the map pocket on his combat jacket and pulled out the bright red foil package. With trembling fingers he ripped open the packet and grabbed the moist pad inside, pulling off the plastic seal. Pulling the medic off that was doing CPR, he reached over his shoulder and slapped it down onto her chest, hard, aiming for the spot in-between her breasts.

The pad made contact with the skin and the dimethyl sulfoxide soaked into the scar tissue, carrying the bonded chemicals through her epidermis and down into her blood stream. 5mg of Epinephrine acted like a gallon of ice water applied straight to her heart. 5 grams of amphetamine dumped into her system, spreading around the body and kicking her metabolism into overdrive. 50mg of Morphine was delivered to the top of her spinal column, made all the pain go away and welcomed her to a series of dreams that topped any experience she’d had in her life so far – including when her trainer had insisted she smoke a pipe full of moss. Her body trembled and quivered as the massive doses of drugs coursed through her system, and the bio-scanner went just a little bit crazy. 

Shimazu watched the results – it wasn’t a steady pulse by any stretch of the imagination, and the brain activity looked more like an angry child playing with an etch-a-sketch. But she was alive.

He slumped down onto the floor, his own hands trembling as the stresses bled off him, and he wondered what it would do to her – and if she’d forgive him. Inflicting those kinds of doses on combat soldiers often messed them up, leaving them with PTSD or issues that needed therapy to resolve. Mages – well, mages were more delicate. Mess with the body of a mage, and you could disrupt the flow of mana through it. Mess it up enough, and it was like burning out the resistors on a circuit board – the current just didn’t flow any more. Unlike a circuit board though, if a mage had their body go out of whack, then whatever they lost was gone forever – it was a one-way road.

The door swung open, and the base medical officer, Dr Astirdar entered. She looked at the foil pack and the pad sitting over Tads’ heart, the empty blood bags and the IV sticks, the vials of meds rolling around on the wet tiles.

“Stretcher, now. Get her in the vehicle, and to surgery. I’ve got to go scrub up. I want her there in five minutes.”

The medics sprang into action, sliding the trembling, ravaged and failing body of the team’s shaman onto their stretcher and carried her out into the vehicle, setting off towards the main building with sirens blaring. 

One by one the others arrived, finding Shimazu sat amidst the debris, looking down at the foil pack, hoping he’d made the right decision.


	101. 101 - Samara Base Part VII

Date Thursday 11/03/2060, Location 53.38042, 50.27575

Shimazu coughed, then looked down at the gash over his ribs as the pain receptors fired a warning to his brain. He reached over for the almost-empty spray bottle of disinfectant and finished off the bottle on his shallow wound. Despite the interaction of anti-bacterial agent and raw flesh, he didn’t wince or show any emotion - performing the procedure with a resigned look upon his face. As he finished dressing the wound, the door swung open and Anton entered the room.

“Marius – we’re getting a call to head back to the pad to arm up, in case we need more firepower. I’m worried in case… whatever happened before, happens again. Will you fly with me?” Marius glanced around for a moment, but saw no objections, so he headed out with Anton, sliding into the chopper’s co-pilot seat and running through the start-up procedure with him. Nadia followed him, of course, sliding into the back and strapping herself in.

“If there is still a threat, especially a magical one, I need to be out there.” Aswon grabbed his gear and headed out after Marius, and started to walk a random path, circling the barracks blocks and keeping his eyes peeled, watching out for astral intruders.

“And I’m going to go check on the bodies, and look for loot. Cheers for the gun!” Hunter hefted his rifle, the bullpup weapon looking like a toy in his heavily-developed arms. With deft movements he checked the magazine was seated in the well and that a round was chambered, while his induction pad synced up with the weapon, establishing a good link. Shimazu looked up, snapped out of his fugue.

“If you’re going into the woods, I will come with you. If there are magical threats, I will deal with them.” He rose gracefully from his position on the floor, his heavy-set body moving gracefully and in near silence, something that always looked – or rather sounded – disturbing for a man of his size.

Kai looked around at the scene of carnage, used medical containers, bandages, blood and needles everywhere. Someone was going to have to clean this up, he suspected – and he was dammed if it was going to be him! He left the room quickly, keying up the radio as he did so.

“This is Kai, I’d like to speak to Captain Zarkorov please?”

“The Captain is unavailable at this time.”

“Then make him available please!”

“The Captain is organising containment into the forest, a clean-up team, scouts, close air support missions and authorising surgery on a civilian who shouldn’t be on the base at all. I will pass on your message, and the Captain will be in touch if and when he becomes free!” Kai blinked, went to push the transmit button again, then thought better of it – without the advantages of a face to face meeting where he could read his opponent, a lot of his skills were blunted. Perhaps better to let this one go, for the moment.

Hunter and Shimazu headed down the path, much slower than their previous journeys. Hunter led the way, his eyes rendering the forest path like daylight, while Shimazu followed the solid shape in front of him, moving steadily and surely around the trees and branches. They’d made it nearly two-thirds of the way to the scene of the fight when Shimazu saw Hunter stop and raise his weapon.

“Halt! Identify yourself!” came a somewhat muffled voice from the darkness ahead. Hunter relaxed slightly – it wasn’t likely that magical creatures or enemies would make a call like that, which meant it was one of the patrols or guards from the base.

“It’s Hunter, the Orc. I’m coming to examine where we fought the enemy and to look for magical clues and threats.” He wasn’t looking for anything magical of course, but he figured that dropping that into the conversation was likely to stymie a lot of the potential arguments that could be raised.

“Oh, ok. Well, you can’t go any closer, not dressed like that.” Shimazu stepped to the side of Hunter carefully, mindful of the branches that crowded the path, just in time for the patrol to step out from their positions of concealment ahead. One of the troopers flicked on a torch covered with a red filter, lighting the area with a dull red glow that made the slush on the ground look like a scene from an abattoir. In the reflected and spilled light they could see the four man patrol standing in a cluster, weapons held pointing down to the ground, but all four of them were in their NBC suits. The rubberised and treated overgarments made them look shapeless and bulky, the sheen caused by the chemical treatments of the fabric reflecting light in strange ways.

“I have orders – nobody may approach the scene unless they are in their suits. There is hazardous material there. But I guess you know that already.” The trooper’s words were still muffled by the full face gas-mask he wore, and as Hunter quickly examined them he saw that they were taking this threat seriously – there was no exposed flesh anywhere, the hood was cinched tightly around the gas mask, and equally tightly around the wrists where the over-gloves were tucked inside. Even in the cold, wearing a suit like that trapped the heat and sweat, and became unpleasant quite quickly – so they were obviously worried about something.

“Yes, we know about the threat. But we need to examine the scene, and make sure it is safe for your people, too. Do you have any spare suits?” The junior NCO nodded to one of his men, who pulled out his tactical radio and called for someone to come to their position with spare suits. It didn’t take long, and both Shimazu and Hunter could hear other people moving around in the woods to both sides of them – apparently the woods were almost crawling with troops, surrounding the location with armed men forming a living barrier – the question was, were they there stopping things getting in – or things getting out?

Another patrol turned up with a large plastic crate held between two of the men. Inside were a random assortment of kit, apparently sized for orcs and trolls. Rooting through, they found a pair of trousers and a smock each, along with a gas mask that would fit them, and clambered into the gear under the watchful eyes of the patrol. After a bit of a struggle, one of the troops came to help Shimazu out with getting his gear on right, pulling the cords to tighten the hood around the mask. The fabric was stiff and heavily impregnated with plastics and complex chemicals, forming a waterproof barrier that made wearing them a special kind of fun. Still – the aim of the suit wasn’t fun or comfort, but to form a barrier against nuclear, biological and chemical agents, resistant to a wide variety of threats. Once they were suited up, the patrol let them pass, radioing ahead to whomever was waiting.

As they closed, they could see the forest glowing ahead of them – someone had bought in some arc lights on stands, set up around the perimeter and facing inwards and down, creating a bubble of light and shadows across the area. Every time one of the suited figures moved in front of a light, it created a huge and monstrous form that stretched away from them to play across the scene, looking for all the world like aliens from another planet. Frequent flashes of intensely bright light strobed across the ground as one figure moved around with a camera, recording the locations of the bodies and the scratch marks in the ground, the positions of blood and entrails, ripped armour and spent cases.

Hunter and Shimazu moved about, looking at the corpses who if anything looked more frightful now, illuminated in the harsh white light from the lamps, their forms frozen in a rictus death mask of pain and agony. They couldn’t see any sign of weird materials or anything that hadn’t been there when they were fighting, and it didn’t look like anything had been added. Hunter looked around one final time, and then moving swiftly he loosened the hood and pulled up his gas mask, taking a hesitant sniff, then a deeper breath.

The air moved up his nostrils over the sensitive receptor, and the tiny but advanced cyberware sprang into action, pulling a small sample into an even smaller chamber before it was analysed and broken down, fed into the computer built into his brain and analysed against the library of chemical agents and compounds stored there. He heard a shout – angry, but also mixed with fear and confusion – but ignored it and took a deeper sniff, turning his head and stepping over towards the body of the bear to get a better sample. Data cascaded through the router buried deep inside his body, sending a stream of text data to his image link. Arsenic – negative. Cyanide – negative. Sulphur dioxide – negative. The list went on and on, but the only hits were things he expected to find here – natural chemicals found in the wood, blood, traces of cordite and propellant, sweat… he couldn’t detect anything that he could pinpoint as a danger. The shouts grew louder and more strident, so he relented and lowered the gas mask again, pulling the hood tight once more. Angrily the figure in charge of the scene pointed back towards the base, demanding that they leave.

“Don’t worry, we’re going – just not that way. We’re leaving this way.” Hunter pointed to the far side of the clearing, and matched actions to words, leaving via his chosen direction before they could argue with him, Shimazu in tow.

It took about ten minutes of searching once they had walked far enough, but they found what Hunter was looking for – a small hollow at the base of a tree, near where the Owl had first landed. Rooting around he found the remains of an area that had been used as a bed, pine boughs laid down to form a more comfortable area to lie, and branches propped up to shelter the area from both the wind and from sight. And there, in the corner, was a string bag full of random items – a pen, a ring in a small bag, a slender bible, a spent bullet.

They looked around, but other than the odd bit of fur and scraps of blood and sinew, found nothing else of note, so they grabbed the loot and headed back, carefully working their way around the fight scene and passing through or past several patrols in the woods. On their return they could hear the drone of choppers flying overhead, frequently seeing craft pass through gaps in the trees. Hunter saw the beams of IR searchlights painting the forest as they flew their patrols, and guessed that they were loaded up now with troops and munitions, looking for targets. There were no sounds of battle though, no fresh combat that indicated they had stumbled across new enemies.

Back at the base, Kai waited for a quarter hour, then reached for the radio again. This time he politely requested to speak to the Captain, making it clear that he had important news for him, that might help him deal with the crisis. The MP on the other end was a different voice, but told him that the Captain was not available – but he could pass on a message.

“You need to be aware that there could be at least one more magical threat out there. Once we had fought with the creatures, there was still a spirit affecting one of your helicopter pilots, and that was unusual, and normally indicates that there is a magically active threat still at large. A powerful threat.”

“I will pass on the warning, but we have several companies now deployed in the woods, and they are doing near constant radio checks amongst the squads to keep track of what is going on. The air wing has also been launched and we have multiple sniper and gunships in the air.”

“Well, a mage is still a serious threat – and without magical help, you could still be in trouble. But please let the Captain know that we’re ready to help again if he requires it. Now, can you tell me where my Shaman is, please?

“She’s being taken care of.” Kai shuddered involuntarily at the words, then replayed them in his mind – searching for emotion and context. He hoped that it didn’t mean what it COULD have meant, otherwise they were going to have a problem – brigade of troops or not!

“What do you mean, taken care of?”

“She is in surgery at the moment. Dr Astirdar is working on her – don’t worry, she is very good! We will get a message to you when the surgery is over.” Kai relaxed somewhat as the meaning of “taken care of” was clarified, and released the button on the radio.

After a while, Hunter and Shimazu returned, followed by Marius and Nadia, and then Aswon. Aswon had seen nothing on his patrol that was a cause for alarm, no sign of astral intruders or happenings. Marius told them all that the air base had gone to full alert, and had launched several squadrons of gunships, loaded down with rockets, guns, and several squads of marksmen. Also, while walking back from the aerodrome, they’d seen squad after squad of troops heading into the woods – it looked like the ant hill had been well and truly kicked!

Hunter and Shimazu showed the team the string bag, and they went through the items, tying them up with the reported thefts – all the items were there, no more, no less, and all in good condition. Well, at least they were going to be popular with some people tomorrow morning. After chatting for a while about the events for the night, letting the stress of combat bleed off, they started to settle down to sleep, waiting to see what the new day would bring them.

In the morning they rose at their normal time and had breakfast, and were just getting ready for their normal run when they heard voices outside – a low murmur indicating that there were lots of people. Aswon went to the door to check, while several of the others leant out of their rooms to see what was going on. As Aswon swung the door open, his eyes opened wide as he saw about three platoons worth of troops in a big gaggle on the area outside the building, stretching and limbering up. One of the NCOs turned to him and threw a salute, before he spoke.

“We’re ready to escort you for your morning run!” Aswon grinned, and shrugged, not quite sure what was going on, but told him to wait for just a moment, then called for the rest of the team to hurry up. Shortly afterwards the large group were running around the base – the Russians teaching them their marching song, and Hunter and Aswon reciprocating. Aswon’s song was hard, being a mix of African tribal chanting and words that the Russians had never heard before, but having the advantage of a very strong and easy to follow beat that matched the pace of the runners well, while Hunters was in English, lacked the same easy cadence, but made up for it with gutter humour and profanities. His song took three times as long to sing, as some of the troops burst out laughing, then in between breaths had to translate for those that didn’t know English, when then in turn were exposed to knob jokes and discovered the joys of Y-shaped coffins.

Following the run and the inevitable showers, the team split up again. Marius and Nadia headed over to the graveyard, finding a couple of technicians waiting for them again, along with a driver and a mobile crane. The driver explained that they’d found space in a hanger, and he was ready to tow the bird they were working on into the maintenance area. They lost the first few hours while they grappled the bird with the mobile lifting gear and got it transported back to the main base – but being able to work inside, out of the vicious wind and sleet or snow, with access ladders and diagnostic equipment on hand soon made up for that. Nadia soon found herself delegated as chief scrounger, heading back and forth to the graveyard to remove parts from the other hulks dotted around to fix up the KA-60, and work progressed well.

Hunter headed for the range with his pistol and a box of the cheap and nasty ammo that Nadia had sorted through when they were back in Batumi – he figured he might as well use it up, and if he could shoot accurately with that, he could do it with anything. When he got to the range though, he found the range officer following him out of the little hut that he had normally sat in, going through his paperwork, all the way out to the shooting station. As he started to shoot, the officer watched him, making the occasional notes. When he’d finished his first magazine, and set off to fetch the target, the officer started to chat with him, discussing his shooting position and form.

Over the next four hours, as Hunter put round after round downrange, the officer coached him – never saying why he was doing it, but spending all morning working with him one to one, and helping him improve his stance, gun handling and style. Some of what he had to say was at odds with the instructor in Sochi, but Hunter figured that was just a style thing, and probably individual to each shooter – or perhaps tutor. But there was enough common ground that he could take onboard the comments, and he continued to shred the targets, working on improving his aim.

After lunch, the same change was in evidence at the combat area. Unlike previous sessions where he’d ended up being paired off with any odd man or as a stand in for when someone was injured, this time he was pulled off to the side and an instructor spent some time working with him, going over the basics and working on the easier moves, showing him some of the fundamental concepts of stance, where his centre of gravity or balance was, blocking, and simple combinations. Hunter made significant progress that morning under his expert tutelage.

Kai spent the morning returning each of the stolen items to the rightful owners, sitting with each man and discussing the history of the item and what it meant to them, studying each radio operator in turn and watching the reaction of their bodies and minds when they saw the item returned to them intact. Part of it was studying their reactions, watching the thousand and one tiny cues in the body that betrayed their real emotions, studying the human reaction to joy and relief to better learn and understand it. Part of it was a need to share in a pure joy, unsullied by greed or desire, just a genuine outpouring of happiness that he could absorb.

Aswon and Shimazu went to check in on Tads. The Doctor had worked on her for several hours last night, and she was still listed as being in critical care. She lay on a bed, surrounded by plastic sheeting with a large oxygen tube down her throat and several drips running into her arm. She had little colour to her and looked drained and shrunken, a fragile form that had been battered and mauled. The machine at her side showed a weak and fast pulse, slow and erratic breathing with the machine pushing oxygen enriched air through the tube into her lungs. Shimazu read through the chart, frowning as he did so.

“Collapsed lung, low O2 sats, shock, blood loss, possible complications to secondary organs from oxygen starvation. Looks like it was a close run thing. And she’s not asleep – it’s a coma. Or very deep unconsciousness at the least – hard to tell from these records.”

A very weary-looking Doctor Astirdar emerged from her office, face lined with fatigue and wisps of hair escaping from her surgical hat, pinned to the side of her face with dried sweat.

“You pair – out! Leave her alone, she’s in no state for visitors, and neither am I. You can see her later, but she needs rest now.” An arm was raised and a slender finger extended towards the door back to the corridor. They thought about arguing with her, but the set on her face and the bloodshot eyes made them reconsider and instead they nodded and left without a word.

“Shimazu – I’m heading into the woods to try and attune myself to the spear we found. If you’re not doing anything else, would you come with me?” Shimazu nodded, glad for the distraction from his guilt. They headed back to the truck and grabbed the spear and some warmer clothes, along with a small blanket, then headed off into the woods, steering well away from the southern end where the fight had been the previous night. It didn’t take long to find a suitable clearing, a small space surrounded by tall pine trees that stretched up into the air. It was still and quiet, the trees blocking out the wind, and only a very light smattering of snow made its way down through the opening overhead.

Aswon laid out the blanket with the waterproof side down, and then arranged himself cross-legged on it, facing into the centre of the clearing. He laid the spear over his knees, hands resting lightly on top of it, and then took a deep cleansing breath and slowly closed his eyes. His last sight was of Shimazu drawing his sword and dropping into a tight crouch about three metres ahead of him, balancing his weight over his feet, his sword held flat in front of him, in a mirror of his own grasp. He took a deep breath, then spoke clearly and firmly.

“I am Aswon, hunter of Anu, protector and student of Dibia, guardian of the ways of Nri! Hear me now! MMuo I call to you, bear witness to me! Carry my deeds to the ears of Chukwu that he may judge me! I am Aswon, son of Ala, and I call to you Chi to hear my words.” The forest was silent, and Shimazu looked around, feeling for all the world like he was being watched. He flicked into astral space, but saw nothing against the vibrant background of the living forest.

“I am Aswon! I walk with my friends, to protect and guide them. We fought against the darkness, in the place under the earth, driving back a creature of evil. We did battle against evil and triumphed, saving the weak from destruction. The evil remains though, trapped and alive, festering in that dark place. Chi, I sense you at work, when you led us to this treasure. I heed your call, your message, and I speak to you now.” His hands ran lightly over the haft of the spear, fingers tracing over the faint carvings.

“I call the spirit of this weapon to me. Recognise me – I am Aswon of the Nri. I see the path ahead of me and will not shirk from it. I bind myself to you, and you to me. I name you.”

"Medaron…” A faint glow of mana sparkled around his head, like motes of dust tumbling through a sunbeam.

“Speren…” The motes started to swirl, still faint but moving faster and faster in a vortex around the tribesman’s head. Shimazu rose silently, powerful leg muscles pushing him upright and his sword raised slowly to a guard position. Aswon continued to speak, unaware of his surroundings.

“Mes Bele…” The light intensified and the motes moved so fast they appeared like a solid ribbon, swirling chaotically around his skull. Shimazu opened his mouth, drawing in air to shout a warning.

“se'Farad!” The vortex of light spiked in brightness, and two forks of lightning struck out from the mass of light, one to Aswon’s forehead, the other to the tip of the spear. The light peaked, and then vanished, and Aswon slumped down, falling backwards to the ground.

“Aswo…shit.” Shimazu stepped forwards, and with the tip of his sword rolled the spear off Aswon’s legs and into the snow. As he circled around it, Aswon opened his eyes and pushed himself up to his elbows, making a grunting noise.

“Oh, gods. How long was I out for?”

“You weren’t – not really. You barely had time to fall over. What happened?” Shimazu offered him a hand and Aswon sat up, then reached for his water bottle and took a drink. 

“I was somewhere else, some far-away land. Not somewhere I had been before. Surrounded by thick twisted vines, covered in thorns. A massive thicket – I mean the base of the vines were as thick as your leg, massive twisted plants, curling and twisting around each other, made of some hard looking material – it looked as solid as oak. But everything was covered in spines. I didn’t touch them, but somehow I knew they were deadly – they looked razor sharp and long enough to go clear through an arm. As I watched them, the vines writhed, twisting and moving as if they were a creature, like a snake curling around its prey. As they closed in on me, the tips of the spines started to ooze blood. Thick, blackish droplets, like something infected or tainted.” He took another sip of water.

“Don’t ask me how I knew, but that stuff was evil – polluted or twisted by something hideous. I looked around me, but the thorns were all around me, higher than I could jump and dense enough that I couldn’t see through them. I couldn’t see a way out at all, then with no warning, the vines parted on one side, burnt away by some light. I could see out over the land, fields and meadows, green and pleasant, and in the distance I saw a spire. Wide at the base and sweeping up in a smooth arc, this thing reached up so high it was like it touched the clouds. I couldn’t see any detail, it was too far away – but that meant it must be miles tall. Huge – the biggest building I have ever imagined. Then I woke up.”

“What does it mean?”

“I have no idea – I was hoping you might. Nothing like this in your psychology books?” Shimazu shook his head, then offered Aswon a hand up. The tribesman accepted his hand, pulling himself upright with his right hand, and grabbing his spear with the left. Neither of them noticed the tiny little ripple of light that ran down the spear as he made contact with the haft, or noticed the miniscule snowflake that landed on the spear tip and flashed to steam as soon as it touched the surface.

The headed back towards the barracks, chatting about his “dream” and trying to make sense of it, without any great success. When they got back to the truck they found Kai sitting in his seat in the front, staring blankly into space.

“What’s up, boss?”

“Just thinking Aswon. Just thinking. Wondering if I’d had more insight, if Tads wouldn’t be so badly hurt.”

“I’m not sure how that might have helped – you were back in the truck, co-ordinating us all. Not sure how that would have changed anything.”

“Still, I see you all trying to learn new things, reaching out into the world around you and expanding yourselves. And I haven’t. I think that should change now. I need to learn too. How about we go into the back, and you teach me how to look at the astral world?”

The three of them headed into Tads’ lodge and settled down. Kai lit a few candles, for the look of things, then tried to clear his mind and meditate, asking them to describe to him what they could see. Aswon and Shimazu sat to each side of him, reaching with their senses into the Astral world and describing it with intricate detail, each telling Kai how they felt when their senses changed to a different view of the world. Working together, as a group, they shared their knowledge and experience, telling Kai what they had seen, felt, learned and undergone recently. There wasn’t a key moment or an epiphany, no one word that tipped the balance, but suddenly Shimazu and Aswon saw Kai looking at them – looking at their astral forms.

“Hello there boss. Nice to see you.” Aswon let his defences down, revealing his true nature and spirit, and felt Kais gaze flit over him for a few seconds, examining but not probing too deeply. Shimazu did the same, and Kai looked him over as well, then turned his gaze around the truck, taking in the scene of the ethereal forest alive with signs of Tads’ homeland, bought into being with the chalk marks inscribed into the physical walls of the truck.

Later on, while Aswon walked with Kai, teaching him to refine his astral sight, Shimazu returned to the infirmary and sat by the side of the bed. He checked over her vitals, examined the equipment and then settled down to wait, motionless. The Doctor noticed him at her next visit, giving him a sharp look – but as he sat there motionless, unspeaking while she carried out her hourly observations, she clearly decided to just ignore him, returning to her office and closing the door behind her.

That set the pattern for the next few days – the morning run, training and practicing, scrounging parts and fixing helicopters and sitting by the side of the hospital bed. The Doctor gave a start one night when she saw a dark form in the corner of the room, until Hunter leant forward into the light, his face emerging from the shadows. He gave a tight-lipped smile and then sat back, continuing his vigil over his team mate. 

After a few days, Marius had finished the repairs on the KA-60, and turned it over to quartermaster. Slightly unbelieving, it was run through a full check and found to be in working condition – actually in good condition, given the age and where it had been. The diagnostics computer declared it fully operational, and it was wheeled outside and clamped down with chains while they did a static test. Passing every test with flying colours, they moved onto a short test flight, where it again performed flawlessly. 

As soon as the chopper was handed over though, Marius and Nadia headed back out to the graveyard, and started work on the Mi-26. The enormous craft dwarfed the KA-60 – it could probably fit inside if the rotors were taken off, but it was very similar in design to the Mi-6 that the team had their eye on, so a fixing it would give Marius great practice for their own craft.

On the Monday, they received word just after the morning run that the Brigadier would like to see them, on the main drill square, at lunchtime. They acknowledged the message, and headed off to their training or work, wondering what was going on, but not having any clue.

They met up at midday back in the barracks, and got cleaned up and into fresh clothes – getting approving looks from Nadia. As the team walked around the corner of the first company building and into sight of the parade area, they saw hundreds of men lined up in formation. Moving further around, they saw more and more men, realising that in fact the whole Brigade was formed up.

At the front a small podium had been set up, with the Brigadier standing in the centre, with the Captain standing to one side. Several other high ranking officers fanned out to either side, with a row of the base support staff beyond them. Facing them, the Brigade was split into the four battalions, then into companies, then down into platoons, with the NCOs and Officers formed up with their units, all standing in their uniforms, weapons slung and standing at parade rest. The two thousand plus troopers formed an impressive sight, and was the first time they had seen the Brigadier’s men (and it was almost exclusively men – there were very few women, and they were mostly confined to the base staff) assembled in one place.

They were guided to an area to his right, just on the podium, but a step lower than the main officers, and turned towards the sea of faces. The last squad of troops fell in at the rear under the baleful gaze of a Captain that promised that several more people would be scrubbing bed frames with a toothbrush before the day was out, then the parade ground was hushed.

Speakers around the ground hummed for a moment, then then blared out the national anthem. All around them voices raised and sung, some with skill, others with gusto. Aswon joined in, much to the surprise of the rest of the team, but he ignored their glances, his eyes staring straight ahead as he sang with the brigade. Once the anthem was over, the Brigadier gave his speech. They listened to him – wondering which way this would go, and how much trouble they were in. 

The Brigadier was inspiring – there was no other word for it. He spoke with honour and pride, with an eloquent choice of words, mixed with an earthy commonness that spoke to the lowest private. He described the threat to the motherland, how the forces of the Red Army stood against those who sought to harm her, how they were the guardians of the land, the people, the state. He was passionate, compelling, enthralling – it was easy to see how he inspired such loyalty in his troops.

Aswon nudged Kai and whispered out of the side of his mouth

“Check in astral, look at him,” Kai looked, and blinked in amazement. He could see the shimmer in the air, the control of mana around the Brigadier as he used his talents without conscious thought. He heard odd words rumble with the subharmonics, recognised the same command of the subconscious mind that he made use of – and saw how far his power radiated from him. All of the staff were affected, as were the front row of troops. But those further back were clearly outside the area of effect of any power designed to control or compel them.

He looked more closely, and realised where the Brigadier’s true power lay. Sure, he could read people, and in a pinch could control them until they thought about what they were doing. But a good chunk of his power was wrapped around himself – improving his already prodigious talent to inspire and lead people, boosting that ability considerably. In a weird catch-22 kind of way, he inspired himself to live up to his own ideals, and then did so, so convincingly it was impossible to look at him and for his men to think about letting him down. Kai watched him carefully, observing the body language and flow of mana around him – this – this was worth studying!

The Brigadier spoke to the troops, describing how it was up to them to defend the motherland, and at a signal, cloth was pulled off from large frames at the back of the stage, revealing the twisted and deformed corpses of the tiger, bear, raven and the bisected form of the owl. He spoke of how the team of outsiders had flushed out the threat to the Brigade, forcing them to make their move – how they had pursued and harried them into the forest, how they had bravely taken on the magical threat, at great risk to themselves. How that had bought the sniper teams time to gather the new ammunition from the armoury, and to get into position. How again when the magical threat had struck at the pilot, one of the team had saved them from crashing, and gotten them into position. And most importantly, how the snipers had taken down the evil creatures, with precision fire. How a shot had destroyed them, stopping their near miraculous powers of regeneration.

By the time he had finished speaking, there could be no doubt in anyone’s mind that though they were facing a magical threat to their country that had been severe and pressing for the last decade, that a day of reckoning was coming. That the training they had been undergoing, along with the new equipment would see them victorious on the field of battle, and render them heroes to the people.

The team were swept along with the mood, even the most cynical of them. Shimazu, Aswon and now Kai looked around them as the power built – the belief of the soldiers and their officers, building into a presence in astral space that grew and grew over the parade ground. Tiny flares of mana popped in their vision as power gathered, tempting them to use it. It was a heady feeling, like coming up on a powerful wave of drugs – worse in some cases as there was no come down afterwards. It was easy to see how some mages got addicted to foci and the use of mana.

During the speech the Brigadier displayed a uniform, apparently found in the woods, and named its owner as Dimitry Ivanov, a fairly recent addition to the Brigade that had joined to replenish its strength. Despite having a good record, it was clear that he had been working for the enemy – in fact was likely to be one of the distended creatures on display.

At the end of the speech, the Brigadier called forward one of the troopers – the team recognised him as the spokesman of the trio that had been asking Tads to lead them in a service. As they listened, the Brigadier explained to the waiting parade that the team’s shaman had attacked the enemy, spending her power to keep the others safe, but had fallen to a severe blow and even now lay in a coma in the hospital. That he had spoken with the army command and the politburo back in Moscow, about the civilian who had “happened” to be near the base during the attack, a Russian national, who had leapt to the defence of her country.

He presented the trooper with the Order of Courage, a fancy looking certificate with a wax seal stamped onto the bottom right corner, along with a small golden star on a red and purple ribbon. Iosef Lebedev came to a textbook example of attention as he was asked to accept the award on her behalf, to hold it in her stead until she was able to be presented with it personally. 

The emotion they had felt before was reinforced, washing over them like a powerful wave. Politically it made sense – the troopers could see that if a mere civilian was recognised for her efforts, then going to war against the enemy would make them heroes to the people. But more, they saw that the Brigadier valued her efforts, had taken the steps needed to reward her personally. As the team looked out over their faces they could see admiration, even adoration in places. These soldiers would follow him into hell itself if they were asked.

The parade was inspected, then dismissed, the troops heading back to their barracks to get back into their normal uniforms and resume their training. The team moved over to speak to the Brigadier and the Captain, thanking them on behalf of Tads for the award – and for looking after her. After looking at the bodies in astral space and seeing the distorted mass of blackness gathering around them, they also recommended that the three shapeshifters that had been shot were burned as hot as they could be, then buried – just to be sure. Neither the Brigadier nor the Captain seemed to have a problem with that.

Five more days passed, with the team quietly training around the base, improving their skills and working with the Russians where they could, keeping an eye on Tads in the hospital, and working on the massive chopper, eventually returning the Mi-26 back into service as well. Marius was expecting a clap on the back for this second piece of heroic effort – but instead was rewarded with a poisonous look from the group-captain, that left him wondering just what he’d done to offend the man! He went out of his way to try and be nice – making sure that he gave him no grounds for concern or offence, and instead concentrated his efforts into fixing up the slightly smaller MI-6 instead.

On the evening of the fifth day, Hunter was in his normal spot, in the corner of the ward – just keeping an eye on the motionless form of Tads, when the Doctor came over for a chat. As he was talking, he let out a hacking cough that made her sit up and stare at him in alarm.

“How long have you had that?”

“Couple of days now. It’s not so bad – just sometimes creeps up on you.”

“Is everything else ok?”

“Well, I’ve had a bit of a headache, not that painful, but it’s lasted a while…”

She extracted more information from him, bit by bit – finally getting him to admit that he’d taken off the gasmask at the skirmish site. Soon afterwards Hunter was persuaded to lie on the bed so she could give him a proper examination. After checking his vitals, and attaching some machines to monitor his vital stats, she approached with a syringe.

“Just some antibiotics and muscle relaxants, will make the examination more comfortable. Nothing to worry about.” Hunter stiffened, but the Doctor sounded convincing – and they’d been looking after Tads ok. All of them really – if they meant them harm, they could have done it by now. He blinked at the Doctor, and watched as she started to go soft focus, his cybereyes zooming in and out wildly as they tried to adapt to the confusing signals from his brain.

“Hey….” His head lay back, and his breathing slowed and became regular as the sedative took effect, and the Doctor went to work.

When Hunter woke, he was groggy and very uncomfortable – and strangely out of breath. But the Doctor was there, checking up on him and looked pleased about something.

“Ahh – you’re back with us. Good. Sorry, I had to put you under for the treatment – time was of the essence. But, hopefully it’s not too late, and you should be fine.”

“Spline veeth woth!” The Doctor helped support his head and raised it a little with one hand, then held up a cup of water with the other and let him sip through the straw and rehydrate his mouth a little. “Fanks. Fine weeth vot.” Hunter frowned, and managed to snag the straw again, drinking some more of the metallic and flat-tasting water to try and get rid of the bad case of cotton-mouth he had.

“Well, it looks like you managed to ingest some small shavings or particles of radioactive matter. It wasn’t a large dose, or you’d have been much worse – but the particles were all through your lungs and would have continued to dose you until it reached a critical point. But, I managed to get them all out, and safely contained. You’re likely going to be feeling very thirsty for the next few hours – that’s normal, and I encourage you to drink. But for now – rest.”

Hunter did recover swiftly, and was soon back to running with the rest of the team, not mentioning the treatment to the rest of them. In the day he’d been mostly laid up, it appeared that Kai had asked Captain Zarkorov if they could get any of the special ammunition, but had been turned down pretty hard and flat, while Shimazu had been making enquiries to see if anyone on the base had come from a swampy area, and anyone that had was being asked what they knew about leeches. So far nobody had admitted anything to him, though.

It was the morning of the twentieth day that Tads awoke, her eyes fluttering open then her body starting to shudder and shake as she fought against the ventilator pipe that fed her airway. As the medical team rushed to calm her and pull the pipe out, letting her breath normally, they struggled and tripped over the supine form of Shimazu, who had thrown himself down to the floor and was bowing before her, sword outstretched in his hands as he dropped into a position that any student of Japanese history would recognise. Unfortunately he was not prostrate before a high ranking noble, offering penance, but right in the way at the side of the hospital bed. Doctor Astirdar pushed at him with her foot and barked an order to get out of the way, and he shuffled backwards a metre, keeping his head pressed to the tiles and eyes lowered.

The checks on Tads took about thirty minutes to complete, and Shimazu stayed in position the whole time, while they made sure she was comfortable and making progress. Eventually though, they left her, and she could turn her head over to the side, staring for a moment at the raised form of his ass.

“Shimazu, get up. What are you doing down there?”

“I’m sorry Tads – I was supposed to protect you. I failed.”

“Don’t be silly, we were supposed to protect each other. I just got unlucky. Come up here.”

He raised his body, looking into her sunken and blotchy face. She was still pale and wan, but her eyes twinkled at him, and it was clear she certainly felt no anger or disappointment in him. He pulled up a chair and moved to sit with her, sliding his sword back into the scabbard and keeping his hand resting on the pommel, looking over her astrally.

Around the ward, the few new patients that had been injured during training watched, but none of them laughed at the display. Shimazu was pretty big for a human, and carrying a sword for starters – and it never paid to annoy targets like that. More so, especially since the parade, the word had gotten around that while most of the visitors weren’t Russians, they had fought for Russia against the shapeshifters – and had handled themselves pretty well as it went. They might not be soldiers, but that didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous – whoever they were. And besides, the Brigadier had met with them personally, and they seemed to have his favour.

Shimazu stared at Tads, and inside his shame ate at him. She hadn’t shouted at him, hadn’t demanded his loyalty or set him a task of atonement. It was as if she didn’t really care or it didn’t bother her at all! Tads meanwhile concentrated on checking herself out, feeling her body and testing her magic to see what the damage was, unaware of what was going through his head.

“Just sit back a minute, will you, Shimazu?” Her voice was croaky and the words sounded odd – until he remembered that she’d not spoken at all for nearly three weeks. She waited for him to sit upright on his chair, moving his hands away from her. With a great deal of effort she raised her hands, positioning one above her groin, the other over her heart, and then closed her eyes. The fingers trembled, then started to move, wiggling in a sinuous fashion as she sent mana through them. Golden motes flowed down from each digit, weaving in and out of her body as they flowed throughout her. Her hands moved faster, dancing back and forth as she concentrated and the golden light intensified, forming a glow that cast a radiance like the sun throughout the ward. All around them troopers struggled to sit up and stared, open mouthed and agog as the magic intensified around her. The golden light deepened as she poured energy into the spell, the mana repairing the burst blood vessels, shoring up the muscles around her chest, strengthening her and repairing the brutal damage done – including the huge scar down her chest from the trauma surgery. It did nothing for the ancient scarring from the fire that had nearly ended her life so many years before – powerful as it was, it wasn’t that strong.

Dr Astirdar appeared at her doorway, watching with her head cocked to one side, staring into the brightness with a guarded expression. She watched as the glow peaked, her pupils contracting to tiny pinpricks under the violent assault of intense light, then slowly widening as the glow faded away. When the glow suddenly ceased the room seemed darker and colder somehow, lacking the life giving energy and left only with the harsh light of the overhead fluorescent tubes. 

“How are you feeling now?”

“Better physically, but tired. That was hard work. Bit of a headache.”

“Well, you should rest then. Good night.” Tads looked confused, for a moment, but then her features cleared as the sedative rushed through the drip into her body, as the doctor slipped her a sedative as adroitly as she had to Hunter.

Over in the aerodrome, Marius had also reached a critical point – but it was with his patience, not the progress on the choppers. He finally found the right time – catching the Group Captain alone, walking from his office towards the maintenance area. With no one around, Marius figured he could speak honestly and openly, not having to worry about his men or his image.

“Captain Gorchenski! I had hoped to catch you. Progress is being made with the last of the helicopters, but I wanted to check that the two aircraft we had returned to service were functioning correctly and that you were happy with the results. I had hoped you would be, but whenever I have seen you, it appears that something is bothering you.” Marius spoke carefully, aware that his natural cleverness often came across as condescension or in a patronising fashion, and trying hard not to be confrontational. He and Nadia had discussed this, and she was right – they needed his help still, and he could make their lives so much easier – or harder – that it really made sense to go out of their way to keep him happy. The look on his face told him otherwise, though.

“You people! Coming in here, from wherever, under some dark rock, no doubt! I don’t know what you have done for the Brigadier but I owe you nothing! Nothing, do you hear me! I’m not part of his precious Brigade, we’re an independent formation. But no, you weren’t getting what you wanted from me, so you went running to him behind my back like a spoilt child!” Flecks of spittle burst from his lip as he hissed at Marius. He was self-aware enough not to shout, keeping his voice pitched low to avoid attracting attention from the men, but the anger on his face and the guttural tone in his voice was unmistakeable. 

“Not content with that, you get him to speak to Moscow, don’t deny it! Not a day later I get a communique telling me that I need to follow the Brigadier’s example, and produce results not excuses! My people are good, I tell you, we work hard to defend our country and we don’t need some know-it all child coming in here and demanding special privileges! I may have to give you what you need while the Brigadier is around, but don’t think for one minute that I have to like it!” The last sentence was punctuated with a finger poking into his sternum, and Marius felt his temper rise, but he fought hard to remain passive, keeping his face calm and letting the Captain blow off steam. As the Captain finished, he turned on his heel, stalking off swiftly towards the maintenance area, leaving a confused Marius standing in the middle of the road.

He replayed their conversations, his photographic memory bringing back the scenes with clarity and precision. They’d not spoken that often, and no matter which way he figured it, he couldn’t come up with a reason for the enmity between them – there must be something else at work here. Unless someone else on the team had done something he was unaware of, there was just no reason for the anger at all.

Tads was laid up in bed for another four days while her body finished healing the damage that she had been unable to cure magically – but it was a far cry from what it should have taken her. All told it had been just shy of a month since her near-death experience, but given the nature of her injuries, everyone had expected her to take four to sixth months to recover fully.

Marius and Nadia had finished the repairs on their chopper, and it was sitting on an out of the way apron, cloth covering the engine intakes and the massive rotor tied down to prevent damage. All of the systems were functional, and mechanically she was sound – though lacking in creature comforts. Cannibalising the other craft to the point that many of them were now just skeletal wrecks, they had complete armour coverage against small arms over the entire craft, along with a decent radar and imaging system, camera coverage and sensors on all the major components fed into a cobbled-together flight management system. A chemical toilet had been ripped from one of the VIP transports left behind, along with a small locker system that held airline style clip-in trays safely. The rear of the craft had the original folding seats down either side of the craft, and a vast amount of cargo space.

Hunter had been training hard, Aswon had made initial contact with the snipers who had taken the shots from the helicopters and Shimazu had assensed so much of the base that his face was now a part of the scenery and people just took the vaguely smiling Japanese man for granted.

Kai approached the team as they settled down for dinner though, with a big grin on his face.

“I got some good news folks. Having a Chat with Captain Zarkorov, and while he’s still pretty firm about the special ammo – which given what we suspect it might be, I’m not actually that fussed about any more – says the Brigadier is pleased as punch. Turns out he’s been in touch with Patrick, and has decided to up our reward a little bit, on top of letting us keep the chopper.”

The others waited patiently, watching Kai and wishing he’d get to the point before their dinner got cold. 

“I think you’re going to like this. Marius, in particular. He noted that the chopper was a bit lacking offensively, and offered to let me have something from the armoury. It sounded impressive, but I’m not sure how impressive. But I wanted to see your face when I told you.” Marius narrowed his eyes in suspicion at Kai.

“Do we want an NSV tripod mounted heavy machine gun, chambered in 12.7 X 108mm with a box of fifty rounds of tungsten cored armour piercing munitions, along with a box of a thousand rounds of regular ammo?”

Kai smiled as the fork slipped out of the German’s hands and clattered on the plate, his head nodding frantically while he searched for words.

“Thought so, good job I said yes, then. So – now we’ve got a helicopter with a gun and the team is ready to go – what are we going to do next?”


	102. 102 - Heading to the Quarry

Date Thursday 08/04/2060, Location 53.38042, 50.27575

The team had a discussion, and agreed that it was almost time to move on – they needed a paying job to replenish the coffers, and to keep their name out there “on the scene”. With that in mind, they agreed that they’d start to tidy up loose ends and get ready to move out when they were all ready. After a good night’s sleep, they team started to get ready.

Tads took Shimazu and Kai with her, and went to visit the mortuary to recover the two halves of the giant owl carcass. Under the curious eye of the mortuary attendant, she spent the day painstakingly working through the corpse looking for the ideal parts to take. Neither Shimazu nor Kai were adept at spotting the right parts, and Tads tried her best to teach them what she was looking for – but without great success. She did manage to find a number of feathers in pristine condition though, along with a claw from one talon and a false ear that seemed to hold magical potential.

Marius and Nadia continued to work on their helicopter – it was able to fly ok, but the craft was obviously aged and worn. It was getting harder and harder to scavenge any parts from the graveyard that were any better in quality that what they had, and they were having to scrounge or fabricate parts from scratch from materials on the base. After a day’s work, they were able to improve the creature comforts somewhat, and get the tiny chemical toilet working ok, patch up the seats and replace the missing padding and replace the five point harnesses that were looking somewhat dubious.

Aswon chatted with the base snipers a little more, continuing to get to know them, and trying to strike up a friendship with them. Later in the day, he went to see the base armourers, chatting with them about ammunition availability for his big rifle. Chambered for a slightly shorter round than was normal for the Russian weapons, they had nothing in stock that he could use. The NCO in charge of the armoury tapped the side of his nose though, and told Aswon to come back later on.

Returning later in the evening, he found three boxes of ammo put to one side for him – the results of an afternoon’s work on the lathe and the other various tools in the armoury. Aswon slid one of the monster bullets out of the magazine and examined it closely, noting the coloured tip.

“We cut down the rear end, and then refitted the primer, so the necking and the actual round were not touched – they should be nice and accurate. We also reloaded with E23, so it’ll burn a little faster and give you more initial velocity on the shot. I figure the extra recoil isn’t going to bother you too much on the size of rifle you’re putting them in.”

“Thank you – I appreciate it. What are they loaded with? I’m not familiar with your colour coding?”

“Oh, right. Well, like I said the propellant is E23 now, so you should get a nice flat trajectory on firing out to a good few hundred metres. The round is a fragmenting lead-based tip with an impact fuse into a few grams of DX-IV explosive. When you hit something hard enough, the fuse will trigger the explosive, and that in turn is designed to shatter the round and force it out into roughly star-shaped blast pattern.” As he talked, he described the explosive blast radius with his hands, making Aswon’s eyes widen a little – this DX-IV was obviously potent stuff, whatever it was, and he made a mental note to make sure the rounds were well padded and looked after. He certainly didn’t want a ten round mag exploding in the truck or on his person, that was for sure. By the sounds of things, this was as violent as the commercial “Baddaboom” rounds made by Combat Inc, famed for their handgun ammo – to the point where their marketing team had coined the slogan “we put the EXtra into EXplosive!” On a round this size, that gave him enough stopping power to take down even a troll hyped up on combat drugs.

Hunter came back covered in mild bruises, but with a large grin on his face and his hair streaked with sweat – it appeared his combat training was progressing well, and with his increasing abilities he was making his instructors work harder now – which meant that occasionally there were a few slightly over-zealous moves that contacted with him. He appeared not to mind though, and headed off to the showers for a nice long soak.

After they had eaten, Kai requested a quick meeting with Captain Zarkorov, to get things sorted for the final few days. He was told to head to the office, as there was a little time in the diary free, and headed over to the admin building at once, weaving his way through the now somewhat familiar corridors and knocking at the door, entering at the muffled response.

“Good evening, Captain. You’ll probably be glad to hear that now Tads is better, we’re looking at moving on shortly. She passes on her thanks by the way, and wants you to know how much she appreciates your concern and care for her.”

“Please tell her she’s welcome. We’re here to defend the people of our country – and she nearly died helping us out. It would be a stain on the honour of the Brigade if we hadn’t.”

“Well, thank you again, and I’ll pass that on. Now – one thing we thought of was that someone managed to infiltrate your force. Who says that they haven’t done it more than once?” The Captain frowned, but didn’t look surprised – presumably having already thought of this. “Well, everyone knows we’re here now, so we don’t have to be quite so subtle. How about if you can get another parade or something, and we can just go through the whole lot at once – in the open, and look for anything unusual?”

“Hmm. That’s not a bad idea. I wonder.” The captain tapped on his teeth with the end of his pen for a few seconds, staring at the ceiling. Kai waited patiently until he spoke again. “Yes, that’s a good plan. I will organise something for tomorrow, and get everyone through – tell them its mandatory health screening. I can get a check on attendance then, and we can ensure everyone is accounted for.”

“That sounds good. Following the recent adventures, I’m now versed in examining astral space as well, so there should be four of us. If we can find somewhere they need to come past us, it’s extremely unlikely they can slip past all four of us.”

“Very well, and thank you. Knowing we don’t have anyone else hiding something will be a great relief, both to myself and the Brigadier. Was there anything else?”

“Yes, we wanted to discuss your vehicles with you. Now, as you know we put up the magical wards around the barracks, and it was those being tripped that caused us to stumble across the intruders. We’ve had a discussion, and wondered if you wanted us to put up some wards around your vehicles?” The captain drew in a breath, but Kai spoke quickly, before he could respond.

“Now, we don’t have any more materials – and we know you probably won’t be able to get hold of any locally. So they won’t last forever. If we do a really strong warding like we have done on your rooms, then it may only last a few weeks. If we do it like around the barracks, it will be good for 6 months, maybe more. We know you’re heading to some front, somewhere, sometime – so it’s trying to balance what good it may do you, with the time. If we do pretty powerful ward, then you’re talking maybe two vehicles a day.”

The captain considered, twirling the pen idly between his fingers.

“I think, on reflection, that we should be ok. As I understand it, if the vehicles are magically guarded, then that itself is visible to someone watching – and I think we’d rather go with a low key approach. Especially if we can never be sure how long they would last or when it might fail.”

They chatted around the point for a few more minutes, then wrapped up the conversation with pleasantries, before Kai headed back to their rooms.

“Right, we’re doing a full scan of the brigade tomorrow, so make sure you get a good night’s sleep tonight – we’re going to be hard at it tomorrow. One more day of training for you, Hunter, and another day fixing up the chopper, it seems.”

“Hey, I had a thought about the chopper. How far can we go in it?” Shimazu asked, turning towards Marius.

“If we’re flying in a normal manner, not doing any combat operations and with a nominal cargo load, we have an operational range of around a thousand kilometres. Until we’ve had at least one long run with the engine running for a couple of hours, I can’t be sure the fuel consumption is as expected – but I don’t think we’ll be too far wrong. Why?”

“I was just trying to work out how far we could go, and it sounds like the helicopter is shorter range than the truck.”

“Ahh – well, technically yes – but you can often fly in straight lines, instead of driving where the road takes you. Sometimes you can shave nearly half the distance off by flying rather than driving, so it’s probably not going to be that much difference.”

“Oh, I suppose. I hadn’t thought of it like that. But I wondered if we could just put some extra barrels of fuel in the back and connect up a hose to give us more range? What?” The look on Marius’s face was telling, and it was clear that he felt very strongly about this.

“Absolutely not! Fuel tanks are very specially constructed, with baffles, double skins, fire suppression systems, monitors, pumps and a whole host of other things. We are not strapping what is for all intents and purposes small bombs into the back of the chopper!”

The conversation devolved at that, as people started to make jokes about rolling barrels off the back ramp with lit rags in the top, wondering just how big a Molotov cocktail was possible. The good-natured banter went on for some time, as they joked and laughed, until they started to settle down again. Marius had made his point though, and they discussed possibly giving up some of the cavernous cargo space for properly designed fuel tanks to extend the range, along with discussions about adding small medical bays, bunks and various other options to the chopper to make it more useful. Along the way they discussed how they were going to get the vehicles moved – settling on Shimazu driving the truck, with Hunter, Tads and Kai going with him to reach the quarry first and check the place out, then calling for Marius, Nadia and Aswon to come in the chopper. It was going to be a full day’s drive for the truck, but about a two hour flight, clearly showing the value of the bigger craft.

“I can always drive you know – I can wear a ‘trode net, too,” said Aswon. Marius shook his head, pointing at Shimazu.

“No – he is now certified to drive the truck, having proved he has the talent not to drive into buildings and such like. You have not been cleared yet.” That started another round of jokes and loud humour as they discussed the Marius Driving School, and what kind of certificates it issued.

They settled down, not long after, standing their watches and resting for the night, rising at their normal time the following morning and going for their now routine run with the troops. As the days had passed, the weather had turned, and the wind was tending to blow from the south east now, rather than the north east, bringing with it a hint of warmth. Snow still lay on the ground, but the bitter edge had gone, and the snow and sleet storms seemed to have abated. 

Marius and Nadia collected the promised NSV machine gun from the armoury, wheeling it on a trolley to the helicopter pad. It was a heavy beast, made of metal alloys and quite sizeable compared to the small arms the team normally carried. Marius showed Nadia the size of the rounds, and she was shocked, comparing the 12.5 X 108mm beasts with the now tiny looking 9 X 38mm rounds from her submachine gun – and looking at the size of the rounds, it became clear to her why the machine gun was so massive.

Marius had never seen this particular type of weapon system before, and as they examined how to mount it to the turret of the helicopter, he started to quietly curse under his breath. Rather than being mounted on a fairly standard tripod to absorb the punishing recoil, it came with its own proprietary mounting, with angular legs that made it look like a crouching insect. The swivel mount was on the base of the tripod, rather than the gun, and worked around the bottom receiver – meaning that the standard vehicle mounting system would require considerable reconfiguration to fit.

It took them most of the morning to convert the NSV onto the weapons mount in the nose, but at least having to go back to almost first principles meant that Marius could fit the last set of shock absorbers he’d picked up in Batumi. The heavy duty springs from the large gun system would easily damp out the kick from even sustained fire from the weapon, meaning that when he got it properly linked up electronically, he’d be able fire with high accuracy long, sustained bursts that would do horrific damage.

Hunter was back training, leaving the other four to take their positions in the windows of the admin buildings as the seemingly endless line of troops filtered past for their swabs at the hands of bemused medics. It took more than an hour, and their eyes felt like they’d been staring at the sun by the end of it, from the effort of constantly searching astral space for the tiniest glimpse of power. They’d identified a few troopers who seemed to have diminished essence, as a result of infections or illnesses and had sent them for an actual medical examination – but they’d not picked up so much as a twitch of power from any of the troopers.

In the afternoon, after a break, they headed over to the chopper and started work on inscribing a powerful ward over the craft. Again, they lacked the materials to make it permanent, but between the four of them they could certainly pour enough power into it to keep it going for weeks. They worked long into the night, building up the carefully layered magical defences, but when they were done it was almost undetectable unless you knew exactly what you were looking for.

Whilst they were fabricating the mounting brackets and doing some more cosmetic work on the chopper in the afternoon, trying to keep out of the way of the astral team, Marius had another run in with the group captain, again getting a particularly evil look.

He headed off to go find some of the senior techs, and started to help them out with their tasks, engaging them in conversation as he did so. Slowly he turned the topic from the choppers and their maintenance towards the air corp – and then the captain who lead them, trying to find out more about him, what made him tick and what his likes were – perhaps a suitable gift would appease him for whatever imagined slight so offended him.

It took a while, but he found out what the captain prized above all else – apparently he was a bit of a connoisseur and had a taste for Caviar – particularly Beluga Caviar. He went to see Nadia to discuss things, and a few minutes later she was tapping away on the pad, doing a search on the stuff. It only took one look at her face a few minutes later to know it wasn’t good news.

“This stuff, it’s very rare, and very expensive. There’s a whole bunch of restrictions on the gathering and sale, and there’s just not much around. Which is why it’s about six thousand a jar.” Marius winced – that was pretty steep for an apology for something, especially when he wasn’t even sure what he’d done!

While the rest of the team headed back for a rest, Tads headed off into the woods to meet with her acolytes. She managed to arrive a few minutes before the appointed time, and only a few soldiers were present – she greeted them and then moved off to the side of the clearing and began her summoning. First she called the spirit of the forest to her, seeing a large humanoid figure made of branches and leaves appear before her in astral space. After she had greeted it, she called forth a number of watcher spirits, keeping them very low in terms of power and intelligence.

With that done, she rested for a few minutes, letting her head clear after the effort of concentrating so hard – it had been a tiring day magically, with two thousand magical examinations followed by a powerful ward on their new chopper – and now this. Certainly she was going to sleep well tonight. 

More troops had filed in and were gathered in small knots, chatting amongst themselves while they waited, and she spotted the three troopers who had been the first to meet with her. Iosif, Kiril and Anfim came over to her, pleased to see her up and about, and she felt their eyes flick over her, making sure she was up to the exertion.

“It’s good to see you too, and I’m fine – thanks to your surgeon and being looked after while I was sleeping. I understand that you came and sat with me, to keep me company. Thank you. I hope to have a slightly better service for you and the men this time – I’ve been thinking a lot.”

“We’re glad you’re ok. If you’re ready to get started, we’ll gather the men around.” Iosif called out, stilling the side conversations and getting the men to form up in a loose arc in front of Tads, before stepping back to join one end of the ragged line, waiting patiently.

Tads took a different approach this time, rather than trying to lead them in a service or prayer – something she had no real experience with and had struggled with last time – instead she tried to teach them. She started with a very basic description of what a watcher spirit was, describing their short lifespans and immaterial nature, but pointing out that they could spy and watch, or carry messages just the same as a better spirit. She did a quick count and asked the men to split up into groups of three, and then called a watcher spirit to her and asked it to appear with each group and talk to them.

The watcher spirits were dumb, as she had deliberately not given them much power to ensure that she didn’t end up with a massive headache after summoning the half dozen she could control at once. But, each group of men had a magical creature appear before them, that they could talk and interact with – a manifestation of magic made real. Her demonstration went down much better than a speech, and the men had fun asking questions and trying to make sense of the answers given, poking at the forms and watching their hands move through them.

She gave them about ten minutes to explore and interact with the watchers before she gathered them up and sent them to one side to wait, then asked the forest spirit to manifest in front of the men. She thanked the spirit, bowing deeply to it, and was rewarded with a shaking of leaves and vines as it acknowledged her. Turning back to the men she spent a few minutes describing the spirit, speaking respectfully of how it was the manifestation of the land, and reflected what man had done to it – warning them that pollution and evil acts caused a darkening of the spirits in turn.

“Now, can I have a volunteer please, for a demonstration?”

There was a few moments of hesitation, then one trooper raised his hand tentatively.

“Yes, thank you, come and stand over here by me, what’s your name.”

“Cizchy, T, 8337-9711-0641” he snapped back automatically, bracing to attention in response, before he realised he’d answered so formally. “Err. Tomasz. My name is Tomasz, wise one.”

“Call me Tads, please. Now, what I’m going to do is ask the spirit to conceal you. It won’t hurt, and you shouldn’t feel anything at all – you probably won’t even be able to tell. But everyone else will probably find you very had to spot – if they can see you at all. Tomasz looked nervous, but stood his ground, and Tads calmly asked the spirit to conceal him.

Gasps rose from the arc of troopers, and people blinked in surprise as he neatly vanished. Tads described what was happening, talking over them and advising them to try looking hard, or looking away and then back again. One of the men gave a cry, shouting that he’d seen Tomasz for just a moment, then he vanished again, and that started a whole series of ridiculous looking pantomimes as people played peek-a-boo or turned back and forth. She gave them another minute of trying to find the concealed trooper, and described how big an advantage the power of concealment gave to their enemies – and how eagle-eyed they needed to be to spot it, before she moved on and asked the spirit to demonstrate its other powers.

Another volunteer was sought, and then she bent down and untied his laces from his right side boot, and said that all he had to do was retie it. The trooper laughed, but then bent over and froze, as the spirit addled his mind. Looking around in confusion, he watched the dark sky for a few moments, then idly scratched at the side of his neck and started to whistle tunelessly. She got his friend to shout instructions to him, and they all watched as he went to comply, but then got distracted. Again Tads pointed out the tell-tale signs of someone being affected by the power, as clearly demonstrated, before finally asking the spirit to stop.

“There is one more demonstration I can show you, but I’ll explain it first before anyone volunteers. Spirits have a way to make you experience your darkest and most powerful fears. They can tap into your memories and find the thing that scares you most, and make you believe it is happening – most people run in fear, and pay no attention to their surroundings – even running off cliffs or into the sea. I can show you this, but whoever volunteers will need to be held by others, to make sure they don’t hurt themselves. And, it will only go on for a few seconds – but don’t think that this would be easy or fun.

There was much discussion, and for a while she thought no one would take up the offer, but just as she was about to call a halt, one man stepped forwards. She made sure he was ready, and got four of the others to hold him firm, then asked the spirit to make him afraid, but only for a few seconds. It was enough – the four troopers holding onto him nearly lost their grip so violently did he thrash, and the look of wild-eyed terror on his face was enough to make all of the rest glad that it wasn’t them.

The spirit stopped after a few seconds, and the man slowly recovered his composure. None of the men laughed or joked – the reaction had been too visceral for that. Tads crouched in front of him, calming him down and speaking in a low voice, making sure he was ok, before she rose and addressed them all.

“Imagine if that happened to the driver of your vehicle, or helicopter. Or if one of you was holding a grenade or rocket. Remember – it doesn’t make you weak, it’s a battle you’ve not been trained to fight. But if you support each other, and look after each other – and treat the land well, then you can help to guard against those things.” She spoke for a few more minutes, wrapping things up and thanking them for coming. Iosif asked to speak, and approached her, holding a small bag in his hands.

He turned to face the troops, and recounted the words of the Brigadier from the parade, describing Tads’ actions, much to her embarrassment. That wasn’t helped when the troops braced to attention facing her, as she was awarded her medal, and her cheeks were flushed as she gave a courteous bow to them in return. Iosif pulled out a small case from the bag, and opened the lid towards him, revealing a number of compartments inside, each holding a small sample.

“We went out and collected these for you, by hand. Soil from the forest, sand from the river bank, leaves of the different trees. A small mouse skull, some moss, all the things from Samara. We hope they connect you to us, and remind you of your help here.” He examined her face, clearly looking for approval and hoping that they’d made the right choice of gifts. Tads ran her fingers over the samples, feeling the different textures of the various items, smelling the scents given off by them.

“Thank you – this means a lot to me, it’s a very good gift. I can look at it, and remember you all.”

She headed back with the troops, releasing the spirits from her control as she got to the edge of the woods, and headed back to the barracks with her sample case and medal to get some sleep.

Her plan was thwarted when she found the team up, discussing Caviar and the extortionate prices though.

“Tads? Your spell that makes food. Could it make fish eggs? They’re simple enough, right?”

“I suppose so – and yes, that should be simple enough. But why, Aswon?”

They briefed her in, explaining to her that yes some people thought they were a delicacy, and no, there was no accounting for taste. Tads explained to them that she had to have seen, tasted or experienced the food to be able to make it really, which threw a bit of a spanner in the works.

“I have an idea, Tads – how about if you put up your spell to link our minds, and I will imagine eating the tastiest giraffe steak I’ve ever head. And you share that, and then try to make it?” Tads was somewhat curious, and agreed – and moments later she was pulling the information from Aswon’s mind about what giraffe tasted like (much like chicken it seemed), apart from the crushed seeds and paste it had been marinated in (hotter than licking molten lava). She tried to make some that matched what she had experienced, and handed it over to Aswon.

He tried the food, sitting with his eyes closed to avoid tainting the moment, but after a few chews, shook his head.

“Sorry, it’s just not the same. Not quite right. It’s like…diet giraffe. But you can tell the good stuff has been taken out!” They tried a few more times, and after experimentation decided that a mental picture of someone else’s taste buds or experience just wasn’t the same as your own, and gave up the idea – although if they could get a sample and Tads could recreate it, they could make some money to be sure. 

In the morning, after their normal run and breakfast, they drove the truck up to the helicopter, and cross-loaded a large amount of their equipment. The difference between the two vehicles became even more obvious – the truck felt almost roomy when the majority of the gear was moved over, but it barely filled a small corner of the chopper. Tads did a last visit to the infirmary, and put some effort into clearing out all of the soldiers of their injuries before thanking the doctor again for her work. By about 11am they were ready, and Shimazu carefully seated the ‘trode net on his head.

Hunter, Tads and Kai spread out on the seats, and the truck pulled out gently, the trailer rattling along behind it as Shimazu carefully drove away under the watchful scrutiny of Marius. They watched the truck leave, then Aswon, Marius and Nadia returned to the final prep on the chopper.

“How far down to the quarry, Marius?”

“It’s about 600km, so they’ll be lucky to make it before 17:00, assuming they have a quiet journey.”

“And how long for us?”

“About two hours from when we take off, and maybe plus or minus fifteen minutes, depending on the wind.”

Aswon headed off to see the snipers, aware that he had a couple of hours to kill. He decided that as this was his last day on the base, to take along the monster rifle they’d picked up in Constantinople. On seeing the massive 50cal, the snipers were very curious, and jumped at the chance for a test when Aswon offered it. They collected their weapons from the armoury and soon found themselves on the long gun range.

Aswon soon found himself embroiled in a friendly competition – apparently somewhat home brewed, it involved doing a run to a marker and back, a crawl with the rifle held in front of you, another short run, then settling down for some shots. He could see the genesis of it – it tested many of the skills needed in the field, and would mark out the better sniper, rather than just the best shot. There was some complicated method of scoring that factored in the time and the grouping, but he didn’t bother too much with that.

He placed well, ending up near the top of the pack and earning the congratulations of the rest of the group – his general athleticism pushing his performance up considerably. After the competition was concluded, he let each of the snipers fire off a short string at the distant targets, experiencing the massive recoil from the monster weapon, he getting a turn on their Russian made rifles in exchange.

Marius meanwhile headed off to the officers’ mess, grabbing one of the stewards for a quiet word. With a small exchange of hard cash, he was pointed at the right person, and soon walked away with four bottles of premium vodka, two that he had wanted, and two that Aswon had requested.

He grabbed his two bottles and headed over to the air wing, seeking out the group captain. He was unsurprisingly in his office, snowed under with paperwork, and responding to Marius’s knock on his door with exasperation. That changed a little when he saw Marius with the bottles, becoming much more guarded.

Marius took a deep calming breath, then pushed a smile onto his face, and crossed the open space before his desk, and carefully seated each of the bottles onto the plastic surface, careful to avoid landing on any strips of printed plastic or loose items. Trying to keep his voice friendly and non-confrontational, he thanked the captain for his help and support in what must have been a difficult time, and wished him and the air wing good luck in whatever situation they found themselves in supporting the Brigade.

His careful choice of words, and decision to avoid mentioning the choppers bought back into service, or the Brigadier seemed to get through, and hooded eyes studied him for a moment over the desk. After a moment, the group-captain pushed back his chair and stood, then offered his hand to shake over the desk.

“Thank you. I wish you good flying, and good luck.”

Marius nodded in return, and then straightened and braced to a position that could be interpreted as something akin to attention. He didn’t salute – he wasn’t in the military and he wasn’t going to appropriate that and undo the work he’d done. Again, the captain seemed to understand, and nodded at him, clearly giving him leave to ‘carry on’. Marius turned and left, careful to keep his face blank to avoid giving away his feelings to any of the staff outside the office, and heading back towards the chopper for some last minute tweaks. With any luck, there was a bridge that had been on fire, but was now quenched, and while not the sturdiest – might be used in the future.

When he got back to the hanger, he dialled Milo on his internal com, hoping he wasn’t in the middle of a scanning session. While the call went through, he opened the access panel and connected up small spool of fibre optic data cable to the transponder installed on the craft, running the cable back to a workstation at the side of the hanger, so he and Nadia could get to work.

He was in luck, and Milo answered, from the background noise apparently in a restaurant, café or bar of some kind. After the usual pleasantries, he told Milo he’d managed to get hold of a chopper, second hand – very reasonable, slightly careless owners, but he’d managed to fix her up. And now, he was wondering – seeing as the ID that Milo had worked up for him was still pretty fresh, was there any chance he could maybe just change a few bits here, a few bits there, make sure that he was certified for a heavy lift transport chopper?

Milo told him no sweat – he’d investigate what was needed, and then get back to him with a price, in a couple of hours. They chatted for a few more minutes, Marius giving a very brief run-down of their time on the base in very high levels. When their chat was done, he ended the call, returning his full attention to the computer screen, and helping Nadia to reset the transponder code – ensuring that it squawked a different code, not tied to the military. They’d need to do some work to insert it into civilian databases as they flew around, but they could cross that bridge later.

Once the transponder was dealt with, he got a very confused Nadia to help him rig up a long tube that was slotted over the front of the machine gun, with an empty hose attached to each side of the back, that was then mounted on brackets running down each side of the fuselage and running back to the cargo area. After a while, Nadia couldn’t constrain her curiosity any more.

“Marius – what ARE we doing here? This doesn’t connect to anything, it’s just going to create drag. These hoses will never hold any pressure, and I don’t see what we’re doing here.”

“Ok, look – go right over to the far corner of the hanger, and take a photo on your com, don’t zoom in, don’t concentrate on holding your hand steady – just grab a snapshot.” He waited for her to comply, then come back over to him, still with a look of confusion on her face. “Now imagine – that’s your sensor picture – taken from a casual sweep. You query the transponder and library details, and the quick search comes back, filing a flight plan for a freelance disaster clean-up team. One with a specially fitted-out helicopter that has been converted to aerial firefighting duties, with a nose-mounted fire hose for combatting fires on oil derricks or high rise buildings.”

“That’s thin. Very thin. I mean, a good look at this and that story is blown wide open. But I guess… if we sell them on the details and the background, so they never look closely – have no reason to look at the vehicle in person. Yes, that could work. You’re so clever, my love!” She leant in and rewarded him with a hug and slow sensuous kiss, and a moment later there was a ‘spang’ as a small machine screw shot across the floor as his attention wandered from what he was doing. Nadia sniggered, and then wandered off, leaving him to reattach the clip that was now trying to work free.

She returned in a few minutes with two pots of paint, and started to paint the new additions red and white, hoping that it would be at least tack dry before they had to take off.

Back in the barracks, Aswon spent a while cleaning his rifle after his time on the range, then packing it away in the transit case. When he was all done, he grabbed his last bag of stuff, and then hefted the case in his right hand, pushing open the door with his left. Behind him on his bed lay the two bottles of premium vodka, lying side by side on his pillow.

As he left the barracks, he stopped on the threshold, level with the two privates standing guard over the barracks. The same two privates that had ended up having to run with them a few weeks ago, wearing their heavy gear.

“Hey guys. Just wanted to say thank you. And to let you know, that in my room in there, there’s a bottle each, for your troubles. I’m heading off to the air wing now – I think I can find my way. I’ll see you around.”

He started walking again, keeping up a steady pace and a wry smile tugged at his lips as he heard the door quietly open behind him as the troopers slipped inside.

Shimazu and the rest of the team in the truck drove south west, retracing their route from a month ago. Their journey was agreeably smooth, and they made good time down the highway, Shimazu carefully keeping the truck running at top speed down the route wherever he could to maintain their schedule. When they reached Volgograd, he followed the directions, joining the heavy traffic heading north along the New Silk Road. Large rigs carrying a thousand and one cargos thundered up and down the road, with some conveys of a dozen or more trucks with APCs riding as escort clearly seen. They headed north towards Sebryakov, a mid-sized town about two hundred kilometres to the north of Volgograd, and then slid off the highway onto local roads.

Following the main road through town, they emerged from the north into an industrial area, full of massive buildings and goods yards. The air was dusty, and a film of white residue game the grime a strange quality. They pushed on, looking around them carefully, and after another mile saw the road rise in a large sweeping S-bend ahead of them, up a large hill that looked to be a man-made.

At the base of the hill, a guard shack sat by the side of the wide road, guarding a large gate that covered the road, bridging the gap between the chicken-wire fence that stretched off to either side into the countryside. Over the top of the shack a massive sign warned that the BCQ quarry was private, and that trespassers would be shot. Shimazu slowed, letting the truck coast up to the gate and saw a heavy-set man emerge from the shack, a large shotgun held on a sling over his shoulder.

They popped the door open, and Shimazu and Kai climbed down, walking over towards the man.

“Quarry’s closed.” His body twisted a little, bringing the shotgun around in their direction, making it clear that he wasn’t open to negotiation. Shimazu pushed Kai in the back, prodding him to make the play.

“Hi there. We have one of these.” He opened his hand, revealing the card with the aircraft printed on it.

“Welcome to the quarry.” He turned away, without any change in his demeanour or signs of actually meaning what he said, but a moment later the whir of electric motors kicked in, and the gate was dragged back. Kai and Shimazu remounted, and after a minute to get the ‘trode net secured again, the truck started up and rumbled forwards, climbing the hill.

As they crested the hill, they saw the road drop down a more gentle slope on the other side, but instead of a sweeping series of bends, it was arrow straight as it travelled north west from them. Cliffs of limestone were to the left and right of them, rising in ten metre sections then stepping back a metre like impossibly huge steps.

Shimazu let the truck coast down the road, and they slowly dropped in height, descending into the depths of the quarry. The journey was quiet, the truck rolling smoothly downhill, with Shimazu keeping gentle pressure on the mental brake to stop them accelerating. Hunter looked confused for a moment, then pressed his nose up against one side of the truck, before scrabbling over to the other side. A moment later he pushed open the door, and hung half out of the door, examining the road surface below them. With a grunt, he pulled himself back inside the cab and slammed the door shut.

“This road – pretty smooth for a quarry, don’t you think? And I just looked – it’s concrete, heavy duty concrete. Probably about ten metres wide. Straight – look ahead, there’s still a good thousand metres to go. It’s got a coating of dust on it, but underneath that it’s smooth, straight, solid.” He looked around at the others. “What else do we know that is about ten metres wide, smooth, made of reinforced concrete and about fifteen hundred metres long? Is anyone else thinking ‘runway’?”

They continued to roll down the hill, redoubling their examination of the quarry around them. Halfway along the road, the quarry opened up to their left, with huge machinery evident in the gathering twilight, massive dump trucks and monster drills and bucket scoops. But the road – or runway – continued down at the same steady slope, dropping them down further and further. The sheer walls of rock, bermed by man-made heaps of spoil on the others sides isolated them from the outside world – unless you were standing atop one of the heights, the quarry was completely out of view from everyone outside.

At the bottom of the slope, a virtual copy of the guard shack sat to one side, set back a few metres. A sign overhead proclaimed “Demolition Shack” in two foot high letters, and a similar looking guard emerged, also with a heavy duty shotgun on a friction sling. Kai climbed down alone this time, leaving Shimazu connected to the truck. The guard took the card without a word, examining it closely, and then pointed over towards the cliff face, and a large cavern that appeared to lead into the mined face of the quarry.

“New arrivals, over there.” Kai nodded and pocketed the card, then climbed back up into the cab.

“Apparently, new arrivals are over there. Let’s go.” The truck pulled away slowly, heading towards the darkness that lay ahead of them.


	103. 103 - Into the Quarry

Date Thursday 08/04/2060, Location 50.11352, 43.20946

The truck pulled over into the darkness at the foot of the cliff, the early spring sun having long since abandoned the depths of the quarry. Arc lights strung up around the quarry highlight some of the heavy machinery and road ways, but it was generally unlit and dark, the high bermed sides of the quarry cutting off the light-spill from the adjacent town. Shimazu pulled up at the indicated spot and stopped, then after a moment of examination killed the engine. The rumbling of the big diesel faded away, and a calm quiet descended upon them.

To their right, a man walked out of the cliff face, without a care in the world. Tads was quick to drop into astral space and the rest of the team saw her stiffen.

“It’s a trid phantasm – big one, too. Not quite as big as the one back in the valley near the temple, but it’s a good sixty metres or more across, and maybe twenty to thirty high. That’s a big hole it’s covering – assuming it is all hollow behind it. Pretty powerful, too – about what I could do, but probably a bigger area. Hmm.”

Shimazu peeled off his ‘trode net and joined her in examining the magical effect, whilst Hunter scrunched up his nose and then moved to peer out of the other windows, examining the quarry. Kai pulled out his commlink and sent a message to Marius. ‘Have arrived, passed initial screening. Ready when you are.’

Tads and Shimazu suddenly realised that the man who had walked through the phantasm had continued over to their vehicle, and was now waiting for them. They could barely see his face in the darkness, but he looked impatient. Shimazu opened the door carefully, ensuring he wasn’t going to hit the man and called out.

“Visitor for you…” Kai hit the send button, then scrunched over in the cab towards the open door and looked down. He put on his best smile, smoothing his features and pitching his voice just right.

“Hi there. I’m Kai, how can I help you?”

“I’m Oric Vishtar – but you can call me Mr. Vishtar. I understand you have a card?”

“Yes, that’s right, let me see… here we go.” He reached down and the card was taken from his outstretched hands, examined and then returned.

“Fine. If you want to follow me, then we’ll get you parked and shown around.”

“Ahh – I actually have some more team mates still to come – do I get them just to land here?”

“More? You have two vehicles? Well, that’s no problem, but it’ll raise your berth costs. What are they coming in?”

“It a helicopter. A big one. Hope that won’t be an issue?”

“When are they due?”

“Well, probably in about two hours, so they said.”

“Right.” The man stood stock still for a moment, gazing into space, as if concentrating on a difficult set of mental arithmetic. “They’re to approach from 095 degrees, at a height between 50 and 100 metres AGL, squawking a beacon on 147.21Mhz with a .25 second duration, and 5.45 second repeat, between 20:50 and 21:10. Got that?” Kai nodded, glad that Shimazu had started to frantically scribble down notes. “When they arrive, I’ll come back for you, and we’ll go through your orientation then. See you around 9ish.”

With that, he turned and walked away, heading to the cliff face and then disappeared, swallowed by the illusion.

Shimazu pulled the door shut, and passed the information over to Kai, who quickly transcribed it into his commlink and sent the data over to Marius.

“I wonder what they do if you don’t follow the rules? Probably bad, especially on the first visit, I guess. So, I take it we just have to wait then?”

They looked around for a minute, watching the occasional shape in the darkness as what appeared to be workers moved around in landscape. Tads shuffled over towards Hunter, and pulled out her medal, asking him if he’d have a look for some information about it on the matrix, seeing as they were waiting. With little else to do, he shrugged and agreed, rolling out the screen and keyboard and jacking them into the truck’s power ports. Tads left him to it, moving back and then around into the trailer, so she could use the hours profitably by studying some of her new spell formula.

Hunter waited for her to leave, then kicked in the search program, leaving the simple-minded bot to do the datamining, before resting his head on a scrunched up jumper carefully positioned against the side of the truck. His breathing slowed and his eyes closed, and it wasn’t long before he was quietly dozing while his computer flickered and chirped quietly to itself as the search parameters crawled the matrix.

Kai and Shimazu decided to have a good look around the place, and leant up against their windows, their sight slowly quartering the quarry as they looked for information. Alternating between normal sight and a close examination of the astral plane, they looked around the massive rent in the earth, studying it for clues.

Far to the east, Marius cinched the straps tighter on the pilot’s seat, then glanced over to ensure that Nadia was correctly strapped in too. He thought for a moment, then reached over ‘the old fashioned way’ to start the massive engines. As the pre-heaters kicked in, and a deep whine started to build, he glanced back over his left shoulder and called out.

“Aswon, starting up – check the doors are all secure and there’s no loose cargo!” He waited until he heard an answering bellow, then turned back and concentrated on dials and gauges, watching the temperatures and pressure rise. In the back, Aswon checked the doors, one after another. The cargo hold was huge, large enough that he could actually break into a run as he moved from one side to another. All the doors were closed and locked tight, the mechanisms dogged down, and ready to go.

By the time he reached the cockpit, the chambers were up to temperature and Marius was starting the main start-up sequence. The whine intensified, then exploded into a deep rumble as first one engine, then the other sprang into life. Outside, the massive rotors started to turn, so slowly to begin with, so slowly you could walk in a circle with them held in your hand. As the engine power rose though, the blades started to accelerate smoothly, the tips rising up higher and higher as they started to generate lift. Marius studied the instruments and continued to apply power gently, increasing the speed further. With a delicate little shudder, the wheels bounced on the shock absorbers as the rotors finally lifted the huge craft into the air.

Marius hovered for a moment, studying the instruments and carefully checking that everything was ok. Once he was satisfied, he pulled back on the collective a little more, and gently pushed the rudder pedals, the bulbous craft lifting and turning in response. When he had climbed thirty metres, he pushed forward on the stick, and the chopper nosed down and started to move forwards, slowly picking up speed. Everything he did was careful and gentle – at least for now – as Marius slowly tested the responsiveness and handling of the craft. Even with the extensive work done on the craft there was still a lot more to do, it seemed – now they were in the air, the control wires seemed slacker than he’d like, and the controls themselves were sluggish – though that might be because he was flying an elephant, rather than an eagle.

He kept low, flying “nap of the earth”, only rising up above thirty metres when powerlines or terrain features forced him to. Nadia kept track of their position on some flimsy-plas maps, marking off their progress against towns, rivers and landmarks as best she could. The minutes stretched out, and slowly Marius started to relax a little, as he got a feel for the craft – it was certainly a different proposition to any of the cargo craft he’d flown before. They avoided villages as best they could, flying over the huge fields of soy and bioengineered crops, scattering the odd flock of sheep or herds of cows and shaking the windows of farmhouses and homesteads.

The cockpit was suddenly filled with a blaring voice, clipping and distorted. Nadia almost dropped her maps in surprise, grasping the slick plastic between her legs before they sprawled all over the floor.

“Kilo 429 Alpha, Kilo 429 Alpha, this is Saratov centre. Send your transponder authorisation and flight plan ID.” Nadia unhooked from her safety harness and moved back a section to the radio operators’ station. After a few seconds of hunting, she managed to turn the gain and volume down on the speaker to manageable levels, and then stared at the keypad and limited function computer.

“Marius, what do I do here?” He started to talk her through patching in his headset to the outbound response, having to repeat the last section as Saratov centre repeated their message, sounding a little testier this time.

“Saratov centre, Kilo 429 Alpha. We are a heavy-lift chopper out of Samara, flying corporate cargo. Our transponder authenticator is Mike Mike Lima Alpha dash Tango Juliet Delta Foxtrot. Flight plan is ID three one niner, over.” Marius sounded calm and composed, to the point of almost boredom, as if nothing was wrong in the world and like someone had just asked him for the time. The seconds ticked by, until half a minute later, the speaker crackled again

“Kilo 429 Alpha, we have negative notification on your flight plan. Confirm your ID over.” Marius keyed the microphone again, repeating the nonsense string of characters back to the controller. He was glad he’d flown commercially before he was captured – at least he could use the correct format for the message, and whatever system the controller was using would accept his input. He waited again, and unsurprisingly, Saratov came back again telling him there was no flight plan.

“Saratov centre, look – I filed the plan this morning, ticked all the boxes, and even paid for my pre-flight clearance checks, if you know what I mean. I can’t help it if Samara decided to crack open the bottle of White Label I left them as a thank you before they finished their shift. But if you want to check, you can contact my corp HQ back in Moscow for confirmation…”

“Kilo 429 Alpha, I don’t give a rat’s ass who you filed with, or who you work for – you’re not cleared for this airspace. Turn to bearing 315 immediately, and proceed until you hit waypoint three tango. Failure to comply will result in interception.”

Marius suddenly realised who he was talking with – the hotel they had stayed at on the way to Samara had a definite aeronautical theme, and he remembered the large airbase to the edge of town. There was almost certainly a bubble of highly controlled airspace around it, and he didn’t fancy being intercepted by a jet – or even worse – a modern military chopper equipped with decent sensors. 

“Saratov centre, confirm, adjusting bearing to 315 to bypass controlled airspace.” He banked over, and then called back to the others. “This might be a bit of a problem – if we go around the base and the town, it’s going to push us behind on time – we might not make it to the quarry in the time window specified in Kai’s message.

Aswon came forward, and he and Nadia poured over the maps, looking for other airbases or obstacles that could cause them a problem, and Marius increased power a touch more, watching the engine dials and readouts carefully, monitoring the temperatures and risking a little more height – it slightly increased the chance of being spotted by civilian traffic controllers and queried, but meant less fraught flying and a marginal increase in speed.

Fortunately the rest of the journey passed without incident, and by pushing the engines a tiny bit harder than he wanted to, they clawed back a couple of minutes from their detour, arriving at the quarry at the end of their window. Nadia keyed in the sequence to the radio system, sending out the beacon as specified, then listening attentively in case there was any message. The radio was silent though, and they rose slightly over the hill and then Marius started to drop into the quarry.

Shimazu and Kai had been examining the quarry for some time, and had spotted something that made them wonder – it was a patch of terrain on the near side of the hill, smooth and just a tiny bit too regular to be natural. Once they’d examined it carefully using passive sensors and a pair of binoculars, they’d come to the conclusion that it was actually a concealed trap-door of some kind. It could contain anything, but the smart money was on a pop up turret or missile system of some kind – and positioned where it was it had a commanding field of view over the approach to the west of the quarry.

Once they realised what they were looking for, they’d spotted a dozen or so more, scattered at regular intervals around the edge of the quarry, ringing the approaches and covering all approach angles. – whoever ran the place was serious about their defences, it seemed. They’d heard Hunter rouse from his snooze, and Tads return, but were still hard at work looking for sensor pods and additional weapon systems, so they paid little attention as Hunter relayed the information from his search bot.

“Look Tads, it’s a civilian award. Not that famous really, and it doesn’t entitle you too much of anything. You can wear it to formal dinners of state, or if you’re invited to an event by a state agent. It’s one of those weird things, where you’ve got to play the game a little to recognise the game – but if you do, it won’t harm you at all. And if it’s been awarded to you, your ID should be a lot more solid now.” He went on a little more about the origins of the medal, clearly reading from a matrix encyclopaedia page. 

“Ok guys, heads up. Choppers due any minute now!” They all moved to a window, looking up and around them. Shimazu and Kai in particular were watching those smooth patches, just in case – but they remained reassuringly closed. The chopper appeared over the hill like a behemoth, clearly visible even from range, then started its descent down into the quarry.

Marius slowly lowered the power, looking around him swiftly and feeling his back grow slick with sweat. The chopper wallowed slightly as he lowered it into the quarry, working to steady the craft from the crosswinds and eddies thrown up from the cliff face. He kept up a steady cycle – front view, engine power, altitude, left window, adjusted ground speed, temperatures, right window, warning lights, back to the front view. He lowered the craft slowly, taking his time and being cautious – the sheer scale of the craft dwarfed anything he’d flown before, and he just didn’t have that instinctive feel for how big his footprint was yet.

As he got close the ground, he ran into a new problem. The downwash from the rotor pummelled the ground below, sending dust and rock fragments skittering and speeding through the air. Within a few seconds the air around the chopper whited out, as limestone dust was thrown up into a huge cloud. Robbed of sight, and unable to rely on his normal sensors, Marius relied on dead reckoning instead – keeping his rate of descent steady, he counted in his head, and at just the right moment increased power a touch. He felt the rear wheels touch down, then skid slightly as he lifted the bird again. Slowly he backed off the power, then felt the front wheel touch down, and the shock absorbers flex and compress, before he cut the engines fully.

He moved swiftly, killing the compressors and intake fans, trying to keep as much of the limestone dust out of his engines as possible – the last thing he needed was to lose an engine on the first hop! As the rotors slowed and the pressure dropped, the dust cloud abated and the air slowly cleared. First the truck appeared like a ghost out of the haze, then the rest of the quarry, until finally as the rotors came to a halt, the cloud dissipated into the cool night air.

Moments later the figure walked out of the wall again, strolling over towards the truck. Marius popped the top hatch and climbed up onto the roof of the cockpit, dragging up two large shrouds from the locker at the rear of the cockpit, fitting them over the engine intakes to prevent more dust from caking the filters. Nadia and Aswon headed over to the truck to meet up with the others, and examine the newcomer.

Vishtar chatted to Kai as he waited for Marius to finish and climb down.

“It’s quite unusual that we get teams in with two vehicles as large as yours. Small stuff, sure, but that’s a beast of a chopper. So tell me, how much armour have you packed onto that thing?”

“Not too much – nothing but small arms protection at the moment as it happens, though we’re looking to change that. Why?”

“Well, we’ll have to get it towed in to your pod – I just want to make sure I’m not going to break a vehicle asking it to tow something that weighs more than a jumbo. You should be fine though. Is your man finished? Ahh, here he comes, good. Follow me everyone.”

They filed after him as he turned and headed to the cliff face, and calmly walked straight through the stone – but having experienced Tads’ illusions before they at least knew how to handle this, and calmly followed him through. On the far side, they looked around with interest. The tunnel was huge, easily eighty meters across and reaching a peak of thirty meters or so high. Limestone walls stretched off into the darkness ahead, the oval tunnel maintaining width and height for some considerable distance. The walls were smooth in appearance, with dark lines flowing up and along at intervals, fault lines between sections or different plates of rock. Their guide led them in a few metres and to the side, where they saw a large alcove lit with overhead lamps.

As they approached they saw the wall wasn’t actually that smooth – but the roughness had a generally even quality to it, without massive extremes. The floor was much smoother, and looked to have been worn fairly flat in the middle especially. As they got to the alcove they saw that the cables for the electric lights were all run along the walls, suspended from some kind of collar or hooks that appeared to be glued to the walls, rather than drilled or bolted.

In the alcove was a large freestanding rack, holding sets of high-visiblity over jackets, safety boots and breather masks. The man motioned for them to gather around him in an arc and waited for them to stop shuffling.

“Right then, welcome to the Quarry. My name is Oric Vishtar – for now you can call me Mr. Vishtar.” His voice was deadpan, without any hint of humour. “First things – outside is a working quarry, and it’s important to the base. If you go outside, you WILL put on the safety equipment stationed here if you’re going wandering. To get to your vehicle parked just outside – you’re fine. But more than a couple of metres out into the main area – suit up, boot up, or else. Failure to comply is a bannable offence.”

“This is the board,” he gestured towards a white board attached at the far end of the rack. “It shows who is staying here at the moment, in which pod.” They focussed on the board for the moment, and saw that there were names in all six sections. From top to bottom it read ‘Paladin’, ‘Zephyr’, ‘The Half-pint’, ‘The Bandit’, ‘69pp’ and finally ended with a couple of question marks in the sixth box. “The board is updated by the quarry crew, and the quarry crew only. Nobody else is to touch the board, including writing funny messages or jokes on it. Messing with the board is a bannable offence.”

“The main entrance tunnel is pretty wide, as you can see, and stretches back a fair way. It splits off into two main branches, and then into a number of caverns and smaller tunnels. Each of the caverns is a pod, and matches the board here. Each pod is assigned to a team when they arrive, and normally reflects your rep with us – the lower the pod number, the closer you are to the common areas and the good stuff. Each pod has a wide area marked at the entrance with yellow and black hazard stripes. You may NOT enter another team’s pod without their express permission. Failing to comply is …“

“A bannable offence?” Aswon queried. Vishtar nodded to him.

“Ok, take this,” he handed a small electronic tablet to Kai, then beckoned them to follow him down the tunnel. “There is to be no gun play or offensive magic in the caves. Failure to comply is a bannable offence.” Aswon joined in and chorused with him, and the others nodded along, clearly getting the gist of this. “Fighting is discouraged, but not against the rules – with the exception that if you fight someone, everyone should be able to walk away afterwards. If you fight someone and they’re left in a situation where they could bleed out or deteriorate – that’s a bannable offence.” As they moved further in, a series of lights came on, widely spaced down the tunnel wall. They formed little pockets of warm light with dark patches of blackness between them.

“If you want to fight like that, you take it to the arena and fight there – that’s anything goes, and used to settle major arguments.” The team could start to see some coloured lights appearing now, three on each side of the tunnel, repeating into the distance. “Each pod has a colour as you’ve probably noticed, and to reach your pod – just follow your colour light. Easy – and you have no excuse to end up at someone else’s pod. Now then, fraud – aimed at the cave staff, or other teams, or theft – again the same, is against the rules and is a bannable offence.”

“If you break or damage any stalactite, stalagmite or helictite in the caves – “ Aswon interrupted him,

“Bannable offence?”

“No – executable offence. Now, each of the pods has an electric feed, lighting, a macerator toilet, sinks, a small food prep area, some bunks and a locker… what?”

“I’m sorry – did you say executable offence?” Aswon clarified. “And if so, what is a helictite?

“I did - and imagine a stalactite that grew sideways, then changes its mind. Now, moving on, there is a locker with a decent lock on it that can be used to store valuables in while you’re here. The boss has the master override code, and will check after teams head out, and charge you for disposal of any crap in there. If you have bigger stuff, we have some large lockers in the common area that can be rented out.” He ignored the side-long looks from the team as they contemplated the sudden escalation from bannable offence to death.

“We have a work crew that does maintenance on the quarry equipment, that are available for hire for vehicle repairs, on a first come first served basis. There is also a jobs and help wanted board in the rec area, that you can make use of, as well as some games, the canteen and some other stuff – I’ll show you that in a bit.”

They arrived at a branch, with a large side cavern leading off to the left, with more of the coloured lights leading them onwards. Turning into the smaller tunnel, no more than forty metres across, they soon discovered smaller tunnels leading off. Mr Vishtar pointed out a few side passages that had the yellow and black hazard markings on, indicating they were for crew only, and then took them to the edge of the first pod. The large cavern was clearly delineated by the huge yellow and black stripes, and he informed them that all the pods were marked in the same fashion – and that this was a zero tolerance policy.

He backtracked a little and bought them into the recreation area, a smaller cavern that had plastic benches and tables set up in it, a small cooking area at the end, noticeboards and a number of arcade style games dotted around. A couple of people sat at some seats, and stopped talking as the team entered, staring at them while they were lead to some seats and bade to sit down.

“This, as you’ve probably guessed, is the rec area. Neutral turf, as are all the passages between pods. Over there is the job board I mentioned, and here’s where you can meet the other crews and exchange tall tales, drinks or insults – that’s up to you. Now, we work on a rep system around here – if you do jobs and help us out, bring in the supplies we need, you gain rep. The more rep you have, the better pod you get when you visit. When you get enough rep, you get a card, so you can vouch for someone else to use the place. On the other hand, you do dumb shit, you lose rep, you lose enough rep, and you’re not welcome. You lose a lot of rep, very quickly – well, bad things happen.”

“Like those pop up turrets you have every hundred and fifty metres around the rim of the quarry, about five metres down from the apex of the slope?” Kai asked. Mr Vishtar looked at him sharply, but Kai just smiled and shrugged. “What, we had a couple of hours to kill waiting for these guys to turn up. Word to the wise – look for some bushes or something you can plant over the top. That moss you have growing is too uniform and consistent.”

“Hrumph. Ok then. Well, last bit, then I’ll leave you to settle in. We charge a flat fee per visit, which depends on the vehicle you’re using. If it’s solar, it’s free. Methane costs you a c-bill. Gas or diesel is two-fifty, and jet or turbojet is five hundred. If you’re using something exotic, we’ll have to talk. On top of that, we charge a daily fee based on the size of the vehicle – cars and SUVs are fifty, trucks and small aircraft are one hundred, double trucks or land trains and large aircraft are two hundred.”

“Ok, let’s book in for a couple of days then – can you bill us for…three days please, for both vehicles.” He pulled out the credstick and Vishtar slotted it in a reader, debiting 1650 Nuyen.”

“Right, I’ll leave you to it then. I’ll send a follow-me over to you, to tow your chopper in. Tow charge is ten Nuyen each way. Your truck, you can drive, of course. I’ll see you back around here later on, once you’re settled in.”

“You mentioned a boss? When do we get to meet them” Aswon asked.

“You get to meet her if she wants to meet you. Not before. Now, I’ll be back a bit later once you’re sorted, and we can chat more – if you want to, you can tell me about your team, and see if there’s any work going. But that’s for later.” With that he rose from the seat and nodded to them then headed off to one of the side passages, crossing the ‘staff only’ line and disappearing around the corner. 

The team looked around a little, getting a feel for the place and looking over the cooking area at the far end. A man had a couple of small gas rings and several large woks ready, along with some fridges and equipment – it looked like a small noodle concession at a shopping centre, apart from being in a cave. The two figures were still watching them from their table, not quite staring, but certainly watching with interest. A minute later, they rose from their table and walked past, ignoring the team now. The lead was a gnome, only a metre high and fairly stocky, with a large, bulbous nose. Under his nose was a waxed handlebar moustache and a set of flying goggles were perched atop a leather skull cap, and he wore a brown leather jacket with a large sheepskin collar. Stalking along behind him was a dwarf, with facial features similar to Shimazu. They ignored the team and headed out into the darkness, disappearing out of view.

“How was the flight, Marius?”

“Good, the flight was good. Handles well, though we really need to get a rigger system installed in that as soon as we can.”

“Is that something we can do here? If so, should we? And how much does it cost?”

“They’re not that expensive – pretty much standard across all vehicles you see, so there’s a big market. But they can be buggers to fit as you have to attach so many sensors to them. “

“They did say they had a work crew. Maybe we can ask for them?” Aswon saw Marius bristle a little. “I’m not saying you can’t do it, but it would be faster with them helping. And besides, paying the base for help might earn us some rep, or make them happy, and we’re here to make friends as well, right?” Marius nodded grumpily.

“I have a question actually – the new helicopter. Can we get it down to the ranch in one go, and can we actually land it there? And is it always that noisy?” Tads looked around the group, and then smiled at Hunter as he pulled out his roll-away screen and smoothed it over the table, pulling up a map showing most of Russia, the Balkans and as far down to the Indian Ocean. Hunter checked the expected range with Marius and plotted a set of circles on the map, showing a return journey and a one way trip. Even biggest circle fell short of the bright spot indicating the ranch.

“I can land it anywhere, but it won’t be subtle, or quiet. But it can be done. Once we have gotten back and dealt with those monkeys that Shimazu found, we can start opening that area up into a secret underground base, and go from there.” Tads rolled her eyes a little – well aware that any ‘secret base’ was almost certainly going to involve lots of magical earth shaping, and thus lots of effort on her part. 

“Well, it sounds to me then that we can’t work with the chopper, unless Tads is with us. Without her spirits to conceal and quieten the vehicle, to hide it from prying eyes – we’re just too obvious.” Hunter smirked at Aswon, clearly finding it ironic that the towering black tribesman with a huge mane of dreadlocks and implanted teeth was talking about being subtle…

“Let’s get back and get the vehicles in our ‘pod’ then, shall we, and have a little look around the place.” Kai looked around for any comments, then pushed himself to his feet, then led the team back out of the recreation area and into the cave system. They found a guy waiting near the entrance with a small but powerful tractor unit – similar to the vehicles found at airports for pushing back commercial jets. It wasn’t long before they were in the truck and gently trundling through the tunnel while the helicopter was carefully towed down the centre of the tunnel.

It took a while to reach their pod, and they realised just how extensive the cave system was – some cataclysmic event in the past had sent a raging torrent through the subterranean landscape to hollow out these enormous caverns, before shifting and leaving them as silent caverns waiting to be tunnelled or blasted into one day. As they drove through the blackness, they caught sight of narrower and wider passages off to one side or another, stretching into the darkness. They passed the entrance to pod 5, seeing the wide stripes at the entrance before the cave curved off to the left, but couldn’t see who was in there.

Finally their vehicles arrived into their cavern – ‘pod 6’ and they parked up, paid the driver of the tow vehicle and watched him drive off equally slowly back the way he had come. It had been a tight fit getting the chopper into the cave, getting down to less than a metre clearance on either side of the enormous rotors, but the cave opened up again past the entrance. As promised, there were bunks, water, seating, and so forth, and they spent a few minutes exploring the cave and checking it out, before meeting back up again.

“Have you noticed something odd about this place?” Shimazu asked, turning to face the others. “It feels… I don’t know. Smooth. Which is weird.” Hunter, Marius and Nadia looked at him with confusion on their faces, but Tads, Aswon and Kai nodded in agreement, and they realised he was talking about magical mumbo jumbo. It prompted a quick discussion, with the four magically ept members of the group moving around to sample the aura of the cave, spending time examining the area. They quickly came to the conclusion that there was some kind of magical effect going on here – the astral plane was a smooth, consistent and clean area, with no graduations or areas of higher or lower emotional background. It was like a beach after the tide had just washed it – clean, free of obstructions, without trace of life or activity. Definitely artificial, it raised several more questions about who was actually in charge here, and what they were up to.

“One things for sure – if they’re powerful enough to do this, then we really don’t want to mess with any rock formations. Any of us. It’s possible they’re attuned to the cave system in the same way that Shimazu would be with his sword – they’ll just KNOW if something is wrong. So be careful!” Aswon admonished them with a waved finger.

They headed out of the cave, taking the side passage at the rear of the cavern rather than the main entrance, and relying on Hunter’s ability to map out the environment with his cyberware and Marius’ exact recollection of the rough map from the entrance. The back of the cave system was a maze of smaller tunnels and passages, twisting and turning through the darkness, and the lights were far fewer here – it was genuinely possible to get lost if you were trapped here without a light. But they pushed on through the darkness, relying on their skills to see them through.

Along the way they found what could only have been the arena – a bowl like depression with entrances around one arc, and the cave walls discoloured with blood. Even here, astral space was a smooth and neutral affair, without the strong emotion and taint of pain and suffering that would be expected. That only deepened their curiosity, but there were no answers at hand – at least not yet.

After some more wandering through darkened tunnels, they came across the rear entrance passageway to pod three, and spied the large truck belonging to Rocket and his team – along with the back end of Mamma-Bear. The front end of her appeared to be deep into the engine, working on something, and there was a faintly audible low level rumble of complaint echoing around the chamber. Kai cleared his throat, then repeated it louder when it was clear she hadn’t heard him. She pulled her head out and looked over, then grinned as she recognised them, before waving them into the pod.

She walked towards them, wiping her hand on some rags as she did so and met them about halfway across the chamber, giving each of them a hearty handshake.

“So you made it then – in the end.” Her wide grin took some of the sting out of the words.

“Yes, we did, thanks. We’d have got here eventually, you know – we just didn’t appreciate what kind of place we were missing out on, though. How are you and the rest? Have they left you alone here?”

“Most of the guys are down in Vladivostok, sorting out some biz. Given how late it is, they’re probably going to find a hotel there and come back in the morning, Kai. Either that, or stay up all night drinking. One or the other. How about you?” They wandered back over towards the truck, while they chatted. “Oh, and nothing personal – but one-time deal on coming in the pod. Unless Rocket says otherwise.”

“No problem, we understand. We’re here for a couple of days, probably at least three. Not sure where we’re headed after that – we’ve just finished a nice job, looking for the next one.” Marius wandered over towards the truck and peered at the engine, keeping his hands in his pockets.

“Well, there’s sometimes something on the board that you can pick up, and if you get in with the crew here, they can hook you up sometimes.” She sidled over to the truck, and grabbed a wrench, then started to fiddle with the glow plugs, adjusting the fit, while she listened to her visitors.

“Ahh, that’s good to know. Actually we were kind of curious about this place, particularly about the boss? Anything you can tell us about them?”

“Best you meet her yourself and form your own opinion, I think. All I’ll say is treat her nice, and with respect, and you shouldn’t have any problems. But if there’s one person here you shouldn’t take liberties with, it’s her. You’ll see.” Kai looked around the team, and saw the curiosity on their faces – but it seemed clear that Mamma-Bear didn’t want to be drawn on the subject. 

“Having fun with the engine there?” He responded instead, wondering if there was another way to earn some information from her.

“Yeah, these glow plugs are being a pain in the ass. Just not performing right at all, and I’m not seeing why.” Marius leant in, and looked closely at the engine, studying the layout carefully.

“Have you upgraded the crank shaft on this? Put in a chromolly stiffening bar? I remember reading once that there was a problem with a particular formulation of some chromolly upgrades where free radical ionisation occurred, and even though the tip of the glow plug is either platinum or iridium, and is normally resistant to oxidation, the combination forms a thin oxide layer that retards performance…”

They chatted on for a minute or two, testing his theory and with a little bit of testing soon found it to be correct. Marius advised a particular type of doping agent to be applied to the glow plug to prevent the issue, and Mamma-Bear fired off a message to Rocket to pick some up whilst he was in town..

Aswon cleared his throat quietly, and reminded Kai that they were probably due to meet Mr. Vishtar back in the hall, and they made their farewells to Mamma-Bear, taking the chance to leave via the front exit to save time, and work their way back into the main tunnel system. It didn’t take too long to get back to the recreation area, and they headed back in to grab a table. The Gnome and Dwarf crew were back in, eating something out of the same bowl and still giving them the eyeball. Kai was about to say something when Aswon leant in behind him and whispered in his ear.

“If you were about to loudly ask if they were the Half Pints, don’t. Please don’t. Or I’m going to demand hazard pay.” Kai turned to look at Aswon, with an outraged expression on his face, but he couldn’t maintain his composure under Aswon’s stare.

There was a second group in the area though, and it took a moment for the team to recognise them – but it appeared that they recognised the team much sooner. Hands froze midway to mouth, forks loaded down with food pausing in midair. As recognition sank in, two of them dropped their hands below the table, staring at them intently. The team returned the gaze, wondering just what the group from the floor below them back in Constantinople was doing here.

“Hey, Kai – you got a card from these folk didn’t you – with the holographic shifting wind on it. Isn’t one of the names on the board ‘Zephyr’?” Tads looked over, allowing herself to drift into astral sight for a moment and spotting the familiar astral signatures she had seen before. Kai rummaged in his inside pocket and pulled out the card, holding the corner to complete the bio-circuit and make the holographic function kick in.

From the other side of him, Shimazu took a step forward and put himself partially in front of Kai, his hand dropping to rest casually on the hilt of his sword. As quietly as he could, he spoke with a low pitched voice – hoping the team could hear him, and the other crew couldn’t.

“Watch yourselves. They look nervous – really nervous. Don’t know why.” Aswon heard Shimazu clearly enough, his enhanced hearing picking up the near whisper as if it was a shout. He moved around to the other side of Kai, and then conspicuously turned his back on the three nervous men at the table, so he could face his own team and speak equally quietly.

“And how come those jokers are apparently number two in the rep stakes around here. That doesn’t make much sense to me…”

Kai looked over at them, and they returned his gaze, and the seconds ticked by. Kai wondered if it was worth the trouble to mess with them, but in the end decided not to. Instead he just gave them a cheery wave, and then headed over towards one of the larger tables, and sat himself down in a seat, where he could keep an eye on both other crews. The rest of the team picked seats and settled themselves down too, apart from Shimazu who after one last stare at the Zephyr team, wandered over to the cook and had a look at the food on offer. It appeared to be a number of dishes of “stuff” – generic looking soy substitute that was hard to identify in the dimly lit cavern, that all got thrown into a wok and stir-fried with sauce and some noodles. He was about to order, when he suddenly realised he had no money, so instead he wandered back to the table.

“Kai, can I get some money? They’ve got food here, sorta fresh.” Kai nodded, fished out his credstick and then wandered over, along with a few of the others. The cook looked up as they approached, wiping his hands on a greasy apron to little effect, then pointing at the table and grunting at them. 

“Food for table? Seven bowls?”

“How about we put a hundred Nuyen on a tab, and you tell me when it runs out.” The cook shrugged and pulled out an equally battered and greasy looking reader, and slotted the stick, deducting the credit with a few deft button pushes. He grabbed the first bowl and looked at Aswon.

“Red?” The tribesman nodded, and a ladle full of product was flipped into the wok to start sizzling. “Green?” A nod, a flip, and some more sizzling. “Yellow?” Another nod, another addition. He wondered when he was offered “Brown”, but decided to risk it, and worked through each of the eight sauce containers, going for a mix. Soon the food was sizzling away, liberally doused in soy sauce, while the cook flipped another burner on and pulled up a second wok. The performance was repeated, and soon bowls of piping hot food were being thrown together for the team and carried over to the table. 

Shimazu decided to go for a double portion of green, whatever that was, and stick with the sauce and noodles, but Kai scoffed at him.

“Red.” A ladleful of stuff was added, sending a waft of smoke rising to the cavern roof. “Red.” Another was added. “Red!” The cook raised an eyebrow, but added another. “Red!” Kai stopped when he reached eight portions of red, and watched as it was stirred, flipped, tossed and mixed together, then poured into a bowl for him to take back to his table, where he sat down and tucked in with gusto. “This is good,” he said around a mouthful of the mixture, while the others tucked into their own bowls of food.

Two minutes later Vishtar walked back into the room and headed over to meet them, pulling up a loose chair and joining their table. He looked around at them and then addressed Kai.

“So, all settled in I hope, ready for a discussion.”

“Ahhuweeei. Hraaaahn.” Sudden explosive coughs racked Kai’s body as he tried to speak, and found out that the strange warming sensation was nothing to do with the physical heat of the food, but was much more to do with the eight shots of super strong capsicum soy mix that he’d had added to his noodles. “Gnheeee, Woowser.” He panted, and beads of sweat burst from his forehead, running down the side of his face. Marius looked over, then pushed his chair back and crossed over to the fridge, selecting a super fizzy drink from the selection, before bringing it back to offer to Kai, who grabbed it with a grateful nod and popped the top, pouring a generous amount into his mouth.

“Perhaps I shall talk to your deputy then… and that would be….” He glanced around the table. After a few seconds Aswon sighed.

“I guess that’s me, then. Ok, go ahead.” At the other end of the table Kai discovered that carbonated soft drinks didn’t mix well with super spicy soy, and was struggling to breath as burning bubbles of CO2 burst from his nose. His face was now a rosy red colour, and he rocked back and forth in clear distress. Marius pushed his seat back again, wandering over to the fridge once more, while Shimazu turned towards his boss and dropped into astral space. Here was a chance to study what “misery” looked like on the astral plane. Or maybe “regret”. Either way it was too good a chance to pass up.

Marius returned and passed over a second drink

“Here you go, Kai. Sorry, I should have realised that strawberry flavour wouldn’t help. Try the lime, that should cool it down.” Kai was in too much discomfort to examine the German’s face, and instead glugged another half bottle down, discovering to his horror only moments later that this was even worse, and went into paroxysms of coughing and spluttering while Marius just sat and watched him dispassionately, while he went back in his mind through all the times that Kai had irritated him. 

Vishtar ignored him, instead talking with Aswon and getting a thumbnail brief on the team, Aswon briefly outlining the main skills and abilities, working around the table one by one. He sounded vaguely embarrassed as he glossed over Kai’s role, but Vishtar just ignored Kai’s bloodshot eyes and tears of pain. Shimazu did insist on being identified as the teams ‘leech expert’, but again Vishtar gave no particular reaction to this.

When he was done describing the team, Aswon moved on to the capabilities and potential options.

“There’s a couple of things we can offer you right now, of course, if they’re any use. We have some reasonably up to date and detailed information about the oilfields of Dekita, down in Turkmenistan. We’ve got some info on the political upheaval in the southern parts of the Trans-Caucus League, following an assassination down there. We’ve got a fairly heft supply of 9mm pistol ammo we’d be happy to supply or sell on at decent rates if that’s any use to you. And we can provide you with large quantities of peanuts, and possibly other basic foodstuffs, if you want it. We’ve got a chopper with a max load rating of ten thousand kilos, and a great pilot, and we as a group are pretty proficient at wards. Proficient enough that we could probably cover even your biggest caves I think. That did finally get a reaction from Vishtar – a raised eyebrow and a considering look.

“Interesting. So, you can cover a large area. But how powerful a ward could you put up? Could you do one that matched the illusion over the cave entrance for instance?”

“I feel certain we could. And with a few thousand Nuyens worth of materials – providing we had permission to draw symbols on the walls of the cave – we could make them permanent as well, and also make them almost impossible to spot with a quick check.”

“Interesting. Very interesting. You mentioned food stuffs? What do you mean by that?” Aswon raised an eye brow at Tads, who sighed, then concentrated, trying her best to get a decent cut of raw meat to appear in the bowl in front of her. A few seconds later, a piece of rump steak materialised out of the air, and Vishtar grabbed the bowl and headed over to see the cook. It was soon chopped into chunks with a cleaver and thrown into the wok, where it sizzled in its own juices until it was a mid-brown and was poured back into the bowl. Vishtar returned and tried out the morsel of meat carefully, but then raised his eyes to look at Tads.

“Not bad, not bad at all. This is certainly marketable.”

“I can’t do too much at once, so it takes a while to stock up a large container – and I mostly specialised in fruits and vegetables. But I do various things.” She glanced over at Kai, who had gone a darker shade of red now, and appeared to be having genuine difficulty breathing now. Marius and Shimazu were both still just sat watching him, so she decided to take pity, and a thick viscous gloop appeared in the bottom of another bowl, which she pushed his way.

“Here Kai, this really will help.” He poured the reindeer milk yoghurt into his mouth, and nearly choked on it, but it did finally start to cool his abused mouth a little.

“Oh, and if you want a personal recommendation – the Zephyr team might have something to say. We helped them out a little in Constantinople a while back.” Vishtar looked at Aswon for a moment, then without a word, pushed his chair back and moved over to them. Aswon concentrated, filtering out the noise of Kai slowly dying and the conversation between Hunter, Nadia and Marius, listening to Vishtar talk to the three Zephyr crew members. They were speaking quietly, but everything he heard seemed positive, and their description of the gun fight in the house seemed pretty accurate. Five minutes of conversation later, Vishtar was back.

“Ok, that seems pretty positive. I’m sure we can get some work for you. For now, relax and settle in. Is there anything you need straight away?”

“Well, actually yes. We’re after a rigger adaption kit for our Chopper – I don’t suppose you have that kind of thing in stock do you?”

“Yep, we normally have a couple, always useful in case people get their asses zorched by some border patrol agents somewhere. I can have a word with the tech crew, and they should be able to sort something out – they’re not that busy at the moment.” He turned towards Aswon, who had raised a finger and tilted his head, clearly indicating that he wished to ask a question. He nodded at the tribesman.

“I was wondering – where do you get all your power from? Is it geothermal?”

“Oh, no – it’s regular electricity from the outside. We’ve got a bank of massive generators that they use for the excavator shovels and processing machinery, so we just tap off some of that. Charge up the batteries during the day, keeps us going through the night.”

“Don’t you have to run scrubbers or air-conditioning units as well to get rid of the bad air?”

“Probably not,” interrupted Tads. “Limestone absorbs the carbon dioxide, forming carbonic acid, which in turn leads to fresh caves and waterways, and contributes to the rock formations. Providing you don’t ask too much of a certain area, it’s like nature’s natural scrubbing agent.” Vishtar nodded at her, his eyes narrowing a little as he filed away a little nugget of information about her.

“She’s not wrong. Well, I need to get back to some business. So I’ll leave you to enjoy the rec-area, get comfortable in your pod, and I’ll put in a request for Smuushki and his crew to come see you in the morning.” With that, the operations manager pushed back his chair, and wandered off back into the crew-only area. The team returned to their drinks – or in Kai’s case, fighting for breath and dabbing at the tears some more – looking around the cavern, trying not to stare at the other teams and wondering if they had to make the first social moves, or wait for contact.


	104. 104 - Rescuing Monty

Date Thursday 08/04/2060, Location 50.10234, 43.23581

The team had been sitting and chatting for no more than a few minutes when Vishtar skidded around the corner of the entrance tunnel into the rec-area.

“Hey! Noobies! Wanna earn some rep? CATCH!” with that, the mining radio held in his right hand was flung underarm towards the team where it was effortlessly caught by Aswon. “Get to the entrance – FAST, I’ll brief you on the way.” A set of keys were flung from the other hand, and caught just as unerringly by the tribesman.

The team pushed back from the table and hustled out of the cave into the large approach tunnel, breaking into a jog while they listened as Vishtar’s voice burst from the speaker.

“We got a hot target inbound to the quarry. He’s called in, saying he’s in trouble – got active shooters on his tail. The rest of his team is down, and he’s not sure if he can make it back on his own. He doesn’t wanna bring trouble to the door – like I briefed you guys – but he’s got a solid rep and he’s calling in a marker. There’s a vehicle just outside the entrance, get up to the gate ASAP, I’ll have that open. The gate guard will NOT engage in combat unless they move to breach the perimeter.”

The team hustled down the tunnel, Aswon holding the radio up at shoulder level and the rest of the team forming a blob around him as they ran through the tunnel, passing from pools of light into the patches of darkness and back.

“Engage the enemy, perform an extraction of the target, neutralise any threat to the quarry and then get back under cover. Try not to bring trouble back into the quarry – but beyond that, we don’t really care what happens. Clear?”

“Received and understood,” Aswon replied. They’d only got as far as the main tunnel, and the sounds of their feet slapping on the rough surface of the rock echoed up and down the chamber oddly. Already though, a couple of the team were breathing hard as they ran, and Aswon thought about the distances involved. A hand reached over towards Hunter to attract his attention.

“I make it about two hundred metres to the entrance from here, and a good seven hundred, maybe seven fifty to the truck – agree?” Hunter’s eyes narrowed for a moment as he thought about it and probably ran some calculations on his cyberware, before he nodded in agreement. Aswon turned to look at Marius, but didn’t get a chance to say anything.

“I know, I know. Here. Keys to the truck. Gimme the other keys. See you there. Don’t scratch her.” Marius spoke in short bursts, between deep breaths as he tried to keep up the pace. Aswon swapped keys with him, and then he peeled off to the left to cross the huge tunnel and head towards the distant pod six, at the far end of the tunnel network. He heard Hunter accelerate to keep pace with him, while the rest of the team kept going down towards the entrance, formed up around Marius.

Marius, Kai, Shimazu and Tads pushed on, running as fast as they could, fighting to control their breathing and make sure they didn’t stumble on the undulating surface. At least they should have more than enough time to get their breath back on the drive up the quarry road in whatever vehicle they were going to find. They closed on the entrance, and burst out through the illusion covering the massive break in the cliff face, spotting the mining truck to the side of the entrance from the faint overspill of mercury lamps dotted high on the quarry superstructure.

As Marius climbed in he spotted the datajack port under a weathershield and smiled. Moments later he had pulled out the small jack and length of fibre cabling and had peeled back the jelly-like protective cover from the port. It wasn’t like being jacked in properly – but it was still better than using the manual controls. A virtual dashboard displayed in front of his face and he mentally jabbed the starter button, feeling the big diesel engine roar into life underneath him.

Shimazu jumped into the other front seat, while Kai and Tads climbed into the back, and with a lurch and spray of loose rocks, the vehicle rocketed forwards as Marius hit the accelerator hard. He swiftly worked up through the gears and they skidded onto the concealed runway, the back end of the truck fishtailing as Marius slewed the vehicle round. The vehicle was open-topped, low and squat, with bare metal surfaces and minimal padding – clearly a very practical working vehicle, not something built for comfort, style or speed. 

As Marius coaxed every bit of power and performance he could get out of the engine, the others checked their equipment and the vehicle. Shimazu had his sword and his huge pistol, Kai carried his taser and Tads had her staff with her – but very little else. Tads at least had her magic to use – if she could see a target, she could engage it. They took a moment to check on the vehicle, and fastened the rudimentary safety belts as they shot up the slope towards the ridge. The vehicle was sturdy, and had a number of eyebolts and fixing points scattered around the back of the load bed and the frame – at a guess it was designed for assisting with stuck vehicles or dragging heavy loads around the rough terrain of the quarry where a bit of mechanical assistance was needed. It had no roof, roll bars, doors or windows though, and they felt a little exposed as they sped through the night air.

Back in the tunnel, Aswon glanced over at Hunter.

“I’ll go and get started, you grab the gear and unhitch the trailer when you get there, yeah?” Hunter was about to give a pithy response about not being slow – but then Aswon accelerated. It was the first time he’d seen the lanky African really going for it, and it was a surprising sight. Despite being a strapping and beefy Orc, Hunter knew he was in shape and pretty quick. Indeed, he often got the drop on people that were surprised that someone his size could move that well. But he felt like he was suddenly standing still, as Aswon rocketed off. It was like he’d thrown a switch to engage the turbo – the sudden burst of speed was staggering. As he watched him disappear into the darkness, the speed didn’t drop, it was just a ground consuming lope that ate the distance and opened up a gap between them that grew and grew. Hunter made a mental note not to ever engage Aswon in any kind of ground race, wondering if all the hunters and warriors of Aswon’s tribe were as fast across the ground. If so, it might explain how they could defend their land against technologically superior enemies…

The mining cart rocketed up the slope, the engine screaming and the rev-counter well up into the red area as Marius thrashed the engine hard. It wasn’t like he was going to have to do the maintenance on it, and Vishtar had said “quickly”… As they crossed the peak of the slope, there was a moment of lightness where all of their stomachs lifted slightly, before the truck came crashing down on the road again, and they started the short descent. As promised the heavyweight gate to the quarry was slid back open, and the guard stood by the side of the hut, somewhat redundantly waving them through.

The road was wide, designed for the huge quarry trucks to easily pass side by side. About twenty metres of straight road, then a gentle curve to the right, the road dropping down the side of the hill at a gentle couple of degrees for a hundred meters, then turning in a wide hairpin back towards them, dropping further as the road snaked back and forth down the hillside. It reduced the grade of the climb significantly, to something even the most run-down of heavy transport could manage – but it did make the route long and slow.

The team peered ahead, into the darkness. Aided by the floodlights on the top of the fence and the guard tower, the saw the switchback road end and turn towards the town, the wide road then going arrow straight towards the light industrial estate and then into the town itself. The glow of streetlights from the town showed movement in the distance – a small commuter car weaving and dodging as it sped down the road towards them, and what looked like a small group of motorbikes giving chase. As they watched, they saw bright light for a moment, as the muzzle flash lit up the front of a weapon. The car swerved again, but they saw sparks light up the back of the cab for a moment.

All of them glanced at the road snaking back and forth down the hill, evaluating that against the speed of the vehicles closing from town and the likely position to intercept. It didn’t look good.

“Hang on tight,” Marius called, his words whipped out of his mouth by the roaring air as they accelerated down the hill. The others grabbed hold of handles, rails or bits of seat as best they could, wondering just how tight Marius was going to take the corner. The engine screamed as Marius pushed it hard, and they tightened their grip as they continued straight on, leaving the turn later and later.

Then it dawned on the three of them. Marius wasn’t intending to turn.

“Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!” The words were torn out of Kai’s mouth as the mining vehicle went airborne. Marius had found just the right place on the side of the road to launch from, and they flew through the air over the mass of rocks and compacted earth that made up the sculpted hillside. There was a crunch as they landed, the shock absorbers and tyres flexing to their limits to absorb the impact, but Marius was already twisting the wheels and redirecting them, bouncing the vehicle from one rock outcropping to another. It wasn’t driving, and it wasn’t quite surfing either – and it mostly relied on Marius not getting it wrong even once otherwise they’d flip and be a smear down the hillside. But instead of taking the two hundred metre route down and back along the switchback, they instead covered the thirty to forty metres down the steep off-road section between them.

In the back, Tads muttered to herself, her eyes closed as she tried to ignore the violent movement of the world around her. Air or mountain, air or mountain… mountain spirit. Yeah, something to smooth the road out a little, and help protect the vehicle. She gathered the energy required and summoned a powerful guardian to her, feeling the potent mass of the mountain spirit next to her in astral space. A frown crossed her face as something struck her, something not quite right. Something about the spirit didn’t feel “normal”. The thought was driven from her mind though as the truck lurched into another boulder and shook all of them about violently. 

As the truck bounced off into a third boulder, her head flew back and forth like a rag doll. For just a split second she saw the reflective tinted windows of the car and at least two of the bikers chasing after it. Her astral sight flickered for a moment, just long enough to see the auras of the thugs on the motorbikes – but more importantly not the driver of the car – and a bolt of power exploded over them. She couldn’t see the effects as her head was driven forwards by the punishing jolt as the car slammed into another large boulder half-buried in the hill, but she heard the faint metallic noises as bikes slid across the tarmac indicating that she’d been successful to at least some degree.

In the front seat, Shimazu made a grab for Marius, grabbing him by the trouser belt and dragging him down to the seat. In their haste to get going, he’d neglected to fasten his own seatbelt – and been too preoccupied with trying to get every last erg of power from the engine on the way up the quarry. Every bounce the vehicle made threatened to send him flying out of the cab, and he seemed to spend more time in the air than he did on the seat. Shimazu struggled to drag him down and pin him in place, aware that if the delicate fibre optic came out of the jackport on the dashboard, they were all as good as dead. He spared a glance to the front, timing his next lunge with the bounce of the vehicle and managed to spear the seatbelt in his hand, dragging it across to hold firmly in his hands as they hit the next obstruction and hurtled into the air again.

Back in the caverns, Aswon arrived at the truck, hitting the alarm deactivation and vaulting towards the cab door in one graceful leap. He slid over towards the middle of the front bench seat, and then started to fuss with the ‘trode net. It was hard work – a close fitting web of electronic sensors designed to pick up delicate neurological signals and transmit them with a high degree of fidelity was not really that compatible with a massive mane of dreadlocks, and there was a good amount of swearing and pushing involved in getting things lined up. 

He heard Hunter arrive behind him, and felt the trailer unhitch as he got the sensors online and the ‘trode net settled properly. Moving carefully, he swung the truck around and headed out, being careful to keep out of the edges and away from the rock formations. At least the tunnels were plenty big enough down here for him, and he didn’t have to worry too much. While he concentrated on driving, he was vaguely aware of Hunter moving between the crew area and the cab, bringing forth guns and armour, laying them out under the roof hatch.

As they burst through the illusion and into the quarry, he put his mental foot down and the truck roared and lurched up the hill. He spared a moment to look at the internal sensors now he was on the runway with plenty of room to each side, and smiled to himself as he saw that Hunter had grabbed both of his rifles, along with his own assault rifle and a LAW. Hunter was fiddling with something as well – the controls for the colour changing paint installed on the truck. A moment later it rippled in the night air and then settled on a vibrant yellow-orange mix that matched a lot of the other heavy equipment nearby.

Now halfway down the switchbacks, and still being thrown violently forwards and back with each impact, the lead team saw a low slung muscle car speeding down the road from the town, chasing after the bikers and closing quickly on their target car. 

“I’m going to try and fool them with an illusion, I can’t get a clear lock on them!” screamed Tads. She held on as tight as she could, then shaped the power to form an illusion of a sudden fountain of water erupting from the slope at the bottom of the hill, turning into a torrent of mud that washed down to the road towards the new arrival. She also called on the spirit, figuring they were far enough down the slope now to make it on their own.

“Please, go help keep the person in the car safe, save them from the attack from the guys on motorbikes and his friends!” It wasn’t the best or most succinctly worded request, but the spirit seemed to understand, and with a blur he was off. Seconds later, the motorbike seemed to suddenly flip in the air, as if the front brakes had just locked on hard. The rider vaulted through the air, arms and legs wind milling, until they landed on their head and crumpled into a painful-looking roll, sliding across the road in a tumble.

The car, presumably driven by their target, continued to weave and dodge on the road, but was travelling slower than before – its speed now barely forty kilometres per hour. Closer now, they saw that it was a Ford E-commute, a brand of ultra-compact electric commuter cars designed for city centre living. Well, there couldn’t be more than two people in there, so at least they’d have room in their vehicle for the rescue!

A long burst of automatic gunfire came from the rear of the muscle car, and the E-commute suddenly swerved as bullets chewed through the rear frame. It slowed further, seeming to have lost nearly all of its power, and started to drift around the curve. Shimazu grunted with effort, and finally managed to pull the seatbelt far enough over that it mated with the receiver, and with a reassuring click, Marius was secured into position, just as they went airborne again as they started on the last steep descent and closed on the confrontation.

As Tads’ spirit destroyed the last of the bikers, sending another body hurtling to the ground in a painful and spine cracking fashion, the muscle car steered over slightly, clearly aiming for the E-commute and it wandered around the curve. One side of the car dipped out of their view, while the other turned more towards them – and whoever was in the back seat thrust a gun barrel out of the window and fired rounds towards them.

Three rounds cleared the top of the engine and smashed into Marius, but the distance was long for whatever weapon they’d been fired from, and the rounds thunked into his body armour and were stopped by the dense plating. He was probably going to have a bruise the next day, but they did no appreciable damage to him, and he kept the car pointing straight towards their foes.

A split second later, the front window wound down as well, and a much larger gun barrel poked out of the darkness. Reacting with the speed of a viper, Shimazu unclipped his seat-belt and thrust himself in front of Marius, rising up to put his body in-between the muscle car and target. The auto-shotgun fired, the huge booming retort bouncing off the industrial buildings to the side of the road, and Shimazu grimaced in pain as the dense solid slugs ripped into his body. The heavier projectiles and greater power of the rounds smashed the ceramic plates of his body armour and slammed into him, and he felt blood dribbling from the wounds, along with sharp messages of pain from his ribs and flank. Still – they hadn’t shot Marius, and their vehicle was still in control…

Kai watched as the spirit summoned by Tads leapt up from the crumpled remains of the last motorbike and flew over to the muscle car, landing in the centre of the roof and then raising both hands in the air like an angry ape. A second later it materialised as a physical being and started to smash its hands down on the roof of the car, over and over again, letting loose a howl of fury.

The muscle car twitched, then suddenly entered a spin as the driver – already distracted by the apparent mudslide rushing towards them – was further distracted by some great animalistic force smashing repeatedly on the roof. They twisted the wheel, locking the car into a spin and sending it skating across the road in a manoeuvre clearly not desired by anyone in the car.

At the top of the hill, Aswon slammed on the brakes, and all six wheels locked up in response to his lack of experience with driving the truck, throwing him forwards into the dash. Hunter appeared to have been prepared for the sudden stop though, and had the hatch thrown open in record time, and was stood pressed against one side, sighting down his rifle scope towards the bottom of the hill. The scene swam into focus as he panned around – the faltering electric car, the remains of the bikes that had been wiped out by their unconscious riders, the still revving bike with the locked-up front wheel. He saw the open window of the muscle car and started to draw a bead on them, allowing a little lead for the distance, wind and elevation change. In his eye, the scene was overlaid by a set of carets that grew closer together, then suddenly blazed green. A cybernetic command was sent to the rifle, and three rounds of hi-velocity rifle ammunition erupted from the barrel and flew towards their target, sliding through the open window and slamming into the body inside the car.

Marius cursed, not realising what Shimazu was up to, and peered around him, spotting more bikers riding on the road out of town, catching up with the muscle car. He revved the engine and aimed straight for them, planning to ram them with the heavier vehicle and crush them under his weight.

As Marius straightened the vehicle, Kai unclipped and climbed to the side of the vehicle, judged the speed of their ride and then threw himself off, legs pumping as he absorbed the forwards momentum. He had to roll in the end, but came out none the worse for wear and sprinted towards the E-commerce.

“Keep the attackers busy, I’m going to rescue the target!”

Aswon had picked up his rifle, and was sighting down the long scope now as well, pressed up against the other side of the hatch to Hunter. He watched the muscle car spin, waiting for the right moment, and as the car’s momentum carried it around, he took a few deep, calming breaths. One. Two. Crack! The supersonic round flew straight and true from the rifle, slamming into the neck of the other rear passenger in the car before exploding violently as the explosive charge detonated. He saw some of the mist and flesh explode out of the window, clearly identified through the light amplifying scope. 

That left only the driver and passenger in the muscle car – and then the new group of bikers who were now close enough to be in the fight. They all seemed to have machine pistols or small sub machine guns, and were firing them in the general direction of the mining truck – most missed, but a few did manage to hit and stitched across the front of the vehicle, embedding themselves in the radiator and lights. Shimazu fired off a shot into the darkness, but the motion of their own vehicle combined with the erratic path of the bikers sent his shot wide.

Kai made his way over to the E-commute and managed to stop its motion, then pulled open the door. A single figure was inside, bleeding profusely. His flesh was pale and blood slopped back and forth in the footwell. He reached in and found two of the chest wounds that were pumping out blood, and fixed them by simple expedient of pushing in a gloved finger into the exit wound.

“Team, target is down and bleeding out, need a medkit and Tads here, soon.”

Behind him the muscle car swept around, still spinning across the tarmac. The heavy combat shotgun pointed towards Kai, aiming at his unsuspecting back. A moment later the shotgun dropped, as a heavy round from Aswon punched through from the other side of the car, dropping the wielder. 

Tads climbed up onto the side and tried to replicate Kai’s apparently easy dismount, but didn’t take into account how quickly the mining truck was moving, nor how much focus she’d lost from summoning the spirit and casting the stunning spell. When she landed, her feet were too close together and didn’t move, and the laws of physics took over. Her body tipped forwards, and she face-planted into the ground – reflexively, her arms raised to protect her face, and she managed to get away with only cuts, bruises and a split lip – but it took her a few seconds to get herself picked up and back on her feet.

Overhead more rounds cracked downrange as Hunter picked off first one biker, then another. He fired three round bursts with precise trigger control from his heavily modified rifle, shooting them from way outside their own effective range. Lying almost prone on the top of the truck, his rifle and body position ate the recoil generated and let him move calmly from one aggressor to the next, fire, confirm, move on, fire, confirm, move on. 

In the car, Kai reached a decision – and with his free hand fumbled into his inside pocket, pulling out the 8cm wide disk contained inside. He grabbed it with his teeth then used the now free hand to rip open the packet and pulled out the fabric disk contained inside, before spitting away the wrapper. He repeated the move, this time peeling off the protective plastic cover strip, then carefully grabbing the waffle-pattern backing and thrusting the trauma patch onto the chest of the casualty. Moments later the powerful doses of drugs started to dissolve through the skin, aided by accelerants and precursors, distributing morphine, stimulants, suppressants, clotting factors and a whole host of other cutting-edge medicines around the body.

Carefully he withdrew his fingers, watching one last reflexive pump of blood push out a thick viscous deep red blob, then the bleeding halted. He carefully moved the head back to maintain the airway, and worked to release the seatbelt, allowing the body to move if required. He spied a pistol in a small holster at the man’s waist, and thrown onto the back seat was a rifle – something that looked halfway between the two that Aswon had.

As Hunter took out the last of the bikers approaching, the scene calmed slightly and the team took stock. The target was reached, though not secure, they had a good half dozen bikers down, and one crashed muscle car – possibly with live enemy in it. A roar of engines alerted them to more action, and they watched as a Bulldog step-van emerged from the town, heading down the road towards them.

“I’m getting my big gun – if that’s the security version, we’ll need it!” Aswon ducked back into the truck, laying down his small rifle and pulling up the monster fifty cal. Once he was back, Hunter dropped down in his place, snagging the LAW in case it was required.

“Marius? Marius! Are you heading to ram that transport?”

“They shot at me!”

“Marius, don’t – that thing could have as much armour as our truck if it’s the full security package, and also pop up turrets like on your drone. Break off, let us deal with them!” Aswon called over the radio. Next to him Hunter popped up again, and extended the LAW, then started to carefully sight down the hill. From the muttering under his breath, it seemed he too wanted Marius and Shimazu out of the blast radius to let them engage freely.

Marius snarled and continued to hold his course. Shimazu gave him a look, and realised that the strange red mist had descended once more, someone had looked at a vehicle funny, and Marius had taken it personally. Instead he grabbed the seatbelts and double checked them, then looked around for additional padding to try and cushion the blow he was sure was coming.

Tads had managed to pick herself up and made her way over to the ruined commuter car, and examined the body. He had some cyberware in, but not too much, and didn’t seem to have any talent himself – she was pretty certain that if he was trying to hide it, the attempt would have failed when he had dropped unconscious. She started to channel energy, and the familiar golden glow filled the car as she went to work.

Back at the top of the hill, Hunter snarled and muttered under his breath as he watched Marius get closer to the bulldog van, so close that he was well inside the potential blast radius. He dropped the LAW back through the hatch, grabbing his assault rifle again and shouldering the weapon firmly, trying to reacquire the sight picture before anything went wrong.

“I got this. Standby,” Aswon spoke quietly, his concentration clearly on the shot. He took a deep breath and held it, and then when his heart beat paused, squeezed the trigger. The 12.7mm round thundered out of the barrel at over eight hundred and fifty metres per second, crossing the distance between them quickly. The heavy round had barely begun to drop, and smashed into the front fairing of the Bulldog, through the 75mm square lightly armoured grille over the radiator air inlet – smashing through the mechanical parts quickly and contemptuously – and then the inertia fuse on the high explosive portion of the round triggered, sending a sizeable explosion through the internal pipes – constrained by the armour that was supposed to protect them.

The damage was obvious, as the van slewed to the side and black smoke started to pour out of the exhaust – clearly something important had been hit. As the van skidded around, it bought the open side door into view and revealed a goon standing in the doorway, his machine gun ready. He fired at Marius, hitting him across the top of the chest before the recoil sent further rounds punching through the sky. Once again the concealed body armour saved him from harm – though not from further irritation.

Marius aimed for the back quarter of the Bulldog, aiming to catch it in a ram. He was so intent on the move that he barely heard the massive report of Shimazu’s hand cannon firing – and once more missing. The van roared past him, and he reefed the mining truck round in a tight turn after it that would have surprised the manufacturers.

Kai pulled out the mining radio from the pocket that Aswon had put it in before he sprinted off into the darkness.

“Vishtar, hey, this is Kai. Do you have a medic on the base?”

“Don’t be such a noob. Of course we have a medic – we sent you out to go deal with it. Now get on with it.” Kai looked down at the radio with a frown.

“Well, I guess we’re not getting any help from them, then.” He examined the body again, and saw that a little colour had returned – Tads had managed to pour enough life back into the body that there was no immediate danger of death, and they looked more than good enough to move now.

A burst of gunfire from down the road accompanied by a cry of pain over the team radio frequency made him look up though – just in time to see Shimazu reeling back in his seat with blood sprouting across his shirt as he took a burst on the armour from short range.

Up on the hillside, Aswon adjusted, then called out over the team radio.

“Taking out rear left tyre. Stand by to ram rear right. Sending in 3, 2, 1…” The boom was louder this time, hot gasses starting to fill the silencer on the front of the rifle. But once again the aim was true, and this time the round exploded in the tyre, shredding it and sending bits of run-flat rubber all over the street. The van sagged to one side, and moments later Marius rammed it, finishing off the motion that had been started by the explosion of the wheel. The van tipped over, sliding down the road on sheer momentum with sparks showering from the sides and rear as the metal scraped along the road surface.

Marius got control of the mining truck, which was looking distinctly worse for wear now, and pulled away from the bulldog, aiming for Kai and the rescue target. As he did, Shimazu twisted in his seat, and looked back towards town.

“Dammit, another car, and some more bikes. Don’t these guys know when they’re beaten?”

“Ok, maybe it’s time to pull it back. Marius come pick us and rescue boy up, Aswon and Hunter – some suppression fire would be lovely. Tads – do you have a spirit still?”

“It should be here… oh my.” Tads spied the spirit launching itself onto the side of the bulldog step van, cracking its knuckles. “I’m not sure it’s my spirit any more, if it ever was. It’s still attacking the bad guys though.”

Up on the hill, Hunter slapped in a fresh magazine to his rifle and started searching for the next blob of bad guys, while Aswon lowered the 50 back into the cab, grabbing the Purdy instead. It should do fine against the smaller vehicles, and from experience he knew the next shot would be deafening.

As Marius and Shimazu closed on the commuter car, Tads helped support the body of their rescue target, while Kai held the target’s rifle in his off hand, supporting the other side, moving to a position where Marius could reach them.

A flash lit up out from the darkness, then a quick succession of three flashes. A half second later a crack, then three gunshots reached them. Another half second and they heard the sounds of two motorbikes coming to unpleasant ends from behind them. Over the team comms, they could hear Aswon and Hunter speaking in calm, quiet, clipped tones.

“Switching, biker on left, red hoody.”

“Roger, taking the one in the blue, right side”

Gunshots rang out again, as they coldly and professionally serviced targets, trying to dissuade the approaching reinforcements from getting involved.

The back door of the Bulldog burst open, and four very stunned and woozy men emerged, coughing and staggering about, clearly disorientated. They had weapons in their hands, but probably just because they’d been holding on to them and hadn’t had the presence of mind to let go. Not that it mattered to Marius. There were targets in his field of view and he was driving a vehicle. 

Shimazu flinched as they headed straight towards the Bulldog van, looking for all the world like they were going to ram it square on. At the last moment, Marius twisted the vehicle, using it like a club to utterly demolish the staggering opponents, smashing them into the armoured doors and killing or incapacitating all of them, before continuing to close on Kai’s position. As he glanced behind them he saw the mountain spirit called by Tads pulling the driver out of the window, before repeatedly dashing him into the side of the vehicle, the body floppy and crushed as the bones snapped under the fearsome assault.

The ramming assault had taken some time though – time it turned out they could not really afford. The second car had closed the distance, threading between the crashed bikes and accelerating hard. It looked similar, though not identical to the first muscle car – a low, lean and sporty vehicle with a powerful engine that drove it forward at great speed.

A figure staggered out of the front of the Bulldog, poking his way through the shattered windscreen. He was on the far side of the vehicle to the pair on the hill, and nobody else had sight of him, so Shimazu aimed carefully and then shot him in the leg, sending him crashing to the ground and crawling back into the van for cover. He hunched down, and opened the massive hand cannon, emptying out the spent shells and rooting around in his pocket for some reloads.

As the new muscle car approached, a figure leant out of the window to the rear, raising an assault rifle to their shoulder and then firing off a rapid three round burst at the hunched shoulders of Marius as he drove away from them. The high velocity slugs impacted, shattering some of ceramic plates in his base layer and driving fragments into his back, causing him to cry out, though mostly in anger. A second figure joined the first, leaning out of the opposite window but stitching the back of the truck with fire. The engine missed a stroke, then another, and Marius felt the power drop off, and one of the wheels started to kick. He compensated, but their vehicle was badly damaged, and he wasn’t sure how far it would take them now.

Shimazu finished reloading and turned in his seat, aiming back behind them to take on their pursuers. He twisted round just in time to see Hunter take out the figure on the left with two neat bursts from his rifle, while Aswon took out the guy on the right. Jubilant, he turned to let Marius know, and missed the passenger window opening a crack, and a pistol being thrust out. 

The firer could see out of the window, and adjusted his aim slightly, his wrist twisting the gun until the barrel pointed just where he wanted it. In his cyber eyes, the targeting grid signalled a good lock as the SmartLink computers signified that all variables had been taken into account. The cybernetic command was sent, and the pistol fired.

The special Teflon coated bronze cored ammo struck the body armour, slicing through it with little noticeable effect and driving into the flesh below. Shimazu gave out a cry of pain as he dropped to the side, blood spurting from the wound on his side and pain lancing through his body.

The muscle car skidded around, sliding to a halt – forming a barrier on the road. The mining cart puttered to a halt near Kai and Tads, making strange noises and shaking violently from the damage taken. For a moment, the shooting stopped, and the air grew still.

The team looked over at the dark and sleek car, guessing there were at least one, if not two enemies still in there – and that at least one of them was packing ammunition that would punch through everything they were wearing. Conversely, the driver and passenger in the car could look around and see the devastation around them, the bodies thrown all over the road, the dozen wrecked motorbikes, the security vehicle on its side looking more like a mobile abattoir than a response vehicle.

A wet squelchy noise broke the silence, as the mutilated body of the driver was dropped by the mountain spirit to the ground, landing like a bag of offal on the hard tarmac, the distressed skin burst and sent blood and organs splattering all over the road. 

Silence returned, as the tense standoff between the attackers and the team stretched out, second by second.


	105. 105 - Its Monty Time

Date Thursday 08/04/2060, Location 50.10234, 43.23581

The seconds ticked by, first five, then ten. Then, the muscle car started to move, very slowly – backwards. The driver wasn’t even touching the accelerator it seemed, just letting the torque of the engine move them slowly and gently backwards, opening the distance between them.

“Take them or let them go, Kai?” Aswon called over the radio. Up on the hill, he adjusted his aim a millimetre, keeping the crosshairs on the scope centred over the reflective windshield, laid on where the driver should be sitting.

“Let them go, we have the package, that’s what we came for.”

“Ok then, I have you covered. Keep your faces away from the car until he’s left.”

The driver hit the throttle, gently at first, but then a little more firmly, and the car accelerated backwards down the road. Tyres crunched over stray bits of fairing and other debris from the trashed motorbikes. When the car hit about thirty kilometres per hour, the engine starting to whine in complaint, the car slewed around sharply as the driver yanked on the handbrake, pulling a tight turn, and then accelerating hard back down the road towards the city. Slowly the team straightened up from behind cover, looking around at the scene.

Bodies lay everywhere, strewn across the road and mixed in with the wreckage of motorbikes and lumps of shattered and twisted metal. The security van lay on its side, broken glass in a large arc around the cab and with blood dripping out of the back section where the pureed bodies pooled their collective life force out into the river of claret slowly working its way towards the drain at the side of the road.

Up on the ridge, Aswon and Hunter maintained their vigil. As the car sped away, Hunter started to lose sight of him, and even the powerful scope mounted on Aswon’s rifle started to struggle. A flash caught his attention, and he panned the scope up, catching the blue strobing light from vehicles heading their way from town.

“Heads up, we have the police inbound. Estimate 60 seconds. Get out of there.”

Marius restarted the mining truck, listening with concern at the tortured noise from the power train. It had sustained fairly major damage, and he very carefully tested the steering and controls, hoping that it would last until they were back in the quarry. The others grabbed their gear and Monty, laying him carefully on the load bed for the journey back up the hill – all apart from Tads. She wandered over to the first pile of motorbikes and started to check them out, looking to see if she could find a working vehicle.

Aswon tracked the first police cruiser as it headed their way, realising that although it had the blue lights on, there was no trace of sirens to disturb the night air, and it also wasn’t travelling that fast – it was like they were out for a Sunday drive. He snorted to himself, and then wondered if he was being paid at the rate that they were if he’d drive flat out into a gun battle between a dozen vehicles and a team of Shadowrunners. He watched as they slowed, and then blinked as the muscle car pulled up next to them. Dialling back the magnification on the scope a little, he saw the two cars get close and stop, pulling up with their drivers’ windows no more than an arm’s length apart. He had no idea what was said, but it was clear that the police car had no intention of arresting or questioning the occupants, despite the carnage that was visible down the road.

“The police car and the muscle car have stopped for a chat. That has to make them local organised crime, and the police are probably on the take. We don’t want to get questioned by these people…” he murmured over the microphone. Another flash of light attracted his attention and he nestled his eye back to the scope and checked again, spotting an ambulance appear around the corner, heading towards the police car and their location.

With everyone but Tads onboard, Marius eased the vehicle into motion, feeling it kick and complain under his touch. One of the wheels must have been bent as there was a regular twitch under the chassis, and he could smell something heating up from the engine bay – presumably they’d lost some coolant somewhere during the fight. Kai glanced back over his shoulder at Tads and whistled to attract her attention, but she glanced over and then waved at him, making a gentle shooing motion. He shrugged, and then concentrated on holding Monty steady with one hand and keeping hold of the sniper rifle with the other as their truck limped up the switchback hill.

Tads took a deep breath, and then turned towards the spirit, which was still over by the security van, finishing the pulverisation of the driver. It seemed to be taking the job very seriously, working out some major anger issues. Tads headed over that way and coughed to attract its attention.

“Um, hello? Excuse me. Thank you for helping us, but I think we’re all done now. It looks like the police are here, so you might want to think about leaving.” The spirit looked at her blankly, the stone ‘head’ being particularly good of course at giving a blank expression. The loose collection of rocks and stones turned slightly, appearing to regard the two cars up the road. The police car started to head towards them, while the muscle car pulled away, heading back towards town. And a moment later, the huge stone legs started a purposeful stride towards the oncoming police car. “Oh crap. I’d really rather you didn’t go over there? Hello? I’m sorry, I don’t mean to offend you or anything, and I’m not sure if this is even going to work. I ORDER you not to attack the police car!” The figure seemed unimpressed.

Above her, on the first switchback, Marius drove the vehicle slowly and carefully. Kai listened as Tads gave him a brief situation update, and then raised himself up slightly, letting the rifle lean against the dashboard to free up a hand so he could cup it around his mouth.

“HEY! STOP MOVING!” the words rippled and vibrated oddly as he flexed his vocal cords, shaping power into the commands. The spirit twisted slightly, apparently listening to him for a moment, but the pace didn’t slow, and it slowly rotated back towards the approaching car with the inexorableness of an avalanche.

The huge craggy figure continued to close on the police car, which slowed and then stopped entirely, just at the edge of the scene. The spirit walked around to the driver’s side of the car and then leant forward, thrusting not only its head but most of its shoulders and one arm into the car through the open window. The driver must have squirmed out of the way sharpish, as there were no screams of terror or howls of pain though. She had no idea what it was doing, but at least it wasn’t ripping anyone’s spine out or tearing the roof of the car off.

Tads moved back, heading towards the edge of the road and started to climb the slope, moving carefully until she found a large boulder embedded into the hillside that she could crouch beside. She was far enough back from the scene that she would be difficult to spot, but close enough that she could keep an astral eye on things and spot if the police bought in a mage to look at the scene for magical evidence.

After about thirty seconds, the spirit moved away from the police car to the side of the road, standing on the pavement and then appearing to slump slightly. Somehow it looked less alive – no longer a pile of huge animated boulders, and instead now looking like an improbable cairn, with stones precariously balanced and on the verge of falling. Yet she could still see that the spirit was there, it just appeared to be….waiting. Paused in its destruction.

The doors opened and two policeman emerged, and started to sweep through the area. One of them used his phone to take some pictures as he moved around, along with some notes, while the second moved after him to collect up the weapons and spare ammunition, moving it to near their car and neatly lining it up. The ambulance arrived, disgorging two paramedics, who spoke with the policeman collecting the guns for a moment, then started to follow him around, checking bodies. From their body language it was clear they didn’t expect to find any survivors, and were not rushing – but neither did they seem surprised or curious at all, like this was just another day of normal activity.

Hunter watched the cops too, snorting a little, a grin slowly forming on his face. Aswon glanced at him, watching the smile spread.

“What are you happy about?”

“Look at them. Either complete amateurs, or they just don’t care. Not bagging the guns, not even wearing gloves. They’re just recovering the loot, putting it in piles – rating it by quality by the looks of things. Most of those are going straight out the back door of the police station by the looks of things, not the evidence room. You mark my words. Good news for us though, they don’t give a shit who did what to who, they’re just keeping a lid on things.” Aswon grunted, then sighted down his scope, examining the piles of guns and watching the body language of the policemen as they moved unhurriedly around the scene.

A fire truck arrived soon after, but following a cursory examination and a quick chat with the officer, they did an awkward turn and headed back towards town. Marius managed to nurse the mining truck to the top of the slope, and eased past his truck, giving it a very careful look as they drove past it. Once on the downslope, he let gravity do most of the work, just keeping the badly shot up vehicle to a reasonable speed and to the centre of the runway as they descended back towards the smuggler base.

“Vishtar, this is Kai. We have the target recovered, closing in now. Where do you want him taking?”

“Bring him to the rec area I guess, and we’ll work out what to do with him.”

“Copy that, there in about ten minutes. Where do you want the truck leaving?”

“Leave it by the tunnel to the rec-area, just make sure it’s as close to the tunnel edge as you can so there’s room to get past it.” Kai made sure that Marius had heard and understood the instructions, then sat back in his seat, enjoying the ride through the night air and letting his mind wander a little as he relaxed. A thought crossed his mind, bringing a deep frown with it.

“Oh, and one last thing – our Shaman called a spirit to help us. A mountain spirit. It seemed a bit odd. Is that ok? Anything we need to do?”

“Did she? Oh my. Well, don’t worry about it, I’m sure it’s fine.” Kai thought he heard the edge of humour in the response, but it could have just been the poor quality reception of the mine radio that mislead him. He sat back as they drove seemingly straight into the cliff face, hoping to hell that Marius had the right bit of cliff memorised – though with over eighty metres to aim for, perhaps it wasn’t that hard. They flashed into the tunnel, and drove along the tunnel, the vehicle bouncing and groaning over the rougher surface of the cave floor.

Back at the gate, Aswon and Hunter checked around the truck, collecting all the brass shells and keeping half an eye on the scene below. The medics were now working through the bodies, putting them in body-bags and lining them up at the side of the road while the police slowly cleared the weapons into a container and move bits of debris around. A tow truck had arrived, and was started to collect the motorbikes, performing an assessment on them and loading them onto the back of his truck.

Tads worked her way around the side of the battle scene, approaching the spirit as carefully as she could. When she got next to it, she lowered her voice to a hoarse whisper.

“I’m sorry if I offended you. I meant it for the best.”

A small string of rubble animated up from the side, forming a rough approximation of an arm and three fingered hand, which then somewhat patronisingly patted her on the head. She thought for a moment, and decided not to be offended – after all, she’d seen it beat someone to death only a few minutes ago, taking great joy in the act which was unusual for spirits normally. So, on the whole she could put up with a little condescension and being able to walk away. So she did. It took her several minutes to work her way back, climbing up the slope to the gate – but at least she was fit and hardy, so the steep slope didn’t prove to be much of an obstacle. By the time she had reached the top, Aswon and Hunter had finished clearing up and she joined them in the truck, as they returned to the smuggler base, watching the gate to the quarry close behind them at the touch of a button from the guard watching silently from the gatehouse.

Back inside the caves, Marius parked up at the side of the wide tunnel leading to pod 1 as instructed, then carefully carried their target through into the recreation area, laying him on one of the cheap tables with his legs dangling off the end. Kai saw Shimazu wince in pain, and pulled him over for a look, giving him an expert going over.

“You’re fine, for now. And the blood has pretty much stopped oozing. I don’t want to open that back up here, we’ll save it for back at the chopper when we can clean the area first. Here, have a couple of these for now.” He proffered a couple of huge painkillers to Shimazu who looked at them with distrust for a moment while he studied them, before popping them into his mouth and washing them down with a quick gulp of water. While Shimazu was distracted, looking at the ceiling as he swallowed the water, Kai leant forward and expertly jabbed him with a hidden syringe, injecting him with broad spectrum antibiotics, coagulating agents and some chemical whose name was staggeringly long – but helped greatly with wound closures. Shimazu flinched and gave him a dirty look, but declined to take any action.

With a snort, then a groan, the figure on the table squirmed a little, then groggily recovered consciousness. Hi eyes widened, but it was clear from the size of his pupils and the defocussed look that he wasn’t tracking properly. His hand flapped to his side, trying to pull his pistol as he took in the weirdly distorted faces of the people looking down at him as they surrounded him on the table. They quickly moved to restrain him – as much to stop him pulling bandages loose as because they thought he was actually dangerous.

“Whoa, steady there, steady. It’s ok – you’re safe. You’re in the base. Vishtar sent us out to come get you from the guys chasing you. You’re ok. Calm down, you took a burst of fire in the back, and it was touch and go for a few minutes, but we’ve got all the guys that were chasing you, and you’re in the tunnels now.” Kai’s voice was smooth, low-pitched and carefully modulated, and as he talked they felt the wounded man start to relax under their grip, then stop struggling entirely. “I’m just going to check on the bandages and make sure you’re not bleeding. Sorry if this hurts.”

Kai started to check him over, and in turn the figure on the table began to sob – Kai stopped, but the sobbing continued, and it was clear that it wasn’t physical pain that was the issue.

The room had gone quiet, Kai, Marius and Shimazu listening uncomfortably as the stress bled off from the stranger – along with the rest of the occupants. Perhaps a minute passed and the sobs turned to sniffles, and then just ragged breathing, and they waited in silence. Kai looked up and around, making eye contact with each group. Mamma Bear was on her own, actually walking towards them with a pair of water bottles. The Zephyr crew were sitting with drinks of their own, listening quietly, though not looking their way. On the other side of the cavern the dwarf and the gnome listened, staring over at them with no shame or guilt on their faces, not looking away when Kai stared at them for a moment. And, at the next table over was a pair of trolls, one male and the other female, along with a slender Japanese man wearing some kind of uniform and peaked hat.

Mamma Bear walked over and around to the head of the table, then held up one of the bottles of water, letting Monty snag it out of her hands.

“Oh Monty, looks like you ran outta luck this time my friend.” Monty looked at her sadly, big brown eyes welling up with tears. “Lemme talk to Rocket in the morning when he’s back, k. Until then, these folk seem to have their heads screwed on, I’m sure they’ll look after you. Enjoy your drink.” Monty nodded at her, toasting her silently with the opened bottle, the plastic bottles making a crinkling noise as they were pushed together. Mamma Bear looked at Kai for a moment, but just nodded at him, before pushing herself back from the table and turning to leave the rec area. As she was leaving, Hunter, Aswon and Tads passed her in the opening, and she gave them a nod in passing.

One of the trolls pushed himself up and out of the chair, squeezing out from the plastic table and collecting a large box from his side, before wandering over. He picked up the box and placed it on the table next to them, flicking open the catches, before pulling out a large accordion and sliding the harness over his shoulders, snugging the instrument to his chest. He spoke, and instead of the big, gruff rumble that was common to trolls, or people that size, instead the voice came out in a softly spoken mid-range pitch, with an accent that defied initial description. He also seemed to be talking to Kai, not Monty.

“Hello there, stranger. Has our friend here had any Morphine or other drugs of that type?” Kai shook his head at the troll, wondering where this was going. “Ahh, excellent. Here you go then, something to take away the pain a little.” A large brown calloused hand reached over and carefully plucked the water bottle out of Monty’s hand, then replaced it with a highly decorated glass bottle from an inside pocket. Monty struggled with the lid for a moment, then a strong smell of schnapps filled the air as he sipped from the bottle.

“Tell us a bit about you, and we’ll try to help you out.” Kai said, pitching his voice low, and putting a smile on his face.

“The name’s Monty,” he managed to get out, smacking his lips and swallowing, trying to get some moisture into his mouth. Shimazu lifted his head slightly and Monty poured a little alcohol in-between his lips, letting him swallow the cool liquid in slow, steady gulps. “Ahh, cheers Pal. That’s better. Who sent you?”

“Vishtar asked us to come and get you, said your rep was solid. And we didn’t have anything more important to do…” The figure on the table sipped again, then coughed as the alcohol tickled the back of his throat. When he spoke again, he lapsed into French. Hunter leant in and started to translate for them…

“Well, I owe you, owe you all. Yeah, most folk call me Monty. We were just coming back from a job, getting ready to hand over the goods. Run had gone smooth, like clockwork really. Nice professional job, no mus. But Pike said he had a feeling. Pike’s the boss. Well, I guess was.” Monty closed his eyes for a moment and his jaw muscles flexed a little. “Was the boss. But yeah, said he just felt a little on edge, so he had me go wide on one side, and got Stickshift to stay in the van, ready to bug out. But we popped the Steel Lynx out in the bushes on the other side of the road, as insurance.” He accepted another sip of liquid via Shimazu, then coughed again, before continuing with his tale.

“There were a lot of them, a lot more than we expected. Must have been more than thirty of the dirty two-timing bastards. Spread out all over the place as well, they were. Seemed friendly to start with, but put us all on edge. But we’d got the chemicals they wanted, and we hoped they were just being careful. So Pike and Mooch goes out to meet ‘em, and I’m up on the hill keeping eyes on, while Stick is piloting the drone. Then, just as we’re about to take payment, one of ‘em at the back pulls out some kinda missile launcher, and the next thing you know BOOM, the drone is toast. Then it all goes to hell. I can hear Stick on the radio getting another drone ready to launch, I’m servicing targets one after another. Pike gets hit, goes down pretty hard, but he’s still functional. Shot him right in the belly plate. Mooch lets off one of his powerball spells, I think – certainly I see a good five or so of ‘em burst open as he gives ‘em what for.” He closed his eyes again, and a single tear forced its way out of the corner of his eye, collecting some colour from the soot and dirt on his face.

“Next thing I see is Mooch taking a burst to the face, from one of the guys doing the exchange. Some kinda machine pistol, but I see the back of his head explode outwards, poor bugger. Ain’t no way he was surviving that. Pike’s still shooting, taking out kneecaps from the floor, but I see him get buried under some guys, and the knives are going in. I shoot until I run dry, must have taken out a good ten or so. Some of them have gotten to the van, and they use some kinda burning bar to crack open the back door, then I think they dropped a grenade in. Sure as hell there was a loud bang and smoke everywhere, can’t see how Stickshift got outta there with his hide intact.”

“And me, I bugged out. The rest of the team were dead, and I’m red on ammo. So it’s time for Mrs Mountford’s boy to Foxtrot Oscar. ‘Cept I must have been seen, because they sure as hell chased me. I boosted the first thing I could find and made for the quarry, and got on the phone screaming for help. And I guess you came. So yeah, I owe you one.”

Hunter finished translating, then silence filled the room for a moment. It was broken when there was a click from the catch on the accordion and the sound of the troll checking a few settings on the accordion. He started to play, his massive calloused fingers delicately moving over the keys with deceptive grace. After he had played for a few seconds he launched into a ditty, tapping time with his foot and keeping up a fast pace on the instrument. His voice soared, filling the cavern with a sweet melody that sounded more like something you would hear on a trid-station or music hall than some out of the way smuggler base. Aswon glanced at him curiously, and then his eyes widened as he saw the slight buildup of magical power around the troll.

As he watched he saw the troll concentrating hard as he belted out the bawdy and disgusting lyrics to some old song that had Hunter smirking like a five year old – he apparently had heard the song before at some point and knew what was coming – and saw the troll drop into astral space for a moment, checking out Monty. The tribesman realised that he was watching someone use a metamagic technique known as centering, gathering his magical energies to focus his mind and powers to better achieve something. Where ancient samurai had performed sword katas and priests used meditation or chanting in Latin, it was apparent that this troll used singing or playing his instrument as his method of channelling and focussing power. Aswon watched him carefully, looking for signs of active magical use, but he appeared to be content with just looking – though he was assensing Monty deeply and thoroughly. Well, if he wanted to check him out and ensure he wasn’t dying or affected by some malady, that was fine with him.

Kai leant to the left and put his hand in his right pocket, pulling out his commlink and flipping the screen open. He read the message there, and then quickly typed in a response, closed the screen and replaced it in his pocket. Looking up, he saw a couple of the team watching him with a curious expression. Aware that the troll, who they still didn’t have a name or identity for was well within earshot, he thought for a moment before speaking.

“Our fixer from the last job, just wanting to know if we were able to talk about some forthcoming work. I said yes. No details yet though.”

He looked up as he caught sight of someone entering the room from the far end, watching as Vishtar appeared out of the “crew only” tunnel, and made his way over to them. Vishtar nodded to each of the teams as he passed them, and approached Kai and Monty, glancing down at Monty first to assess his condition. Monty was still lying on the table, feet dangling over the end with his clothes tattered and hanging loose where Kai had ripped them open to get the trauma patch onto his heart. Blood-stained and battered, he looked wan, and the small bottle of schnapps had already done its work and he was staring fuzzily at the ceiling. He looked up at Kai and made a motion – inserting something and then turning, and Kai pointed over to Marius.

A few seconds later, Marius had handed over the key and the mining radio to Vishtar. As he was heading out into the tunnel, Kai raised his voice to be heard above the singing.

“Hey Vishtar, which pod shall we take Monty to?” Vishtar replied quickly, with a wry grin.

“You want to take him to your pod? Yeah, that’s ok with me, you’re renting it after all.” Before Kai could respond, he turned and was gone.

Kai scowled at the tunnel, aware that he’d just been dropped with babysitting duties and looked around at the team. As he saw Tads, still sitting and leaning to one side, he pulled out his medkit and moved around to her. Despite her protestations that she was fine, he checked her over and dressed her minor wounds – though his frustration with Vishtar translated into a fairly lousy bedside manner.

The troll finished his song, and there was a smattering of applause from the other occupants of the rec area. Aswon leaned in towards Monty, laying a hand gently on his shoulder.

“We have your rifle and pistol safe, by the way. They are ready for you whenever you want them.” Monty muttered a thank you, and Aswon retook his seat, watching as the troll launched into another bawdy drinking song. As he did so, Vishtar appeared out of the tunnel, moving across towards the team with an angry look on his face. Without breaking rhythm, the troll slid off the end of the table and moved away, heading back towards his own table and setting himself up there, continuing to sing – and moving away from the operations manager.

“What the hell did you do to my truck! It’s wrecked! That’s an operational vehicle for the mine, well, it’s supposed to be! Who is going to pay for that damage?”

“We didn’t have a choice if we were going to get your man here. By the time we had that thing up to speed and to the top of the ridge, they were already closing on his position, attacking his crappy little car with automatic weapons. If we hadn’t taken it down the slope, we’d have been too late. And it was them that shot at us. But don’t worry, we killed them all for you.” Marius didn’t sound at all apologetic, and there was an edge of challenge to his response.

“Well, someone is going to have to pay for the damage, one way or another. Who was attacking, and what did they have?”

Marius spent a minute describing the attackers, the groups of bikes and the description of the two fast and powerful cars and the Bulldog van. When he described the security van, Vishtar asked for clarification on the status of it, and seemed very interested when Marius told him that other than some cosmetic damage, a blown out wheel and a new radiator, it was probably not that bad.

“Right then. If you go get that van and tow it back in here, I’ll get the guys to fix it up – we can probably sell it on at some point, or maybe even break it down for spares. Do that, and we’ll call it quits on the repairs to my truck.” Marius looked annoyed, but Kai flashed him a look and told Vishtar they’d do it – then motioned for Marius to follow him out. The two of them headed back to the team’s truck, and turned it around in the tunnel, heading back out into the quarry and up the access road.

The rest stayed with Monty, keeping an eye on him. As they sat and relaxed, Aswon cocked his head to one side, then concentrated, carefully filtering out the sounds of singing, and the chatter from his team mates. Slowly the words that had been tugging at the edge of his perception became more distinct.

“I have finished eating, and replaced the cutlery into the bowl. Accepted protocol is to return the bowl to the collection point, which I will do shortly. The newcomers are still tending to the wounded man, it is best to leave him in their care. I will sit back and relax, and enjoy the music.” It was the Japanese guy in the strange uniform, muttering quietly to himself as he sat at his table. Aswon listened as he continued to narrate his actions, wondering just what he was doing. Well, whatever it was, it didn’t seem to bother his two troll companions or affect them, so he relaxed, letting the other sounds flood back in and drown out the wittering.

Kai and Marius headed up to the top, and through the gate, which was once more opened in silence by the waiting guard. As they drove down the slope, they had ample time to assess the scene. The police car was still there along with a second smaller police vehicle. The tow truck was just about loaded to capacity with the motorbikes, which had been lashed down with straps and rope to stop them shifting around. Most of the bodies had gone, though there were still a number of body bags lying by the side of the road – presumably waiting for a second vehicle. As they got down to the middle switchback, they saw the smaller police vehicle load up the pile of guns and magazines, then turn and drive back towards town, leaving the first car and pair of officers watching over the street. One had lit up a cigarette and was leaning on the side of the car, the other was standing near the mechanic, talking to him as he finished loading the bikes.

Both police officers stopped and watched as they made the final turn, along with the mechanic. They didn’t show any particular alarm or concern though, and made no move to grab their weapons. Marius pulled up near the Bulldog and turned to Kai with a raised eyebrow.

“This was your idea. You go talk to them.” Kai nodded, then smoothed his features, put on a big smile and climbed down from the truck, approaching the policeman near the car, keeping both hands open and in front of him.

“Good evening sir! I wonder if I might have a word?” The one by the mechanic started to walk over, while the other guy took a deep drag on his cigarette, and nodded for Kai to speak.

“I’m from the vehicle recovery centre, and we noticed that one of our trucks has been caught up in this little fracas. We’ve just come to tow it away and make some repairs.”

The cop flicked his eyes over to their unmarked truck, displaying in “heavy equipment yellow” under the orange street lights, then back at him.

“Do you have a permit?”

“Ahh, I seem to have left my permit back at the office. How stupid of me. I wonder if I could make arrangements for a… temporary permit? One night only kind of thing?”

Another puff on the cigarette. A sideways glance at the second officer, now close by.

“I think we can do that. Perhaps…. Four hundred. Each. In cash.”

Kai smiled, then carefully reached into his jacket, moving slowly and calmly. He carefully pulled out a selection of hard currency and passed it over to the policeman, who split the take with his partner.

“I understand the roads are dangerous. Be careful.” With that they turned and waved for the mechanic to get into his truck, then followed him down the road towards town. When he turned at the end of the road, following the highway back towards the more built up area, they turned the opposite direction, pulling behind some warehouses.

“Hah. Making sure they can’t see what’s going on, if they get questioned later. That way they’re telling the truth I guess. Come on Kai, I need your help.” They worked quickly, attaching the tow cable from their truck to the chassis on the Bulldog, then reeling in the slack and pulling the Bulldog back upright. It landed with a crash, the loose glass from the broken windscreen cascading all over the road. Still, it only took them a few minutes to get the vehicle ready to tow, and then they started the slow process of dragging it up the slope back towards the quarry. The blown out wheel dragged, leaving a trail of rubber behind them and the lack of power made steering a bitch, but with Marius in firm control of the team’s truck and Kai fighting to keep the security van pointing the right direction, they made it up the hill and over the brow before the Police car reappeared.

Once they got over the brow, they stopped and checked over the truck, cutting away a big flap of jammed tyre from the wheel arch to try and make things easier for them. They also gave the truck a quick once over to see what it contained – but it was empty. Suspiciously so. They could only assume that it had been carefully cleaned up, probably after whatever job it had been used for last…

Back in the recreation area, the rest of the team had decided to take Monty back to their pod while Kai and Marius were out doing recovery operations. Rooting around outside they found a sheet of thick plastic that would double up as a stretcher, and bought it in to the cave, carefully sliding it under the now drunk form of Monty. Between Hunter, Shimazu, Aswon and Tads, they lifted the sheet up and moved out into the tunnel, starting on the roughly kilometre long walk back towards their sleeping area.

As they entered the pod, they almost dropped the sheet and Monty, as Aswon and Hunter came to an abrupt halt, staring at the red dot that danced over Aswon’s chest.

“Nadia? Is that you?” The red dot blinked out, and they saw a dim form climb up from the deep shadow cast between the air intakes of the two massive turbofan engines on top of the chopper. They resumed their walk across the cavern, meeting up with Nadia after she had climbed down from her perch.

“I decided to wait by the vehicle, just in case this was a ruse, or some plan to lure you all out while someone raided our things. I’ve been keeping watch.” The four of them blinked in surprise, taken somewhat aback by the initiative – and the thought, which hadn’t crossed anyone else’s mind apparently. After laying Monty down carefully in the chopper and making sure he was as comfortable as they could make him, they came back out to check up on Nadia and tell her what had happened. Hunter made a quick check, and then leant over to flick the safety catch over on her SMG, drawing a scowl from Nadia as he did so.

On hearing that there had been a gun battle, Nadia immediately asked about Marius – ignoring the bloody clothing on both Shimazu and Tads, much to their annoyance. Shimazu enacted some small measure of revenge by announcing that he was going for hot food, and missing Nadia out on the order, heading off back down the tunnel without giving her a chance to request a bowl of hot gumbo. Hunter accompanied him, preferring to run food errands rather than being left with a pouting Nadia.

Marius and Kai returned shortly afterwards, having towed the Bulldog van to near the rec-area, leaving it behind the battered mining truck. Just as they arrived, Kai got another call, but kept losing the connection, this far underground. He headed back towards the cave entrance, to get a better signal, while the rest of the team settled down and made themselves comfortable for the night.

Kai settled into the alcove just inside the illusion, waiting for the contact to get back in touch, making himself comfortable on a small wad of high-visibility vests to pad out the shoe rack. Sure enough, two minutes later, the phone rang, and he hit the accept button.

“Is this Kai?”

“It is, who am I speaking to?”

“My name is Ludmilla, Ludmilla Kuzmina. My friend Patrick gave me your name and number, and said you were a resourceful chap that might be able to help me.” She spoke with a Russian accent, mixed with something else – it made her sound unusual, and he made a mental note to check on the name. The way she’d announced herself it was as if she expected him to recognise her.

“Ahh yes, we recently worked for Patrick, on a very successful little mission.”

“Indeed – and are you in the market for more work at the moment?”

“We are, if the terms are agreeable of course.”

“Oh, of course. Well, you see I’m after some plants, for my research. Some very specific plants.”

“I’m guessing you have somewhere they may be found, but it’s a bit…out of the way?”

“That would be somewhat of an understatement. I require a team to go and fetch me some plants. Dry cuttings and samples if that’s what is available, but a live specimen is what I really seek. But that might be challenging. Are you available for that kind of work?”

“I see no reason why not. We need a couple of days to get our craft sorted and resupplied, but then we’re ready to go.”

“Well, there’s no rush on my behalf. I would say it needs to be done by the end of summer – and while our summers are short, they’re not that short. But this will be tricky, as I said. If you can get me a large sample of the plants, well preserved and catalogued – probably about 20kg of samples, then I would be happy. Or, if you can get me a viable, live sample. If you can do both, there’s a bonus. And for this, I’m happy to pay a quarter of a million.” Kai blinked and thought rapidly.

“Well, that sounds quite enticing. I might have to ask for a little more – not much, just a little – to help offset the fuel costs. Our craft are just SO expensive to operate you see.”

“Indeed? Well, I might be able to help with that, but I can accept a small increase in the fee for operational costs. So, are we in agreement?”

“Yes, I think we are. I’m sure we can supply your plants for you.”

“Excellent, very good. Well, the plant is often referred to as ‘Singing Soulweed’ – it’s some kind of awakened plant, you see, and it grows only in the most unusual circumstances, according to rumour. It appears to rely on a massive temperature differential between the roots and the leaves to prosper, so it’s found only in very specific places. The plant has some very unusual and specific leaf shapes and such like – I’ll send you some pictures to help you identify them. But anyway, my information is that there are some hot springs in a place called Ozero Pil’tanlor, out in the tundra, where the conditions are just right, and you’re likely to find some.”

“I see. I’m not familiar with the place, do you have a little more detail?”

“I’ll send you a rough map of the area, but it’s deep inside Yakut territory, hence needing some specialists to arrange entry and exit. I don’t have any contacts in the area of course, otherwise I wouldn’t need to farm out to you, but I also understand the locals take a very dim view of people raiding their land, so you would need to be careful with your presence.”

“No problem. Well, I’ll let my team know and get prepared. When we’re ready to go, or have more questions – can I contact you on this number?”

“Of course, I’ll make sure it’s monitored. Well, I have to go now, the ball is about to start. Goodbye!”

Kai headed back in, checked on the team and didn’t say anything about the job – at least not yet. Instead he checked to make sure everyone was comfortable and was ready for a good night of sleep. Come the morning, they headed to the rec-area for breakfast gumbo, with Tads levitating the sheet of plastic carrying Monty like a Roman Emperor – or a sacrificial victim. Either way, he’d regained a bit of colour overnight, and was much more alert, though still in considerable pain and unable to move much.

They were not the only ones in the rec-area, Rocket and his team had not long arrived, and were still ordering food for themselves. The teams chatted for a few minutes, exchanging pleasantries between them. Aswon invited Topshot to their pod, saying he had something to show her, and Hunter likewise invited Rocket over to come and see him. Rocket in turn offered to buy them all breakfast, and the teams grabbed food, dragging one of the tables over to join with theirs so they could set Monty on it, and help him to eat some food. After breakfast, Monty produced a credstick which he offered to Kai.

“There’s about five grand on that – reckon I owe you that much, for saving my life. Sorry, that’s all I have at the moment – everything else was in the truck.” Kai pondered for a moment, but then took the stick, thanking him.

“So, what are you going to do Monty?”

“Get better, one way or another, look for another team. I’m sure someone needs some work doing somewhere. I’ll be ok, I think.”

“Monty, you can come ride the Bandit if you want. We’ve got some space for you. As long as you don’t mind Spangles and her sexual advances.”

“Hey! Just because I’m not a prude!” Spangles retorted. Monty checked with Rocket, that he was serious, and Rocket just nodded.

“Don’t worry Monty. We got you covered. You’ll get a chance to earn your keep, I’m sure.”

Tads had wandered over towards the chef and was having a quiet discussion with him while he moved grease around his woks. The team saw her gesticulate, concentrate and then a steak appeared at the end of her fingers on the prep area, thick red meat with veins of white fat marbling through it. The chef grabbed it with glee and went to work with a cleaver, slicing it into thin slivers and throwing it into a bowl. Tads concentrated again, producing another, then another. When she’d made six, she stopped, breathing deeply and looking a little bemused, then wandered back over to the team moving like she was a tiny bit drunk.

With that sorted, the team left Monty in Rocket’s care, heading back towards their pod. Along the way, Kai explained that he had a job lined up, over in Yakut – and that he’d give them a full brief when they got back to the pod. En-route, Aswon drifted near the entrance, firing off a quick message to Sofi in Constantinople, asking if he knew anything about the Russian/Yakut border and conditions, or any intelligence on the area, before heading back to the pod to catch up with the rest. 

When they were safely back in their pod, away from prying ears, Kai recounted the conversation with Ludmilla from the previous evening, recounting all of the details. As he covered off what they would have to do, the team took on a glum expression, and Aswon lowered his head into his hands.

“You should have asked for more money boss. That’s taking us into the war zone. Not even an exaggeration – literally into a war zone. We might even bump into the brigadier over there!”

With the mission laid out though, the team started to discuss plans – working out distances and fuel economies, whether they should fly or drive, and what to do with the other vehicle whichever way they went. How much of their cargo capacity should be given over for fuel tanks to improve their range… 

They’d previously wondered if they could fit the truck into the back of the helicopter, but even the cavernous cargo space of the heavy transport chopper wouldn’t accept the truck, mostly due to the massive ground clearance. Marius did point out though that the truck was modular – that the living compartment could be disconnected from the chassis, and that WOULD slide into the back of the chopper, letting them move the toilet, galley, bunks and planning area into the chopper without too much difficulty – though it wouldn’t be a quick operation and needed some sturdy lifting equipment.

Kai showed the picture he’d been sent over to Tads and Aswon, but neither of them were familiar with the plant directly – though Aswon did think it looks somewhat familiar in some way. He racked his brain, and eventually realised that he’d seen something like it once, during a coming of age ceremony. The village shaman had a plant that had some similarities to this, and it put people into a heightened state, and sometimes showed if they had magical talent. If this was anything similar, it would explain why it was so desirable.

By the end of the discussion, they at least had a plan of what needed to be done to make the mission vaguely plausible.

First on the list was to secure the rigger control adaptions, and enable Marius to jack directly into the chopper. That needed a decent workshop, but Vishtar said that they had the parts in stock, and that should be simple enough to do.

Secondly, they needed to look at getting additional fuel tanks fitted to the chopper to improve the range, giving them a much larger operating radius. It would eat up their cargo area and load capacity – potentially a lot, depending on just how much fuel they added, but it gave them a lot more options.

Third, they needed to find a smart-link kit to tie the nose turret into the chopper’s systems, rather than rely on manual gunnery. They certainly felt that they were flying into harm’s way, and it could be the difference between life and death in a gunfight.

Last of all, they needed to look at either moving the drone launch racks from the truck, or getting some new launch bays fitted to the chopper. As they’d seen from the fight on the edge of the reservoir near Tbilisi, the drones were a solid force multiplier, and gave them lots more options in combat – and that was all good.

Aswon urged Kai to get back in touch with their employer, to get some of the cash up front to cover the expenses all of this stuff was going to incur, but Kai seemed a little non-committal on the idea.

With some idea of what to do to get there, and the team bandying ideas around about buying swamp buggies or small 4 X 4s that could fit in the back of the chopper to give them a ground element, they started to get to work on getting their vehicle ready to be worked on – once they found and secured the base mechanic crew.


	106. 106 - Preparing for the trip

Date Friday 09/04/2060, Location 50.10234, 43.23581 

“Hey! One of you Marius?” The cry came from the entrance to the pod, and the team saw a man wearing oil-stained overalls sitting atop a small electric runabout – nothing really more than a glorified golf cart. They waved him in and his vehicle trundled over towards them with a whine from the motor. “Vishtar sent me over, says you want some work queuing up and quoting on. I’m Victor Smuushki, by the way. I run the maintenance crew.”

Marius stepped forwards and invited Victor aboard the chopper, and started to describe the work that needed to be done – or at least was desired. Victor had a good poke about, asking questions about the chopper to do with the mechanical history, stresses and service history while staying clear of anything too specific; clearly he was used to dealing with people who had craft with dubious or unclear provenance. It took him about fifteen minutes to do a quick survey, and they headed out of the craft to meet up with the rest of the team for him to deliver his verdict.

“Right then – let’s start with the simple stuff first. Getting a rigger control system installed is null sweat. We got ‘em in stock, even for a bird this size, and the parts are all off the shelf. Cost is about two and a half grand, and we can probably fit it in a couple of days. Certainly we want to do that as the absolute first job, because the wiring is a bitch if you have to put it around everything else you want to add in.” Marius nodded in agreement with him, clearly having been forced to do some post-install wiring work in the past and regretting it.

“Next up the Smartlink kit. I’m guessing you want the latest gen tech, and from a decent manufacturer like Ares or Krupp,” Victor missed the involuntary shudder from Marius at the mention of his former employer, “rather than some third tier knockoff copy. We’ll have to hit the suppliers in Volgograd, and hope that someone has one spare. Cost is likely to run around a grand, and the work is pretty easy – no more than a day or two I think, to get the control runs laid in and calibrated. As long as we can get stock. If no one has one, it’s gonna take a good few days to shake some trees and find one, or arrange a delivery.”

“Drone racks – this is where it starts to get a bit tricky. Now I’m guessing that in the line of work, you’re after the ability to launch and recover in flight?” Several of the team nodded right along with Marius. “Thought so. Well, it depends what kind of drones you got, but it could be a problem. With the size of your rotors, and the amount of lift on a bird this size, you got some sizeable air disruption. Do you want to launch when you’ve got loads slung under the bird, and what kind of drones are we talking about?”

“Yes, we will want to be able to launch with an underslung load attached. And at the moment we have two air support drones – a condor series recon, and a close support platform.” Victor winced and moved over towards the chopper, so he could point and demonstrate what the issues were.

“Your close support, I’m guessing its jet-fuelled – something like a Dalmation or similar. No problem launching and recovery there, it has the speed and control from the vector thrust to handle the manoeuvers required. The Condor is a problem though – well known issue. You see, normally we’d want to use the belly cargo doors to launch, and we’d throw it straight down under the bird – into the relatively clear air under the body. There’s still downwash of course, but not as much as to the sides. But if you’ve got a bunch of cables under tension and an underslung load, that’s just not going to work.” Victor moved over to the side of the chopper, drawing an imaginary box on the side.

“So, if we go with what you mentioned when we were inside, and have a waist launcher, and pop them out the sides – looks good on paper. But, that’s where the drone pops out right, on the launch arm. Then the lifting body inflates before you detach the umbilical – but trying to inflate the bag takes it right up towards the rotor. If the bag is too big, it gets chopped. But even if the bag is a small one, with the hybrid hydrogen/helium mix, then you still have to fight to get it inflated under the pressure of the downwash. It’s a bugger.” He walked down the length of the cargo area, with the team drifting after him.

“So, commonly what happens is you stick the drone rack out on the tail boom, with it extending to the rear – that way you clear the main rotor wash, and the side force from the tail rotor doesn’t bother you much. Downside of that is there’s a lot of control runs through there, and normally a whole nest of fuel tanks. So you’re making extra work for yourself. But, once it’s in, it gives you the best operational access with the greatest safety margin. So, that’s what I’d recommend.”

He turned to face Marius, who looked deeply unhappy. The rest of the team watch, wondering if Victor was feeding them a line of bullshit, and that was the reason for the unhappiness. But, Marius walked around, crouching and checking various sight lines and looking up at the rotor blades, wing positions and the length of the tail, before nodding unhappily.

“Ja, I agree. A pain, but clearly the best way to solve the engineering challenge. So, we need to open up the tail, relocate the tanks, armour the control runs against EM, install the lines to control the racks, and then fit the actual racks. How much?”

“Well, the component cost is pretty low, but you’ve already realised how much of an arse the job is, haven’t you?” Marius nodded unhappily. “So we’re probably talking a week or more, and fifty grand – depending on how many drones of what size you want to fit inside.”

“We already have a drone rack of the required size.” Marius pulled out his pad and showed Victor the schematic. “I can have it removed from our truck while you’re doing other work, ready for installation.

“Oh, right. Well, if it’s install only, that helps a lot. Probably looking around ten grand, depending on how much custom manufacturing we have to do for the frame and if the tail needs much reinforcing. Probably not with the type of aircraft, but you never know.” Victor locked eyes with Marius for a moment, then they both nodded, apparently in agreement.

“Now, the fuel tanks – we got two options. First, we can get small tanks and gang them together. They’re cheap, and it’s easy to work out exactly how much fuel capacity you want. They’re the sort of things you fit into pickups and trucks to get extra range, normally about fifty litres or so. Easy to get commercially in the city, and you pay a higher cost on the first one to get the pumps, control mechanism, gauges and such like, then the ones after are pretty much just boxes. But, we have to work out the placement and add them in one at a time, mate them up, check the seals and so on. Lots of places where something can get a leak or an air bubble. So, it’s easy work, but very time-consuming and will chew up hours like you can’t believe. Easy to maintain and replace individual tanks though.” He beckoned the team over to the rear of the chopper, until they were standing behind the ramp.

“The second option is to go for a larger tank – much larger.” He took a photo of the rear of the bird to get the dimensions, then used his fingers to start drawing on the tablet, sketching in the size of tank and position. “So if we put in a tank here, and here, up against the skin but leaving a passageway between them, you’ll get about a thousand litres of increased capacity then, in a very simple module. Less easy to find, we might even have to get it custom manufactured to fit the contours of the craft. Much bigger, and harder to install due to the size and weight – but almost certainly cheaper in the long run, and easier to maintain with fewer parts. If you’re doing any work on the skin or the frame, it’ll be harder to run behind the tank due to the size and weight, so you probably want to do that first.”

Marius turned towards the team, looking around at them.

“I suggest the bigger tank, for maintenance and to cut costs.”

“I agree, that seems the better option.” Aswon added.

“Yeah, on the whole that seems better. And cost IS a factor. How much are we talking, Victor?” asked Kai.

“Hmm. Well, if you were going for a thousand litre tank, a big custom job…” he tapped away on his pad for a moment, thought, tapped in some more figures. “Probably around twenty thousand. Maybe less, depending on the workload in the fab shops. If you go for the smaller tanks, but the same capacity…” tap tap tap “we’re looking at being about 10-15% more probably, even though they are easier to get.

Marius pulled out his credstick and waved it at Victor.

“Right, there’s fifteen grand on there – let’s get parts ordered and fabrication started, and wheels in motion, and we’ll pay for the rest on completion. Or rather Kai will.” Kai nodded, making some notes on his own pad and looking at the balance on the various credsticks they held with a worried look. Victor pulled out his reader and pushed the transaction through, then got in his cart.

“I’ll get this ordered, and things in motion then, and we’ll probably be back in three days or so.”

“What? No! We don’t have time to wait, we need to start now, getting things prepared!” Marius seemed appalled at the delay.

“Hey, I don’t make the schedule, I just do the work. Take it up with Vishtar if you got an issue. I got orders to fix up the truck as priority number one, before I start on any outside work.” He shrugged, but looked unapologetic, and then put the truck in gear and drove off to make arrangements.

“We definitely need a nice, easy, well paid job after this. The cupboard is looking pretty bare after the upgrades.” He flashed the pad around at the team, showing the amount – a touch over ten thousand remaining split across several sticks. 

“Does that include an allowance for fuel?” Aswon enquired. Kai shook his head and Aswon frowned. “Oh, right. I see. In that case, we should go back to our employer and ask them for an advance on the fee. Probably around 20-25%, to cover the other expenses. Kai was about to disagree, but he saw the nods and acceptance from the rest of the team and held the thought, aware that it would only cause a rift if he refused to contact her.

Aswon headed out of the pod and jogged towards the entrance, stopping just inside the illusion and crouching down in the side area. Pulling his phone out, he worked through the contacts until he found Spook, and with a quick check of his watch to confirm the time difference, hit dial.

“What?” She sounded annoyed, really annoyed.

“Spook? Hi, it’s Aswon. Everything ok?”

“No, not really. What do you want?” Her speech was short, curt and carried an undertone of obvious anger.

“Do I need to get over to you? I can drop what I’m doing and be there in…. well, today, I think.” It would foul up their planning for the job, but friends were friends, and she’d stood by him when he needed help, and he wasn’t going to leave her hanging. But he heard her take a deep breath, then let it out slowly – if he knew her, she was standing with her eyes closed and was doing at least one arm movement of tai chi with it, trying to regain her calm.

“Thanks Aswon, but no, it’s ok. Some problems, but nothing I can’t handle, and you can’t really help. At least not yet. If you can, I’ll let you know. Sorry – what is it you’re after?”

“If you’re sure. Well, I was after a consult really – I need to talk to a parabotanist or top flight expert on magical plants or compounds. It’s about a job.”

“Hmm. I have someone in mind – but I need to know, what country are you working in? Or what area. It’s kind of important.”

“Tundra region.” Aswon thought for a moment – he trusted her, so he should trust her to be discreet and parsimonious with the information. “Yakut / Russia steppes to be more defined.”

“Ahh, ok. You’re definitely not going anywhere near Hong Kong or China then? To be absolutely clear.” She listened as Aswon clarified that they were a significant distance away. “Ok, I think I have just the person then. I’ll get back to you at… in two hours, 42 minutes – whatever hour that is where you area. Ok.” Aswon confirmed the time, and heard her break the connection. For a moment he wondered if he should make his excuses to Kai and head for the airport to get the next flight to anywhere connecting to Hong Kong – but no, she’d been quite clear. Not yet. With that he pocketed the phone and headed back to the pod to meet up with the rest of them.

Arriving back at the pod he found Shimazu, Tads and Kai having a discussion – they’d decided they needed to ward the helicopter, and had decided to put the ward on the inside of the craft to hide the powerful protection they intended to put on it – which meant putting the ward in place before the fuel tanks were installed, as they needed access to the skin. Aswon nodded in agreement, suggesting that in light of the metal hull and the likely knocks and scrapes, they should be looking at mixing a paint up to inscribe the runes and marks required, then covering with a spray varnish to protect them.

Hunter was sitting on a blanket with some cleaning solvent, and a small toolkit and was hard at work cleaning down the Ares assault rifle – attending to every minute speck of dust or wear, and making it look factory new before slowly and carefully reassembling it, then giving it a quick once over with a cloth to burnish out any final marks or fingerprints, before it went back into the case.

Once the plan for warding was complete, Kai headed off into the rec area to try and find Vishtar. Along the way he passed the berthing board and noticed that Pod 1 was now showing as empty – there was a faint outline of the words “The Paladin” showing where the name had been erased. They must have left early in the morning he figured, then shrugged and continued his travels. In the rec-area he found the two trolls and the Japanese guy in uniform relaxing by their table, and asked them if they’d seen Vishtar. The male troll who had been playing the accordion directed him to the cook, while his female companion just stared at Kai like he’d just shat on the table – she seemed to have a real chip on her shoulder. The cook however just informed him that Vishtar was busy, and wouldn’t be around for a couple of hours.

Back at the pod, Hunter looked up as he heard a call.

“Hello! ‘s Rocket.”

“Come on in!” Rocket crossed the threshold, heading over towards Hunter. Marius, Shimazu, and Aswon drifted over as well to say hello. Rocket bimbled over to them, crossing the cavern floor at a steady pace that gave them time to examine him – dressed in jeans and a pair of hiking boots, a flannel shirt and a loose fitting jacket, he didn’t appear to be armed with anything major, and certainly appeared to be quite comfortable. As he arrived and said hello, Hunter flipped open the case, presenting the gleaming Ares Alpha combat gun to him. Rocket looked at him and raised an eyebrow, looking a little confused. Hunter just proffered the case to him again.

“That….that was a gift, you know that, right?”

“Yeah, thanks. I really appreciated it. But I’ve got another gun you see, that I use. And while I appreciate the gift, I hate to see the gun not get used. So I figured I’d give you this back – so it can go to someone who will use it.” Rocket cocked his head at Hunter, staring at him for a moment, as if he was waiting for the punchline. When it was clear there wasn’t anything, he slowly reached out and flipped the case shut, then grabbed the handle.

“Ok, well. Um. That makes sense, I suppose.”

“Wait there a minute, you’ll see.” Hunter turned and headed back to the truck. 

The rest of them chatted for a minute, until Hunter returned with his assault rifle. He dropped the mag out, then racked the action, catching the round as it flew through the air. Once the round had been pocketed, he dropped the gun to its side, then checked the chamber – confirming it was empty, before proffering the gun to Rocket. 

“Ooof. God, this weighs a ton. Not that I suppose that bothers you much!” Rocket lifted the rifle, a very slight tremor in his arms as he hefted the sturdy firearm into position and sighted down the scope. His shoulder twitched, and he tried to get comfy, struggling to hold the gun in position and ending up with his arms having to hold the rifle further away from his core to fit the heavy stock into position.

“Heavy duty barrel, reinforced piston rods and gas return, upgraded sear. Kinetic resistant shoulder absorbers, and of course the under barrel grenade launcher. Latest gen Smart-Link system, with improved barrel sensors. Sweet, ain’t she?” Rocket lowered the rifle from the ready position and examined it closely, before handing it back to Hunter. He watched as Hunter effortlessly lifted the heavy duty rifle to his shoulder, his long arms snugging the reinforced stock in tight, bringing it into perfect firing position.

“Yeah, nice. I can see why you’d prefer that over the Mark IV. Fair enough.” He stopped, then cocked his head to one side slightly. A small smile formed, just a faint upturning of the lips really. “Topshot wants to know if she can come in?” Hunter nodded, and they saw Rocket work his jaw silently, probably sending a message via sub-vocal transmitter. “Ok, she’s coming.”

Marius, Hunter and Aswon turned towards the entrance to the pod, looking at the dark portal, faintly illuminated by the glow of the strung mining lamps. They stood in silence, their eyes flicking back and forth across the wide gap, trying to spot for movement. Shimazu, still working on his new senses, dropped into astral and spotted her almost immediately, slowly crawling down the left hand wall and around towards their position. He tried to keep any expression off his face and dropped out of astral sight, and let his eyes flicked over to that side of the cavern – nothing. Even knowing where she was, her slow, steady movement under the high-tech stealth suit made her invisible. He flicked in and out of astral, watching her progress while the rest of the team continued to study the passageway and rocks.

“Bonjour.” She spoke quietly, and the team – apart from Shimazu – couldn’t help but jump as the noise came from behind them.

“I have GOT to get me one of those!” Aswon said out loud as she flipped back the hood on her suit, then with a discreet button push cancelled the ruthenium weave stealth system, appearing before them in a tight figure hugging suit. “Anyway, nice to SEE you again,” he said, emphasising the word, “I’ve got something I’d like to show you.”

“It is not a cock, is it?”

“I’m sorry, what?” Rocket sniggered, while the rest of the team all looked equally confused as Aswon. Topshot waved her hand in a dismissal. “Ok, hang on here. I’ll be right back.” He ran to the truck, fetching the huge case and his monster rifle, bringing it back and gently lying it on the floor, then opening the case, the sound of the clasps echoing around the cavern as he flipped them open. As Hunter had, he checked the chamber was clear, then handed the rifle over to Topshot.

Despite her slender frame, she hefted the rifle with ease, bringing it up to her shoulder and sighting down the scope, her feet automatically moving into an L-shaped stance to steady her. She adjusted minutely, lowering and then raising the rifle again, snugging it in tightly to her.

“It’s lovely and accurate, but it’s a shame I can’t fire more than two, perhaps three shots before it gets devastatingly loud.”

“It is not surprising, it is British after all, and sheet.” The words came out smoothly and gently, but there was a surprising amount of venom in them. Aswon bristled instantly.

“Hey! There’s nothing wrong with British. Look at this!” He unslung the Purdey, holding it out in front of him as exhibit A.

“Ahh, that is not British. Zat is History!” Aswon looked slightly taken aback, but he could see her looks of admiration as her fingers delicately traced over the engraving. “But zat is not what I meant. The silencer – ZAT is British. And sheet. Always, they make rubbish. Fine guns, great accuracy. Sheet silencers.”

“Do you have any suggestions?”

“Oui. Try GIAT. Combination French/Italian manufacturing. Some of the engineers from Benelli came over too – they are used to working with big rounds. They have some lovely silencers, and suppressors. But not cars. GIAT make sheet cars.”

“It’s a shame we can’t shoot her, I’d love to let you have a go with her. But I don’t think it’s a good idea in here, is it?”

“We can shoot. We just have to wait until sunset, and shoot on the shadow side of the quarry. Nobody can see, the sound is masked by the equipment and the hill. Just as long as you are in shadow to cover against the overheads, is fine.” Topshot spoke in a very matter-of-fact voice, and Aswon stared at her for a moment, then turned to look at Rocket, who just nodded in agreement.

“Oh, right. I see. Well, that’s interesting. Guess we’ll get some practice in, then. Including Nadia.” He glanced over at Marius, who just smiled at him. Topshot moved over to Rocket, and whispered something in his ear – quietly enough that nobody in the team heard her speak at all. He nodded, and she jogged towards the exit, leaving Rocket behind with the team.

“So, I got to ask – where did you actually get that gun from?” Hunter gestured to the case holding the Ares Alpha.

“A grateful employer. A very grateful employer. Sometimes cash is nice. Other times there are benefits to dealing in goods.”

“Could you hook us up at all?” Hunter sounded hopeful.

“Oh. Well, maybe. Are you actually looking for work at the moment?”

“Not at the moment, we’re actually getting ready for a job at the minute. But likely we will in the future.” Aswon interjected. “As long as we can get the job into Kai’s head before some other hard luck case, anyway.”

“Ahh, I see. Well, give me both your numbers then. If I hear anything on the grapevine, I’ll let you know what the job is, then call him with the sob story.” Rocket grinned at Aswon, holding his phone up to receive the contact details.

They chatted a while longer, talking about jobs and work in a fairly abstract manner – careful on both sides not to mention specific details, names, places, that kind of thing. Rocket announced that Topshot was back, and wanted to come in – and again the team watched carefully, but didn’t spot her. To their credit, they didn’t jump anywhere near as much when she suddenly appeared near them, but it was abundantly clear to them that she was a master of her craft.

She approached Aswon, and held out her hand to him, palm facing down. He looked at her, then slowly raised his hand, also palm down and mirroring her movement. She gave a very Gallic sigh, then reached over with her other hand, turning his palm upwards and then moving her downward facing hand over the top. She moved her thumb, and two large rounds fell into his hand. The brass cartridges contrasted strongly with the black tipped bullets, and Aswon gasped involuntarily as he stared at them.

“I don’t have many, so use them wisely.” Aswon nodded at her, holding up the rounds so he could see them clearly. They were heavy – noticeably heavier than the standard 12.5mm rounds. That was probably because of the depleted uranium and tungsten penetrator at the core of the rounds though. He coughed, and cleared his throat.

“Thanks, I appreciate it. Very much.” She shrugged, and turned away, walking towards the exit without another word. A moment later, Rocket said his goodbyes, and hustled after her with the gun case swinging from his right hand, catching up with her near the exit and moments later they turned and disappeared from view.

Tads appeared from the truck, and headed over to them with the large rollout screen, trying to hold it taut in her hands.

“Hey folks, I think I found the place we need to be. It looks like it’s a bit weird over there. Look, see.” She settled the map down on the floor, and pointed at the text. “This is Ozero Pil’tanlo – the only one I could find. It looks like a lake. At least until you zoom out, a bit. Watch this.” She inexpertly used the controls, zooming out in fits and starts, and they watched as the patch of water disappeared into a massive blotch of water and forest markers, covering the whole screen. They could see a blue line snaking from west to east, the ‘Ob River’, some 40 km south of the site of interest, and that had a number of villages or towns dotted along it.

“It’s a good 2200 kilometres from us here, or 1600 kilometres further than Samara was. It’s also about 600 kilometres inside the border of Yakut from what I can see, if we come from this way. If we come up from the south, we can cut that down to about 250 kilometres – but that’s still a good way to go. But look at the area. These maps are really old, and predate the war and the revolution from what I can see, so who knows how accurate they are. But there’s not really any civilisation around there, the closest place is this town marked up as Surgut, about 60 kilometres to the south.”

The others studied the map, checking the area around and looking for roads, signs of defences, landmarks and obstacles. The general agreement was that they would have to fly in, keeping as low as they possibly dared, and find somewhere about 20 or 30 kilometres away, then do the rest of the trip by land – and by the looks of things using some kind of off road vehicle as a minimum, maybe a skiff, boat or hovercraft from the look of the area. 

Kai appeared at the entrance, making his way over to them with a smile on his face. The team bought him up to speed on what was happening, and who had visited, and Kai in turn told them his news. He’d managed to catch up with Vishtar, and had turned on the charm, reasoning with him about the damage to the mining truck, the value of the bulldog and the costs incurred. As the team had not only gone and saved Monty, as they’d been requested to, had been injured in the process, though yes the truck had also been damaged, and as they’d bought the security truck back to give to the quarry – Vishtar had agreed that not only would he make sure their work stayed next in the queue and didn’t get bumped down by anyone else appearing, but that he’d also waive the next few days berthing costs for the pod, as it was repairs to the quarry vehicles that were holding them back.

They spent the next while helping Marius start to disassemble the truck to get at the drone rack equipment, and also remove as much of the kit from the living accommodation as possible to reduce the weight, making it easier to remove. Aswon made a careful note of the time, and as he got close to his alarm setting, he excused himself and headed off towards the entrance again, settling down in the same place to make sure he had a signal to speak to Spook.

She rang right on schedule, and the earlier anger had gone – or at least been shelved for now.

“Hi Aswon, right – I have the contact sorted. Do you want me to bring him in on the conversation?”

“Sure, I’m ready to talk.” There were a few clicks and a long tone.

“Ok, we should all be on the call now. Aswon, this is Han Lee. Han Lee, Aswon. You two chat, I’m going to be just pottering around the office. If you need my attention, dial star-seven and my phone will alert me. Otherwise, I’ll bow out for a bit.”

“Hello. I am Aswon.”

“Good afternoon to you, and may the light of the highest peak shine upon you and ancestors.” Aswon thought for a moment, remembering his experiences and travels, and trying to find the right frame of mind for his response.

“And may the spirits of the earth bless you and your family, bringing fortune and good luck.” He hoped he’d got the tone right – by the sounds of things he was talking with a fairly traditional Chinese, but he had no idea from which warring province or any particular background to go on.

“My thanks, and I hope both our ancestors smile on our business dealings. So, Gentle Flower said it would be worth my time talking with you. How may I help?” Aswon constrained a snort – he didn’t think of Spook as a ‘gentle flower’ and he guessed it was more a translation or pet name of some sort. Still…

“Well, I seek guidance and advice on a rare plant. We have been tasked with recovering this plant from an area, and we are told that it requires very particular circumstances to grow, and it needs careful handling. I have enough understanding to know how much I do not know, but also the wisdom to ask my betters for help.” He laid it on thick, knowing that a lot of what he said would be accepted at face value and seen through a cultural filter.

“Ahh, I see. Well, I hope to be able to help you. Please begin.”

“Our mutual friend has connected us, but did not mention the crass, but alas necessary, discussion of payment. I would not wish to engage your services if I could not adequately reward you.”

“Indeed. Well, I am intrigued by Gentle Flower’s words, so I propose this. I will advise you on your plant, but in return, when you employment is finished, you will write up a dossier of your findings – with as much detail as possible that does not implicate or jeopardise your employer, and provide this to me.” Aswon blinked in surprise – that was a pretty unusual request. But, he thought about it and couldn’t see a problem, so signified his agreement.

“So, the plant as it has been described to us grows only in an area where there is a marked temperature difference between the ground and the air. It is a bush that grows to a height and width of about fifty centimetres, with sharp spiny leaves that grow close together, a pale green at the edges and a darker green in the centre. There is a heart of the plant in the centre, with all the leaves fanning away from this, rising in smooth arcs. We are told that it is magical in some way, but we are unsure how. It goes by the name of ‘Singing Soulweed’. Does this sound familiar to you?”

There was silence. Seconds ticked by, and Aswon wondered if they had lost connection for a moment, but then he heard breathing.

“Ahh, I believe I may have heard of this plant. It is indeed rare – very rare. I am intrigued to the location you have discovered, but I will await the information in the dossier, as we have agreed. If this is the same plant that I know, from tales and legends, then our name for it is ‘Dragon’s Spine’. As you said the leaves are sharp – very sharp, and you should take steps to guard your flesh well from it.”

“It is a hardy plant, but very sensitive to certain aspects of the environment. Much of the goodness stems from the roots, not the leaves, so you should be careful with your harvesting – the roots grow as wide and as deep as the leaves above the surface as a guide. The two most important factors are the temperature and the Chi. The leaves need to be cold, while the roots need warmth – it is a most contrary plant indeed. The sharper the difference between them, the better the plant will thrive. But most important, you must not take the plant into an area that has been despoiled or damaged, or the plant will wither and die.”

It took Aswon a moment to realise what he was talking about, but then he mentally translated – not into an area with bad Chi. The plant was astrally sensitive, and if taken into an area of background count, it would be affected. So that meant they had to be careful with what they did around the plant – murdering someone would likely cause a spike in the mana that could well strip the plant of its magical qualities entirely. Perhaps taking it into a city or other built up area might be enough to start the process – it would be hard to tell.

“Ahh, this is worthy news – thank you. I can see why the plant is both rare, and relatively unknown. If I may ask, where does your knowledge come from?”

“Alas, mostly from myth and legend. The texts speak of Dragon’s Spine, but I have never found any.”

“The texts?”

“I have access to a library of books and ancient lore. Things unlikely to be known by many, including the average university or corporation.” A couple more pieces fell into place in Aswon’s mind – a Chinese magical researcher, with access to ancient resources, unavailable to the modern world. Hmm – possible underworld links to either Triads or Yakuza, which might involve Great Dragons like Lung and Rhumiyo, or so the gossip went. Or, it could be one of the very traditional monasteries that had resisted corporate exploitation. Intriguing, but not unexpected that Spook would know such a man.

“I see. Well, it sounds like we need to take careful measurements if we find this plant, and great care to excavate the roots carefully, and store it in a box that maintains the temperatures as closely as possible to the original conditions. And we must take great care to keep the area calm and serene around it, avoiding disruptions or desecration of the Chi, as you say. Thank you, that is most helpful.”

“I do have one question now that I know the manner of your search?”

“Yes?” Aswon had to battle to keep the suspicion from his voice, but it was hard. He waited for the shoe to drop.

“I suggest you carefully examine the area where you find such a plant, if you get the chance. I would be MOST useful to know if the plant was gathered from atop a Dragon line. MOST useful.” Aswon thought furiously for a moment – Dragon Lines, or power lines, were strange flows of mana found around the world. The druids in Britain tapped them for power, channelling them through places like Stonehenge, while in the Native American Nations they flowed from ancient burial sites and other mystical spots. He’d heard that once a year a power line sent a wave of power down the Ganges river in India, causing wild magical effects and spontaneous manifestations of spirits that sent the population into a frenzy. This could change things, a lot.

“I will pass this on to my team, and if circumstances allow, we will investigate and check the area, to determine these things. And either way, we will let you know our findings. I have a question in return. Why did you agree to give this information without a more…traditional price?”

“I was intrigued with Gentle Flower’s description, and curious. So I decided, as you Westerners would say, to ‘take a gamble’ and hope that my faith was rewarded.” Aswon didn’t know whether to smile or frown – his accent, a hodge potch of English learnt from a dozen warzones across the world must sound bizarre, and his contact had obviously pegged him for a European of some kind, rather than his native Africa.

With the meat of the conversation out of the way, they exchanged best wishes, calling on various natural phenomena to bless their lines until social protocol had been observed, and he could hang up without causing offence. He sat for a moment, staring at the wall, unseeing, while the possibilities went through his mind. 

He headed back to the pod, passing Marius on the way. He didn’t even have to ask the question in passing – Marius held up his thumb and finger in the sign that meant “phone call”, though nobody understood why it meant that, and continued to head out, ending up in the spot recently vacated by Aswon.

He didn’t have to bother with a manual device of course – his headware commlink responded to the neural requests from his mind, connecting up and speed dialling Milo in Constantinople with nothing more than a flash of thought.

“Morning Milo – it’s been a day or two. Just thought I’d see how you were getting on with that request?”

“Afternoon, Trouble. Course I have – what do you think I am?”

“What do you mean Trouble?”

“You know what I mean. Anyway, I’ve managed to get what you ask for, and I’m able to send over the details. Just the matter of payment.”

“Go on, what’s the damage?” Marius closed his eyes, hoping it wasn’t going to be too much.

“Well, the IDs were sorted, and this didn’t take too much effort, and we have history. So I’m thinking that when I have something that needs moving, and you’re in position – you’ll sort me out. Mates rates.”

“I think we can do that, Milo. No problem. Oh, and I have something extra for you. You know our Shaman?”

“The burnt woman?”

“Yes, well. We just happen to have done some work recently, and she’s been awarded a medal as a Hero of the Russian People. Straight up – check her record. Just wondered if you needed a legit filing to copy from, now you got one.”

“What in the name of the Church have you been doing to attract that kind of attention? Do you know what – I don’t think I want to know – it sounds like trouble. You ever heard of keeping a low profile?”

“We try, but it’s not easy sometimes.”

“Ok. Well, the transponder codes are sending now, but I have to go.”

“Go? Why?”

“I’ve got a run to sort on the Russian Ministry of Justice, it seems.” True to his word, a moment later, the connection was broken from the far end. A second later, a message arrived, a large message from an anonymous remailer in Poland somewhere. When he opened the message, it contained not one, but four transponder codes for large helicopters. Marius sent a silent thankyou to Milo, then headed back to the pod.

The next two days passed in a blur for the team, as they all knuckled down to work on the vehicles – stripping out the drone rack from the truck under the direction of Marius, and carefully moving it to under the tail of the chopper, and slowly transferring out everything that wasn’t nailed down in the living quarters of the truck, trying to lighten it as much as possible to get it ready to disconnect.

Three of the four magically active members of the team also spent hours marking in powerful warding symbols on the inside skin of the chopper, and after a full day’s effort a hazy ward sprang up over the inside of the cavernous bay, covering all of the doors and ramp entry points bar one – which they’d decided to leave as an opening in case they needed to bring something aboard that was magically active. Tads meanwhile sat cross-legged in her lodge, with a small lump of charcoal in one hand, slowly and meticulously drawing a sword, on a backdrop of a whirlpool of mana. She wasn’t a gifted artist, but the work progressed surprisingly well, as if some force beyond sight guided her hand. It was still painstakingly slow work, as she felt her way through the design required to actually enchant his sword at a later date – but she made good progress.

During it all, they kept dropping pointed hints to Kai, that he needed to call their employer to arrange for an advance, but he maintained his view that this was a conversation for Monday morning, not the weekend. He certainly had no intention of calling her up and asking for fifty thousand up front and help securing a temperature-controlled box when she might be on the golf course or something!

They ate at odd times, growing a little bored of the gumbo served in the rec area, but perked up slightly by the food that Tads was able to create to vary their diet. They spotted several of the other teams at times, but were busy enough not to have to the time to make their acquaintance.

By late Sunday night, the preliminary work was done, and now they had to wait for Victor to turn up with the parts and the tools required to do the installation, and get them ready for their trip.


	107. 107 - Fitting new parts

Date Monday 12/04/2060, Location 50.10234, 43.23581

Victor and his crew arrived early on the Monday morning, dragging in a trailer full of tools, lifting hoists, and the large equipment needed to weld and fix the fuel tanks and other parts in place. As they started to prepare, the team gathered off to one side, giving them room to move.

“So, what are we going to do with the truck and the trailer when we’re off on this job? Are we leaving them here and just paying for them?” asked Tads.

“I assumed that someone was going to drive back to the ranch with them at first – but it is a long way, and they’d have to get back. And of course, if they run into trouble on the way, we’re all split up. And other than Marius, only Shimazu and myself have any real experience driving the truck,” Aswon responded.

“It’s about fourteen hundred klicks as the crow flies, so more like eighteen hundred with the way the roads are; so probably talking about a very long day of driving if you can split the shift between two or perhaps three of you, but doable. But that’s not accounting for trouble, or traffic.” Hunter pulled up the map on his display and showed the various distances and possible routes he’d worked out.

“And where is our mission in relation this this?”

“All the way over here, Aswon”. Hunter manipulated the map, having to zoom out a bit more to get all three locations in view at the same time. “But, the good news is that if the truck is back at the ranch, and you can get from the ranch to Baku, it’s not that hard to get a flight to Volgograd – then we just need to get the last little bit back to here. And if you’re not carrying anything dodgy, the air trip shouldn’t be too bad.”

Aswon reached over and moved the map around a little, trying to better gauge the distances involved, and accidently swiped over to another page. The map was replaced with an image of a sleek silver craft with a massive fan mounted on the rear.

“What’s this?” Hunter pushed Aswon’s finger off the display, and the swiped over a few times, moving the picture to a rugged four wheel drive instead.

“I’ve been doing a bit of research, and browsing the local markets and second hand sales forums and sites, trying to find us some craft. All of these are light enough, and small enough to fit in the back of the chopper, even after we put the fuel tanks and living accommodation in. They might take up most of the remaining room for some of them, because of the shape – but they’ll fit, ok?” He looked around the team to make sure they understood.

“Ok, first up is this four by four. It’s a Russian UAZ469, a fairly decent off-road jeep type vehicle. It’s got two bucket seats up front, and a bench on the back so we’ll fit four or five of us in, and there’s a small load bed at the back for cargo. Petrol powered, but the tank is a little small, so the range isn’t that great once you hit off-road. Handles the mud and trails really well, but has a bit of a reputation for being shit on the tarmac – the suspension is so soft it’s like driving a jelly apparently. It’s got loads of ground clearance though, and is rated to ford water up to 600mm deep. There’s a good few of these about, as they were dead common a few years back so there’s lots of second hand choice, and that means they’re pretty cheap – I reckon we can get a decent one for about twenty grand.”

He swiped over, replacing the battered green four wheel drive with a catalogue picture of a hovercraft, clad in white plastic with a red racing stripe down each side and a pair of large ducted propellers at the rear. The cabin doors were opened like gull wings, showing a plush interior.

“Don’t mind the stock footage – this is the luxury version, but the best picture I could find easily. This is the Slavir-9 hovercraft, designed in Finland but made in Novgorod. A big heavier and much larger than the UAZ, this is the one that’s toughest to fit in the back. Also petrol fuelled, the range is much greater, but the handling is a bit more dicey – they’re solid off road because they hover, but they need a delicate touch. That’s not a worry though, as this one comes with a full Rigger interface, meaning Marius can plug in and work his magic. Only room for four people in here, and the cargo area is the same size, but can’t carry quite as much weight as the UAZ, about as fast but accelerates much quicker – provided you don’t wipe out of course. Bad news is that even the ones of these I’ve been looking at that are for duties in rural areas for taxi or bus duties and stuff run about 80 grand. They’re nice vehicles, and well made, but pricy because of the quality of the manufacture.”

He swiped over again, back to the slender silver shape they had seen at first. It looked like a racing boat with an airplane engine strapped to the back, that someone had forgotten to paint – while at the same time gave off an aura of speed.

“This is a Tupolev A-4 Aerosled. Weird thing – I hadn’t heard of them before this. It’s basically a boat that has an ultra-shallow draught – no more than 50mm submerged normally, so you can take it in even the shallowest water without issue. But, it also has these runners along the bottom like a sledge, so it runs on snow and ice just as well – they use ‘em for keeping small villages and houses supplied up in the tundra. And yes, that’s some kind of big ass turbo-fan engine on the back and a two metre propeller – both probably robbed off the same plane, given the manufacturer. Petrol driven, but really efficient, so this has the longest range – but the lowest weight capacity. Bizarrely enough though, this seats eight, provided you like getting buddy with people. So I reckon we can put supplies in the seats instead of people and probably be ok. By far the fastest, it’s sorta half way between the UAZ and the hovercraft in terms of responsiveness from what I can tell. No rigger gear in it, but there is a datajack, so we can at least use a virtual dashboard – and there’s a couple of these knocking around at under twenty grand, provided we don’t mind second hand.”

“I like the hovercraft the best – we want the quality and the workmanship. And it looks fun. But I suspect from the expression on Kai’s face that we cannot afford it,” Aswon glanced at Kai for confirmation, seeing the nod of agreement.

“Well, we can always do a little look around the area, and find some low life scum that have one of these craft, and deal with them. Then we get a free vehicle, as they won’t need it anymore.” The rest of the team turned to look at Tads, with slightly bemused expressions. “Hey, only if they are BAD people.”

“While I admire your practicality Tads, that’s another job we’re getting involved in that has no payment. I think we have enough on our plates at the moment.” Aswon shook his head at her in wonder – then stopped for a moment and thought that he was talking with someone who had apparently walked from her village somewhere up on the northern coast of Russia all the way down to the Trans-Caucus League. She might be moral, but she was also incredibly practical…

The team flicked back and forth through the pictures, discussing the various advantages and disadvantages of the craft, and how they would best make use of them. Without really accurate information on the area, it was hard to make an ideal choice or determine which was “best” for the purpose, and they suspected that each of them could be made to work.

Nadia beckoned Marius to step away from the group for a moment, and spoke quietly to him.

“I have an idea about the truck. I think you should stay here with the workmen to supervise them, along with Aswon and Kai. Hunter, Shimazu, Tads and I should get in the truck and drive back to the ranch. Between Hunter and Shimazu, they can do shifts of driving, while the Witch stays in the trailer and does her spells. When we get back to the ranch, I will stay there, and make preparations for the work that needs to be done, while the others get a plane or a train back here to meet up with you. If the work is going to take several days, they can be back before it’s complete.”

“That’s a good idea – are you sure you’re happy to go with them?” Nadia shrugged a little and looked slightly unhappy.

“I will miss being with you. But I think it is for the best. I can be most useful there, and from what has been said, the vehicles you are getting for the back of the helicopter are not that big…”

Marius nodded to her, and they returned, in time to see Kai turning towards Hunter.

“Can you get online and just check the stock price on these shares here, for that Turkish Steel mill?” Hunter quickly pulled up a page, having clearly anticipated (or hoped) that Kai would finally agree to sell.

“As of twenty five minutes ago when I got an updated price, they’re worth about nine thousand five hundred, after paying taxes and brokerage fees.”

“Oh? Hmm, that’s not much. Might as well keep hold of them for now then, it’s not going to help us much.” The rest of the team exchanged glances, but Kai ignored them. “I’ve been thinking about the truck and the trailer as well. I think we need to talk to Vishtar, and see if we can work out a price – overall, it’s probably cheaper to keep them here than it is to pay the fuel and travel to get them back to the ranch – let alone if something happens like another bandit attack, tax men, corrupt officials or local warlords. And we don’t know where we’re going next.”

Nadia stared at Marius, but he just shrugged at her, and said nothing. Kai made a reasonable point about the cost of fuel and travel, and unless they were away for quite a while, the daily billing wouldn’t match that. It did trigger a memory from their orientation tour though.

“Hey, Kai. When we were shown around, he said there was left luggage as well as the lockers in the pods. And that we could leave stuff for other people to collect and such like. There might be space for the truck and trailer to be stored somewhere that’s not a full cave like this, but a smaller one somewhere – you should probably ask about that, it might be cheaper.”

“Good call – I’ll do that when we see him next. In the meantime though, let’s plan out this journey east a little more.”

Victor and the workmen made a start on dismantling the chopper, laying out parts and running control wires while the team moved over to the cheap table and chairs that served as the furniture in the pod and gathered around to discuss the mission. 

First of all Hunter and Marius showed the location of the target zone, and the very old, low resolution and probably out of date information about the topography of the area. The area was lousy with lakes, ponds and other small bodies of water, linked by streams or canals of some kind, along with a spider web of tracks and small clearings. Despite their best efforts to analyse the pictures, they were defeated by the awful quality – and no amount of saying “enhance” seemed to work…

It was about 2300km to the target zone, so they had to refuel somewhere along the way, and somewhere on the way back – that much was certain. They remembered that their employer, “Ludmilla” had said she might be able to help with that, so it was added to the list of things to discuss with her when they called. Approaching from the southern arc seemed to be the best general idea, as it meant only crossing about four or five hundred kilometres of hostile terrain to reach their target. 

Aswon detailed the plans for the combination heater/cooler box that would be required to transport a live specimen, to keep a sharp temperature gradient between the warmer soil and the colder surface. He also told the rest of the group that it might be worth getting a whole bunch of potted plants or other growing natural items to store around the box, to improve the area. When they smiled at him, his frown deepened.

“No, seriously – I mean it. This isn’t a joke. We need to keep this thing in a neutral area astrally. Bad mana will kill it, according to the expert. Surrounding it with life, neutral and natural life will help. Otherwise if one of you gets injured and is in pain, or is even having thoughts of murder or retribution against someone, it could be enough to shock the plant and send it into decline. And that’s the difference between earning a quarter of a million Nuyen, and handing over a dead plant and having a pissed off employer to explain things to.” The smiles faded, particularly amongst the non-magically active members of the group as they considered how their mood might affect things in an unseen way.

Aswon took a deep breath to calm himself, then struck out on a tangent, describing the list of winter gear he thought they should get, based on his experience of mercenary operations in the past that had taken him to more northerly latitudes. The list grew as other people chipped in their thoughts, and there was the feverish clicking of keypads as the list was updated and expanded with everything they might need to survive and prosper in the tundra.

“Hey Aswon. If we’re getting one of these boxes made for the plant, should we get multiples made up? Making more than one of something normally isn’t much harder or more expensive once they’ve worked out how to do it? And then we can get ourselves some of these plants to use for us, if they are that rare and expensive?”

“It’s a nice thought, Shimazu – but I don’t think we have the time, expertise or facilities to make use of them ourselves. We’d need to have an enchanting space set up and ready to go, and as far as I am aware, only Tads is really skilled at that sort of thing. For her to do her best work then, we need to find a forest to set up in, and make sure the environment is just right – and provide her with a whole bunch of stuff, and most importantly leave her for a full lunar cycle to work on it. I just don’t think we’re at the right sort of time to do that.” 

They considered for a moment, and agreed that having the team tied down to a specific location and unable to move or take a job for 28-30 days would not be ideal, let alone they were poor enough at the moment, in terms of ready cash, that setting up the workshop would likely wipe them out – not so much buying the workshop, as they’d already done that from Aslick back in the TCL – but in making them stay in one place for a whole month, with limited opportunities to make money and keep the workshop guarded against intruders. The enchanting process was so arduous, according to Tads, that it allowed for only minimal sleep during the evolution, and the slightest outside interruption could spell disaster. Instead they turned back to the matter of the plants, trying to work out if there was any particular elements of the soil or the air that would need to be replicated to best ensure that the plant had a good chance of surviving. 

An hour or so later, they were pretty much ready, with a list of things to research and purchase, and a smaller list of things to discuss with their employer. Hunter and Kai headed out of the pod, leaving the rest of the team to supervise the work on the helicopter – which was looking somewhat skeletal now in places with panels removed and the superstructure laid bare. 

They split at the main tunnel, Hunter heading for the entrance of the cave to get a decent uplink connection and update the shopping list and perform his research, Kai heading along towards pod one and the recreation area, hoping to find Vishtar. He was in luck, and spotted the operations manager as he entered the rec area, talking with the cook. A subtle cough and a raised finger let him know he was wanted, and Kai sat down to wait for his conversation to finish.

A minute later, his business with the cook was concluded, and Vishtar walked over to Kai and took the seat opposite him. After a few pleasantries, Kai outlined that he wanted to leave the truck and trailer here while they went out on a job, as ‘left luggage’ – but obviously didn’t want to tie up a pod for all that time, though if that was the only option and Vishtar was happy with it... Vishtar in turn considered, and then sat back in the chair and steepled his hands together in front of him, resting his lips against the tips of his fingers.

“I think we can sort something out. If you don’t need access, there are some side tunnels and small caves that are big enough for your truck and trailer to be stored in, with no problems. You wouldn’t want to live there, or work – but that’s not an issue is it. Fifty Nuyen a day for storage charge and looking after things.” Kai smiled and reached over the table to shake his hand at the offer. By his estimation the job was going to take about two weeks in all, so the 700 Nuyen charge was probably less than the fuel costs to get the truck down to the ranch, let alone the return travel costs.

With that, Vishtar excused himself to go and make some preparations for the storage, and attend to some other details. Kai pushed himself up from the table and turned to leave, then noticed that he was being watched – quite intently. He glanced over towards the table and saw the three swarthy individuals they’d identified as the “Zephyr” crew, the ones they’d met in Constantinople. As he studied them for a second, the spokesman for the group made a small beckoning gesture and then pointed at the seat at the end of their table. Somewhat intrigued, Kai wandered over.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen. What can I do for you?”

“Hello. I just wanted to make sure that there was no problem between us. From before. When we were watching the police show, with the shooting.”

“Oh, right. No – no problem, we’re all fine. No problems at all.”

“Good, good. I didn’t want to have any misunderstandings between our teams. We like police shows, you see. Do you like police shows?” Kai thought for a moment – there was clearly a sub conversation going on here, but he didn’t quite ‘get’ what the guy was hinting at.

“Yes, I suppose so. They’re not my favourite, but I can watch them and enjoy them?” He hedged, trying to remain sort of neutral on his opinion and keep his options open. He watched as Mustapha reached into his inside pocket, and for a moment wondered if things were about to get ugly. He relaxed again though when then hand withdrew holding a small chip case between two fingers, which was then slid down the table towards him.

“This is ‘Police Chases 9’. It is one of our favourites. We hope you will also enjoy it.” Kai slapped a hand down on the chip case as it slid past him, stopping it from sliding off the table. When he raised his hands he saw what looked like a bootleg copy of a police trid show, along with the slightly badly duplicated insert sleeve complete with obligatory spelling mistakes and weird choice of fonts.

“Thanks, I’ll watch this with my team. So, are you guys here long?”

“No, we leave tomorrow morning, before dawn. More work.”

“Well, perhaps we will see you again sometime then. Until then.” He smiled and nodded, pocketed the chip and slid out from the seat, leaving the rec area and heading back to the team. As he got to the main entrance way and was about to cross towards the tunnel leading to their pod, he saw one of the pull trucks appear through the illusion over the entrance, towing a large silver plane.

He leant against the wall of the cave, and watched as the craft was slowly towed along the tunnel, figuring it was interesting to see another team arrive. It was a tilt wing – on the larger end of things that he’d seen, and was finished in a shiny metallic finish. As the craft went past, he realised that that entire surface was covered in the same silvery hue and the surface was smooth and slick everywhere he could see. It looked built for speed somehow, lean and glossy and he was a little glad that Marius wasn’t here, just in case he got aircraft envy. The plane was towed off and turned left – so heading for one of the lower numbered pods, indicating they were held in reasonably high regard it seemed. With a shrug, he resumed his walk back towards pod six and his team.

When he was back at the pod, he gave the chip to Hunter, who had returned a few minutes before he had, and asked him to check things out – carefully. After examining the case carefully and then opening it, out popped a standard data chip. This was inserted into the deck, with all the standard anti-viral and malware settings cranked up to the max. The contents appeared to be benign though – with 99.5% of the capacity being filled with a single large video file that when checked was indeed a series of police chases from around the world with explosive or action filled consequences.

But, also on the disk, hidden in a small data file obscured in the index area of the disk was a plain text data stream. Inside the text file were just a few characters.

‘37.339, 26.605. Recognition code: Minos-Papprika-229-Vaggelis-Chatzis’

Hunter got out his map utility and bashed in the co-ordinates, and the map zoomed to the small Greek island of Patmos. The map was blurry and low detail with the data normally downloaded on the fly via the matrix link, but the numbers seemed to zero in on the eastern most area of the island on the northern half, and there was a small notification pin indicating a place of interest – ‘Navayia church’.

“I doubt it’s their base of operations – but I wonder if it’s another smuggler stop like this one? I mean, not caves and things, but with fuel and other smugglers stopping by.” Kai looked around at the others, and no one disagreed with his assessment. They saved the information onto their map, making sure it was on the data layer protected by their logic bomb set up in case the team was ever captured. Kai looked around and noticed that Marius was sitting on a chair slightly away from the group, apparently asleep – his head was lowered to his chest and his body was slumped. He pointed at him, and raised an eyebrow, but before he could ask the question, Hunter filled him in.

“He’s running VR simulations on the routes. I downloaded as much map data as I could get over this shitty matrix link on the phone, and he’s put them in his rigger deck. So now he’s going over the routes and looking for sensor deadspots, radar shadows, canyons, anything he can use to mask the journey and keep us off radar and other sensors during the trip.” Kai nodded in understanding and decided to leave him to it.

As it turns out, it didn’t matter. His eyes fluttered open suddenly and he sat bolt upright.

“Was war das?” He looked around quickly, checking the ceiling and floor as he did so. “Did you hear that – a massive rumble?” The others looked confused, then concentrated. Aswon, Kai and Tads caught the tail end of the noise, an almost subsonic rumble that they heard on the limits of their hearing. Strangely enough, nobody felt anything – it clearly wasn’t blasting from the quarry which should have sent rumbles and vibrations through the ground.

“Maybe it is blasting in the quarry, and the caves are protected against the movement by some kind of magical effect – we can hear the sound, but not feel the blast? If so, that’s a pretty strong set of mojo!” As Aswon finished speaking, he dropped into astral and started to look around, but couldn’t detect anything new or changed in the environment. “I’m curious – I’m going for a look.”

Aswon got up, as did Tads, Kai and Shimazu and they headed out of the pod and towards the main area of the base, trekking through the huge limestone caverns on the almost kilometre long journey. They had made it back to the main massive limestone tunnel that provided the main thoroughfare for the base when they bumped into Vishtar, apparently heading their way. He waved for them to follow him, and led the way back towards the rec area and pod one, then stopped at a tunnel leading off into a cave about thirty metres deep and twenty wide. The team looked at each other for a minute – they must have been slightly disoriented, as they couldn’t recollect seeing this cave before on their trip to the rec area. 

Vishtar however walked into the middle of the area, then turned to face them and raised his hands to his side, indicating the cavern. In the inky blackness of the cavern, his cybereyes glowed faintly, green emeralds of glistening light.

“This is where your truck will be stored while you are away, plenty big enough I think. And the first area that I want you to ward, if you’re still willing to provide service for the base?”

The team agreed, and then had a discussion about how powerful a ward they were going to try and implement. The more powerful it was, the harder it was to create, and the smaller the margin of error – on the other hand with four of them working on the area, they had plenty of time and sets of eyes to notice any mistakes or errors that would cause the enchantment to fail. Vishtar informed them that he would provide the warding materials for them, allowing them to ensure that the wards were permanent, along with a small surplus of materials for the team as payment for their time. Putting up the wards would take about eight hours of concentrated dedicated effort, chewing up three days of their time; the first for the cave where their truck would be stored, the second for the public entrance way and the third for the recreation area.

As Vishtar left having secured their agreement Tads looked around at the cave carefully, extending her senses and looking at the cave astrally. Her breath caught a little as she detected patterns in the mana, and she slowly moved around the room, examining the rocks carefully.

“This IS new. Magic did this, and not long ago either. It’s a spell I’ve seen before, but not at this power… it’s….” she seemed lost for words as she contemplated the size of the cave and the tons of rocks that would have had to be moved and reshaped to make the space, “it’s an impressive bit of work, and we should be careful about breaking stalactites and things.” 

They headed back towards their pod, Kai breaking off to go to the entrance, while the others began the long trek once more. Still – it was good for their fitness. Making himself somewhat comfortable in the nook by the entrance, Kai broke out the phone and hit the contact button for Ludmilla.

When she answered, Kai could hear gentle music playing in the background, along with the occasional distant voice. They exchanged pleasantries, then got down to business.

“Well, we’ve been doing some preparation for the mission, and called in some favours to get some information about the plant. One of the things we’ve found is some very specific conditions for growth and survival. I’m just sending you a file now.” Kai hit the icon to release the pending documents from the transfer queue, then resumed his discussion. “As you can see, the engineering challenge is quite high.”

“Oh, I won’t look at it now darling, I’m a little busy. But I’ll pass it on to my people.”

“Right, well – the box is a challenge, so if that’s something your engineers or team could help with, it would vastly improve our ability to bring you a live specimen, rather than a selection of gathered cuttings and relevant material.”

“Well, a live specimen is much better, yes. Very well, I’ll have my people look into it.”

“Excellent, well, the next thing is that you mentioned you might be able to assist with refuelling options. We have a route planned, that takes us probably through the northern part of the ‘stans, then up into Yakut. But looking at the distance, we need to refuel at least twice.”

“Yes, yes, of course. Well, I have a man at Tara airport. That’s a short distance south of the border, so that should suffice I think. I will have a message sent to him.”

“Thank you. That helps a great deal, and makes the mission much more likely to succeed.” Emboldened by his success so far, Kai went for broke.

“There is one other matter, and it’s something I’d rather not have to raise of course – but we’re running into some issues with operational costs on this one because of the nature of the mission. I was hoping that we could arrange some of the payment up front to help defer these costs – say about fifty thousand?” There was silence for a moment, and Kai wondered if he’d misread her.

“Very well, I’ll send the funding through now. I’m sure you won’t disappoint me, or fail in the mission.”

“Of course not, and thank you again. We’ll do our best to make sure you’re not disappointed – we’d hate to turn up empty handed as much as you would to see us, I’m sure.”

“Yes, of course I’d hate that. I’d have to shoot you, and that just creates an awful mess.” The voice was lacking in any humour or jesting, and was delivered in a calm and flat tone that sent a little shiver up his spine. Perhaps it was time to show they really were on the ball here.

“Would you like me to send over the dossier and information that we’ve gathered so far?”

“Oh, grand! Marvellous. I’ll pass you on to someone.” With that there were a number of clicks, and the call was transferred to another person, a suspicious-sounding male.

“Yes?”

“Um, hi – it’s Kai. I was just talking with your boss, and I have some data to transfer to you.”

“Ok.”

Kai thought about asking for more details, but figured that Ludmilla knew what she was talking about, and instead sent over the information dossier on the plant, and after a moment’s thought, sent the information about the box as well, just in case. With that done and the file transfer complete, he flipped the phone shut and turned to face back down the tunnel. 

Striding towards him were two people – a male elf who looked about thirty, and a female human, possibly in her mid-twenties. They were both good looking – unsurprising from the elf where their natural physiology tended to be easy on the eye for most humans. While he’d been studying them, they had closed the distance, and he could make out more detail – both were dressed in flight suits, with the elf’s being a brightly-coloured red, quilted and decorated with patches with the names of a number of leading corporations dotted around, while the other was much darker and plainer. Kai noticed she was staring at him, her eyes flicking up and down, over his body – clearly assessing him.

“Hey friend, how ya doing today? Great day for flying huh?” The voice was cultured and refined, but sounded friendly. The elf had a broad smile on his face as he greeted Kai, and started to pull up a large sat-phone from under his arm where he’d been carrying it.

“Hi there, yes, it’s a grand day. Though we’ve been a bit busy to fly. I’m Kai.”

“The names Stripes, nice to meet you.” As they spoke, Kai was aware of the companion checking him out, stepping slightly to his flank and examining him thoroughly. After a few seconds, she turned away, glancing around the tunnel and checking behind them as well, giving him a view of the large shotgun slung on her back. “This here is my friend, Gemini.”

“Nice to meet you both. So, did you fly in today? Was that your tilt wing I saw earlier – the silver one?”

“It was indeed, that’s ma girl. The Mondrian.” Kai flicked his eyes up to the board to double check – yes, there they were, the Mondrian had replaced the Paladin in pod 1. “She’s a beauty, isn’t she!”

“She sure is. I’m not sure I ever want my pilot to see her, he might get jealous. We’re in pod six by the way.” Kai gestured at the board, where the name showing in pod 6 was still showing as ‘new craft’.

“Ahh, new fish huh, well I hope you’re settling in ok.” 

“Yes, we’re new, but hoping to settle in, make some friends, do a little business. You know how it goes. Oh – one of our team is a mage, no surprise I’m sure – but she can conjure up a superb steak if you’re interested?” Stripes smiled broadly, showing a row of perfectly even teeth.

“Sounds good to me, my friend!” There was a quiet beeping from Stripes’ watch, and his smile faded a little. “Excuse me, I gotta make a call.” He moved to the side of the tunnel and then connected a cable from the sat-phone to a subtle datajack at the side of his neck, hidden under the collar of his flight suit. As he did so, Gemini stepped around Kai to stand next to him, with her back to the stationary figure, her eyes scanning up and down the tunnel alertly.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you later. “ Kai turned and walked away swiftly, making it clear he intended not to eavesdrop, and headed back through the tunnels, walking from puddle of light to stygian darkness and back again, as he wandered through the caves to their berth.

The rest of the day was filled with preparations for the trip – ordering winter clothing and supplies to be collected in Volgograd, dealing with the repair crew working on the chopper and maintenance on their kit, along with mundane items like doing their laundry.

The following morning, they headed to the rec-area and saw that the Zephyr, Bandit and 69pp were gone, with the 69pp space taken up by a new entry reading ‘Bogbuster’. Whoever they were, they weren’t early risers though, and the breakfast area was empty of other teams. While the non-magically active members returned to the pod to carry on their preparations, the rest of them found Vishtar and collected a large bag of warding materials, then headed off to the new cave to put up a powerful ward.

Opening the bag, they found a veritable horde of semi-precious gems, all sparkling and dancing with mana, glistening like a nest of fireflies when looked at astrally. They got to work, and by the end of the day had used up all of the gems making an intricate pattern of gemstones and chalk marks on the walls, finding little clefts and pockets to fit the gems into and forming a geomantic shape in the cavern. As they fitted the last gems and made the last marks, the complex matrix of magically attuned crystals and symbols glowed faintly, the ward springing to life around the space and creating a powerful barrier to astral intruders and effects.

Tired after a long day of effort, Kai none the less turned to Tads as they were finished.

“I have a little job for you – after a break and a drink. I want you to create a steak please, and deliver it to Stripes and his crew in pod one. A really nice, big, thick steak – the best one you can do. If you don’t mind. I just want to create a good impression.”

“Sure Kai, sure. I’m just going to sit down for a few minutes then and rest my eyes, then I’ll get on with it. Have you got a…” Kai pulled out a small sheet of thin plastic with a flourish, and offered it to her. “Bag or something. I see you have. Ok, I’ll get on in in a few minutes.”

She heard the others leave, and just sat still for a few minutes, meditating and relaxing, consciously trying to relax muscles that had been tense all day with the painstaking work. Her hands touched the rock walls and floors, feeling a connection to the world. It wasn’t a forest, where she was most at home, but it was natural rock, part of the living world, and helped sooth her mind. She caught herself almost dozing off, and sat up with a start, then checked her chrono – a good fifteen minutes since the others had left. But she felt somewhat refreshed, and ready to carry out her task.

Gathering her energy, she manipulated the mana in the area and concentrated, forming it into raw food ahead of her. To normal eyes, seemingly out of nowhere a steak appeared, centred on the thin blue sheet of plastic. It was thick, as thick as a thumb and nearly as long as her forearm, with a thick white layer of fat around one side, and small veins of fat marbled through the surface. The red meat glistened in the light of her torch, the structure of the meat clear along the edges. She was pleased with herself, even though it perhaps wasn’t to her taste – but she couldn’t see how someone would fail to be impressed with that as a gift. Pushing herself up, she headed towards pod one and stopped just short of the wide hazard marking that delineated the edge of the public space. 

“Hello in the pod! Kai sent me to deliver a gift for Stripes! Do I have your permission to enter?”

Her voice echoed a little, and in response a head popped out of the hatch about halfway down the side of the aircraft.

“COME ON OVER!”

She crossed the line and headed over towards the aircraft, adjusting her angle slightly as she saw the human figure come out of the hatch and duck under the aircraft, heading towards the living area. The facilities here looked nicer than theirs, relatively speaking – chairs were larger and better padded, the table was a proper table rather than a decorators paste table. Well, she figured, that was the value to having a better reputation.

“NICE TO MEET YOU, I’M SURE. STRIPES MENTIONED WE MIGHT HAVE COMPANY!”

She was dressed in clothes that appeared to be a million miles away from Tads. The shirt was silk, rippling under the lights festooned around the craft, and her trousers were made of some equally shiny material that flowed elegantly as she moved. Even her boots were shiny, made of some kind of leather as far as she could see. Her hair was wild and large – but not dishevelled. It just looked like her hair was far too busy doing something to lay flat in a particular style.

“I’M NELLY, NICE TO SEE A NEW FACE. GOOD TO MEET YOU, WHY DON’T YOU COME OVER TO THE TABLE AND GRAB SOMETHING TO EAT OR DRINK?” Her voice was loud, without being grating. It boomed, and rolled. It had….gusto. Yes, definitely gusto. It was a voice that was meant to be heard, and one that could never pass on a secret while others were around. Tads wasn’t sure she wanted to be the subject of that booming voice for too long as the sole recipient, so she headed for the table and thought about how quickly she could deliver the gift and then leave without it being seen as impolite. As she turned to look at the table, she stumbled slightly as she took in the view.

The table was covered in food. Literally covered. Trays had been set out on the surface of the table, and each of them was covered in a mound of food. Fresh fruit in piles – apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, high enough to be a severe danger of fruit avalanches if not treated with respect. Next to them were stacks of cheese, flavour after flavour stacked in a pile of squares, wheels and lumps. A tray of bread was next to them, rolls of every description piled high. There was fish, and cold meats, sauces and things that Tads had never heard of, let alone tasted.

“WHY DON’T YOU GRAB SOME FOOD, WHILE I POUR YOU SOME WINE?” The figure reached for a large amphora and a pair of glasses, then poured two exceedingly large measures of thick red wine into them, easily half a litre. She tasted one, and smacked her lips appreciatively, then held out the other towards Tads, who was still staring in shock at the mountain of food.

“HERE YOU GO, A NICE LITTLE LUBRICANT TO HELP THE FOOD GO DOWN. PERHAPS I CAN GET SOME MUSIC GOING, TOO. SO WHAT’S YOUR NAME THEN?”

“They call me Tads. Um, and thank you, but I’m sorry – I’m not really a red wine person. But thank you for the offer, I don’t wish to be rude.”

“OF COURSE NOT, DON’T BE SILLY. NOT A FAN OF THE RED GRAPE, EH? WELL DON’T WORRY, WE CAN SOON FIX THAT!!!” She flicked the glass, dashing the red wine onto the floor in a long smear across the cave, then set it on the table and reached for a second amphora, as large as the first. Grasping it by the neck, she poured out an equally large measure of sparkling white wine, and turned around again. “THERE YOU GO. SOMETHING LIGHT AND DRY – A PERFECT ACCOMPNIMENT TO SOME FISH, AND SOME OF THE MORE FRUITY CHEESES!”

Tads winced under the full force of her personality. It was like someone had distilled Germaine down into a concentrated essence, then dialled that up to 11.

“Again, thank you – but I’m sorry, I’m not really a wine drinker. But don’t…” It was too late. The wine was flicked out of the glass with a twist of the wrist, forming another dark smear on the cavern floor alongside the first, the wine slowly forming a tiny river as it worked its way across the floor in tiny cracks towards the lowest area.

“AH-HA! SO YOU’RE A MEAD PERSON! I LIKE IT!” She reached under the table and pulled out a large container, similar the ones Tads normally stored her oats in. With a click of her fingers it was filled with dark golden liquid, and Tads saw the flash of power as she manipulated the mana with ease. While her knowledge of the spell to create food was basic, making only small amounts of simple things – it appeared that this was what you could do with a much higher force and power spell.

“So thanks, but not mead either…” Click. A container full of Gin. “thank you, but please stop.” Click, a rectangular container of Vodka, “and let me explain, I’m not…” Click, a smaller container of something oily and clear that made the hairs in the end of her nose itch, “really much of a drinker…” Click, a small plastic tub of dark liquid that had flecks of something light in it, that swirled and sloshed from side to side, “…of alcohol at all.” The fingers paused, mid-click, and a frown crossed her face. “Sorry, it’s not you, or anything you’ve made, I just don’t like to drink anything that affects me like that!”

“OH, I SEE. WELL, I DON’T REALLY SEE, BUT OK. VIMTO IT IS!” Click. By now, she’d all but run out of spare containers, and the dark bubbling liquid was created in a small container probably more suited to delivering nuts on a bar counter. Tads took it from her outstretched hands, and sipped at it, trying not to give offence. It was fruity, and very bubbly, and made her nose wrinkle – but it wasn’t alcohol, so she gently sipped at it, smiling broadly in-between to allay the look of concern. She was very glad when another figure swung under the fuselage of the aircraft and walked towards them

“Nelly, I hope you’re looking after our guest ok?”

“OF COURSE STRIPES, EVEN IF SHES A VIMTO DRINKER. EVERYTHING OK?”

“Yes, everything’s fine. Nice to meet you, I’m Stripes. I’m guessing you’re one of Kai’s team?”

“Yes, yes. And um thank you Nelly. Yes, I’m Tads, and Kai sent me with a gift for you.” She proffered the package over to him, but winced a little internally as she compared her efforts to the smorgasbord that Nelly had prepared. Likely enough the value was not going to be perceived quite as highly as Kai had hoped. None the less, Stripes took the package and opened it up, looking at the slab of meat inside.

“Well, please pass on my thanks to Kai, and to you as well of course. That’s very much appreciated, and I think we’ll share this out for our evening meal tonight if that’s ok? I’m sure cook can whip up something great, and we can add some of Nelly’s secret sauce.”

“I’LL GET RIGHT ON IT BOSS!” Tads was pleased to see that even Stripes seemed to lean away slightly to avoid getting it full force.

“Well, I must be getting back to my pod. Thank you for your time.” Tads placed the half-drunk cup on the edge of the table and started to back away.

“NONSENSE! YOU CAN’T LEAVE EMPTY HANDED! HERE, TAKE SOMETHING WITH YOU FOR THE TRIP. ESPECIALLY IF YOU’RE NEW HERE, AS YOU’LL BE ALL THE WAY AT THE OTHER END OF THE QUARRY.” A serving dish was pulled out, and Nelly started to load it up with a selection of fruit, meat, cheeses and some large shrimp, along with some bread rolls and other food. Tads was only allowed to leave once she had a good four or five kilos of fresh produce balanced on the tray, making her way slowly and cautiously over the rock floor.

It took her a long time to get back to the pod, even after stopping to put as many apples and other bits of fruit into her pockets to stop them escaping. She was hoping for a bit of sympathy when she got back, but instead it was Hunter who summed up their feelings when they gathered round to examine the food. After spearing a particularly succulent looking shrimp, he slowly chewed and savoured the texture and flavour.

“You’re getting better at this!”

Tads scowled, and then explained, warning the rest of the team about Nelly and her propensity. Rather than taking her warning seriously, it just seemed to encourage them, and there were several murmurs of perhaps going to the rec area in case there was someone able to create almost limitless quantities of alcohol and having a personality willing to just give it away.

And so it was that the team headed over to the recreation area, for an after dinner social call – apart from Tads who went and hid in her lodge – to continue working on Shimazu’s sword as she informed them and Aswon who was going to keep a watch on the pod. They sauntered down the passageway in a blob, chatting as they went as they filled each other in on the happenings of the day, progress on the repairs and updates on the delivery schedule.

Arriving in the rec-area though, the saw no sign of the Mondrian crew – instead the area seemed to be filled with dour-faced and rank-smelling individuals wearing a mish-mash of uniforms and heavy coats. The volume levels dropped as they came in, as they examined the team, then rose again as they continued talking and drinking.

The team headed over to the other side of the room and snagged a few tables, then settled in, glancing around and eying up the large and rowdy bunch of newcomers. They had taken over three tables - two tables of six of the burly men, and then one more table with two occupants. The men seemed to be the crew, while the two were officers perhaps. Certainly one of the figures wore a uniform that was not the patchwork of the men – indeed it matched entirely, but appeared to be based off some kind of previous regime. It was all black, with discreet red flashes on the shoulders and at the collar, and a small silver medallion at the neck. His neck bulged slightly over the tight collar, and he looked to be a broad and powerful man. His hair was shorn short, and a scar etched across his forehead just below the hair line. Dark bushy eyebrows over sunken eye pits concealed his eyes until he turned and examined the team directly, his cold blue eyes looking dead and devoid of emotion. 

“He’s got some stuff in his head, and I think a datajack down the back of his neck. Bits of his body look murky – not cyberware. So I guess he’s got some bio-enhancements as well.” Shimazu looked down at his chest while he spoke, picking at some imaginary lint on his clothing, hoping that it would help disguise what he was saying.

“The men are talking about it being near the end of the season, maybe only time for one more job before they break up. Discussions around what they are going to do over the summer – lots of references to drinking and whoring, hoping the summer is a short one and that the rains come, so they can start work again.” Marius dialled back the sensitivity on his hearing, cutting down on the rowdy chatting and banter between the men.

Shimazu flicked his attention up again, and this time examined the second figure on the officer’s table, dressed in a long dark greatcoat with large fur trim. He stared for a moment, then froze. The seconds ticked by, five, then ten. Kai nudged him in the ribs.

“Don’t be so obvious, Shimazu.” Shimazu shuddered and pulled his attention away, then placed his hands on top of the table with his fingers interlinked. The others saw his arms shake a little, and his fingers turn white as he gripped them together tightly.

“I don’t know what he has done, or who he is, but he’s definitely an active mage of some kind. But there is a darkness around him, some palpable force of evil. It’s like looking at that burnt out chemical plant on the coast we passed a while back. Nature is just… wrong around him. Distorted. And he’s pretty powerful too, at least as strong as Tads, I think.” He took a deep breath and held it, then let it out slowly from his nose. As he did so, he forced his fingers to relax, and unlinked them, letting the blood flow back into them.

As he did so, the uniformed figure slammed down his mug on the table, and the volume level dropped abruptly. Most of the men turned to watch him, twisting in their seats. He stood slowly, and tugged his uniform straight, then swaggered over towards the team. All the other conversations stopped, and now he was the focus of the room. He got to the end of the table and stood with feet shoulder width apart, hands on his hips.

“You are the new team, yes? In pod six?”

“We are, yes.” Kai answered. He kept his voice flat and neutral, not challenging, but not sounding fearful either.

“We are the Bogbuster crew. You would do well to remember that we are better than you. We are bigger than you. You are below us!”

Without waiting for an answer, he spun on his heels, and marched back towards his table to resume his position. Several of the men grinned, displaying rancid teeth and broken smiles, clearly impressed with their boss putting the new guys in their places.

Slowly the volume level increased as the men returned to their drinking – with lots of laughing and dismissive jokes being heard. The team looked around the table at each other, then turned to face Kai.

“Not yet. Let’s find out who these monkeys are, before we do anything.”


	108. 108 - Trouble with the Bogbuster

Date Tuesday 13/04/2060, Location 50.10234, 43.23581

“Let’s not rock the boat here, especially not with these assholes. They’re clearly looking for us to start something, so we’re not going to give them the satisfaction.” Kai pushed himself to his feet, and carefully cleared away his rubbish, encouraging the rest of the team to do the same, then sauntered out, ignoring the loud whispers and laughs.

They headed back to the pod, meeting up with the rest of the team, and spent the night there, keeping out of the way and avoiding trouble. One by one they turned in, leaving just a single person up on guard, and rotated through the night on their normal schedule – just in case, until morning.

Early on the Wednesday morning, they rose, stretched, and headed out from the pod, leaving Nadia behind to keep an eye on things and deal with Victor and his crew if they turned up. They walked swiftly down the tunnel towards the entrance, warming themselves up, and then once they were suitably attired in PPE, went for an early morning run around the quarry to keep in trim – or get to the same level of fitness, depending on which team member it was. With the run concluded, they headed into the recreation area, and saw the Gnome and the Dwarf eating two enormous bowls of the stir-fry that it seemed was the stock meal for the base.

They paused as the team came in, and gave them nods of recognition, but continued to eat. As the team got breakfast – including a fresh slab of steak conjured up by Tads and neatly chopped and added to the mix - there was muttering amongst them, with Tads pointing out that it HAD to be the ‘Half Pint’ crew, just by process of elimination. Still, none of them really wanted to push the issue, so they left them to apparently stock up on their carbs for the day. Once they’d breakfasted, they grabbed a container for Nadia and headed back to their pod. The caves were quiet, and they didn’t see or hear anyone from pod five as they passed.

Once showered and changed, the team split in two, and began their day’s tasks. Marius and Nadia supervising Victor’s crew, with Hunter doing more research and planning, and the rest of the team heading to the rec-area to do the warding requested. Kai, Tads, Aswon and Shimazu headed out together, ambling back down the tunnel again, which was now becoming familiar enough they could spot distinct shapes in the tunnel walls to show them where they were.

They got to work in the large cave, slowly drawing their intricate markings up the walls and over the arches, across the floor and around outcroppings. It was painstaking work, and took most of their concentration, leaving little room for idle chatter. Shortly before lunch, the Bogbuster crew started to roll in, arriving in twos and threes, with many of them looking the worse for wear. Clearly much alcohol had been drunk the previous night.

Strangely enough, a lot of their bravado and swagger was also absent – initially they wondered if the pod five crew were going to start messing around with their warding or make life difficult, but they seemed quite meek when they were outnumbered and without their boss to watch over them – or to goad them on.

Nadia arrived around midday, and grabbed food her herself, Hunter and Marius, and a few minutes later, disappeared back into the tunnel to head back. The warding team pushed on – they wouldn’t stop for lunch, it would disrupt their flow and concentration. Better to push on, ignore the odd growl or hunger pang and get it right first time. It was hard enough to concentrate with the comings and goings of the Bogbusters anyway, wondering if any of them were going to do something stupid.

Back in the pod, Marius was double-checking the installation of the rigger console, while Victor and his crew were installing sensors on the other end of the fibre optic data lines, whilst Hunter was continuing to map out known civilian radar emitters and sensor blind spots and dead-zones on the route east. Hunter’s stomach growled, and he looked up suddenly.

“Hey, Nadia’s been gone a while hasn’t she?” Marius stood up and frowned, then looked slightly cross-eyed as he focussed on his retinal display and checked the time. 

“Yes, you’re right. She should be back by now. Even walking carefully with a box of food.”

The two of them frowned, and then headed out of the pod, walking down towards the base entrance, then across to the rec-area. When they got there, they asked if the rest of the team had seen Nadia – and were told that she’d left some time ago with food, heading back to the pod.

Marius’s frown deepened, and he grabbed his little inspection torch from the pocket of his utility trousers.

“Well, she wasn’t in the main tunnel, I’m sure of that – but it’s going to take a while to find her in the side tunnels. Maybe she was looking for a short cut?” He sounded like he didn’t really believe that was what had happened, but was trying to stay positive.

“Don’t worry – I’ve got this.” Hunter focussed, and neural commands raced through the cyberware interface, activating the olfactory booster built inside his nasal passages. Tiny sensors locked onto the smell of Nadia’s perfume, and like a bloodhound, he turned and followed the scent out of the room, his head questing left and right as he worked along the trail.

Sniffing and moving left and right to triangulate on the trail, he moved down to the main passage, crossing over and onto the long drag down towards pods five and six. About half way back, in one of the regular pools of darkness between the widely spread lamps, he suddenly turned left, diving into a side passageway that led further into the hillside. He slowed now, checking himself and being sure of what he was smelling – but the perfume was unmistakeable, and the trail led on further and further into the darkness.

A sudden boom rolled down the tunnel towards them – clearly a loud and explosive noise of some kind, but muffled and distorted by the bouncing of the shock waves off the rough tunnel walls. Without a word, they both picked up the pace, breaking into a jog as they dove deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of side tunnels. They rounded a corner, and walking towards them was a large and powerfully-built female, with Nadia tucked under one arm and flopped limply downwards, and the other arm holding a large combat shotgun that snapped around to aim at them.

“You just stop right the fuck there!” she exclaimed. Hunter stopped and raised his hands to his sides, well away from his body and making it clear that he had no weapons drawn. Using the bulk of the ork to shield him, Marius reached into the back holster and slowly eased out his heavy pistol, getting ready to attack whoever this woman was that had tried to kidnap his girlfriend.

“Just back the fuck up, and get out of the way. This girl needs help, and I’m going to get her some.” The woman’s voice was flat and dangerous, with a sharp edge to it. Despite the weight of the shotgun, it was held unerringly pointed straight at Hunter’s face. Marius paused on drawing his pistol though when he heard her speak, and let it slide back into the holster, instead stepping around the bulk of Hunter and into view, with his hands on display.

“That’s my partner. She’s on our team. What happened to her?” As he spoke, he moved over towards her, keeping his attention focussed on Nadia. The woman looked at him intently, and after a moment’s consideration raised the shotgun to the ceiling, like she was just lifting a stick, clearing both Marius and Hunter from the weapon zone. She twisted slightly and lifted, a powerful arm raising Nadia’s limp body so Marius could reach out and grab her, taking her in both of his own arms. He slowly lowered himself to the ground, holding Nadia out to him, and checking her over. She had what looked like an impressive bruise forming on the side of her face, but otherwise didn’t seem wounded.

“She looks like she needs first aid – I’ll go get the others.” Hunter turned and broke into a sprint, winding his way back through the tunnels as fast as he dared and retracing his steps quickly. It didn’t take him long to reach the rec-area, where his sudden entrance made them all pause.

“Nadia’s unconscious, found her in the tunnels – or some woman with a shotgun did anyway. But she’s hurt and she needs a medic. Let’s GOOOO!!!” He didn’t wait to make sure they were following – trusting that they would do what needed to be done. He was rewarded with the sounds of feet behind him hustling to keep up, as all four of them abandoned the warding ritual, dropping chalk, ink, brushes and gem dust where they had been working, and grabbing their kit bags and day-sacks as they ran past them, following hot on his heels.

It took a little longer to get all five of them back to the tunnel where Marius sat on the floor cradling Nadia’s body to him. Kai and Shimazu gently eased her out of his grip and gently laid her down on the floor, propping her head up on a squished-up jacket and began a thorough examination. Aswon stared at the lady opposite, fixing her with a stare while he tried to work out what was going on, and she returned the favour. Tads meanwhile checked over Nadia astrally, finding no particular malaise – but she did seem to be thoroughly unconscious.

“It looks like she’s taken a right good punch to the jaw, caught her by surprise. No marks on her hands, no scrapes indicating she tried to fight them off – no marks at all, that we can see. Probably got caught completely flat-footed.” Kai spoke dispassionately in his ‘doctor voice’ identifying the marks and signs that led to his conclusion, showing her fingernails and hands. He glanced up and to the left for a second, and his voice changed a little. “Oh, hi Gemini.”

With Kai and Shimazu’s examination complete, Tads moved in, and a moment later golden light filled the tunnel, as she went to work on the bruise on her jaw. Slowly the oedema faded, leaving no trace behind. Nadia lay there, still unconscious but with no sign of physical malaise.

Marius stood trembling, his lips pursed together, his face white. Hunter stared at him for a moment, then followed his sight line, down to Nadia’s waist. At the frayed and cut belt, cut away with a quick slice from a knife of some kind, at the buttons of her trousers ripped away as strong hands had ripped at her waistband. Hunter reached over and gently kicked Kai in the backside, and when Kai turned to look at him in annoyance, pointed a finger down at her waist, directing his attention that way.

Kai moved his focus down, checking over the limp form of the girl.

“Ok, someone cut away at the belt here, then ripped at the trousers. Area is dry, no signs of trauma. No blood, no scratches, no marks. No moisture of any kind. I think we’ve got to be pretty glad you were for a walk when you were though Gemini, thanks.”

“Icy. She was lucky though. And I’m pretty certain I know who it was.”

Hunter though, listened to Kai and took solace in the fact that things had not gone as they could have, and turned to see how Marius had taken the news. When he turned though, Marius was gone. A quick check, and all he saw was the fading glow in the tunnels that indicating that someone was heading away from the scene, fast. He hustled to catch up, wondering just what he was going to do.

Aswon listened, and once he felt like he knew exactly what had gone on, headed back to the rec area, looking for Vishtar. He was in luck, as Vishtar was standing in the middle of the area, looking around at the half completed work and abandoned materials, slowly rotating in the centre of the cave with his hands on his hips.

“Ah, Vishtar – sorry, we had to stop work. One of our team got assaulted in the caves, we got called to go and give medical attention and make sure she was ok. And we have someone who saw it, and thinks she knows who it was.” Vishtar didn’t respond, but gestured into the tunnels, and followed Aswon swiftly back to the scene.

Kai and Tads were still tending to Nadia when they returned, but it appeared that Shimazu had headed off as well, after noticing that Hunter and Marius had disappeared. Kai gave a quick summary to Vishtar, who listened attentively, with a look of unhappiness on his face. When Kai had finished, he asked Gemini what she’d seen.

“Was wandering the tunnels, just walking through the dark. Heard a noise, and investigated. Two of them, big men, cammo fatigues and great coats. Holding her up against the wall. One of them cutting and ripping at her clothes. I dropped a flashbang to scare them off, watched them scuttle into the darkness. Thought about chasing them down, but would have had to leave the girl. And you know… rules.”

Vishtar started to speak, then stopped, and looked around. He manifestly wanted to say something – but for whatever reason didn’t.

“Well, I’m glad you were in the tunnels Gemini, really glad. Let us know if there’s something we can do to say thank you. There was no answer, so Kai looked over, to spot Gemini staring at Tads with a look of anger on her face. Turning towards Tads, he saw a look of guilt or shame on her face for some reason, but decided not to do anything right now.

“Dammit. Kai – I’m sorry this has happened. But technically – ahhh. They haven’t broken the rules of the base. You know what I said… you can fight, and as long as you don’t leave someone getting worse, well that’s ok. And she wasn’t. And nothing had actually happened. I think we all know it was going to – but it hadn’t happened yet, and it’s not provable. I’m sorry.” Kai looked at him, and read his body language – it was clear to see that he was unhappy with what he was saying – but he was going to stick to his guns for some reason. 

Hunter caught up with Marius in the pod, finding him near the front of the chopper. The normally methodical workmanship was gone – socket sets removed bolts and let them just drop to the floor as Marius worked around the housing that had been so painstakingly put together earlier so he could dismount the machine gun. As Hunter got close, he could hear him muttering under his breath.

“Dead, they’re all fracking dead. I’m going to kill every last fracking one of them.” Hunter watched for a moment, then dived inside to get some gear, leaving Marius to continue spreading parts all over the floor in his desire to get the heavy firepower removed from the chopper as quickly as possible.

A minute later, Marius felt the presence return, and turned to snarl at Hunter, to tell him to leave him alone, and not to try and discourage him from launching his assault. As he turned though, he saw Hunter had instead gone to get his rifle, his armour and a set of the load bearing equipment – which he was rapidly stuffing magazines into. And by the side of his pile, was a smaller set of body armour – about the right size for Marius. Hunter looked at him, and just nodded, no trace of mirth or sarcasm, no sign of his normal humour. It was the nod that told Marius he wasn’t alone in his quest. His face was still flat and emotionless, but he gave a curt nod, all that was really needed, and returned to his work on dismounting the machine gun.

Another couple of minutes passed as they armoured and armed up, and they saw Shimazu arrive. He walked towards them, but stopped when he was perhaps ten metres distant, watching as they worked, his hand dropped to his sword hilt and resting lightly upon it. They both glanced at him for a moment, but didn’t say anything – and neither did Shimazu. After a few seconds of uncomfortable staring, Shimazu watched as they got back to work on their preparations. He’d had the idea to come back here, but now he was here, he wasn’t quite sure what to do.

Marius finished with the machine gun, setting it aside on some boxes and turned his attention to his drones. There wasn’t really a use or need for the blimp – it wasn’t really a combat vehicle. But his vector thrust craft could mount some auto-fire weapons and would be a potent combat multiplier. He made a start on the pre-flight checks and kept himself busy. Hunter had finished gearing up and now moved around to secure some demo kit, getting pockets full of grenades and blocks of plastic explosive ready, just in case.

Not long after, the rest of the team arrived, carrying Nadia with them. They saw the state of Marius and Hunter, and the worried look on Shimazu’s face, and after carefully setting Nadia down in one of the bunks, Kai headed over to near Marius. Without addressing him specifically, he raised his voice to ensure it would carry to everyone in the team.

“Right, we all need to calm down and not do anything crazy here. Let’s get Nadia woken up, and find out what happened, and work it out from there, ok. Ok?” Marius ignored him and continued his preparations, strapping ordinance onto the drone. Hunter looked at Kai and neither agreed nor disagreed, though he’d clearly heard. “Most important thing is we make sure Nadia’s ok, and find out exactly what happened, not what we THINK happened.” Marius still didn’t respond to his words, but he didn’t argue either. Kai accepted his passivity for the moment, cast a look at Aswon and Shimazu and then headed back inside to Nadia.

Gently as they could they woke her, keeping her lying down on the bunk. She was clearly confused, and couldn’t account for being in the pod, and was still obviously stunned. They listened as she described getting the food, wandering back along the main tunnel towards the pod. She was in one of the dark patches, between the lights – then suddenly darkness…

“We think you fell over a rock, and bashed your head. We’re just worried about you for the moment. Just lie still, and let us look after you.”

“But Marius, and Hunter. I needed to get their dinner.”

“Don’t worry Nadia, we took care of it. They’re fine. Just relax. Listen, Tads just wants to check you over, and make sure it was just a rock you fell over. That’s ok right?” Nadia nodded, and Tads leant in, casting her mind-link spell. She got Nadia to talk through the walk back, in as much detail as she could. The concentration exhausted her, and she slumped back onto the bed afterwards, closing her eyes and falling asleep – but a natural sleep, at least.

“Couldn’t see anything in her mind, Kai – nothing to say she was attacked, nothing suspicious. If it was them, they caught her completely unawares. Oh, and by the way – when that woman who found her was describing what happened, I um… checked her out. Astrally. She seemed to be truthful as far as I could tell. It was kind of hard though, she’s stuffed full of cyberware. But I think she definitely knew what I was doing.” 

“Oh, that’s why she was so annoyed. Well, next time, don’t get caught eh?” Kai smiled at her and all Tads could do was sigh. It wasn’t like any of this was something she wanted to happen.

In the pod outside, Aswon saw movement then heard a shout, asking for permission to enter. He saw the woman from the tunnel waiting at the entrance line, shotgun sticking over her shoulder. He waved her over, and ambled to meet her halfway.

“I got something for your boss. It should help him out – and a message for your mage if you can pass it on?” Aswon raised his hand to accept the small chip she offered him, and looked at her with confusion. “Next time – tell her to ask first, alright?” The look of confusion on Aswon’s face didn’t go away, but she didn’t wait any more, and turned on her heel, heading back the way she’d came. Aswon watched her take a few steps, then turned himself to deliver the chip to Kai. Once inside the quarters, he recounted the conversation, and was surprised to have Tads push past him and jog off towards the entrance, chasing after Gemini.

Kai had inserted the chip into the computer and found a fairly small video clip as the only contents. He started it playing, and watched as the screen flashed to life showing a confusing mass of lines circling around the screen, varying in intensity.

“What am I looking at here?”

“Oh – ultrasound. Ohh, I gettit. I think that’s the footage from her headware camera – she’s got cybereyes with an ultrasound modification. Like bat vision.” Kai nodded and watched the screen. “Each of those lines are the contours on the cave as she’s moving through them, bright for close, dim for far away. We had a guy show us what a killhouse looked like through his ultrasound once, back in Southern Italy when we were fighting the Bucks. Anyway, maybe she’s practicing with new eye mods, or she’s training to move quietly or hunt or something.”

They watched as she moved through the confusing mass of signals, until the point of view rounded a corner and saw a tangled web of lines clustered to one side. The vision mode changed, turning into three crude shapes of white and yellow heat, a few cooling yellow footsteps and the dark greens and bluey blacks of the cave background. Aswon was just about to start explaining thermo vision, but Kai interrupted and let him know he’d sort of worked it out. 

The vision changed again, to an inky blackness. A couple of compression artefacts were seen wandering over the screen, tiny patches of grey in the stygian darkness. Then those faded away, and the screen took on a faint red hue for a moment. The red ramped up to pink, then almost white for a second, and finally the scene appeared ahead in colour, fading fast. It showed two large, burly men holding Nadia up against the wall, a knife in hand. Both were cringing from the light, but turning towards it in automatic reaction, leaning back and away from it as it overwhelmed their senses. The light faded almost as quickly as it appeared, the darkness returning. The vision mode changed again, and in thermo they watched as the two attackers ran into the tunnels, leaving Nadia to slump to the floor. The viewpoint wobbled as Gemini closed the distance, then swung wildly in a slightly nauseous way to look down at the body, then back up into the tunnel. There was a moment of decision, then the camera sunk, looking down at Nadia and two hot arms appeared in the view, lifting her up. Slowly the camera proceeded through the tunnel, holding the body just in the bottom of view, until two forms appeared around the corner. The vision changed back to ‘normal’ and they spotted Marius and Hunter, then the video cut, returning them to the menu.

“Hunter! Get in here and look at this!” Aswon played the file again, and got him to check the time stamps on the footage and compare it to their expectations. The video file looked unedited, and matched in time, the file size was right, and the playback looked just like he would expect to. Aswon sat back and steepled his hands, deep in thought. 

“Kai – I think we have to trust this. But also, we should never get on that woman’s bad side. Ever.”

“What do you mean? I agree, but why?”

“Because she’s better than good. I think, what she did was threw a flashbang into the tunnel, to scare them off – probably just around a corner or some obstacle to direct the blast. But she timed it so tightly she had her eyes shut to avoid blinding herself – and opened them to catch the last of the light, trusting in the flare compensation of her cyber systems so she could ID the aggressors, using normal video where it would show detail. She worked all that out, despite being caught cold in a tunnel, not knowing what was going on, and she got the job done.”

“You sound like you admire her. Maybe I should hire her for the team.”

“Maybe you should start paying your team.” Aswon replied quickly. Kai coughed and turned away, realising that this was a losing argument.

In the tunnels, Tads jogged forward, not too worried about the darkness. She was astrally perceiving, and everything was a light grey, apart from the shape of Gemini ahead which was the bright actinic light of a living being – though with a core of darkness and death threaded through her where her cyber systems polluted her living essence. It was clear she in turn had seen Tads and had stopped, turned and was waiting for her.

“Hi there, Gemini isn’t it?” The woman nodded, but then just stood quietly, waiting for Tads to speak again. “Look, about earlier. I know it’s rude to look without asking, but we really needed to know if you were telling the truth or not.” The seconds ticked by, Gemini fixing her with a cold, unblinking stare. Just as Tads was about to speak again, Gemini spoke quietly but clearly.

“I understand. I don’t approve – but I understand. It should not happen again. I won’t be so forgiving next time.” There was no menace to her voice, no theatrics, no threats. Despite that, Tads felt a chill down her spine as Gemini stared at her.

“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” Tads didn’t know what else to say – but it appeared that her short and simple apology was enough. Gemini nodded once to her, then turned on her heel and walked away down the tunnel, with quiet cat-like steps, her cyber-enhanced reactions making it look like she flowed rather than walked. Tads turned, and saw Kai and Shimazu walking swiftly out of the pod and down the tunnel towards her. As they closed, Kai made a circling motion with his hand, and then caught her sleeve as he hustled past, dragging her along with him.

“Come on, we need to get to Vishtar and work something out, before Marius blows a gasket and launches a one-man war against those idiots. There’s got to be something he can do!” She turned and walked as fast as she could – then after a few steps broke into a jog. It wasn’t long before they were all running, heading for the rec-area to try and find someone they could talk to, hoping to head off the confrontation that seemed inevitable.

In the pod, Marius worked solidly on his drones until he had finished his preparations. After tightening the last retaining bolt on the weapon mount, he stood up straight, grabbing grenades and filling his pockets with them, then checked the clips in his pistols to ensure they were correctly seated, and took a step towards the exit – to be stopped as Aswon stepped in front of him.

“Marius – I have your back. If you go, I’ll follow you – because that’s what team mates do. So will Hunter. And the rest I think when they come back. But if you do this – we won’t ever be welcome here again. Even if we take out this crew, with a sudden burst of irrational, unthinking but completely over the top rage and psychotic violence, and don’t take any casualties…we’re never going to set foot in this base again. We saw the size of the cave we warded yesterday – a new cave, that wasn’t there before. Whoever runs this place has enough mojo that we can’t fight them and win. We lose access to a base that covers all of the western parts of Russia, the Balkans, the TCL, as far down as Constantinople. Just think about that.”

Aswon stepped aside, swinging round his rifle as he did so. With a deft movement he worked the action, chambering a round, and raised the rifle to rest on his shoulder. He’d said his piece, now he prepared to back it up. If his team was going to war, he’d honour their trust. Marius wavered for a moment, the logic and calm delivery of Aswon getting through his cooling rage. Aswon watched him, and sensing the hesitation decided to take a calculated risk.

“They have to pay for what they’ve done. There’s no question about that. But a gunfight might not be the best answer. With minds as petty and little as that, we can destroy them in other ways. At least wait until the others come back before you make a decision, though. If the three of us go, then Nadia is on her own, unguarded.” It was the last part that seemed to do the trick. Manifestly unhappy, Marius turned and glowered at him then stomped off to find a seat to wait. Aswon let out a deep breath, relaxing a little, glad that he wasn’t going to be involved in a crazy assault.

Kai, Shimazu and Tads arrived into the rec-area, Kai and Tads both out of breath and slightly winded while Shimazu looked depressingly unbothered. Looking around they saw Vishtar sitting at one of the tables at the far end of the cave, along with someone they didn’t recognise. She was tall, very tall – even sitting she was nearly a head taller than Vishtar. Thick brown hair cascaded down past her shoulders, and she was dressed in loose-fitting natural clothes – a hand-knitted woollen jumper and some cotton trousers. As the team entered, she paused in her conversation with Vishtar and they both turned to look at the team. Kai crossed half the room, then waved his hand in a ‘me to you’ kind of way, making sure it was ok to interrupt.

Vishtar waved him closer, and the tall woman shuffled backwards onto a chair further way, leaning back against the cave wall, and propping her feet on the chair where she’d sat a moment ago. Vishtar, who had been sitting opposite, turned to face them 

“Vishtar, look – we’ve got a problem. Marius is…well Marius is pretty upset that someone attacked his girlfriend. When we left, he looked like he was getting ready to kick off a fight – and we don’t want that, we really don’t.”

“Your team-mate – she is ok? Recovering?”

“Yes, she’s fine – she doesn’t remember what happened at all, they caught her completely off guard. Now look – when you started to talk earlier, it was clear you wanted to say something off the record to us…” As Kai said this, the eyes of the tall woman swung instantly to the back of Vishtar’s head, fixing him with a laser-like stare. “…but felt that you couldn’t for whatever reason. But we really need your help. So, if we were going to pick a fight with these rapist assholes, how far do we have to go? How far is out of bounds?”

“Outside of the quarry. Outside the fence line, or past the gate. Anything that goes on there is beyond our control and care. Inside, you follow the rules – all of them.”

“Right, fine. Got it. Now I know you said that they technically haven’t broken the rules because of Gemini stumbling across them. But this has got to have happened before. People managing to ‘fall over some rocks’ and so on?”

“Yes, it’s happened a few times, as far as we can make out. But never anything we can prove.” Vishtar squirmed unhappily in his seat a little.

“Well, that sounds like a health and safety issue. It turns out we’ve done some work in that area. Would you like a consultation perhaps?” Kai smiled broadly, spreading his hands wide and radiating helpfulness. Vishtar started to shake his head, but the tall lady leant forwards and laid one slender, long finger on his shoulder and he froze in place. She gracefully stood, then bent over and whispered in his ear for a moment, far too quietly to be overheard. Vishtar turned and looked up at her, and she nodded wordlessly, then smiled slightly, just a faint upturning of the lips really. 

As she stood next to him, they got to see just how tall she was – easily two and a quarter metres if not more, though willow slender. Clearly not a troll, she looked entirely human, other than being ridiculously tall. Maybe it was just genetics… she started to walk off towards the staff tunnels, and suddenly both Shimazu and Tads took a step backwards. They’d both been watching in astral space, trying to get an idea of who the lady was from passive observation rather than active probing, but she didn’t appear magical in any way.

However, with their astral senses extended, they both saw the wall ripple and animate, and a huge figure detach from the cave wall and stomp after her, made of a collection of boulders and rocks in a vaguely humanoid shape. It wasn’t the earth spirit that Tads had called outside in the fight with the people pursuing Monty – it was far bigger and more powerful than that, more powerful than any of them for sure. It stomped off after the slender figure, not giving them a second glance though.

“Well my friends, it sounds to *my* ears that you’re issuing a challenge of supremacy to the Bogbusters, a challenge to their reputation and honour. A challenge they need to accept, or they lose respect and position, causing you to swap places on the rep-board, and probably some considerable shame to them for their loss of position. That is what you said, wasn’t it?” Vishtar cocked an eyebrow at Kai.

“Sure, sure. Something like that. I think. So how does this work?”

“Well, it’s been a while since anyone has done something like this – but I need to go and inform the other crew that there has been a challenge, and they need to pick a volunteer to meet your champion in the arena, where they will set terms for the fight. The victor of the fight determines the victor of the challenge. We don’t have enough room for jousting you see, so we have to make do.” The reference went over Kai’s head, so he just smiled and nodded like he was following along.

“I’m sure they’ll pick a strong fighter of some kind – but it’s anything goes in the arena, just remember that. Now, I need to go inform them of the challenge. Care to walk with me?”

The team followed along, and Vishtar talked to them about things – nothing to do with the current conversation, but just general gossip, the area they were in, what the local town was like. They chatted all the way to the entrance to Pod five, when he paused at the entrance.

“BOGBUSTER! ATTENTION BOGBUSTER” Several heads appeared to turn from the work they were carrying out on an enormous hovercraft, and people sat up in the cots to the side of the cave. “THERE HAS BEEN A CHALLENGE ISSUED. YOU ARE CALLED TO THE ARENA, WHERE YOUR CHAMPION WILL FIGHT FOR YOUR CREW. YOU ARE TO BE AT THE ARENA IN ONE HOUR, READY TO FIGHT!” Vishtar turned and smiled at the team, then pointedly showed them the time. “Don’t be late, and be ready. I’ll see you there.”

The team watched as the crew raced around, presumably heading below decks to tell their leader. They took a moment to look at the massive craft, big enough to carry multiple trucks over rough ground it seemed, and with heavy machine guns and autocannons mounted around the hull on pintle and ring-mounts. Before anyone decided to do something about their presence though, they turned and headed back to the pod, to let the others know what was going on – though Kai took a quick surreptitious picture of the hovercraft before they left.

Back in the pod, they told the rest of the team what had happened, though only Aswon and Hunter seemed to respond – Marius still sitting and refusing to engage. It was only when Kai started to describe the hovercraft and cast the picture from his pocket secretary onto the larger screen that Marius turned to view it. Almost against his will it seemed, he told them what they were looking at.

“Zubr class ACV. Ex-Soviet army by the looks of things. Some of the largest landing craft ever designed. Carries up to 150 tons of cargo, pretty fast and very easy to move over terrain. Heavily armed and armoured.”

“Well, that’s what they have – and it looked to be a tight squeeze to get them into here, let me tell you. But, we need to get ready to fight their crew – not their craft. And if we win, we swap with them, and get to rub their noses in it. And if I’m not mistaken, we’ve met the ‘boss’ of this place, and according to Shimazu and Tads, she may be a very powerful mage. And I think she knows exactly what is going on. When we win at the arena fight, it’s going to piss these guys off something awful. And instead of us kicking off the fight, it’s going to be them – and then THEY get banned from the base, not us.” Kai spoke with confidence and control, laying out his thoughts to the team. Marius seemed to withdraw back into his shell again, but at least he’d still not decided to launch his attack.

“So, all we have to do is win in this arena, huh?” Aswon framed it as a question, but there was a certain amount of disbelief in his voice. “What are the rules for the fight?”

“Don’t know – we find out what the challenge is when we get there. Because we challenged, they get to set the terms, apparently.” Kai waved his hand, as if dismissing the argument as irrelevant. Aswon shook his head, and grabbed his gun and extendable spear, clearly expecting trouble – or wanting options.

Kai headed inside to check on Nadia, finding her sitting in her bunk watching some recorded show from a chip. She had a drink and some painkillers by her side, and still looked groggy to some extent.

“Nadia. We’re all off to go take care of some business for a bit. I’d like you to stay here, and if you don’t mind, make tea for everyone. Is that ok?”

“Sure.”

“Sure? You don’t mind?”

“Kai, I’m not stupid. Everyone has been on edge, since you found me. Marius looks ready to murder someone. Hunter and Aswon have been walking around armed to the teeth for a while, and everyone is really stressed. I know something is going on, and you’re not telling me. But at the minute, my head hurts too much, so I don’t care. Later on someone is going to explain to me – but for now, sure. I’ll make tea.”

Kai smiled at her. She probably had some suspicions, but was doing her best not to inflame things, and was taking it steady. His estimation of her intelligence cranked up another notch. He turned and headed outside, to the waiting team and told them to start heading for the arena with all their gear, just in case.

“I’m going to pod one, see if I can find Gemini, before I meet you at the arena. Don’t worry, I’ll catch up with you.” The team split, Kai leaving at a jog from the front of the cave, while the rest of the team headed down the much smaller passage at the north west side that lead deeper underground. Kai made it to the main tunnel without meeting anyone – but bumped into some workmen from the quarry who were heading into the base, their ear defenders flipped up onto their hardhats and high-vis jackets stuffed into a pocket. When questioned on where they were going they informed Kai that there was going to be a fight – and they really wanted to see who it was, and what happened.

Kai pressed on, getting to the entrance to pod one – but it seemed deserted. Nobody answered his calls, so he turned and headed deeper into the caves, working his way back to the arena area. He saw Stripes, Nelly and Gemini there, along with the rest of the team – and the Bogbuster crew, all clustered up together, armed and looking dangerous. Mixed in amongst the groups were quarry workers and the maintenance crew, forming little barriers of orange between the cliques. He walked up towards Gemini.

“Hey there, seems you’ve been around here for a while. Have you seen many of these?”

“Fights? A few, not many. Challenges – not really. Definitely not with the Boggies – not really their style. You must have goaded them pretty well to make them agree to this.” Kai caught himself just before he revealed Vishtar’s part in that, then decided to show some discretion. He wasn’t sure why, but something told him that he was living in unusual times here. With a muttered thanks to Gemini, he walked over to the team, and made sure everyone was ready – safeties on, but rounds hot in the chamber, and all armoured up. It wasn’t long until Vishtar arrived, and announced the fight, gesturing into the arena and recounting the challenge.

The arena was a rounded cavern, reasonably smooth and with a clear floor covered in fine sand, sunken down below the level of the tunnels that radiated off from it. Clear spaces around the outside let a reasonable size crowd watch whatever was going on inside, and it was easy to work out where the edges were. Vishtar called for the Bogbusters to present their champion.

A huge bull of a man appeared, stripped to the waist. As he stepped forward into the light, they could see he wasn’t actually human – but a large and powerfully built orc. He wasn’t hugely tall, but was wide with shoulders that rippled in the light, leading to a massively hewn neck and a stubby, bald head. His skin was a very light green, and one tusk was broken near the root, while small beady eyes looked out suspiciously from under his massive and pronounced brow. Around him the Bogbuster crew started shouting in Russian, repeating his name over and over again. Tads translated, a moment before Hunter did.

“His name is Ox apparently. Or that’s what they’re shouting anyway.” Kai nodded, and then pushed forward to the edge of the arena.

“So, what’s the challenge then, Ox? It’s not going to be a battle of wits is it? I mean, if it is, it’s not really fair, as you’d be fighting without a weapon!” Most of the crowd laughed, while the Bogbuster crew shouted and jeered at them. Ox looked confused for a moment, then realising he was being insulted, coloured up and roared in rage.

“Sorry, I don’t speak Ox. You’re going to have to try a civilised language. You do know how to speak, right, not just grunt?” His voice dripped with sarcasm, pointed vicious barbs of wit that obviously struck home. The Bogbuster crew grew more and more upset, while Ox seemed to be on the verge of apoplectic rage.

“I kill you! I smash your puny body to paste! I smash you with fists, until you are dead. Then I come for the rest of you and smash you too!”

Vishtar leaned in and shouted for attention, having to repeat himself several times to be heard over the bellowing from the hovercraft crew. Eventually they quieted down.

“The terms of the challenge have been set. A fight, to the death, with bare hands. New fish – who is your champion?”

Hunter stepped forwards, stripping off his load bearing rig, but keeping his body armour on. Tads and Shimazu had assensed the Ox, and clearly seen the almost black body, betraying the dermal armour lying just below the surface that covered all of his torso, his thighs and arms. With the dense armour plates implanted, he was carrying around as much protection as the average plated vest on his body, and it would soak and absorb a large amount of damage, saving the flesh below. They’d warned him of this, so he had no desire to strip to the waist to match his opponent, no matter how it looked.

“Well, I’ve got him all wound up now Hunter, he should be too furious to think clearly. Take advantage of that, and sort him out.” Hunter shook his head as Kai spoke.

“I think I’d rather you hadn’t.”

Hunter stepped down into the soft sand, twisting his feet to gauge its’ depth – only a few centimetres. Enough to soften a fall, or soak up some blood perhaps. Hopefully there weren’t any pits or troughs hidden under the surface. Across the other side of the pit. Ox raised his arms above his head, and the crowd started to shout his name again.

Ox stared across the arena and bellowed once more.

“I KILLL YOU!” The Bogbusters cheered; Hunter remained silent, just moving his feet into a comfortable fighting stance and raising his hands before him. Vishtar took a deep breath, and then shouted.

“Ready?” His eyes locked on Kai, rather than Hunter, awaiting his nod…


	109. 109 - The Fighting Pit

Date Wednesday 14/04/2060, Location 50.10234, 43.23581

Kai held up his hand, and then spoke – pitching his voice just loud enough to carry through the cavern.

“I just want to check on the rules – this is an unarmed fight, yes?”

“Yes, as they specified. As you issued the challenge, they are the ones to choose the terms – and the Bogbuster declared that this is an unarmed fight.”

“So if their fighter pops his spur that is concealed in his right hand – then he’s cheating?” Vishtar turned to face the fighter, standing across from Hunter.

“Yes. He would be in breach of the rules, and would be punished for his transgression. Most severely.” He enunciated clearly, leaving no room for misinterpretation.

“Ahh, very good. Well, carry on then.” With that Kai took a step back and moved closer to Stripes and his team, moving up behind Noodles. Now he lowered his voice, speaking quietly so that his voice barely carried.

“My mage is a little busy keeping an eye on them, I just wanted to check something with you. We’re not allowed to cast magic into the arena, right?” Noodles raised a glass in a cheer, and spoke. It was probably meant as a subtle whisper, but the voice carried none the less, making Kai wince.

“THAT’S RIGHT. NO OFFENSIVE OR DEFENSIVE MAGIC INTO THE AREA AT ALL. AGAINST THE RULES.”

“What about shouting commands. Or directions?”

“WELL, WHAT WOULD BE WRONG WITH THAT?” Noodles looked confused. Kai was about to explain, but then realised that it would involve a very loud conversation that probably wasn’t what he wanted. A second later the rest of his brain caught up, and he realised that Nelly had never heard of his techniques, and it bought home to him just how rare his talents might be.

Shimazu meanwhile had been studying the fighter, watching his body language and how the rest of the Bogbuster crew reacted to him. While they were whooping and cheering for “their guy”, there was fear and discomfort on several of their faces when he got near them, and flashes of hatred when his back was turned.

“Hey, this guy is a bully. Half his crew over there are scared of him too. He’s likely going to try and get a psychological edge as well, pick on some obvious flaw or perceived weakness. But he’s not going to cope well with indifference or smugness – as a general rule that really gets to bullies. Might give you a bit of an edge, don’t know.” Hunter nodded, rolling his shoulders to loosen up as he listened to the chatter behind him.

Kai stepped into the arena, and clapped Hunter on the shoulder as he walked past him, giving him a broad smile as he drew level. A few steps took him close to the enemy fighter, who got a respectful nod and a smile as well. He stopped there, and then faced the commander of the Bogbuster crew.

“So, who’s in charge here then?”

“I am, you can call me Ivan. Until my fighter destroys your man. Then you can call me sir…” A laugh ran through the crowd, spreading out in a ripple. Shimazu cocked his head to one side, studying the body language and dynamics of the crowd. In his head he could see the pages in his book, the section on sycophantic personalities and cults making so much more sense now. Kai seemed unphased though, and just waited for the laughter to die down.

“Well, Ivan, how about a little bet then. From captain to captain. A wager to make things more interesting. I bet you ONE Nuyen that we’ll win.” Ivan looked at him in confusion for a moment, then forced out a belly laugh, before responding.

“Pah, you wish to mock us? As if you had any chance at all. Well, how’s this then. I take your one Nuyen bet, but with one condition. The loser has to lick clean the boots of the winner!” A cheer burst out from the crew, laughter and pointing at Kai from several of those near Ivan as they contemplated what was to come. Kai just nodded, and walked past Hunter, giving him a nod of support as he passed.

The two fighters squared off against each other, and Vishtar started the bout with a shout.

The Bogbuster crew started a rhythmic shout, several of them clapping or slapping their thighs in time.

“Ox! Ox! OX! OX!!” The huge and squat orc raised his arms and flexed, muscles rippling under the dermal armour. Hunter stood still and watched him, keeping still.

“You, you are like nothing! I will snap you! I will rip out your tusks and use them as trophies. You stand there quiet – afraid to speak! Your voice would whine like a child!” Contempt curled from his words, disdain evident on his face. A broad sickly smile as he tried to gain psychological dominance over Hunter.

Hunter stood still, slowly breathing in and out, deeply. Inside a tiny flame of rage built up, and he focussed all of his concentration on his opponent. He was huge, and the armour plating implanted beneath his skin was obvious now he was posing for the crowd, deliberately flexing to show off his enhanced musculature. Hunter analysed him carefully, looking at the traditional weakspots. Well. There was only one thing for it – and he’d only get once chance.

Ox moved forwards, hands spread in front of him in a stance midway between a boxer and a wrestler. He still mocked Hunter, spitting words at him and picking up on his unresponsiveness, mocking him for being paralysed with fear.

As Ox finally closed the distance, his massive right arm swung towards Hunter, aiming for a huge cross that would pulverise Hunter’s jaw. But Hunter moved with the speed of a striking snake, taking a half step to the side to take him into the perfect position. His right leg lifted and his powerful quad muscles contracted, driving his lower leg forward with brutal speed and power. With toes pulled back, the ball of his foot smashed into the unarmoured and exposed testicles of his opponent, the leg powering forwards and upwards in a vicious scythe. 

The foot crashed into the soft meat, driving upwards with speed and fury. First one, then the other burst under the massive force of the impact, but the strike kept driving upwards. The crowd started to react, a ripple of sighs spreading outwards as mouths dropped open and men flinched in sympathetic reaction. The reactions were slow and languid to Hunter, his reactions working overtime. Still the kick continued upwards, driving the ruined flesh up into the abdomen, behind the armour plating. With nowhere to go, and constrained by the implanted armour the organs were further crushed and mangled, nerves firing messages of distress that could not be ignored.

Hunter ducked to the side, avoiding the reflexive grasp of his opponent and danced away. Time seemed to catch up with him as the spike of adrenaline his combat booster had dumped into his system was absorbed.

Ox stood almost still, his body in shock at the brutal and unexpected savagery visited upon him. A whine of pain escaped from his lips, and he staggered into a turn, facing Hunter and trying to grab him – but his body seemed to betray him and refused to cooperate. He flailed again, his arm spreading wide as he flinched from the acute shuddering pain wracking his body. Hunter took advantage and darted in, sending a straight jab into his throat. He felt his punch impact the armour plating, but it didn’t absorb all of the force, being too thin over the neck to fully protect him.

Hunter circled around, jabbing and striking where he could while Ox lumbered after him. Again and again he was hit, but the thick armour implants and his huge physique absorbed the hits. Hunter worked around him, keeping light on his feet and forcing Ox to turn constantly, knowing that every time he did, those powerful legs and hip muscles were aggravating the injury further. Balanced against that was the knowledge that the pain would pass soon – the nerves would only cope with so much before he went into shock.

Kai spared a glance around the cave, assessing the mood. Vishtar was impassive, an admirable poker face in place. Stripes and his crew were drinking champagne from fluted glasses, and Gemini looked to be actively enjoying the situation, a wide smile plastered across her face. The Bogbuster crew were quiet now, their cheers having faded away with that first massive hit and replaced with a primal empathy of pain. 

Hunter dummied a hit to the left, suckering the staggering Ox into raising his guard that way. Swiftly he lunged to the right, taking a half step towards Ox. His left leg was tucked up, knee bent tightly up towards his stomach, while he stood on his right. He let the right leg collapse, releasing all tension and his body dropped. As he fell, the left knee extended downwards, smashing into Ox’s leg, catching him just on the bottom of his thigh. The leg bent backwards, Hunter’s bodyweight driving the knee into hyperextension and then there was a horrible snapping noise and Ox went down, his leg bent at a horrific and unnatural angle. A single cry of pain echoed around the chamber before the shock drove him into unconsciousness.

The crowd fell silent, watching as Hunter rolled to the side and stood up, apparently uninjured.

“To the death?” Hunter asked Vishtar, getting a nod in return. He brushed his hands off, then turned to face the Bogbuster crew and slowly let his gaze traverse over them, working his way across the silent crowd from left to right. Without a word, he took the step required to stand over Ox, then knelt down, his knee pressing into the throat of his unconscious opponent. He applied more and more weight, until he was resting almost entirely upon his right knee, pressing deeply into thick hewn neck. The armour didn’t save him, and his windpipe and artery were crushed and closed with the pressure.

Hunter reached into his back pocket, pulling out his phone, and then made a show of scrolling through his messages, studying the emails one at a time. Beneath him the body twitched slightly as the autonomic functions fought for breath, but the pressure was inexorable. The message to the Bogbuster crew was clear. Hunter had not just defeated their champion, he’d annihilated him. And now he was making use of the time to catch up on his reading, while he crushed the life out of him.

The arena was deathly quiet now, everyone watching the scene play out. Several of the Bogbuster crew glanced at Ivan, and those close to him seemed to be edging away, clearly expecting some kind of reaction.

Hunter moved suddenly, ripping open the trousers of his opponent. Everyone watched in confusion, wondering what he was up to. His massive hands grabbed the flaccid penis of his opponent and then wrenched, ripping the organ from the body. Cries of anger erupted from the Bogbuster crew at the mutilation, but everyone was too shocked to respond physically. Hunter turned and stalked over to Kai, then dropped to one knee and carefully placed the torn flesh on Kai’s boot.

“Someone’s gonna lick that clean in a minute, aren’t they?” He looked up at Kai, and the smirk was back, then he cast a glance over at the other side of the cavern. Ivan had turned a deep red, barely supressed anger colouring his features.

Tads was standing at the end of the line, watching. Her eyes were round, and fixed upon the robed figure who stood behind Ivan. A shudder of revulsion rippled down her as she watched his reaction. He’d seemed excited at the combat, not caring who had been hitting who, but revelling in the anger and aggression. But when Hunter had mutilated the body – she’d seen him. Seen him lick his lips and look with hunger at the events. Her mind tried to comprehend what kind of personality would enjoy something like that but she shied away from the answer, not wanting to pollute her own mind with the results.

Kai eased his foot out of his boots, then leaving one behind, carefully lifted the other up, walking across the sandy floor with his grisly trophy. The men in front pressed back, clearing the approach to Ivan. Kai stopped well short though, and held the boot out, before clearing his throat.

“I take all major credit cards…” A ripple of laughter, genuine laughter, ran through the maintenance techs and the crew of the Mondrian. 

“You… you CHEATED! You broke the rules! You CANNOT win like this!” Ivan exploded, the words coming out thick and fast. Kai looked over his shoulder towards Vishtar.

“No rules have been broken. No magic was used in the fight, there was no outside influence. Your fighter has lost, and you have lost the challenge.”

“Nyet! It cannot be! I reject this!” Ivan spluttered. He lunged forwards, his hand swinging up to try and flick the boot out of Kai’s grip and send it flying across the room. Kai saw it coming and moved the boot to the side smoothly, the flesh wobbling for a moment, but remaining in place.

“Ah ah ah! I believe we had a deal. Time to get licking.”

“I will crush you, all of you! You cheated us, and you will pay the price.”

“Man from the east say…. Puuuussssy?” Shimazu stretched out the words, and gave the boot a little wiggle at the end to add emphasis. He didn’t speak loudly, but it was loud enough to carry across the small space. Ivan turned and strode off, his crew parting before him, pushing back against the tunnel walls to avoid his wrath. Kai let him get a few steps away before he acted. He called out, no lilt in his voice, no humour. Instead he used his powers to shape the words, lowering the pitch and timbre, modulating the sound to cut right through to the core of his opponent’s mind.

“Stop right there.” Ivan stopped, suddenly, as if he’d run into a physical barrier. His head snapped around in surprise, staring at Kai standing barefoot in the middle of the sandy cave, holding his bloody boot in front of him. “We had a deal, sir. You owe me one Nuyen, and one lick.”

“I will fucking end you! You miserable pieces of shit! I will carve out your entrails and scatter them over the countryside as a warning to anyone that picks a fight with us!” His voice trembled with emotion, but also sincerity. Kai ignored him though, just staring him down.

Tads snapped her attention away from the other mage, and raised her voice.

"Hey Vishtar, if they leave, is their accusation of cheating cast out, yeah?" Vishtar nodded at her, but didn’t speak. His bottom lip quivered though, as if he was having problems keeping a straight face. Across the cave, Ivan turned again to leave taking one step then another.

"I said stop". Once again, the body froze in place, responding to the power and subliminal commands. This time though, the Bogbuster’s mage looked at Kai, his eyes widening a little. A subtle shift in the body was seen as he caught a glimpse of the power flowing through Kai. His hands moved a little, fingers twisting slightly.

Marius stepped forwards and away from Kai, his hand curled loosely around the grip of his pistol, ready to quickly draw and fire. On the other side, Shimazu took a step forwards, his hand clenched around the grip of his sword. The mage glanced over, and then paused. Behind Kai, Tads had extended her magical protection, covering the team with a blanket of force. It wouldn’t make them immune to his attacks, but it would make them far less effective. 

Kai dipped a finger into the blood on the boot, and then slowly raised the finger to his mouth and licked it, staring at the mage all the time.

“Try me…”

The motion of the mage’s fingers ceased, and then he turned, and headed off into the darkness, silently leaving. The Bogbuster crew glanced from their mage to their captain and back again, unsure of what was going on. Ivan turned once more to stomp off, and once again Kai gathered his power, determined to finish the humiliation and defeat.

“KNEEL BEFORE ME!” This time there was no disguising the power, which rippled and flowed through his voice. Several of the maintenance workers twitched, their bodies wanting to obey the command and their minds reacting with confusion. Ivan sunk to his knees, his body betraying him. A little fleck of white spittle escaped from the corner of his mouth as he tried to resist the command.

“All of you, back to the craft. Await us there!” The mage spoke for the first time from the darkness, his voice raspy and harsh. The crew reacted at once, filing past him in the tunnel, heading off into the darkness. He stood in the centre of the tunnel, as the crew squeezed past on either side, watching his captain and Kai to see what was going to happen.

Kai approached, the boot held at Ivan’s head height, getting closer and closer. Ivan struggled to his feet, his body still wanting to obey the command and his brain fighting for control. Kai paused, holding the boot still, Ivan’s eyes fixed to it, clearly expecting Kai to rub the boot into his face while his body was paralysed. Instead though, Kai just stopped, then turned away, leaving Ivan behind him. Dismissing him. Making it clear that he could have done whatever he wanted – but that Ivan was too insignificant to bother with.

A primal noise of incoherent rage escaped from his teeth, the eyes bulging and more spittle bursting from the corner of his mouth, blowing into small bubbles that popped and dribbled down through his stubble. They saw the mage grab Ivan by the shoulder, dragging him off into the darkness.

The tension broke, and there was a collective sigh from the remaining spectators. Vishtar finally allowed the grin to show, while the maintenance techs cheered and hollered at Hunter. One of them came over holding his camera aloft to get a selfie with him, holding the phone up high to get his manic smile in next to the now-trembling body of the orc.

Tads walked up to Vishtar, then pointed down at the mutilated body lying in the middle of the sandy arena.

“Nothing was agreed about the body. I don’t want to leave it where that other mage can get to it. Is it possible to get it disposed of? Properly?”

“Normally – no. That’s not something I’d do. But in this case… certainly. It was worth it.” He turned towards Kai and Marius. “I’m guessing you don’t actually want to swap pods right now, given the condition of your craft?” Marius shook his head, contemplating how long it would take to put everything back together, move, then take it apart again. “I will go an update the board though – just so everyone knows about the move. Oh – but I need your team name. Have you decided on one yet?”

They looked at each other, contemplating their choices. Around the cave, the others started to split up and head off, leaving just the team and Vishtar, along with the corpse. Vishtar suggested “Into Orbit” which made Hunter smile and several of the others wince, but after a few minutes of increasingly bizarre suggestions, Shimazu spoke up.

“Do you know what, I really actually like ‘The New Fish’. I think it’s got a certain something to it.” With nobody having a better idea that they could all agree on, they went with the default option instead.

“By the way, I’m going to get your pod watched, just in case. If you see anything watching from the walls, don’t worry. I just don’t want there to be any more unpleasant surprises.” The team frowned and looked at Vishtar, but he didn’t elaborate further. Instead he nodded to them, then turned to leave, pulling out the mining radio from his belt as he did so and calling for the maintenance team to come back with some plastic wrap to deal with the corpse.

The team headed back to their pod, sticking together as they wandered through the dark limestone tunnels that wound their way under the hill. The journey back was quiet, each of the team being wrapped up in their own thoughts.

When they were back in the pod, Marius went to work clearing the table, moving off all of the miscellaneous gear that had accumulated there, and then setting up his toolkits around the area. When he was done, he beckoned Aswon over towards him.

“I want you to build a bomb. A big bomb. I was thinking, we can build an electromagnet on it, and a radio detonator. Then we dig a hole outside, and plant the bomb. When their craft goes over, first of all we trigger the first stage, and it attaches to their hull. Then, when they are far enough away we detonate the device, and take our revenge. Why are you looking at me like that?”

Aswon shook his head at Marius, for even asking that question.

“First of all, just how big a bomb do you think we’d need to take out that thing – it’s massive. Secondly, I’m not sure I want to risk planting a bomb in the quarry in case something goes wrong with it. Thirdly – they already hate us. If we try and blow them up, and don’t get them all – they’re not ever going to stop hunting us down. I’m not sure this is a good idea at all….”

Marius pouted, and an obstinate look formed on his face. He slapped down a kilo of C4 on the workbench and held out some tools towards Aswon. Kai had drifted over and listened in on the conversation as well.

“How would you set it off? By sending it a signal, or would you have the signal being the thing that stopped it from exploding and just let them get out of range?” Marius immediately perked up at Kai’s interest in the plan, and launched into a consideration of the two methods of controlling the detonation. Tads mentioned that they should make sure it didn’t explode in the town either, as that would not only hurt too many civilians, but also garner too much official attention. Soon Marius was bogged down in complex planning based on radio signal analysis, traffic patterns and complex encryption methods, going into intricate details about how the explosion would be set off, while no actual work was being done on making the device itself.

“Well Marius, while you plot this out, I’m going to the rec area, I’ll have a look at the craft on the way past and see if we can find anything else out. See if we can do some recon. Come on, Shimazu.” Marius gave a choppy nod and continued working on some fast-fourier transforms, working out the maximum transmission ranges for his detonators based on the signal strength from his deck. Kai and Aswon’s eyes met for a moment and Kai gave a tiny shake of his head. Aswon in returned gave a slow blink and a very subtle nod, then turned back to the table, ready to ask more questions to stall Marius on his quest for vengeance.

As Kai and Shimazu wandered past the entrance to pod 5, they glanced in and saw the huge hovercraft sitting quiet and apparently unattended. Nobody was visible in the pod, or on the craft at all – though it was certainly big enough they could all be below decks. They pushed on towards the rec-area, not wanting to provoke any trouble. As they got to the main tunnel, they saw the board had been updated with their new team name. There was also a new addition, in the number two slot – replacing the Zephyr crew was “Pennywise”.

In the rec-area they found the new team relaxing with a beer. There were three of them, wearing formal suits, who all turned to look at them as they entered. 

“Hi friend!” one said with a wide smile. Kai wandered over and introduced himself and Shimazu, mentioning that they were the ‘New Fish’. In turn the speaker, a dark-haired elf introduced himself as ‘Feely’, along with his two team-mates. ‘Spindle’ was human, his hair shot through with silver but a pleasant look about him, and a baby-faced human with obvious cyber-eyes was introduced as “Double”. Each of them wore an armoured suit, similar in style and cut to the ones Shimazu favoured when he needed to dress for the occasion – loose cut to conceal a pistol in a shoulder rig and with enough flexibility to permit a certain level of acrobatic prowess.

“Can I buy you guys dinner?” Kai offered. 

“Thanks friend, that’s nice of you. Want to join us?” Kai nodded, and after arranging for bowls of food and fresh drinks, they joined the Pennywise team at the table.

“I wish we’d been here earlier today. Apparently we missed an absolutely EPIC fight. Truly awesome stuff according to the foreman.” Double spoke enthusiastically, waving his arms around to illustrate his point.

“It wasn’t that epic,” Kai responded.

“Are you kidding me? Certainly looked epic to me!” Double reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, then fired up his media app and replayed a saved clip. The quality wasn’t that great with the uneven lighting and motion from the person filming – one of the maintenance guys judging from the camera angle. However it clearly showed the fight between Hunter and Ox, and from the occasional jerking around most of the Bogbuster crew as well as the team. When it reached the point with the punch, there was a collective ‘oooh’ from the three newcomers, who had clearly already seen the clip, but were enjoying the re-run in a morbid kind of way.

Kai and Shimazu shared a look of concern.

“Where did you see that?”

“Oh, the foreman had it on his phone, but he uploaded it to a fight site, lots of amateur stuff. But that one’s gonna go viral, I bet. Wait until you see what happens after he takes the guy out – you’ll never guess what he does!”

The sinking feeling grew stronger in their stomachs. This was probably not going to help them stay covert.

Back in the pod, Tads was just heading back to her lodge when she caught a flash of something fleeting in the astral. Curiosity piqued, she headed over towards the entrance and spent a minute looking around. Finally she spotted a spirit nestled into the wall of the cave, only the eyes showing proud of the rock surface.

“Hello?” she watched the spirit carefully, wondering what it would do. In response a tiny hand appeared and moved slowly towards where its mouth would be if it was human.

“Ssssssshhhhhhh. Watching.” She studied it for a moment, but it seemed intent on what it was doing, and she detected no hostility from it. She wandered over to the smaller tunnel at the far end of the pod that led deeper into the hillside – and after a couple of minutes of careful examination, she found another one equally well hidden. It too didn’t seem interested in talking. With a shrug, she headed back to the lodge to carry on working on Shimazu’s sword. Hopefully they were the protection that Vishtar had arranged.

Kai and Shimazu returned a little while later, having learnt little more about the Bogbusters other than their reputation was poor with Pennywise, too – though they had nothing specific to say about them. They also bought back a bag of additional warding materials so they could re-start the ward in the recreation area.

“I had a bit of a chat with Vishtar as well, by the way, folks. I think it was sort of an apology, without being a direct thing. But he was saying that while the quarry accepts everyone that follows the rules, that does mean that sometimes you have to deal with people that aren’t decent. I definitely get the impression that if it was up to him, they’d be out – but that would be bad for business probably. But anyway, we chatted a little bit about the arena, and it turns out that challenges like ours are pretty rare – mostly it’s just a place to go have a bit of a ruck to let off steam, or settle pecking order. Never normally goes that far.” Kai looked around, then pointed at Hunter.

“You’re kinda famous now as well by the way. We checked on the underground fight matrix site that Double told us about, and you’re already up at over a hundred thousand views, and climbing. And there’s memes about you. So if there’s someone you’re hiding from, we may have some fun and games.” Hunter paled slightly and cursed under his breath, then stomped off to go and clean his rifle. Tads went to follow him, but stopped at a signal from Kai. “Let him be for a while. We’ll deal with it if it’s a problem.”

“Ok. I don’t know what I was going to say to him anyway, I was just going to check he was ok. But seeing as you’re back now – can I request that we not swap pods with that other team?”

“We weren’t going to, so sure. But why?”

“I don’t want to go anywhere a toxic or blood mage has been, thank you. They make everything icky.” Kai smiled and nodded, reassuring her that they were not planning on moving at all. Kai then filled the rest of the team in on the new arrivals, describing Pennywise and the three members they’d met.

They spent the rest of the day in their pod, relaxing after the excitement of the day, keeping an eye on Nadia, and Aswon trying his best to build a very complex bomb out of spare parts – as slowly as he could. Certainly by the end of the day he had the beginnings of a very complex device that was massively over-engineered and also completely non-functional.

Early on Thursday morning the team roused for their morning jog – and noticed as they walked past the entrance to pod 5 that it was now empty. Clearly the Bogbusters had left in the night, slipping out remarkably quietly it seemed. Marius was enraged that they’d left before he was ready, while the rest of the team were incredibly relieved. They did their normal jog around the quarry, feeling a bit weird with hi-vis jackets and hard hats on, but determined to follow the rules.

After breakfast, the magical part of the team got to work in the rec-area, restarting the warding and working over their previous efforts. The others returned to the pod for a while, getting on with research and supervision of the work on the chopper. Marius spent some time looking into the construction and development of the hovercraft, finding out that it was a modified Zubr class LCAC – and importantly discovering that they were specifically designed to be able to function as mine-layers, and were practically immune to mines themselves due to active countermeasures.

Hunter meanwhile had taken Nadia out for another walk around the quarry, alternating between walking and running to help her build up her stamina. When they were on the far side of the quarry, Nadia signalled a stop after one of the run segments, pausing for breath until she’d recovered enough to talk. Hunter kept trying to get her to walk to keep her pulse up, but Nadia refused, making him wait until she had her breath back and could talk without issue.

“I have a question for you, Hunter. A serious question.” Hunter examined her carefully, hearing the change in her voice. Her deep brown eyes seemed guarded, her facial features tight. He nodded for her to continue. “I have heard about the fight. I have seen the footage.” She looked away for a moment, and swallowed. “But I need to know.” Hunter waited, sensing that she was having issues with expressing herself on this subject.

“Did it feel good?” She spoke softly, and there was an edge of shame in her voice. She stared at him directly though, as if daring him to laugh at her. Instead he looked around until he could find a large enough boulder to sit on, motioning for her to relax.

“Yeah. Yes it did.” He realised that there was more to it than this. So, he described what had happened, blow by blow. What Kai had said, what he had done. The mutilation. The humiliation. What Tads had seen of the other mage. He told her as much as he could remember, recall or replay from his internal cyberware systems – so it took a while. Through it all, Nadia listened without saying a word, listening to him describe what the team had done.

“You didn’t have to do all that.”

“Yes, we did. You’re part of the team.” He spoke flatly, and without inflexion, and on seeing the look on her face, shook his head at her. “It’s not open for debate. You’re part of the team. End of story.” She looked back at him and nodded, then leant forwards and gave him a brief hug. He froze at the unusual show of affection and watched as she stood up then turned and started to walk briskly up the quarry track before breaking into a jog. “Guess talk time is over, then?” he muttered to himself. He pushed himself up from the boulder and loped off after her.

After the ward was done, Kai and Shimazu went to pod one again while Aswon and Tads returned to their own pod. Kai called out from the entrance and was told to enter by Stripes. All three of the Mondrian crew were waiting by the side of the craft, relaxing in deck chairs with drinks and a plate of nibbles. Noodles motioned for them to help themselves from the selection of food and drink on offer, then to pull up a stool.

They chatted for a while, discussing the fight the previous day. Gemini expressed her satisfaction at Hunter’s performance, acting like there was some kind of personal stake involved. Stripes however was somewhat more cautionary.

“You need to watch that one, Kai. Gorbichek used to work in the KGB, and he still has lots of contacts that he does business for. It’s how he managed to get the Bogbuster stricken off the list and disposed of in the first place. The man is a mean, vicious piece of slime, and you destroyed his reputation in front of his men. I’m not sure how his position is now – there’s a man who rules with an iron fist. But he’s almost certainly got you right at the top of his shit list.”

Kai nodded, and made a note of his name – at least they could do some research on him now and make sure they knew who they were facing and what they could do about it. Checking the time, Kai announced that they needed to head back to the pod to check in with the others, and true to form, Noodles insisted they take something with them – “for the road”. Piling up supplies on a disposable platter, she asked Shimazu what he would like.

“I don’t suppose you have any Sake do you?”

“SAKE? WHAT IS THAT?” Shimazu stared at Noodles, somewhat amazed. 

“Um, it’s a rice wine, well normally it is, it can actually be several things. But yes, a rice wine, best served gently warmed.”

“WARMED EH? OH! HOW ABOUT THIS?” With a click of the fingers, a cup was filled with a deep red liquid giving off a fruity smell. Shimazu tried some, then made an appreciative noise and took a deeper swig.

“That’s nice – what is this?”

“MULLED WINE. HAD SOME AT A HUNTING LODGE IN SCOTLAND A WHILE BACK. NICE IN THE WINTER, YES?”

“Yes indeed, that’s very nice, thank you. I strongly recommend you try some Sake then – it’s a clear alcohol so a little like alcohol from fermented grains, but it’s more about the taste than the smell. There’s hundreds of different taste sensations, based on the grade, the brewing process, which mountain stream the water has come from, all manner of things.” He realised that Noodles was staring at him intently.

“WE MUST FIND SOME OF THIS SAKE TO TASTE AND EXPERIENCE. DO WE NEED TO GO TO JAPAN? STRIPES? CAN WE GO TO JAPAN? WHERE DO YOUR PEOPLE HANG OUT?” Shimazu almost made a rude comment at ‘your people’ having been subject to casual racism in so many walks of life – but realised that Noodles really didn’t mean it – she looked far too excited. He decided to respond in kind.

“Karaoke bars, normally.”

Kai intervened, grabbing the food and guiding them both towards the exit while Noodles turned on Stripes full force wanting to know information on where the closest Japanese Karaoke bar was. As they headed over to the exit, Gemini fell into pace with them

“Listen, Gemini – thank you. I, that is we, really appreciate what you did. You didn’t have to get involved.”

“Yes I did.” Kai paused – there was something in her voice, some quirk of personality or trait of character here, and he felt like he could say something that could make or break the relationship between them if he wasn’t careful. Instead he just repeated his thanks again.

“Kai – before you go. Just make sure you mage really understands. One free shot is all she gets. I mean it.” Kai nodded again, keeping the smile off his face, before turning and heading back. On the way back, he asked Shimazu what he thought that was about, and Shimazu explained about how Tads had been assensing her, trying to determine the truthfulness of her statements about what had gone on in the tunnels.

Thursday night passed uneventfully, with the team getting food and a few drinks, but mostly keeping to themselves, before starting their next day of warding in the main area of the base. Marius and the mechanical crew were on the home stretch, finishing the modifications to the chopper and starting to button the craft back up. Marius had been checking on their work, finding it all to be of good quality – but in turn the detailed examination of the chopper had revealed some areas that displayed significant signs of age and metal fatigue, which he’d have to keep an eye on.

Hunter did some research on the KGB and Ivan’s links to them, finding out some general background information but nothing of any major significance – it looked like all the juicy stuff was stored on secure hosts, and that would require a full on matrix hack to get at – certainly not something he wanted to try over a somewhat flaky wireless signal from the quarry.

As they settled down on Friday evening, Tads found an opportunity to have a quiet word with Nadia while she was taking her turn clearing away after the evening drinks, trying to chat to her ‘woman to woman’. Nadia was a little hesitant talking with Tads still – after all, she was a witch, but realised what she was doing. After a few minutes of Tads skirting around the issue, Nadia stopped and just told her directly. Her voice wobbled a little as she described how she felt about the assault – knowing now how close she’d come, and how lucky she’d been. Her eyes flashed open again though, and she talked about the fight – clearly having seen the footage as well. She made it very clear to Tads that she was “ok” – after all, she was part of the team.

“I know you all stood up for me. That you were ready to fight for me, even though it would bring trouble. Marius, I knew would fight for me. But the rest of you? You owe me nothing. You all save me from my uncle. Now you save me from this. So, I like you all. Even you, who are a witch.” She smiled a little as she said the last, making sure there was no sting in her words, as she grabbed some disposable towels to dry out their eating bowls. Tads felt that unless someone wanted to take her to see a proper counsellor that she was probably as good as she was going to get.

On the Saturday the team started early, with the mundanes working to get the craft double checked and the supplies packed and put away neatly, while the awakened went off to put up the last ward over the main entranceway, using up the last of the materials given to them by Vishtar. They had to pause twice during the day as new craft arrived, clearing the entrance way to allow the smuggler craft to enter.

The first, arriving around midday was a large box van that had been heavily modified – it had large armour glass panels set into the side, and was carrying four caskets, surrounded by flowers. Two of the caskets sat on a second level, above the bottom two, making a weird multi-occupancy hearse.

The second craft landed mid-afternoon, and was towed in rather than driving in like the first. It was a sleek-looking jet with tilting nozzles and swept back wings – looking like a hybrid between a fighter jet and a transport. The surface of the craft was a futuristic-looking silver when looked at from one direction, but rippled with iridescent flames when looked at from another. Both headed into pods, the hearse-van into pod three replacing the Half-Pint, and the chromed jet into pod four, replacing Rocket and his truck.

Hunter had finished his work by mid-afternoon and headed down to see the magical part of the team, watching them as they crawled over the floor of the cave working on the incredibly precise inscriptions before covering them with a thick layer of quick drying varnish and sealant to protect them. He watched for a few minutes, but it still made no sense to him, so he started to wander off towards the rec-area, when he saw a heavy-set human walking towards him. The man stopped and looked at him carefully, then slowly started to walk towards him, pulling out his phone as he did so, comparing Hunter to something on the screen.

Hunter paused, looking at him suspiciously and felt his combat senses tingle – the guy was definitely giving him a look. The phone was put away suddenly and the human approached him at speed. He was of average height but broad-chested, brown curly hair with a receding hairline pegging him as late thirties or perhaps early forties. He wore jeans and a check shirt, with no obvious signs of weapons about his person, though even from here Hunter could spot his cyber eyes and a datajack on the side of his head. He continued to close, and just as Hunter was ready to kick into combat, the man spread his arms wide and a broad grin broke across his face.

“It IS you. I thought it was. Dude! That was AWESOME!” He moved in, enveloping Hunter in a hug far too friendly for someone he’d never met. The guy squeezed once, revealing a fair bit of strength and making Hunter add cyber-enhanced musculature to his list of probably implants, before releasing and stepping back. “I just want you to know that it was one of the most enjoyable things I’ve watched this year. Brutal – and what you did with his cock – amazing.”

He pulled out his PDA and pressed play, showing the clip to Hunter, and freezing it at the point where Ox had hit the ground, dazed and insensible.

“Now this bit – this is the bit I like most. Where I can, I always try and make sure you get a good tea-bagging in to really rub things home. Let them know they’ve been well and truly ganked….” He burbled away, discussing the numerous methods of humiliation he favoured to his fallen foes, before seguing into different techniques of taunting his foes and making them angry, while Hunter stood listening, slightly confused and wondering just who the hell he was.

His question was answered when two more people wandered down the passageway towards them. On the left was a tall bear of a man, bearded and wearing a classical black suit and white shirt. On the right was a shorter figure, a female with bright red hair and green glowing cyber eyes. She wore a set of coveralls, like a paramedic – but underneath and clearly visible through the open front of the jumpsuit was a woolly jumper with pictures of cats playing with a ball of yarn as the pattern.

“Gank?” The voice was deep, but pleasant, rolling towards them. “Are you bothering the nice man?”

“Not at all Doc. This is the guy from that clip. Mr Punchy!”

“I see. You were supposed to be checking the board and then meeting us in the rec-area. But I see you got distracted, huh?”

“Well I can’t pass up a meeting like this!”

“Have you even introduced yourself?”

“Well, um. No. Hey, hi there. I’m Gank, and this is Doc, and Kitten. Repatriation Inc.”

“Hunter. The New Fish”.

“Ahh cool – what’s your mode?”

“My mode?”

“He means, what do you do? We provide repatriation services, for poor unfortunates that have died overseas, and need to be bought home to where their loved ones can say goodbye and lay them to rest with dignity and respect. And the fact that customs agents and border patrol officers normally don’t check caskets too hard and disturb the dead, certainly doesn’t make it easy to bring materials across otherwise closed borders.” He grinned at Hunter.

“Oh, I see. Well, Kai’s our boss, and we had a truck, an army truck – but we’ve just upgraded to a chopper – big cargo bird. We just move things around, here and there.”

“Well, perhaps we can have a beer later then, and talk about here, and there, and I can share some stories with you.” Hunter nodded, wondering if it was a good idea to let Kai talk to these people. He had the Doc guy pegged as being from one of the Scandinavian countries based on his accent, while he couldn’t place Gank at all – his accent was a real mish-mash. Kitten had yet to speak, seeming a little shy.

They moved down to check the status board, then headed back to the rec-area, nodding as they went past him again, before they disappeared into the tunnels ahead of him. Hunter headed back to the pod, giving Marius and Nadia a heads up about the two craft that had arrived, and his meeting with one of the teams, before heading back to the warding crew, where he waited for them to finish and relayed the same information. 

They headed to the rec-area for a quick drink, wondering if they were going to see either of the teams, but it was empty apart from the cook, who was slumped in his chair quietly dozing. He roused just long enough to take some money for a few drinks, then seeing that nobody wanted food, settled back down to get some more sleep.

The team had their drinks, working out the kinks from the shoulders and backs and relaxing after the eight hour marathon of painting and inscribing required to put up the ward. They were all tired after the efforts of the day, and even Aswon looked like he was ready for a nap to recuperate. Just as they finished the last of their drinks, they heard footsteps approaching – weird footsteps. A strange clattering that bounced off the cave walls, echoing into the cavern. Turning in the direction of the entrance, they all saw the red skinned oni walk into the room then stop, striking a pose. The oni, a particular variant of ork only found on the Japanese mainland was dressed in a tuxedo of all things, holding a black cane with a large silver skull moulded onto the end. His features appeared to have been bio-sculpted – certainly the horns he sported were more common to trolls than orks, and as he spun on the spot, they saw a long thin black tail that twitched and writhed sinuously behind him. He finished the spin, and then froze in place for a second, as if he was being photographed for some fashion production, then sashayed across the floor further into the room.

Behind him entered a centaur that appeared to be wearing armour over his body – but as it stepped further into the light it appeared to be not actually a centaur, but a cybernetic horse body that was a replacement for everything below the ribs of a human. Or maybe it was a centaur that had external dermal plating fitted as permanent armour – it was hard to be sure.

The figure that walked in behind this pair looked positively normal, wearing a dark jumpsuit and a crash helmet with the mirrored visor down. They immediately moved to one of the sets of tables and chairs, and sat down neatly in the corner, bolt upright and waited, hands loosely clasped in front of them.

The last person to enter the team was a tall slender figure with raven hair that flowed down to her waist, pale skin and ruby red lips. She wore a simple black dress that was slit up one side, highlighting her pale and very long legs. She walked across the floor with her hips swaying, following the centaur and oni. As she walked, behind them, she glanced over to the team, revealing a set of beautiful indigo eyes.

Shimazu raised his bottle to his lips as cover and murmured to the team.

“That’s a spirit,” he wiped his lips and then looked around the room, deliberately not looking at her.

The oni reached the middle of the room, and did another of his little spins, then struck a pose, glancing down at his nails, while the centaur stood waiting behind him. The spirit moved to his side, then lowered her head demurely, glancing up at them through her eyelashes.

With an effort, Kai broke eye contact with her too, then stood up.

“Hi there, sorry, don’t mean to be rude. But we were just leaving, got to get ready to ship out.” Without pausing, he headed for the door, with the team trailing after him.

Behind them, the oni pouted.

“Do be a dear and fetch me a drink.” He sighed heavily, then went to sit next to the figure in the crash helmet, with the centaur moving to stand behind him, while the slender woman went to fetch drinks. Tads was the last one out, and could have sworn that the woman or spirit hissed at her quietly as she left.

Back at the pod, the team made final preparations to leave, and begin their journey to war-torn Yakut.


	110. 110 - Heading to the front

Date Saturday 17/04/2060, Location 50.10234, 43.23581

By the time they were back at the pod, their attention had drifted away from the strange newcomers and back towards the vicious Russians they’d run into. Aswon tapped Kai on the shoulder, ensuring he had his full attention.

“I am concerned over our take-off. When we rise up from the quarry, we will be vulnerable – we will have no sight until we clear the walls, and if someone is waiting with a missile or designator, we will have little warning of incoming fire, and little chance to dodge. And from what I saw of their craft, such an attack is not beyond them.”

“I don’t think we have too much to worry about, the speed they seemed to leave at, and how long we’ve been here still – I just can’t see them lying in wait that long, hoping we’re going to be the next ones out.”

“Are you prepared to bet – bet your life, and the life of everyone else on that, Kai?”

“No, actually I think he’s right,” Shimazu interjected, “I think the captain of that ship ruled through fear and brutality – and we humiliated him and caused him to lose a lot of face. He won’t want to take us on unless he’s got the deck stacked and can guarantee success. I think they headed off to easier pickings and have decided to attack some target that they can crush with overwhelming success, to show that he is a good leader. Or actually someone who can crack a nut with a sledgehammer, I think the phrase is – but can lead his men to an easy victory.”

Aswon listened as Shimazu explained, and could certainly see the logic behind his words. He snorted and shrugged his shoulders – he’d raised his concern to the boss, and made him aware of the issue. He’d done his part, and it was up to others now.

Instead he pulled out the list of remaining tasks, and went through them with the rest of the group: Picking up the four by four, the winter clothing and supplies, getting some plants and greenery to go in the back of the chopper and finally but most importantly collect the temperature-controlled box from whatever fabricators was making it. They worked out a rough order to do this in, and then Aswon trotted out to the front entrance with a phone to make the arrangements to collect over the next day.

Hunter meanwhile padded down toward pod one, stopping short of the stripe line and calling out for permission to enter. At a shout from Noodles he crossed into the pod itself and headed over to their aircraft, where he found all three of them relaxing in chairs, sipping drinks with a plate of nibbles by their side. Striped toasted him with a glass and a beaming smile, and told him to pull up a chair and grab something to eat. Noodles meanwhile was looking him up and down carefully, before pushing herself up from her reclining position and reaching for a container.

“HMM… I SEE YOU AS A BEER DRINKER PERSONALLY. IS BEER OK FOR YOU?” Hunter nodded his agreement, pulling the chair around to put himself on the other side to Stripes, away from where Noodles was sitting. He’d only experienced her volume once, but he’d listened to Tads carefully…

Noodles handed him a glass of clear brown alcohol with a small head on top, and Hunter tested it carefully, then smacked his lips in appreciation and gave a sigh of pleasure. A nice light ale, not too hoppy, smooth and served at the perfect temperature. He toasted Noodles with the glass and took another deep gulp of beer, trying not to end up with froth on his lips. Settling down on his stool, he turned to face Gemini, looked into her eyes and stared at her for a moment before he spoke. His voice was quiet, and flat; lacking emotion and range.

“I only got a little of the story from the others, about what you said. But I got enough I think. I hope you enjoyed the fight, and I’m sure the symbolism wasn’t lost on you.”

Gemini looked at him, continuing to chew her mouthful of food slowly. Her jaw worked around, crushing and masticating the mouthful of sausage she was chewing on. Slowly she swallowed, washing down the food with a sip of her drink.

“No, the sentiment wasn’t lost on me at all. I enjoyed it, a great deal.” She raised her glass to him in a toast, then took another sip, her eyes fixed on him all the time. Hunter toasted her in return, then let his normal grin resurface, and took a deep draught of beer himself. Blinking, he looked away from Gemini, and saw Stripes watching him with a considering and thoughtful look. Stripes smiled at him, and gave him a nod that could have meant anything.

Shortly afterwards Hunter made his excuses and headed out – well supplied with “for the road” food from Noodles, of course. He munched on the goodies as he wandered back through the tunnels towards their berth, part of his attention watching the caves and rocks to the side, part of him replaying the scene in his head, examining the face and expression of Gemini. The way her lips had parted just a tiny fraction, the tiny uplift at the corners. He knew of course that she had cybernetic replacement eyes, so any depths he saw there were purely artificial – but the face was such a mobile thing, and could tell you so much. Yeah, he’d definitely scored some points there. He smiled to himself, thinking about what that probably meant. As he strode through the darkness, another thought crossed his mind as he concentrated on his memory of her. She was a big woman, not far off his size, with well-defined muscles and a toned physique. Kinda hot really when he thought about it. And she certainly had some moves and some skills. Interesting…

He caught up with Shimazu just as he got back to the pod, who apparently had also been out to the entrance. Getting back to the rest of the team, Shimazu told them he’d just checked in with Sato – who had found a new place to set up. He was now in Estonia, somewhere in one of the bigger cities and was sorting out a new network of contacts and fixers there, setting himself up with work again. In turn Shimazu had told him they were in Russia for a while, working on some jobs and would keep their eyes and ears open for opportunities for him. 

“Good job too – helping him out got me into enough trouble!” Tads grumbled. Shimazu thought for a moment about coming to the defence of his friend, but nobody else seemed inclined to put too much store by their shaman’s grumbling, so he decided to leave it alone. Besides, now that he’d started to really experience the astral realm for himself, he had a much better understanding of the risks she might have taken in flying halfway across the continent to get to him and finding some awakened enemy there. Yes, perhaps better to let her have a grumble and get her feelings known and heard, rather than to shut them away.

At the front entrance to the cave system, Aswon settled down and turned on his phone, waiting for it to finish its boot sequence and display the steady stream of messages, updates and adverts from the carrier. Deleting them all, dived into his contact list and found the number for Spook, double checked the time difference and then called her up. He heard the normal couple of chirps and beeps as the call routed internationally and then rang the far end. Two rings, three rings – then she answered. It sounded strange – lots of hard echoes. Aswon frowned and had a suspicion…

“Spook, its Aswon. Are you in the toilet? I can call you back?”

“Oh hi, Aswon. Bathroom, but its fine. What can I do for you?

“Just checking in with you really, making sure you’re ok – last time I spoke you were… upset about something.”

“Oh that, no no, that’s all fine now. Well, it’s not fine, but it’s dealt with. I hate to get heavy with people, but sometimes you have to let people know that if they dick you around, you’ll turn around and shoot them in the face. Well of course I won’t shoot them in the face, but I’ll send round some people I know to get the job done.” She sighed heavily, and Aswon could picture the look of regret on her face at decisions made that had to be lived with – he’d seen it once or twice himself after all. “But, it’s done now. And I’m lining up new people in the pipeline to fill the hole, so it shouldn’t affect things much. So what’s new with you?”

“Well, we’re just about to head out on a mission, out into the land. Likely we might be off grid for a couple of weeks where we’re going, maybe a touch longer. We should be back inside a month though, much beyond that and something has gone horribly wrong.”

“Fortune shine on you then, and be careful. I’d hate to lose my investment!” Aswon frowned at the phone as he hung up. She wasn’t being serious was she?

He headed back to the pod, re-joining the rest of the team and starting to sort out their kit and make space for the new purchases to be stowed in when they hit Volgograd. He’d just started when they heard a shout from the entrance, asking if they could come in…

At the check line were the three smugglers from Repatriation Inc. With a wave, Kai beckoned them over, and the team formed a loose gaggle around them to see what they had to say. The tallest of the three, ‘Doc’ spoke, his voice deep and somber, but with a hint of mischief in the edge.

“Hello, and thank you. I just wanted to come and introduce ourselves properly and apologise for Gank. He’s very emotional sometimes, especially when he meets someone he admires.”

“HEY!”

“Admit it, it’s true. That’s why we don’t feed you sugar before a border crossing. Well, not unless it’s one of *those* border crossings anyway. But forgive me, I’m Doc, this is Kitten, and as you’ve gathered, this is Gank. We run a quiet little business bringing back the poor unfortunate souls that perish whilst in foreign lands, ensuring dignity, respect, discretion and due care is show to the recently deceased, so they can be repatriated and returned to their family.” Kai cocked an eyebrow at the taller man. “Oh, and occasionally we find some random piece of cargo that happens to be bought back with us, where it’s stored out of the way under the coffins. Where it won’t inconvenience anyone or be disrespectful to the deceased.”

As he spoke, he made gentle sweeping motions with his hands, and sincerity oozed from him. It was easy to see how he would pitch the tale to the average border guard, and his sad voice was convincing – at least until the last sentence where that sense of mischief came out in full force. Kai motioned to the seats, and they passed around a bottle – several of the team wondering if Repatriation had ever experienced Noodle’s hospitality and wondering if they were being judged…

Doc introduced his team, giving a very shallow history of them and their business, listening as Kai responded in kind. Doc had a very dry but engaging sense of humour, and was soon regaling them of tales from their past business, border crossings gone awry or complications with packages. With additional input from Gank and Kitten, he made an engrossing storyteller whose body told a good third of the story. Even Marius was seen to crack a few smiles at some of the tales, but they also picked up a little background information on several border crossings, learning just how widely Repatriation Inc had travelled.

Once he had a feel for them as a group, Shimazu wrote down the details for Saito and passed them over to Doc, giving them a little information on his business and how useful he might be in fixing or arranging things, hoping that Saito would appreciate the possibility of getting a new customer.

“Thanks for that, Shimazu is it? I’m sure we’ll look him up sometime, if we’re passing through the country. So – where are you all heading next then?”

“We’re heading east mostly, over towards China/Japan kind of way.” Kai responded, flashing a glance around the others. They realised he was being a little less than his normal forthcoming self deliberately, rather than just being confused, so kept their peace.

“Ahh, really? We’ve just come from that way, well, the northern part of Turkestan via Grigories. I guess you’re stopping there?”

“Grigories?”

“Oh, you’ve not heard of him? Well, I guess he’s the ‘next stop over’ in the general sense of the word. He’s about fifteen hundred kilometres to the east of here. Not as nice, mind, but cheaper. Much cheaper. You can taste the cheapness, in fact. But it’s a hard day’s drive but doable – I guess much easier for you if you’re flying direct.”

“No, we’ve not hooked up with him. Could you show us where he is please?”

Doc tried to describe, but in the end just asked for a map, which Hunter duly furnished – making sure to turn off all their private layers and annotations first. Doc marked an area next to the New Silk Road, the corporate highway that ran for thousands of kilometres from west to east, providing an easy route for goods to market for millions of people. The location was a mile or so off the main highway, but looked easy enough to get to, and they could see the appeal for anyone driving up the Silk Road.

Doc and his team stayed for a while longer, swapping stories and anecdotes about running borders and smuggling cargo, before they made their excuses and headed off back to their pod. Hunter and Marius spent a few minutes poring over the map, looking for additional information or issues, but the data given looked reasonable, so they added it to their database, and updated the route they were planning on taking. By air the much more direct routing made the journey about 1200km, giving them a comfortable reserve in case of trouble, and made a convenient jumping off point to continue east towards Tara.

Whilst they were doing that, Kai wandered off to go and find Vishtar, Shimazu padding along silently behind him, hand resting loosely on his sword while he scanned the area ahead astrally, looking for trouble. The journey to the rec-area was uneventful though, and they found Vishtar talking with Chef about supplies and managed to grab his attention. Kai double-checked that there was no outstanding work to be done, and that they were good to pull out soon. The only thing Vishtar asked him to be on the lookout for was cheap cooking gas and soy for their supplies.

When Kai got back to the pod he found Hunter and Aswon deep in conversation around the computer, researching something and apparently at odds about some major issue. He drifted over to listen in to their conversation, which seemed incredibly cryptic and obtuse. It took him a good few minutes to get to the bottom of it – they were trying to work out what the critical factor was in the taste or smell of food that made it ‘authentic’ and considered a luxury item. It appeared that they were still working on a grand scheme to get hold of some luxury food like caviar for Tads, and invest some serious time in making some magically and opening a door to a possible money maker. At the moment they were working mainly on the relative importance of taste, smell, texture and look; trying to decide what the critical ratio was.

He left them to it, and settled down with a phrase book, continuing to work on his Russian, and slowly the pod fell quiet as one by one they finished their work for the night, settled down and grabbed some sleep. Other than the occasional patrol by whoever was keeping watch, the pod was quiet and still.

On the Sunday, they breakfasted in the rec area as normal. Aswon finally succumbed to curiosity and tried the entertainment system there, donning the VR headset and picking up the tacky plastic rifle to try his hand as “Master Assassin”. Five minutes later after a truly awful display of marksmanship, he dropped the headset in disgust, announcing that the game was quite clearly flawed and inaccurate….

They drove into Volgograd after breakfast, heading to the private home from the classified listing they’d found and purchasing the UAZ off-roader first. Hunter drove the truck back to base, while the rest drove on in the four by four, Marius getting some hands on time with it. It was basic, and drove like a jelly on the road, the soft and deep travel suspension making it very wobbly and mushy around the corners – but that boded well for how it would handle off road.

It took another hour to pick up the winter clothing and survival gear that Aswon had ordered and reserved, go to hydroponics centre and gather some plants and feed and finally pick up the specially fabricated box to keep their rather unique plant in. Their shopping trip was pretty uneventful though, everything going according to plan, and the purchases going smoothly.

They got back to the quarry and offloaded their supplies, stowing them into the chopper and getting ready for final departure. Kai and Shimazu made a quick detour to pod 4, dropping off another contact card for themselves and Saito to Chrome-Flame, handing over to cards to an unspeaking centaur who looked as likely to eat the cards as to pass them on to his boss. After a few moments of uncertainty though he trotted off towards their craft, leaving Kai and Shimazu to turn away from the pod entrance and return back to their own cave.

The tow vehicle arrived, slowly tugging their giant helicopter out of the cave and down the long tunnel to the exit, then through the illusion and out into the quarry itself. Moments later, Marius had the rotors turning, his pre-flight checks having been long completed during the lengthy tow. Slowly the massive rotors turned at first, picking up speed as the mighty turbofan engines built up power. Once more they reached a point where the downdraft started to throw up dust, causing a white-out – but this time all they had to do was go up. Marius fed power to the engines smoothly and the mighty craft started to lift up from the rocky ground.

“Tads, any chance of a quick astral scout over the top – just to make sure that those Bogwotsists aren’t out there?”

“If you want an astral scout, you stick your head out of the window and have a look – I’m not putting myself in harms way of a blood mage, out on my own.”

“Awww, come on Tads, its VERY unlikely there’s anyone there.”

“If it’s that safe, you can do it yourself then…” Through all of this, Kai ignored Aswon who was staring at him, thinking about their earlier conversation when Kai had seemed ‘sure’ the Bogbuster crew would be long gone…

The chopper rose above the protection of the bermed walls of the quarry, revealing only the quiet and peaceful landscape beyond. In the dusk they could see the mass of lights of the town to the south, and in other directions the scattered lamps from farm houses, cars on the road and industrial facilities, stretching out to the horizon where the stars took over. The skies were crystal clear and visibility was excellent, though this bode ill in a way – the weather was a result of a cold front pushing down from the frozen north, and that meant temperatures were due to drop sharply for a while.

As Marius banked the helicopter over to the east and picked up speed, a ripple passed over it, a wind spirit summoned by Tads to guard and protect them as they flew. The nose dropped and their forward momentum built up, Marius being careful to handle the craft carefully through the new rigger interface as he felt how the craft handled and gathered sensory input from the massive hull.

Behind him, in the crew section, Aswon leant over towards Tads, having to raise his voice considerably to be heard over the roaring of the turbojet engines.

“So Tads – I know you have a lot of things we have asked you to do, or that you want to do yourself. Just how much time do we need to get you to make it all possible?”

“Well, I’ve made good progress on the design for Shimazu’s sword. I think another five days or so, and that will be ready. Then I need to make some Orricalcum from that gold we got, to use in the actual enchanting process. After that, I need to work on the enchanting itself of course, then another three weeks or so on a foci to help me concentrate. So…” she counted mentally, then added a bit of slack time to cover herself…”about four months or so, altogether. But three of those months, I need to spend in one place continuously. Three one month stretches that is, not one three month…” Aswon nodded in understand and leant back in his chair, trying to work out how much cash they needed to earn to keep themselves happy and healthy to have that much time “off” or working on their training. This job for Ludmilla might cover it if they were careful, but he suspected they would need another after it, equally high paying.

Hunter patched his phone through the craft’s electronics bay, making a call to his friend Julius from the Ares data processing centre. After the usual greetings and pleasantries, he asked Julius to have a little look around for the name Ivan Ramius, an ex-KGB officer, now smuggler. Hunter nodded as Julius explained that he’d try, but information like that was probably not on their system, forgetting that he was on an audio only link for a moment. Hunter also told his friend about the fight and the footage doing the rounds, wincing as he described how much of his face was on display during the aftermath.

“Guess I might not be as dead as I wanted to appear. Oh well, we’ll just have to see what happens.” He broke the connection and went back to checking his map, following their progress. As Marius got happier with how the craft handled and performed, their average height dropped steadily, until they were flying around hills and through valleys that masked them from mapped radar installations and kept them hidden in ground clutter from airborne sets. They flew for around four hours, mostly over fields and woodland, having plotted their route to avoid major settlements and any facility that might have a guard force or response team.

The journey took a couple of minutes over four hours, and by then the team were more than a little uncomfortable. The seats were no better or worse than the truck, but the journey was considerably more noisy, and the vibrations and movement of the chopper made sleep much more difficult in comparison – so they were glad when they crossed over the New Silk Road near Bogetsay – it meant their journey was nearly over.

They crammed to the sides of the craft, looking down as they flew over the road, watching a heavily armed and armoured road train trundling along with lead and chase APCs – sure that they were being watched closely, just in case. As they flew over the small village, they saw where the road detoured south, a new section of multi-lane highway veering away from the town and taking a direct route through some blasted hills that were in the way. The old road ran parallel to this, but the part leading out of the town had suffered some mishap – a massive crater had torn and wrecked the highway, and it was impassable to most vehicles. Whether that had happened before or after the new road had been built they couldn’t say – but the road beyond was clearly not maintained, and had cracked and weathered badly.

A few miles out of town they saw an old gas stop straddling the now derelict highway, while a mile to the south the traffic rumbled down the new road. The building was faintly lit, and they could see a couple of vehicles parked up in the car park surrounding the rundown buildings – a large box van and a small but still heavily armoured t-bird. Marius set their chopper down a good way distant from the other vehicles, landing with a delicate touch and slowly reducing power, checking the surface of the car park would take their weight. The ground dented and deformed slightly, but held and he reduced power further, then went through his shut down list and post flight checks. Aswon grabbed his rifle and announced that he would stand guard and look after the chopper, providing long range fire if need be while the rest went to check out the buildings.

They armoured up, wearing what could be hidden to a reasonable level under their clothing, and grabbed side-arms and personal weapons, then headed over towards the building. The truck stop had clearly seen better days, with faded and torn paintwork, peeling signs and filthy windows that probably wouldn’t let those inside see much of anything through them. As Kai pulled open the door, he realised that the outside was a good indicator of the inside.

The surroundings, never the highest of quality, were distressed and torn, plastic tables delaminating, floor tiles curling up into a mass of raised corners, broken light fittings more common than those working and a layer of greasy dust over much of the surfaces. It had an air of neglect and abandonment about it. Along the back wall were half a dozen vending machines, selling ‘flats’ the prepacked clothing worn by the lower class, bottles of water, alcohol and other drinks, confectionary, instant foods and other non-perishable supplies. Everything looked cheap, nasty and about as low in flavour, use or desirability as it was possible to get. As they surveyed the scene, a scratchy voice hailed them from the counter at the far end of the rest stop.

“Who the fuck are you, and what the fuck do you want?” The voice was odd, clearly male but higher pitched than was normal, and delivered almost in a pant.

“Well, a quiet place to stay the night, and about three kilolitres of aviation fuel would be cool, and we can pay cash for both.” There was a whine from the counter, and a machine came around the end, jerking and crunching across the floor. It was some kind of motorised wheelchair or drone chassis, but mounted on top was a gnarly looking dwarf, now fixing them with a slightly less hostile look than his opening comment would otherwise have suggested. Much of his body was chromed, certainly both legs and one arm was, and he had clear cyber replacement eyes – the red glow looked deep and dull compared to most of the styles they’d seen.

He rolled forwards, and as he did so they noticed a trailing power cable spooling out behind him, connecting him to some hidden power socket. It was unclear if this was for him, or his chassis, and with the look on his face and general demeanour they didn’t bother asking. A quick look in astral confirmed that there was very little meat left, and probably even less humanity. It would certainly explain the attitude.

“Gas will be twenty large, in advance.” Kai winced and pulled out a credstick, pushing it into the proffered reader which removed the vast majority of their remaining working capital. The cyber hand manually pushed a few buttons, and they heard a drone starting up outside, dragging a fuel tanker and hose boom over towards their craft. Marius headed out to supervise the fuelling operation, ensuring they didn’t get poor quality fuel or short changed on the amount. 

The door had barely swung shut when it was wrenched open again, and a couple of people entered. The first two were orcs, a female and a male. Both glided in with that unusual smoothness that screamed "wire“" to those in the know – the implanted cyberware effectively gave them supernaturally fast reaction speed and smoothness of motion in combat, making them lethal killing machines. Both wore swords slung over their shoulders, similar in size to Shimazu’s, and both had SMGs dangling from friction straps by their sides. The third figure was a human male, who looked slender and frail next to the bulky orcs. They stared at the team for a moment, then headed over to the vending machine, keeping a suspicious eye on them. After making a few purchases, they headed out, equally carefully and walked over to the t-bird, disappearing into the hold.

Kai turned round to speak to their host, but found him already heading back behind the counter, the spool of wire bouncing and jerking like a skipping rope as the mechanism wound the slack back in. Clearly not one for conversation, Kai decided not to push the issue, and after a closer look at the contents of the vending machines, they headed back to their chopper. Once more they set the watch schedule and settled down for the night, frost slowly forming over the glasswork as the temperature dropped.

The morning was equally clear, the sun struggling over the horizon and showing a clear blue sky on high – with a brown smudge over the lower levels from the industrial pollution. Once again they saw no clouds – other than their breath when they exhaled. A few of them climbed out of the chopper and limbered up, gently jogging around a bit of the car park to get muscles moving and warm themselves up a little.

Three figures climbed out of the box van over to their right, and watched them for a moment, then frantically waved at Kai, striding over towards him. Shimazu closed up on his boss, hand on his sword and the rest of the team subtly dropped back into covering positions, whilst inside the chopper Aswon reached for his rifle and slapped a round into the breech.

As the figures closed, they could see they were… elves? Almost to exclusion, elves were slender or slim – some part of their genome or DNA it was supposed. Much envied by many around the world, elves seemed to have a figure that was designed to be fashion models or poster figures. Not these three though. The first one was decidedly plump, to be charitable. 

“Pie-elf” Hunter coughed, pitching his voice to hopefully only just reach Kai and not the figures closing on him.

“Se’seterin! Cirolle ke goro’imri!” the one in the front said, the words rolling from his tongue fluently and without pause.

“Sorry, do you speak English?” Kai responded. The leader of the trio cast a glance over at Shimazu, and his eyes flicked up and down him for a moment.

“Of course, and my apologies, I should have realised you would have wanted to communicate in lower tongue.” Kai kept his face serene, though he was sure he’d just heard the subtle creak as Shimazu gripped his sword hilt. “Tell me, fair traveller, from which side are you from?”

“err. The south side?” This seemed to confuse their visitors greatly, but Kai was rewarded with a slow relaxation of Shimazu’s sword arm as the tension leeched out.

“Greetings then. I am Greenbough, and this is Moonsong,” he gestured at the figure to his left, dressed in glitzy coveralls, “and this is Quicksilver,” a gesture to the right, and the elf dressed in loose fitting clothes that reminded them of a training suit for a martial art. Kai nodded at each of them with a sincere face and a slight bow of respect, which was returned in kind.

As they bent over to bow at Kai, Shimazu spotted the subtle signs of scarring on the backs of the ear. Almost as if… ahaha! Cosmetic alteration. Elf posers. That explained the physique. Rather than being elves, they were humans who’d been surgically altered to take on the appearance of the elven genotype. Now he knew what he was looking for, he spotted several other very subtle signs of alteration – cheek reshaping, a bit of work on the jaw, implanted hairs to raise the arch of the eyebrow. 

“I’m actually a Prince of the Tir, you know, but away from the court on a sensitive mission. I trust I can rely on you to keep that confidential?” Greenbough lowered his voice in a conspiratorial fashion, and Kai had to work hard from letting a smile break out on his lips. The idea was preposterous – but he decided to humour these strange folks.

A click on the comms alerted Kai to action, and he saw another “elf” climb out of the panel van, through the front door. As he did so, Tads spoke quietly over the earbud.

“Door open, no ward visible. Nothing visible magically about the vehicle at all.” Shimazu turned slightly away from the visitors and coughed explosively into his hand, doubling over a little, and coughing again. He keyed up his transmitter and added his own appraisal quietly.

“One physical adept, not initiated, the one called Quicksilver.” He straightened and turned back, making a show of clearing his throat and wiping the corner of his mouth.

“Target armed, on target.” Aswon’s deeper voice cut over the end of Tads’ speech, and Kai watched the newcomer saunter over towards them with his guns in hand, wondering he was aware just how fleeting his life might be at the moment. As he approached, he displayed at least some semblance of awareness though, as he shifted his grip on his weapons, until he was holding them by the barrels, in a clearly non-threatening manner. 

“Ahh, here comes Bluewater, with his fine selection of Tir weapons.” Kai and Shimazu glanced at the guns, which looked odd – strange curves and flutes being prominent on several of them, and a recurring theme of leaves and subtle vines. Kai settled for a nod and another small bow, not quite knowing what to say.

“Uhh Kai? Those elven weapons?” Kai could hear the air quotes Aswon was using, and fought back a smile again. “That’s an Ares Predator mark II, I’m certain of it, with some kind of weird after-market addon kit. About as much from the Tir as my left foot.”

Kai could hear the growing muttering over the comms net as the team stepped back from high alert, but shifted their sarcasm up a gear, wondering just who these jokers were. He tuned out the background chatter, and instead asked ‘Prince’ Greenbough what they were doing so far from home. Moments later he regretted his decision.

Greenbough launched into a description at once, as if he’d been waiting for that very question. With much animated waving of arms and long rolling descriptions he described their quest to find an ancient elven burial ground to the north east, where they suspected they would find relics of a bygone era, history that would further add to the knowledge of the Tir and prove elven ascendency in a previous era of meta-humanity. 

Despite their glaring craziness, there was something about them. Slowly the sarcasm died down as the team picked up on their descriptions, finding that they actually seemed pretty knowledgeable about history, culture, socio-economic development and current cultural thinking. Those magically active confirmed their theories on magical defences, traps, significance of items and power, and the team soon found themselves horribly confused. These were clearly crazy humans dressed up as elves, pretending to be elves – yet they knew far more about elven culture than anyone in the team did, and seemed incredibly switched on as to the significance of a number of archaeological factors. It just didn’t make any sense! Or it made a great cover story for a crack team of Shadowrunners from the Atlantean Foundation or the DIMR – the two most well-known magical research think-tanks in the world. But even then, the streak of crazy felt too ‘real’ to be just an act.

They chatted a while longer, with Kai referring to Greenbough as “My Prince” a few times, which seemed to hit the ego button pretty hard. The elven team revealed more about their location, narrowing down the area to a few hundred square miles with some geographical references. Kai mentioned that they were flying over that way themselves, and exchanged contact details with them, just in case either team needed a hand with some ancient threat. Shortly afterwards, he made his excuses, and returned to the chopper, with Shimazu in tow, and they started the pre-flight sequence.

“Kai, I’ve been looking at the finances by the way. If we put as much fuel in the tanks at Tara, that’s pretty much going to wipe us out. We’ll have enough fuel to fly the border, get the plant and get back to Tara and land, but we’ll be forty grand short for the fuel needed to get us back to the quarry, let alone onwards from there. Do you actually have a plan for that?” Aswon sounded somewhat world-weary, almost as if he was expecting some kind of glib answer.

“Yeah, yeah, got it all covered. I have a plan.” Silence met his statement. It wasn’t that they were surprised by this – just somewhat sceptical it seemed. The roar of the engines drowned out conversation for a few minutes as the chopper lumbered into the air and set off to the east again. Finally as they reached cruising speed and the noise levelled off enough for them to get acclimatised, Kai called out again. “Besides, I think I found a team of absolute crazy bat shit weirdos that might be in the area. If we get desperate, we can always kill them and take their stuff.”

Everyone stopped and considered – wondering just what Kai meant by that. He was joking – right? Suddenly they weren’t so sure…

They flew east, daylight zipping past as they covered kilometre after kilometre, the mighty turbojets driving them forward far faster than any ground transport would have, and over the top of most of the terrain features too. Marius kept low, occasionally bending around hills or following a river for a while, still avoiding conurbations and corporate facilities. The ground underneath and to the right of them changed in tone, becoming browner and sparser as they neared the top edge of Turkestan, while the ground to the left of their craft became more broken and rough, rising upwards in a series of endless undulations, with the glittering white of snow on the horizon.

It would have been a beautiful day for flying high and sightseeing, with visibility up about as high as it would go – but on average they travelled at a hundred metres or less, severely limiting what they could see. 

By mid-morning, they had angled to the north, rising in latitude and leaving the arid land behind. The undulations continued below them, but now the greenery took on a number of different hues, and they started to see lakes, ponds, rivers and bogs below them. The density increased the further they went, until it seemed there was never a moment without water in sight. Fields took on odd shapes as they fitted in around the hills, bogs, lakes and escarpments, the native farmers taking what they could get and making the most of it.

They overflew a few farms, watching farmers struggle to keep draught animals under control, pulling old fashioned plows, scattering the odd herd of goats or mountain sheep, and zipping past plantations of trees slowly being logged by hand – and the quality of the housing fell in line with the industry, most of the buildings being ramshackle affairs and likely not to have electricity or running water. The occasional village was more modern, and they crossed decent roads from time to time – but it was clear that away from the developed areas, the technology backslid quickly.

Early in the afternoon they arrived near the town of Tara, which at least seemed a decent size – maybe twenty thousand residents or so. It lay spread out on the western shore of a large winding river – apparently a good size and deep too, as they caught a flash of a mid-size cargo vessel carrying containers up river before their chopper disappeared behind a hill and took away their view. The town was definitely provincial though – their brief glimpses of it between natural features showed a town that was almost entirely comprised of single story buildings, spreading out widely to the north and south, though hemmed in to the west by the broken terrain that Marius was using to cover their approach.

They swung North West, travelling another kilometre or so past some forestry and a few fields tended by farmers – noticeably the draught and herd animals here didn’t seem upset by the noise, even travelling as slowly as they were now. They crested a shallow ridge, missing the trees by a good metre or so, and saw the airport ahead of them. The ‘runway’ looked to be made of compacted grass and tamped earth, and didn’t look that long – but straight ahead of them were four very large cermacrete landing pads, marked out with the traditional circle and cross of a helipad. Marius slowed further, getting a read on the windsock fluttering to the side of the buildings that presumably serviced the pads, then slowly coming in to land.

Again, with a deft and light touch, the chopper landed bang on the mark, the wheels settling down onto the reinforced surface and the hydraulics slowly compressing as the weight settled. A final look around to confirm everything was clear, and Marius reduced power to the engines, letting the full weight of the bird settle on the pad, and went through the remaining portion of his landing checklist. Nothing moved at the airport, and nobody immediately appeared from the buildings or anywhere else. Tara airport appeared to be a little like a ghost town…


	111. 111 - Running the border

Date Monday 19/04/2060, Location 56.90293, 74.28811

The whine of the engines lowered in pitch, and the rotors slowed, the long blades starting to droop under their own weight. Various parts of the craft ticked and plinked as the metal cooled and contracted, or systems bled off excess pressure. Around them the wind blew across the field, making the grass ripple, and the trees that surrounded the site swayed in unison as the persistent northerly wind blew.

A full minute passed before a door opened in the small collection of huts and containers to the edge of the field, and a lone figure wrapped up in a large parka jacket emerged and started to amble their way. They seemed in no rush at all, and kept their head down, swallowed by the large hood and fur trim on the jacket, so it was impossible to tell who or even what they were. 

The team grabbed their gear, and after Aswon cracked the side door open for a moment letting a sharp and cutting wind into the cargo area, grabbed the winter jackets they’d purchased, donning them hastily over their normal clothes. There was some frantic rearrangement of belts and holsters to make things fit, but they still had time in hand to get out before the figure arrived.

Kai and Shimazu dropped down to the landing pad first, followed a moment later by Aswon and Marius. Hunter, Nadia and Tads remained in the chopper, ready to provide support – not that they were expecting trouble, but after some of their experiences it was better to err on the side of caution. 

The outside group walked around the nose of the chopper and crossed the pad, heading towards the figure. Close enough now they could see a human-looking shape, tall and slender – perhaps an elf, but definitely not any other meta-type. As it reached the edge of the pad, a mittened hand pulled at the hood, pulling it back a little to reveal a dark-skinned face, lean and slender, with a wispy thin moustache and beard that looked scrawny enough to be in danger of blowing away.

“Hello?”

“Hi there, we were told we could get some fuel here?” Kai said, letting a smile light up his face, while he opened his arms and raised them slightly towards the slender man, subtly indicating some kind of shared situation.

“Oh, ok.” The slender guy rocked slightly from foot to foot, looking at them uncertainly. Brown eyes so dark they appeared almost black flicked from one member of the group to another and back again. The smile slipped slightly on Kai’s face, as the silence extended.

“Yes, we were told by our employer that she’d make arrangements for us to get refuelled here.”

“Yeah, ok.” Still the figure rocked from side to side, seeming unsure of what to do next.

“That’s Ludmilla, by the way. Our employer.” Relief seemed to flood over the face of the man at the mention of her name, but the rocking persisted – intensified even. “I’m Kai by the way. This is my team. What’s your name?”

“Tariq.” Rock, rock, rock. The hands seemed to flutter by the side, as if unsure of what to do with themselves.

“Ok Tariq. Well, we have the money for the fuel. So, should you get a cred-reader or something perhaps, and arrange for a fuel bowser to come and fill up our tanks?”

“Right, ok. Yeah.” The body language changed, and he nodded, then turned swiftly and strode off towards the shack, much faster than his amble over towards them had been. It didn’t take long for him to reach the hut, and he was only inside for a minute before he emerged again, a small computer dangling from a shoulder strap and a large length of corrugated hose draped over the other shoulder. When he got back to the pad, he fired up the computer and plugged the cable into the cheap-looking plastic datajack implanted in the side of his neck.

Kai proffered the certified credstick and watched carefully as it was inserted into the reader module connected to the computer by the interface cable. Two antenna were swung out from the housing on the side of the screen, and the system connected via a low speed link to the local town and the matrix relay there.

Marius, already frustrated with the young man’s lackadaisical attitude had already grabbed the fuel hose and was screwing it on the fuel inlet on the chopper. It only took a moment to look around and see the pop-up coupling on the pad for the other end, and he managed to release the spring loaded latch and open the cover, revealing the 100mm diameter pipe concealed within, with a coarse thread clearly designed to mate with the other end of the hose. He turned and called over to Kai and Traiq when the hose was secure, and a moment later the pipe kicked and jerked as fuel started to flow through it up into the craft.

The pumps ran for several minutes as thousands of litres of fuel were pumped through the pipe into the cavernous tanks in the chopper, being distributed evenly through the new and old tanks by the new computer system installed at the Quarry. The figures danced up and up on the screen, eventually stopped at 17,142 Nuyen as the tanks were filled. It was still enough to make them wince – but not as bad as they’d feared. Once the transaction was finalised and the credstick removed, they nodded to Tariq, and headed back to the chopper. Marius unscrewed the hose from the inlet, letting the flexible pipe drop to the ground while he sealed and secured the fuel hatch, then joined the rest.

Once back in the chopper and out of the biting wind, they relaxed a little, but then spotted Tariq still standing there by the side of the pad. He was back to his rocking again, staring at the chopper with an uncertain look. He stood for a few minutes just watching the craft, then finally moved over to the hose and disconnected it from the ground side, and sealed up the underground access, gathered the pipe and the computer up in his arms and headed back to the building.

Back onboard, they watched him go, then started up the conversation again.

“So, we spent just over 17K on fuel here. That should cover our route into Yakut, and back out to here, no problem. We’ll certainly need to refuel again though, before we head off. It won’t be as much probably, but we’re still looking at about 15 grand to top up the tanks, depending on just how much fancy flying Marius has to do.” Hunter spoke somewhat absently and slowly, measuring distances and punching data into his fuel tracker application on the computer as he described each leg of the journey.

“See, plenty of money. I don’t know why you didn’t have faith in me!” Kai beamed at them, but his levity was lost on them. “Ok, seriously – we’ve got enough, I’m sure. We’ll be fine.”

“I don’t see how. The credstick has enough on it to fill us up when we get back here, and that would get us to Grigori’s without too much issue. But when we land there, we’ll have about 10% of the tank left, and that’s it. And the credstick will have enough to get us a few dekalitres or so, but not much more. So we’ll be stuck.”

“That does not sound like a good idea. I do not want to be stuck at any place, but especially not at a place like that. There is a man fallen on hard times – not likely to come up with some deal or work to give us free fuel.” Aswon frowned as he spoke, thinking back to the disgusting condition of the diner and the general state of disrepair present.

They discussed the situation for another minute, until a flash of motion caught their eye out of the window. Tariq was back, and was standing at the side of the pad, staring at the chopper while he rocked from one leg to the other and back again. They watched in fascination as he stood there, nervously twitching from side to side without actually doing anything.

“What do you think he wants?” asked Shimazu.

“No idea. I’ll go and ask him though.” Aswon pulled his jacket closed around him and headed back from the cockpit through the doorway on the left side of the craft, causing the others to shudder and flinch back from the cold whip of wind that whistled through the craft as soon as the door was opened. It wasn’t that much colder outside than inside – the chopper was not exactly fitted out as a passenger transport – but the speed of the wind seemed to whip through the cabin like icy cold fingers that reached through their clothes at the wrists, neck and waist and made them shudder.

Aswon ignored this, and ducked around the craft, approaching the gangly man quickly. As he scanned the man’s face up close, he realised he was probably only in his late teens. From the skin tones he looked more like an immigrant than a local, possibly someone from Pakistan, India or somewhere else far to the south. Aswon certainly didn’t care enough to enquire.

“Hello there. Are you after something? Maybe a hot drink?”

“Uh… I dunno.”

“You don’t know?”

“Uhm… no. Maybe, I was just wondering if you have anything you needed a hand with unloading? Or something?”

“Ohhhh! Right. Hang on there.” He turned and circled the craft again, climbing back inside through the crew door to the indignant cries of everyone inside as the cold wind once more whipped into the craft.

“Dumb young lad. He’s after a bribe or something, but doesn’t know how to ask for one. I’m going to give him a box of ammo or something.”

“Hey! Don’t give him our ammo!”

“Come on Hunter, it’s just the cheap shit we got from Iran and Turkestan and such like. We’ve got buckets of the stuff. And we’re never going to use it – at least I’m not, and I can’t see you relying on it either, and are you going to recommend to anyone else in the team that they rely on it?” Hunter looked surly but didn’t answer. “Exactly. Oh, thanks Nadia.” He took the small plastic tub with what felt like about a hundred rounds of ammo inside. 

Once more the door was opened, giving the wind free reign, and he climbed down somewhat awkwardly with the heavy tub in his hand, then circled around to the rocking youth.

“Here you go. A little gift for you for letting us use your landing pad and helping us fuel up. Is that ok?”

“Oh, great, yes, thank you.” A nervous smile broke out on his face, and he did a weird half nod, half bow gesture, backed away clutching his prize, repeated the bow-nod, then turned and ambled off back towards the hut. Aswon shook his head at him, trying to remember if he’d ever been that gangly and nervous. Probably – but when he was about six… He turned and headed back inside once more, to find Marius describing his idea for the border crossing.

“Now. We are approximately 305.2 kilometres from the chosen border crossing point, between these two large spurs of land here. That will take approximately 93 minutes flying at 80% throttle, to maximise fuel efficiency and keep thermal and auditory signature at the best compromise levels. I would like to cross just after dusk, when any observers are struggling to adapt from daylight to night operations and signal resolution on sensors is not at 100% efficiency. We fly without lights, and as much as we can nap-of-the-earth, using the route that Hunter and I have planned and refined.”

Kai and several of the others exchanged tiny little smiles at the “approximate” measurements given by their young pilot, which were an order of magnitude more precise than anyone else would have bothered with, but followed along the snaking route that went mostly north from Tara into the wild lands of Siberia.

“Tads, will we have magical cover on this?”

“That depends. I’ll keep an astral eye out and provide over watch, sure. I can’t summon a spirit big enough to conceal the craft though – at least not without risking going blind or passing out. It’s just too big. I may be able to offer some magical concealment though, but it won’t leave me with much attention spare for anything else while I’m concentrating on that. It depends what you’re after, Kai.”

“I don’t like running a border like that without magical cover,” Aswon raised his hand quickly towards Tads as he spoke “I understand why, and I’m not blaming you, I’m just saying I don’t like it. This helicopter is big! I guess that’s part of the problem.” Tads glowered at him for a moment, but she knew the lanky tribesmen really did respect her, and she didn’t want to argue with him, especially when it wasn’t his fault.

“Ok, so it sounds like we make the best of it then, and use as much natural cover and concealment as we can, going over just after dusk and go with eyes open and ready for trouble. Until then, I guess we clean and prepare equipment, and then just relax until it’s time to go. It’s not like we have enough time to be worth heading into town or exploring the area, and from the size of the airport facilities, we’re not missing much there.” Kai looked around at the others, checking they were all in agreement, then swiftly moved out of the cockpit and into the module, grabbing the best bed before anyone else could claim it.

Hunter checked a weather site and worked out what time dusk was for their location. With a bit of simple maths he worked backwards and factored in their travel time and the time for pre-flight, then set a countdown timer running for when they needed to lift off, before moving into the rear and breaking out his cleaning kit and starting to disassemble his rifle. The other team members split up, preparing their kit and cleaning weapons, checking their supplies and getting things ready while they were stationary and everything wasn’t vibrating or sliding around.

Kai pulled out his phone and checked – the signal strength wasn’t great, but there was enough leakage from the town that it should hold. He gave Ludmilla a call and hoped he got through to her while she was in a good mood.

“Hello?”

“Miss Ludmilla? It’s Kai.”

“Oh, darling! Hello, yes, are things ok?”

“Yes, everything is going ok. Well, pretty good. We’re at Tara, and I just wanted to let you know that your man has helped us out with the fuel, so thank you for arranging that. Although there is a bit of an issue.”

“An issue? That does not sound good?”

“Well you see, the fuel as we mentioned is very expensive. I just wondered if we could get a line of credit here on the way back?”

“A line of credit darling? Really? I’ve already given you an advance!”

“Yes, and we’re very grateful. But you see we invested that in equipment to ensure the mission would go smoothly for you and we could get what you wanted with the minimum of fuss or risk. But getting those things left us with depleted funds, so we’re just wanting to make sure we don’t disappoint you. And I’d rather be open and honest with you, as I’m sure you would want me to be.”

“Well darling, this is most unusual. And to be honest, all this talk of money is a little…well… tawdy. Very common, and I don’t care for it much. I will make arrangements though I suppose. I do hope that you’re not taking advantage though…” The voice had taken on a harder edge as the conversation progressed, and Kai felt like he was straying into dangerous territory.

“Have no fear, we’re just trying to maximise our chances of getting you what you need. We’ll be leaving very soon to cross the border, and you won’t hear from us again until we are on the way back with your goods. And if you don’t hear from us again at all, it’s because we’re all dead.”

“Well, in that case, I shall look forward to speaking to you again, soon. But now, I have other matters to attend to.” She disconnected the call abruptly.

“Well goodbye then, and speak to you soon.” Kai paused, then laid the phone down on his chest and stared up at the ceiling of the module, his mind racing as he replayed the conversation. Meeting Ludmilla was certainly going to be interesting, when they finally got around to it.

An hour and a half passed quietly, the team reading, doing maintenance work, or in the case of Aswon gently snoring in his hammock. Marius was disturbed from his study of the route when a low rumbling sound because audible to the west. Jacking out of the VR sim he’d been running, he looked over and then his eyes widened in alarm as an aircraft appeared over the trees to the west, overflying the airport and starting to bank sharply.

“Achtung! Inbound aircraft!” He heard the clatter of equipment being grabbed or dropped in the back of the craft but ignored it in favour of climbing over to the other side of the cockpit and craning his neck to follow the sharply banking aircraft. It tipped over on one wing at an angle of maybe thirty degrees, swinging around in a tight circle – tight for a civilian craft anyway. Yet as he studied the aircraft he saw no signs that it was military in origin. He felt the presence of someone behind him, but ignored them, his eyes still fixed on the aircraft as it swung around the airport, doing a full circuit. As he moved to the other window, he saw Kai waiting patiently for some information.

“Looks like a civilian aircraft. Reminds me of an Ilyushin craft in general layout. Perhaps thirty metre wings, and length, looks like a small passenger or cargo hauler. No weapons obvious.”

“We have movement near the airport buildings! Two pickups coming through the trees, heading in our general direction!” Hunter’s voice rang out though the craft. “Both approaching at slow speed, I have them covered.”

“No magical spirits or effects on the plane that I can see.” Aswon called as he crouched by one of the small oval windows in the door, scanning the aircraft as it circled around them.

“Nothing on the trucks either, no sign of people or rear gunners,” shouted Shimazu as he peered over Hunter’s shoulder.

Marius watched as the aircraft straightened up to the south of them, then deployed both gear and flaps, pitching the nose up a few degrees. It looked like they were lining up on the faintly marked grass runway that lay further out from the hardened concrete chopper pads.

“Trucks aren’t actually heading for us – looks like they’re heading to the north end of the area. Shimazu, stop leaning on my shoulder.” There was some muttered sounds of arguing from the rear, but the fact that they were arguing led to a further reduction of tension. 

The Ilushin IL-114 came in smoothly, dropping neatly onto the grass runway and slowing abruptly as the pilot threw the engines into reverse. They’d almost stopped about two thirds of the way down the runway, but then accelerated slightly and taxied clear to the north end of the runway before finally coming to a halt, near where the two pickup trucks had stopped. Once the aircraft had stopped completely and the turboprop engines powered down, the trucks started up and moved around to the rear of the aircraft.

The team watched as a fair chunk of cargo was offloaded by hand, a variety of crates, packages, parcels and letters – some in standard sized containers, some looking pretty unique. About ten minutes later, they started loading new cargo from the flat-bed area of the trucks into the aircraft. There wasn’t as much, and two minutes later, the aircraft closed the back door. The four men then loaded the cargo which had been stacked on the grass into the back of their trucks, building two small mounds of cargo which were covered with a tarpaulin or cover of some kind. Once they were both loaded the trucks backed up, swung around and headed back past them, while the plane restarted the engines, turned and then thundered down the runway, pulling up at the end and banking left in a smooth gentle turn as it continued to gain altitude, until it headed off to the south-east.

The team settled back down, realising that it was either another smuggler crew at work or perhaps even something mundane like the weekly mail delivery that had just happened – but either way they didn’t seem too bothered by the presence of their chopper. Finally, the countdown timer beeped, and the team roused themselves and began preparations for take-off. In the gathering gloom, Tads reached out and started to gather magical energy to herself, calling on the spirits of the air to heed her. Whether the area was just unfriendly or if the intense vibrations of the chopper during ascent were the cause she couldn’t say – all she knew was that nothing answered her call except a monstrous headache and a nosebleed. She fumbled around for her water bottle and some painkillers and then sat back in her seat, rubbing at her temples and wishing the helicopter wasn’t so loud.

Unaware of their shaman’s discomfort, Marius continued to apply power, lifting the chopper into the air just far enough to clear the trees surrounding them, before slowly dipping the nose and shifting into forward flight. The rest of the team stared out of their respective windows at the surrounding area, looking for trouble but finding nothing but darkness and the odd scattered light nearby, and the faint glow of the town of Tara to their back. 

The helicopter flew over the wild terrain, crossing the snaking course of the Irtysh River and then heading north across forest, moorland and fens, the ground undulating beneath them. The land looked bleak and unwelcoming, rough and difficult to traverse and too expensive to cultivate or produce worthwhile goods. As they flew northwards the lights in the countryside became more and more rare, roads became little more than dirt-tracks and everywhere they looked they could just see the broken landscape as spurs of land fractured into a thousand shallow gorges or escarpments. A lot of their flight they spent looking up at low rises that hemmed them in on one side or another, as Marius used the landscape to shield them from the occasional settlement or suspected radar positions, corporate sites or farmsteads.

An hour into their flight, as they approached the border, Tads had managed to shift the pain in her head and tried again. She spent a few minutes trying to meditate as best she could, ignoring or tuning out the ever-present roar of the engines and the constant vibrations. She gathered power again, slightly less this time and was more careful with her movements, aware of the confines of the turret that she sat strapped into. Her care paid off, and she was rewarded with a wisp like creature that arrived next to her in astral space, ready to carry out her bidding. The effort made the headache come back though, so she returned to massaging her temples to try and ease the pain before she was required to do anything specific.

They flew on through the night, the chopper banking and turning slickly under Marius’s expert touch, with a grace that belied its’ huge size. The crescent moon shone down on the landscape, providing enough illumination for the low-light amplified sensors to display a strangely distorted vision of the landscape. 

They approached the border, and Marius issued a curt warning over the intercom, making sure people were ready. He made the final turn into the valley they had identified for the crossing, and let the power drop a tiny amount, feeling the craft sag below him. He stared ahead, and suddenly as he crested a minor ridge, his vision swam as heat sources appeared everywhere. Threat warning lights flashed as they picked up electromagnetic sensors, and the X-band alert sounded, indicating a fire-control radar ahead. 

He swore and started to twist the craft to the side, increasing power and preparing to take evasive manoeuvers. At this kind of range he’d have bare seconds to react, and even man-portable shoulder launched missiles would be deadly, even to a helicopter this size. He’d thought it was about as bad as it could be – but then it got worse. His sensors pinged, demanding his attention, and picked out in a wireframe with all manner of alert icons flashing was a ZIL-ZSU99 gun, right in the middle of the valley. The quad-mounted fifty calibre machines guns mounted on the heavy duty chassis could spit out enough firepower to saw the craft in half if they tracked in on him – and that was almost certainly the source of the X-band emissions.

All over the chopper people grabbed hold of the handles or stanchions around them as the chopper lifted at a more acute angle, and various cries of alarm sounded as people were thrown around in their seats. 

Marius looked down with horror as their forward momentum carried them further down the valley, closer to the firing arc of the gun system. But, as he stared at the scene he noticed that people were waving at him. Not just waving – but looking like they were cheering? What the…. Suddenly he reversed course, heading back down towards the centre of the valley. 

“Marius, what are you doing?” Hunter called out. “That’s closer to the men with guns!”

“Russians. Border defence force. What kind of helicopter are we in?” He let that sink in, and then went for broke, flashing his running lights twice in salute as he crossed over the troops low enough to batter them with the downdraft from the rotor. As they crossed over the gun system his threat warning system screamed as the x-band radar locked on in tracking mode – though at this range the helicopter must have been almost impossible NOT to lock up, as it would fill 90% of the seekers viewing angle.

“They probably think we’re a raid or a Spetsnaz force or something. But flying over a secure valley to do an insertion, as a last safe point. After all, we’re on their side and going into the enemy… why would they fire?”

Moments later, the x-band alert dropped off as the gun crew cancelled the track, and the sky behind them remained blessedly clear of missile launch tracers or streams of bullets. Looking back at the sensor feed, Marius ran a quick count of the heat sources, and came up well short on what he’d expect to see.

For now though, he concentrated on flying, shunting the data over for someone else to look after. He heard the others looking at the data, and Aswon examining the count, coming up with a short company. That meant either the rest were really well dug in elsewhere, or the company was short on manpower. With the state of the Russian military and what they’d learnt at the base, that was far more likely.

He exited the shallow ravine, and for a moment was atop the hill, before he ducked back down into the rough terrain on the other side of the summit. There were trees to his east, covering him from that direction and providing a background for him to blur into from the opposite direction – but it was still the most exposed he’d been forced to be so far. His threat warning lights all stayed black though, and sensors picked up no active or passive signals at all. He pushed on through the darkness, slightly advancing the power now, relying more on speed than discretion to clear the locus of the crossing point.

It turned out though that electronic sensors were not what he needed to worry about – it was a threat of a very different kind. Both Tads and Kai spotted the owl, flying high above the forest. Its aura was unmistakably powerful, a shapeshift of some kind, much like the one they had seen back at Samara. It was powerful but untrained, unable to mask the magical signature it projected – so a threat, but not one as severe as the group of three shifters they’d had to deal with previously. It had obviously spotted their craft, and was angling down towards them, wings flapping furiously to accelerate. It was using some kind of magical power too, accelerating its natural movement to a much faster rate – but not one that could match the chopper.

They alerted Marius, who altered course abruptly, putting the bird squarely behind them and pushing the engines up to full power. As they flew onwards, the owl dropped further and further behind, until finally it was out of sight. Marius executed two more course corrections to throw off their base track, before finally settling back down on the route to their destination.

It didn’t take long at full speed, and they circled the landing area not long after 19:00. It was a burnt-out farmhouse of some size, surrounded by a large pad of concrete on three sides. The area looked abandoned, but they examined it carefully before Marius came in for a landing, gently lowering the huge chopper down onto the middle of the expanse of concrete, ready to vault into the sky at a moment’s notice.

“Hey Tads – if we hover here for a moment, can you scout out the area?”

“Nope!” She didn’t explain any further, and her answer was curt and clipped. Aswon shrugged and didn’t push any further – sure that she had her reasons.

As they touched down lightly, Aswon, Hunter and Shimazu jumped out of the door one after another, splitting up and moving out from the craft to take up a guard position. Marius waited until they were clear and looked settled, and only then did he continue to reduce power, letting the craft settle on the suspension. As the three moved out to examine the area, he kept the power at minimum, the huge rotor sagging but still spinning and ready to go.

The three returned a minute later from a quick scout, giving a thumbs up one after another – all clear. Finally the engines shut down and the rotors slowed – only to be replace shortly afterwards by the sounds of a much smaller engine starting up as Marius prepared the drones to launch.

Aswon and Shimazu moved into the burnt-out wreckage to check it out while Hunter remained on guard outside. Their initial assessment had been deceiving – although fire had damaged the structure, it looked like water had been the real killer. As they picked their way through the house they saw sagging beams and huge rotten timbers collapsed, sections of the house smashed by the upper floors collapsing and falling down on them. 

As they moved through and examined the wreckage, a story emerged – or at least suggested itself. Most of the house was damaged by the elements and neglect, but the area near one of the doors showed signs of a violent struggle, with smashed glass and crockery in a radius around the doorway. Knife marks – or claw marks? Broken furniture all consistent with a swirling melee. Darker stains on the floorboards, and then the burn marks of a hastily thrown improvised bomb or incendiary. It appeared that the attackers, whoever they were had intended to burn the place down, but hadn’t cared to check or do a thorough job – but had probably carried off the inhabitants. Aswon and Shimazu exchanged glances, and Shimazu wondered what secrets this place would reveal if he had had a chance to follow up on the training with the professor down in Egypt. It would probably be interesting, but very dark…

They split up and checked the far ends of the house out, where the damage was minimal. Aswon found a sturdy travelling chest, still sealed and in good condition. The lacquered wood had shed the rain and retained its colour, and still opened easily enough to reveal several sets of warm looking winter clothing, of an average to large size. He dragged the chest out with him, figuring that the clothes would be useful to someone, and the chest was a nice find.

Shimazu meanwhile had found wooden doll sheltered on a wooden dresser from the collapse of the ceiling above. It was brightly painted, with deep reds and greens showing a caricature of a plump woman in a woollen dress, with an exaggerated face picked out in bright pink. As he reached over and picked it up by the head, the bottom section fell off, revealing a smaller version inside. Shimazu blinked, then carefully picked up the top section again, and watched as it split and revealed a third smaller doll inside. A grin broke out on his face at the sheer inanity of it, along with a respect for the craftsman who had turned it so expertly. All together there were eight dolls stacked one inside another, with the smallest being little bigger than his thumb and the largest being about 250mm high. He reassembled them quickly and returned to the exit, helping Aswon with the other end of the trunk as he dragged it outside.

They loaded their booty into the chopper and reported in that the location seemed secure, then got to work on opening the back cargo hatch of the chopper and unloading their off-road vehicle. As they rolled down the hatch, they caught sight of moment at the edge of the concrete pad – rabbits. They grazed unconcernedly and didn’t seem alarmed by their presence or movement.

“Chances are there aren’t many people around here then – and very little hunting. That or someone feeds or cares for them in some way. Very unusual behaviour if there was a settlement nearby, at least.” Tads stared at the rabbits for a few more moments, then shook her head. “Very strange.”

They worked out who was going on the expedition, and who was staying to guard the chopper, looking at the size of the seats in the UAZ 469. It was a basic vehicle, without any of the frills found in most off-roaders, and was clearly a working vehicle, designed to be thrown around and treated harshly.

Shimazu was nominated as the driver, with Hunter taking the front passenger seat, with Aswon sitting behind him and Tads behind Shimazu. The temperature controlled box was loaded into the rear cargo area and carefully lashed down, ensuring that it wouldn’t rattle about at all. Marius, Nadia and Kai were to stay back at the chopper, monitoring them via the surveillance drone and ready to fly over if the mission demanded it. After a quick shuffle of gear, the overland team were ready to go, and Shimazu slowly drove away, getting to grips with the vehicle as he drove into the darkness.

Tads asked her wind spirit to stay behind, guarding the helicopter and the people inside it. She felt her control over it wash away as she grounded herself, moving her magical focus from the air to the ground. It would at least guard them until dawn, keeping up its end of the bargain until the first rays of daylight released it to return to the skies.

With her mind now firmly rooted in the drive ahead, she summoned magical power once more to conceal and disguise the vehicle. A moment later a large wild mammoth plodded across the land, moving purposefully to the south, tusks weaving back and forth as the massive legs pounded the ground – though behind it, a pair of twin tyre tracks marked their passage…

The Uaz handled well – very well, and made Shimazu’s job much easier. As they drove across the wild and untamed landscape the soft and spongy suspension that made it feel like driving a jelly on the road soaked up the ditches, rocks, potholes and drops to allow them to continue moving relatively smoothly. It was cold inside, the unpadded interior transmitting the frigid temperatures of the night air with little hinderance, and their body heat and breath started to make the windows steam up – forcing them to open the windows at least a little to clear their view.

They drove slowly, barely making walking pace as Shimazu moved across the landscape, following the rough map that Hunter had given to him. As they drove, they quickly discovered that what looked like smooth land was actually more like marsh or sometimes large ponds or small lakes of an unknown depth. Occasionally they reached an impasse, driving along a narrow track that suddenly became a spit of land projecting into the water. Once or twice they risked a crossing where the water seemed only deep enough to cover their wheels – but in some places Aswon’s spear sank a good meter without reaching the bottom, and they retraced their steps to find an alternate route.

They’d been driving for about an hour when there was a sudden drop at the back of the vehicle and a crunch, followed by a sickening squeal. The sound carried through the night, making them all wince and look around quickly. Shimazu braked, and a moment later there was the furious sound of something attacking the back of their vehicle. They felt the rocking and swaying as it threw itself at the rear quarter of the Uaz, and heard the scraping as claws or teeth savaged the metal and plastic of the bumper and rear load area.

For a moment Shimazu saw a flash of movement behind them, before it disappeared fully behind their vehicle, then the attack continued, even more furious than before. Hunter, Shimazu and Aswon piled out of the vehicle, moving round towards the rear to deal with the situation, while Tads decided it would be wiser if she kept an eye on things from the back seat.

The creature was about a metre long, but no more than knee height and was throwing itself at the vehicle in a frenzy. Ten long and sturdy claws raked at the back of the Uaz, stripping paint off with every shrieking claw that scraped down the surface. As they appeared, it ceased its attack and flattened itself against the floor, seeming to almost meld into it and becoming nigh impossible to spot. With a blur it launched itself into the air with a grumbling war-cry, powerful legs propelling it towards Shimazu with the mouth opening to reveal two rows of rancid and sharp teeth aimed at his throat.

The creature shuddered as Aswon spitted it from the flank, knocking it off balance and rolling it to one side a little – just enough to disrupt the attack on Shimazu and giving him time to bring his sword up from the scabbard and slicing through the air in one smooth move, striking at the throat. The ancient blade severed the head, driven as it was by the full force of Shimazu’s body, and the two parts collapsed to the floor.

They risked a little light to examine the corpse – some kind of badger it seemed. Looking around they found the edge of the set with the roof collapsed where the weight of their vehicle had caused some of the earth to collapse, crushing to death another one of the creatures. Aswon checked the set carefully, but it appeared that there were no young – just the pair of creatures.

Shimazu and Aswon lifted the corpses into the back of the truck, being careful not to get any of the gore onto their plant box while Hunter kept watch. It looked like the creatures had some magical powers, able to adapt their colouration to match the surroundings, so there was a chance some of the creatures might be useful to their magical research – especially the one cleanly killed by the sword blow. They were careful to avoid the claws and teeth though, aware that many wild creatures were carriers of some pretty horrific diseases that they were immune to, but that caused meta-humans intense suffering.

Back in the chopper, Marius snorted as he watched them recover the creatures and place them carefully in the back. The picture from the drone showed a flattened landscape in unearthly greens and blacks, devoid of detail and texture. The low light optics did a good job of showing hard edged objects and major details, but often lacked the resolution for fine work and made colours all but impossible to separate. He could have gone lower and switched to an ultra-sound map, but that would limit the amount of terrain he could watch at one time. He sat back from the screen and panned the camera around the empty landscape, and started to hum a tune. It was somewhat catch and familiar, like the opening music for a trid-show. Kai looked at him in surprise, and gave him a quick astral check over as it was quite unlike him – then shuddered as he took in the mass of cyberware and replacement parts with the slim sliver of humanity. However, there didn’t appear to be anything affecting him.

The ground team pushed on, driving through an increasingly wet landscape. Slowly they became aware of smell – an oily chemical kind of aroma. Hunter took a deep sniff and let his chemical library go to work, announcing that it was a number of different long chain hydrocarbons, several combustible materials and some traces that were borderline explosive. They pushed on, driving down a narrow causeway painfully slowly, Shimazu trying to keep two wheels on firm ground to give them traction, with the other two nearly submerged in the oily gack to the side of them, sending ripples out into the inky blackness, hoping that nothing lived in there that would consider them edible.

A shape loomed out of the darkness, and the causeway widened, leading them onto a larger and much more solid landmass. In the centre was a concrete pad, roughly formed and imprecise around the edges. At the centre was the twisted remains of a derrick, presumably some kind of oil extraction well. The steel beams were twisted and warped, the machinery around them broken and mangled. Shattered pipes lay on the far side, running alongside a wider road that looked to have been deliberately created. 

They picked up the pace a little on the road, and found themselves hopping from island to island amidst a large body of water, or series of linked lakes perhaps. At every junction, there was another piece of machinery, smashed and ravaged in some way. Astral space carried a very faint tinge of emotion, the rush of combat and a vague feeling of elation. The events that had taken place here must have been powerful and important to the people to generate such strong feeling, and for it to remain so long, which probably meant that it was the rise of the Yakut nation and the overthrow of Russian control that was the cause.

The drove deeper into the area, sometimes following pipelines, sometimes having to drive over crumpled remains of machinery or storage tanks, sometimes being forced to ford through shallow areas or back track from the end of a pipeline that led only to deeper water. As they drove along, Shimazu picked up speed and held the wheel straight, aiming them at a large pond dead ahead. The others waited, expecting him to brake or steer, but the Uaz just got faster instead.

Hunter glanced at him, and saw a faint dreamlike stare across his face. His gut told him something was wrong, and he had enough experience to trust it – so he leant over and slapped the gear leaver hard. With a crunch and snarl, the vehicle popped into neutral, and stopped accelerating. Hunter’s hand moved backwards and yanked up on the handbrake, and he felt the wheels lock up and then start to slide across the damp surface. Shuddering as the wheels kicked and the deep tread fought for traction, they slid to a halt, the front wheels just starting to dip into the water.

Shimazu blinked and looked around him, as if waking up from a dream. He frowned as he saw the water ahead of them, dark and forbidding.

“Can’t go that way, we’ll have to go around.” He checked the controls and put the Uaz into reverse, found the bite point and then carefully released the handbrake, letting the vehicle pull back up the slope and onto solid ground.

“Are you ok there? Not feeling tired?”

“No, I’m good. Ok to carry on certainly. Think I’ve just about got used to the driving anyway.”

Hunter glanced into the back at the other two, his face wordlessly asking the question. Both Tads and Aswon dropped into astral at the same time, looking around them and at Shimazu, seeing if they could spot what might have influenced or compelled him to drive like that. Nothing was to be seen, just the ever present glow of life around them from the surrounding area. Although – over to the west, there was something…odd. 

Tads concentrated and tried to focus her mind, sparing just enough concentration to keep the vehicle masked with her spell, but looking to the west to determine what the strange glow was. It looked like a movement in astral space, a flow of power – perhaps the mana line they sought?

She pulled back, looking around the vehicle and decided that just looking like a creature was clearly not enough. Repeating her mantra, she made signs with her hands, and spread her magical protection over the group, fortifying their minds with power to resist magical intrusion.

The effort made her neck muscles taut and the manifestation of her totem’s power made her shamanic mask show slightly – her eyes became dark and liquid, her nose elongated slightly and grew dark at the end. In the darkness of the vehicle the effect was unnerving, like having a half-woman, half elk sitting in the back seat, wrapped up in a heavy duty jacket.

They pushed on, continuing the journey west and heading towards the brighter flare of astral energy that leaked into the night air. Whilst Shimazu kept his concentration on the road, either Tads or Aswon kept flicking into astral sight, checking the path ahead and the glow. It was like an aurora, a faint shift in light and the effect was subtle, seeming to fade away if you looked at it for more than a few seconds.

In the chopper, they continued to monitor the progress of the team as they threaded their way through the cobweb like maze of interconnecting causeways, pads and service roads. Both Marius and Nadia were humming the music now. Kai listened for a moment, wondering what kind of show they must have been watching.

His eyes went wide as a thought burst into his head, and he shuddered as his brain followed to a logical conclusion and refused to be diverted. It was the kind of bouncy repetitive nonsense you’d find on a porn film. A film they’d watched together. Probably while doing… NO! He stood up and excused himself, refusing to think of what they’d been doing while that was playing in the background. Tea. Yes, tea. That was what he needed. A nice strong cup of tea. With some vodka in it or something. Yes. 

Marius and Nadia wondered why Kai got up so fast, but as he wandered off towards the back muttering about tea they shrugged, and resumed their humming, getting in sync again. Nadia moved closer to Marius, who wrapped his arm around her protectively, and they turned their attention back to the display from the drone, still motoring along silently overhead.

Aswon was just checking in astral space to see if the flare had moved or changed when the apparition appeared. It manifested ahead of them, rising up out of the ground suddenly, arms raising from its side to reach towards them. It was an eldritch blue, faint ripples shifting in its form as if it was constantly decaying and reforming. The face was long and rotting, strips of skin peeling off and separating from the face, turning into wisps of smoke and fading away. Dark voids lay where the mouth and eyes should be, staring into the vehicle. It opened its mouth wide and shrieked, waves of astral power bursting forth like a torrent of hate and washing over them.

The magical barriers Tads had put in place were battered by the onslaught of psychic horror, wavering and wobbling – but they held, mostly. Shimazu and Hunter recoiled in fear and disgust at the shape, and their vehicle dipped as Shimazu slammed on the brakes. The front of the Uaz drove into the apparition, the ghostly form sliding up the bonnet and long spindly fingers scraping at the windscreen, leaving blue lines of energy behind them that faded quickly into the night.

A sudden smashing noise sounded from the back of the Uaz as Aswon swung his elbow into the rear window in terror. Perhaps it touched upon some ancient tribal belief, perhaps it was because he was looking in astral when it appeared and launched his attack. Perhaps Tads had concentrated more of her attention on protecting the others, figuring that Aswon was better able to look after himself. Whatever the reason was, his mind was filled with terror, an absolute blind panic and all that he could think of was that he had to get away from it. Again and again his elbow smashed into the plexiglass, until finally the ancient gasket gave way and the whole window popped out behind him. He squirmed through the gap and clawed his way over the corpses of the badgers, sliding in their blood and falling out of the truck onto the moist ground below.

Shimazu recoiled from the ghost or spirit, but then saw Aswon struggling to his feet and starting to run. With barely a thought he opened the door and ran after him, summoning power of his own to infuse his muscles with energy and drive him onwards. He knew Aswon was quick – quicker than pretty much everyone else in the team but himself. If he ran off into the darkness, fleeing in terror from this thing, nobody but him had a chance of catching him…

Hunter clawed for his gun and bailed out of the vehicle, backing up and raising the rifle to his shoulder. He wasn’t sure if bullets would hurt it, but he was prepared to give it a bloody good try. He pulled the gun back hard, compressing the soft filling in the jacket and snugging the butt in tight to ensure he had good control, and then snarled as his Smartlink went mad. The targeting cursor flew all over his cybernetic vision, not finding anything to lock onto and refusing to correctly range on the spirit. With a mental flick he set the cursor to lock at the centre point – it was close enough and slow enough it really shouldn’t matter anyway.

Tads had bailed out of the vehicle too, grabbing Aswon’s spear as she did so. She didn’t think he’d mind, given the circumstances, and besides – if he’d not wanted her to use it, he should have taken it with him. She knew that without the magical bond Aswon had developed with the weapon it wouldn’t be quite as useful to her – she wouldn’t be able to focus the mana into making it truly effective, but it remained at its heart a magical weapon. And that was a magical creature. Its protections against bullets, knives, sticks or stones would matter not at all against such an attuned weapon. 

The apparition looked to be drifting over towards Hunter, raising its arms to attack. Around them the air felt chill and odd, a sense of deep foreboding spreading out from the creature. Hunter stood his ground, refusing to give in to his fears and his finger tightened on the trigger, slowly turning white as he raised the tension. Any moment now…

“Hey!” STAB! Tads thrust the spear into the creature, grazing the edge of the arm as it moved away from her towards the orc. “Hey you!” Anger filled her voice, as she let off the frustrations of the last few days on a worthy foe. With a mental flick she gathered her defences back to her, like magical wings folding around her body. The creature turned and hissed at her, and she felt the full force of its hatred and rage wash up against her, recoiling off her protections. She stabbed at it again, grunting with the effort as she carried out moves half-remembered from her training with her tutor, half a lifetime ago. They’d used a staff then, but the principle was the same…

The creature advanced upon her, blue specks of mana leaking from the shallow cut inflicted upon it by the last thrust of the spear. A rising shriek bellowed out across the landscape, echoing from the distant shores and reverberating from the ruined derricks. Tads screamed in return, and thrust her spear deep into the creature’s torso, striking back hard with the weapon and raising the spear point up the belly of the creature. As the magical point cut through the form of the apparition, it started to disintegrate, clothes flying open to reveal pallid blue flesh inside, sagging breasts flying apart as the ribcage disintegrated and the creature span into a whirling maelstrom of energy before dissipating into the wind. She felt a jolt of power from the spear too, adding to her rage as she spitted the creature. Strange – that shouldn’t happen. In fact everything she knew said that it *couldn’t* happen that way…

Marius and Nadia watched in confusion. The picture from the drone had shown the vehicle skid to a sudden halt for no apparent reason, then a moment later Aswon had kicked out the rear window and ran off into the darkness, pursued a moment later by Shimazu. Hunter was aiming his rifle at something, and Tads was making wild swings and thrusts at something else – but there was nothing there.

He adjusted the controls a little, zooming in on the scene, but no matter what they did nothing showed up.

“It has to be something magical, Nadia. Some creature of the abyss. They don’t show up on sensors you see, because they say machines aren’t alive, and don’t have a soul. Pah. Mages.” He reached over and patted the side of the chopper, his hand sliding down the fuselage almost tenderly. “Don’t have a soul. Shows what they know.” Nadia nodded slightly, ignoring him stroking the side of the helicopter the same way he stroked her. She’d deal with that later…

“The witch will fight it though, yes? With the magic spear?”

“I guess that’s what she’s doing. I’ve not really had her down as much of a combatant though – I hope she knows what she’s about.” As he spoke, they watched Tads leap forward and thrust, then raise the spear tip like she was holding a fishing rod and had caught something big. Whatever she was doing it seemed to work, as moments later the saw her lower the spear to her side and stand there panting, the clouds of breath clearly visible on thermographic. Hunter lowered his rifle and was scanning the area, looking out, and not at some target close-by. He pushed out the magnification a little, returning to a wider picture…

Striding out of the darkness came Aswon and Shimazu. Shimazu had apparently caught Aswon, and had tackled him to the floor it seemed, as both their fronts were sodden and streaked with mud and oily residue. Aswon seemed somewhat dejected, his head hung low in shame at the display of fear.

“Aswon, thanks for the loan, but I think you should have this back.” Tads offered the spear to him, and when he hesitated for a moment, she planted the end in the ground and titled the shaft slightly then let go, letting it fall towards him and forcing him to catch it. “I think I disrupted it – some kind of spirit, but not something I’ve ever seen before. Maybe something special to the area. Some kind of psychic scream or resonance to trigger the fear reflex at the very least. I also think it would be bad to let it touch you – the way it was leaving little trails of mana behind. Eugh” She shuddered, but there was no jesting or humour in her voice, and the others nodded in acceptance.

They looked around for another minute, but nothing moved in the area, and the spirit didn’t return. They managed to prise open the gasket on the rear of the truck and wedge the plastic back in place, though it looked like it would never seal itself properly again without a trip to the garage or perhaps the tender loving care of Marius. When they were convinced that nothing had been summoned by the sounds of the fighting and screaming, they got back into the vehicle and continued their westward journey.

Finally they pulled onto a long thin causeway that seemed to jut into a much more significant body of water. Driving along they saw a number of spurs off to the side, each leading to a little open area with another of the broken and shattered derricks. Shimazu slowed and then stopped as the end of the causeway came in sight, looking around at the slowly rippling water on either side of them. The smell of chemicals was intense now, and as he cast his torch around he saw the multi-coloured hue as the light refracted off the oil that coated the surface of the sludgy water.

Aswon looked around and tentatively dropped into astral space again. They were right in the middle of the aurora now, the mana approaching from the south west like snow in a blizzard, driving towards them in a cone. It appeared to come out of the ground a good way into the lake, rising in a shallow arc and twisting through the air just over their head height, tendrils of mana dancing and intertwining in a complex and beautiful dance before descending into the lake to the north east. There was a palpable aura of power here, and his fingers felt slick as if they were covered in the oil that surrounded them. 

Tads apparently felt the same, and was examining her hands, as if expecting to see sparks shooting from the ends of her fingers.

“I think we’ve definitely got to where we need to be. Now it’s a case of fanning out and looking for this plant that we’re after.” Aswon nodded at her, then pulled out the small sketch he had. With a small torch adapted with a red lens, he shone the faint light on the sketch, reminding Hunter and Shimazu of what they were after.

“Tads, do you think a spirit might help us with the search?”

“I’ll give it a try. I’m going to be careful though – I don’t want a repeat of what happened near that golem.” Aswon nodded, and took a firmer grip on his spear, just in case. Shimazu moved to the other side of her, and laid his hand on the hilt of his sword, fingers poised to draw and strike if something….else….was summoned. Hunter saw their dispositions and picked up on the vibe, moving to stand behind her and started to glance left and right, rifle at the ready.

She dropped the illusion of the woolly mammoth covering the vehicle, and gathered the power to her, not only feeling but seeing the mana flow from the arc overhead. Like lightning following a path, the mana flowed towards her, more and more power arcing down into her outstretched hands. She called on the spirit of the land, restricting herself from using too much power, fearful of the results. It was almost an effort to stop, to break away from the ready source of energy. She felt like she could drink at that well, pull it all into her and shape it to her will, and she realised how easy and seductive that power would be. However she was old enough and wise enough to know that nothing came without a cost – it was just a matter of understanding how and when the bill would have to be paid.

She concentrated on the task at hand though, shaping the mana and calling to the land, mentally bargaining with nature to obey her in return for her respect, her worship and her love. A spirit appeared in front of her, a mossy shambling mound extruded from the ground with clinging ferns and a spine of sharp rocks down its back. It struggled against her though, fighting for control and resisting her as though it resented her very life.

“Why do you summon me, why do you do this? Release me!”

“Spirit, we seek help finding a flower, a rare flower in this area. We need to find it and then we will leave.”

“Foolish mortals. You should not be here. You should not have come! Flee, and you may yet live.” Tads blinked – then checked the creature in front of her. It WAS under her control, barely, yet acted much more like a free entity, displaying its contempt for her and her teammates in a most unusual fashion.

“We’re not going to flee. We came here to get something, and we’re going to get it. Then we’ll leave. If you help us find it, we’ll leave faster.

“Very well, though your quest is foolish and your demeanour arrogant. You will pay the price for your transgressions.”

“Why should we flee? What is it that we should fear here?”

“This land belongs to that which I will not name. You will come to understand, and you will suffer. But I will speak of that no more. Now, what do you seek?”

The others watched as Tads stared at the creature, communicating with it mind to mind. They saw the moss ripple and shake, the vegetation wave, but it didn’t seem to make any hostile moves, and finally it seemed to slink away.

“Is the spirit looking for the Dragonspine?” asked Aswon.

“It is, for now. It’s not happy about it though. There’s definitely something wrong here. I think it would be wise to find the plant and get out, as quickly as we can.”

They fanned out, making sure they remained just in line of sight of each other, and stared to cover the ground and the edge of the water, searching for the magical plant that was the objective of their mission.


	112. 112 - The Perils of Gardening

Date Tuesday 20/04/2060, Location 61.71633, 73.37766

The night turned to early morning, with the lake team working their way across the area, looking for the elusive plant. They fanned out a little to cover more area, but never got more than a couple of metres away from each other – making sure they could move quickly in case of trouble. It proved to be painstaking work – moving slowly and checking every last bit of foliage for critters and poisonous plants before moving leaves or plant growth out of the way to check behind or underneath them.

The minutes crawled by, the team alternating between crawling around on all fours and taking a break to stretch their aching backs and to check the area around them. The cold wind slowly sapped the energy from them, even through the thick layers of clothing, and they had to pull balaclavas and mittens on to avoid the perils of frostbite.

Tads checked them over, warning them about the perils of exposed skin and how quickly an area would go numb, but also warning them against over-exerting themselves and getting a sweat on – which would then freeze and act like a heat sink, causing an unsustainable loss of body heat. It further slowed them down, but they heeded her words, trusting in the advice from someone that had grown up and spent most of her life living just below the Arctic Circle.

In the chopper, Marius said that he intended to stay on watch, as he was the only person to be able to properly control the drones, so Nadia headed off to bed early – figuring that she might need to stand watch later. Kai hung around for a while, then chilled out and relaxed, gently dozing from time to time, before waking as he started to slide off the seat and had to move – having a quick look around him, before settling back down again.

At the lake, Shimazu stood up to stretch out his spine, and a flash overhead caught his eye. He looked up, and was just about to call out when he sensed Tads move up alongside him, also looking up into the air. They waited, watching, and a minute passed. Just as they were about to put it down as a figment of their imagination, they saw it again. A pulse of energy hummed in astral space, travelling up and out of the ground to their left, travelling overhead along the faint mana trail of the power line before sinking down into the ground again far to their right. 

The power made the hairs on the back of their neck stand on end, and reminded them of a snake swallowing its prey. A bulge, a ball of mana metres wide travelled along the arc, riding the pathway carved across the sky. They alerted the others, with Hunter just shrugging and moving to stand behind them and keep a watch out, his rifle held at waist height, ready to move if needed. Whatever this magical McGuffin was, it didn’t involve him, and so he left it to the team mages.

They stood and watched, and another minute passed before another pulse of power travelled along the line, following the course the same as the last. Glances were exchanged, but nobody said anything, all of them equally stymied to explain what was causing this, and what they needed to do about it. They watched another two pulses travel over, stamping their feet and wrapping their arms around themselves to keep warm. Both pulses seemed the same, and didn’t affect anything, so they moved back to their task – aware that time was slipping by and the longer they stayed here, the higher the chance of running into trouble.

Kai gave a start as he slipped again, then stared out of the window as he dug his feet into the decking to push himself upright again. Staring out into the darkness he saw a flash of movement and was about to call out in alarm to Marius – but then stopped and looked again.

The herd of deer he had seen moved forwards slightly, their bodies splitting from some horrible gestalt creature into individual shapes that were much less threatening. He quickly dropped into astral space to ensure they weren’t magical creatures, but couldn’t spot anything unusual about them. He watched for another minute or so, just enjoying the naturalness of the scene as they slowly grazed along the end of farmyard, pulling up the tufts of grass growing against the edge of the concrete.

Aswon finished an area, and was moving to the next patch of overgrown plants when he caught another pulse travelling overhead – which made him frown. He rocked back on his haunches and counted mentally, expecting to get to about 65, the same as he’d measured between the pulses before. This time he only got to 53. He counted again, to make sure – and got the same. It appeared that the pulses were intensifying in cycle at least.

He dropped into astral again, and looked at the arcing path carefully, peering at the power line as best he could and trying to discern the nature of the phenomenon. As he let his sight grow accustomed to the glow of power, he started to see shapes emerge, patterns and subtle variations in shade and colour. He counted again, waiting for the next surge – 52. 52. 51… now he heard a noise, a barely perceptible beat to the power line, like a heartbeat of the land.

“Tads, come over here please. Just look at the power line, really look, and listen. Wait for a surge, and listen.” She did, and he kept quiet, just letting her open her mind and see for herself. She stood, eyes almost closed and hands hanging by her side as she concentrated on her astral sight, watching as a pulse went overhead. 50. The next pulse made her tilt her head to one side, and the edge of a frown form on her brow, just visible under the balaclava. 

She started to hum, her hand slowly slapping her hip, then broke into quiet song. Her voice wasn’t great – clearly she wasn’t a natural singer – but it had that advantage of being honestly sung and sounding somewhat esoteric by being in a foreign tongue. She opened her eyes, and Aswon just cocked an eyebrow at her. He was curious, but figured she’d tell him when she was good and ready.

“It’s a tale from home, a song of the shamans. It doesn’t translate well, I’m afraid.”

Where the sky meets the land, on the edge of the day

And the creatures of myth dance with joy

The spirits of the land gather strength and prepare

Their fingers of rock driving the land to obey

Gathering the evil spirits, to guard the people 

Until the dawn of the new day.

Aswon looked at her as she chanted, her words disjointed and lacking the cadence and rhythm they had before – clearly the words didn’t translate well from her native tongue. 

They heard a subtle but pointed sigh from behind them, and saw that Hunter had moved once more to guard them and provide overwatch while they were deep in magical thought. Shimazu looked up from the patch of vegetation he had been working through, and saw that everyone was taking a break but him – or that is how it seemed. He stood up and moved over, waiting for someone to tell him what was going on. After Aswon and Tads had told him, he too turned and checked out the power flow, seeing if he could hear, and see, the same thing.

45

The pulses seemed brighter now, more intense and powerful without actually being any larger. They watched another two pulses, listening carefully. Aswon was the first to hear the new noise, an almost subsonic rumble that seemed pervasive and without specific source. It reminded him of the rumble of heavy combat vehicles rolling down the road, something as much felt as heard.

42

They decided to move towards the edge of the power line, looking at the egress point to see if they could spot anything strange going on there, and learn about the power line – and what threat it might pose to them. The headed over the causeway, moving further to the south on the narrow spit of land alongside the rusty marks on the ground showing where the pipes had lain many years before, spots of twisted rusted metal torn asunder by whatever force had struck at them.

Shimazu and Tads stumbled slightly as their attention snapped out over the water, watching something that their brain flagged as wrong, somehow. They stopped, forcing the others to stop and look around in confusion. 

“Whatsup?” asked Aswon 

“The ripples on the water.”

“What about them?” Hunter asked impatiently, glancing over at the lake. He felt out of his element, with all this weird mumbo jumbo stuff going on.

“They’re going the wrong way. Look!”

All four of them looked out over the lake in the faint grey pre-dawn light. Sure enough, the gentle, almost imperceptible ripples were heading inwards – concentric circles drawing in to a central location and disappearing. They watched in fascination, trying to work out what was causing the strange sight.

“Marius, can you get the drone over the spot in the lake, about twenty to twenty five metres from us and see what’s there? We’ve got some strange disturbance on the water…”

Marius acknowledged the message and moved the drone into position, gently guiding the motors with touches of his mind, feeling the tickle of power from the battery as the rigger interface translated sensations to him. Sure enough, when he was in position, he could just about make out the ripples in the water, travelling patches of distortion in the electronic sensor view. He lowered the drone, trying to improve the picture and cycling through various settings to enhance the image.

Strange… now he was low enough he could see the gentle flow of the water, the ripples flowing inwards towards the centre – and he could just about make out the foliage under the surface of the water. Either it wasn’t very deep, or the plants were very long, floating upwards like some kind of kelp forest. But they were also leaning in, all straining towards a central point. He called back over the comm-link, describing what he could see to the team down by the lakeside.

“Tads, could you levitate me up in the air, and float me over for a look.”

29

“Um. I could.” Tads looked up at the sky, watching as another pulse flew by, lighting up the sky in astral space. It looked wilder and barely restrained now, and slightly more threatening now they were closer. She had a sudden flashback to trying to summon a spirit when they had the Golem on board the truck, and wondered if she might see another spike in power like that. “Or I could not cast magic under the enormous wild power surge of unknown origin.”

“Yeah – let’s not do that. How about you just climb up onto my shoulders and have a look. That should get you enough of a vantage point to see what’s going on.” Shimazu looked unsure, but didn’t have a better plan, so move around behind Aswon and placed his hands on the tribesman’s shoulder. Aswon braced his feet wide apart and bent the knees a little, to give Shimazu something to try and climb up, then set his spear in front of him, to allow him to balance slightly better. He grunted with effort as Shimazu swarmed up his back, suddenly regretting his offer. He know that Shimazu was pretty tough, but he’d never realised how heavy he was!

Shimazu wobbled on top of Aswon’s shoulders, feeling his perch wobble back and forth under the effort of holding him up. It made it hard to focus, and he wasn’t actually able to see that much more from the additional metre up he’d gained. Just as he was about tell Aswon this, there was a sudden flare of mana, bright and intense, that arced down from the pulse travelling overhead that struck like a lightning bolt right at the centre of the concentric ripples. 

There was nothing to show on the physical realm – but Hunter knew that something was wrong by the cries of horror, and his grip on his rifle increased, ensuring his smart-link registered through the glove and the aiming reticule in his cyber-eye glowed brightly as he scanned around.

15

“Ok everyone, let’s move away from the astral gateway!” called Aswon, putting action to words without pause. They all moved back, scrambling over the slick ground to put some space between them. Once they had moved back along the causeway a good thirty metres, they turned and looked back. Hunter looked over the area physically, seeing very little – even as the light level rose slightly hinting at the rising of the sun far to the east. The others though, looked with their astral senses, watching as coruscating lightning flashed down from the power line to the spot in the water, jagged sparks of mana working their way down into the water. The pulses flew past regularly now, and each time one did the sparks of mana intensified, making the dancing bolts of power swirl back and forth 

5

4

3

2

The spirit that Tads had summoned to help them search flew over to face her.

“I warned you!” It spat at her, venom filling its tone. 

1

The pulses grew into a blur, a near constant stream of power slicing through the air. The spurs of power crackled into a shower of sparks that formed an intricate web of energy linking the power-line and the water.

The spirit disappeared as they transitioned from night to day. There was no golden ray of sunlight breaking the horizon, illuminating the scene though – instead the grey just changed to a slightly lighter colour. 

The ripples in the water stopped, then reversed, actually flowing in the “right” direction. And without any fanfare at all, a mound started to emerge from the water, rising up from the watery hiding place to perhaps half a metre above the surface. Weeds and plants covered the whole surface, dripping water off in every direction.

“That looks exciting! Do you think the plant’s on there?” Kais voice called over the radio, watching the scene on his vid-screen back in the chopper. “If it is, let’s grab it and get out of here!” The team at the lake looked over, but amidst the mass of plants and foliage on the mound, it was impossible to see if their target was actually on the mound or not. 

They cautiously moved down towards the edge of the water and started to examine the island, working out how they were going to get across. The mana stream overhead seemed to have stabilised, and the mana now flowed down to the island more like a waterfall than lightning strike. Back at the chopper, Kai saw them huddle together and start to point at the island, clearly working out how they were going to get across. Now that he’d poked them, he leant back in his seat and decided to leave them alone for a bit to get on with it. 

“Whether we swim over, or dare to use magic, or some other plan using rope or something – we’re still going to struggle with the box I think.” Aswon mused as he looked over the twenty metres of water between them and the island. And we don’t even know if the plant is there or not. “Marius – any sign of it?”

They saw the drone head over, slowly descending to get a better view of the island. After a few moments of consideration, Marius keyed up his transmitter, informing them that he could see a plant that matched the description given to him – though in the low light it was hard to make out more than basic details.

“Right, it’s worth going for it then. So, you guys stay here, and I’ll go have a look.” Aswon and Shimazu immediately disagreed with her, refusing to let her go over there alone. After a short discussion it was agreed that Shimazu would accompany her, just in case something happened that needed dealing with physically, while Aswon stayed with Hunter on the shore to give magical support. Of course, they still didn’t know how they were crossing the water…

“Well, let’s see how deep it is, first.” Tads led the way to the edge, and watched as Aswon probed the water ahead with the spear. The ground angled down away from the shore quite steeply it seemed, and at the limit of his reach it was at least a metre deep. “Ok, deep enough. Well, I’ve crossed a few rivers on my walk. One more won’t hurt. With that Tads scrambled down the bank into the water, a large set of ripples emanating out from her entry point. She waded deeper, moving slowly to avoid too much disruption to the water, and her arms swung in opposite directions to her strides, helping to balance her. The water quickly rose up her legs, as she descended the slope, and when it reached groin height she stopped for a moment to gasp.

The guys on the shore winced in sympathy, then watched as she moved deeper and deeper in, until the water was approaching her shoulders. She wobbled a bit, then carefully turned and came back towards the shore, having crossed no more than about seven or eight metres towards the island. They helped her up and out of the water, and watched as she jogged on the spot, trying to keep moving and warm herself up while water cascaded out of her clothes.

“Too deep for sure, even for you I think, Aswon. We’ve got to swim for it. I really don’t think magic is a good idea here.” Shimazu and Tads took off everything they didn’t absolutely need in terms of gear and equipment, piling it into the truck.

“Marius, can your drone handle the load, to carry the box over to the island? Can you slave it to follow one of us perhaps?” Marius didn’t answer directly, but they saw the blimp descend from its position, and move to hover over the back of the vehicle, allowing them to hook up some webbing straps to the eyebolt on the underside of the drone’s body. Tads moved a little towards the water, and the drone swayed that way, clearly locked onto her visual signature.

Shimazu and Tads waded in, then launched off as the water got up to chest height, frantically doggy paddling in their heavy clothes that threatened to drag them under the inky black surface. It was hard work and slow going, but eventually they made it across to the last few metres where Shimazu found that he could stand again. They scrambled up the mound, slipping and sliding in the mud and slick vegetation. A moment later, the drone landed on the island, gently lowering the box onto an area covered in low weeds and they heard the whine from the engines diminish back to the normal almost silent purr. 

It only took them a moment to examine the island up close and part a few of the larger ferns to reveal the centre of the mound and a large bush of spiny, sharp, serrated leaves fanning out from a central point. Tads turned to give Aswon and Hunter a thumbs up, before realising they had no chance of seeing it between her thick mittens and the distance through the gloomy light.

“Got it! Going to start digging!” She and Shimazu put action to words, crouching around the plant and pulling out their folding shovels to start excavating around the plant. They worked fast, running the risk of exhaustion after the long night to make sure they kept their heart rate up and muscled pumping – anything to radiate heat for now and warm their sodden clothes.

On the shore, Aswon returned to the vehicle and grabbed all the spare clothes he could find, laying them out ready to grab. When they swam back, he figured they’d be freezing, and in danger of hypothermia as soon as they stopped, unless they could change into dry and warm clothes. He pushed the heating controls in the primitive UAZ as far into the red area as they would go, but when he realised it was just moving the cold air around faster, knocked the controls off to save the power.

Kai leant forward to examine the view from the sensor feed, but couldn’t see much from the position the drone was in. As he sat back, he saw a flash of movement near the corner of the farmhouse. A figure ran around the corner, moving at speed and turning towards them. As it took in the hulking shape of the helicopter, it flinched and twisted, trying to reverse direction. A foot slipped on the wet concrete, losing traction and pitching the figure over towards the floor sharply. The head dashed into the solid surface, and the body flopped onto the ground like a rag doll.

“Ouch. That looked painful!” Marius twisted to look as Kai spoke, then focussed past him into the yard just as a second figure appeared around the corner. It too took in the sight of the chopper and recoiled away sharply, before skidding over to the unmoving body on the floor and grabbed it by the arms before straightening up and starting to drag it away from them at an angle. It took them a moment to realise that it was an angle that neatly aligned with the direction that was both away from them, and away from where they had come from.

“Crap, that can’t be good.” Marius turned back to the controls and yanked at the fibre optic cable, jamming it into his jack and submerging himself into the rigger interface. Barely a second later the sounds of a jet engine fired up in the rear of the chopper as the vector thrust drone started to warm up. Kai pushed himself back from the cockpit and down the side of the module, grabbing his taser out of the holster to check the charge as he crabbed down the narrow walkway. As soon as he reached the doorway in the back, he jumped down to the ground below and moved towards the struggling figure, still backing away from him as fast as they could. He could see their breath billowing out in front of them in the chill dawn air, each grunt of effort forming a separate little cloud of condensation like steam billowing from an engine.

“Whoa there! Stop!” He called out in Russian. “I don’t know what you’re running from, but we have medical care and safety in the helicopter!” The figure didn’t respond, whether through a lack of understanding or distrust of what he was saying, continuing to drag the body away from him. Kai sighed and started to stride across the concrete, closing the distance on the panting figure. As he closed and could start to make out details, he saw the body being dragged belonged to a young man, brown unkempt hair swirling around his head as the wind caught it, and blood dripping down the right side of his face. “Stop! Come on!”

Behind him the rear ramp of the chopper lowered, and the heavily armoured ground drone rolled down the ribbed surface noisily, tracks clattering as metal struck metal. The lower part of the tail boom opened, and the vector thrust aircraft dropped a metre down before its fall was arrested by the small jets of exhaust from the engines. It danced sideways a few metres, then started to gain altitude.

Kai span back to frown at the noise, his face creasing with annoyance at the sight of the two obviously armed drones. That wasn’t going to persuade whoever it was to stop… he turned back just in time to see something or someone shoot the figure dragging the young man. The round impacted at the side of their face, deep in the shadow of their hood. He half expected to see the back of their head explode outwards, but instead they slowed for a moment, wobbled, and then collapsed down to the floor. Kai sped up, trying to reach the two bodies before whoever had shot them got in range to do anything about it.

Unfortunately, he had no choice. A figure appeared at the corner of the house, a long and bulky rifle held across their chest. As soon as they saw him, the rifle was raised in his direction and a shot fired. It slapped into his chest a split second later. He couldn’t help but flinch, but a moment passed and he realised there was no pain. Not even enough of an impact to make him step back. He saw the capsule broken on impact on his thick winter jacket, leaking fluid down his front. Looking back up, he saw his assailant working a mechanism to reload the rifle – and another two men step around the corner. They carried the same types of rifles, and similar armour, and much like the first they both fired at him. Forewarned by the actions of the first man, they stepped around ready and both their shots were at his head. He tried to dodge, but he just wasn’t fast enough.

One round hit the top of his hood and broke, and he felt the liquid dribble into his hair. A moment later the second slapped into his chin, causing him to recoil as much in shock as pain. Immediately though he felt himself wobble, his limbs no longer responding properly. His mouth felt dry, the colours shifted in his vision and his hearing sounded like he was in the bottom of a swimming pool. There was a smell too. Something like almonds? He drunkenly looked up at the three men, watching as they strobed a red and orange combination, flickering like flames in his watering eyes.

The ground drone fired, a long raking burst from the assault rifle mounted in the central tower that served as a turret and sensor post. Round flew through the air into the body of the first man, sending him sprawling on the floor with blood seeping through his body armour. Kai gasped in amazement as dragon breath flew past him, incinerating the elemental he’d been shot by. No – wait, that wasn’t right….

The airborne drone swooped down, the twin assault rifles blazing away on fully automatic. The rounds struck the ground at the feet of the two men still upright, and as the hot gas exited from the rifles and recoil made the barrels rise, the rounds rose in response. A line of bullets struck the groins, then stomachs, chest, throat and then heads of the men. They were dying long before the rounds hit the heads, but that clinched the deal, and their lifeless bodies dropped backwards, spilling the rifles across the concrete.

“Cwuuulle!” exclaimed Kai. The tip of his tongue felt like carpet, and he tried to lick his nose, then giggled in surprise. He wasn’t sure what had surprised him, but it was funny, whatever it was.

Brrrp! Another burst of fire spat past him, striking the figure on the floor, and he tried to spin around to see what the noise was. He twisted and lolled, then peered out in the same direction, not really aware that he was still facing the same direction. At the top of the ramp, Nadia saw him flailing around like a lunatic, arms windmilling to keep his balance. She let go of the submachine gun and it fell to her waist, pulling the strap taut, and she used both hands to climb down from the ramp. Walking swiftly over to Kai, she looked out at the bodies, ensuring that they were all very definitely dead, then grabbed the incapacitated Kai and started to manhandle him back to the chopper, passing the combat drone as it clattered towards her.

Once she’d managed to get him up the ramp and secured into a seat, she headed back out, casting a look around her. The vector thrust drone flew in circles above her, and the ground drone had parked near the corner. With Marius manning the sensors, she felt pretty secure, so she went over to the assailants and quickly stripped them of weapons and ammunition, bringing that back to the chopper and piling it up inside.

“Marius, my dear? What are we doing about the two being chased? Leaving them or taking them?”

“Better bring them inside, I suppose. I’ll keep watch, and radio if I spot anything.”

It took her a couple of minutes to drag the bodies up the ramp and inside. The second figure proved to be a woman, a little older than the boy, but with similar features. Both appeared unconscious and their features were gaunt and drawn. Marius meanwhile pushed the aerial drone higher and scanned around the area. The bursts of gunfire hadn’t been quiet, and he feared that the aggressors were not alone. Surely there was more of them around, perhaps with a vehicle of some kind – but looking around, the area seemed just as empty and abandoned as when he’d first spotted it on the map.

Aswon didn’t know what alerted him in particular, but he was glad it happened. He turned and peered out into the grey light and saw a shimmering shape rise up out of the ground. It looked vaguely like the weird apparition that had attacked them in the vehicle the previous night, and he hefted his spear into a ready position, and shouted a warning.

“Heads up! Magical spirit approaching!”

On the island Tads stood upright and looked over to them, then made a gesture with her hands, weaving a complex path through the air, before bending over to dig again.

“What was that?”

“Never mind Shimazu, just dig faster, keep warm and keep your sleeves away from those spines, they’re like razors.”

The spirit lifted its arms up, water or mana – it was hard to say which – dripping from them. The two arms swung to the front and the fingers extended as if holding a large ball. A glow appeared in the centre, a faint pink wisp that writhed and swum in the cage created. Then the fingers opened and the pink mist flew like an arrow, aimed unerringly at Aswon’s head. He gritted his teeth and prepared for the assault, but about 10cm short of his head the pink energy struck something. It shattered, sending filaments of pink out like strobes of plasma, questing around him and dancing with sudden rapidity, before they gradually faded away.

“Thank you Tads,” he muttered, and broke into a run, heading towards the figure. To his side, Hunter raised the assault rifle, and mentally flicked the selector to single shot. He wasn’t going to waste more of his precious armour piercing rounds than he had to, and from his experience a lot of magical spirits and critters just didn’t seem to be affected by bullets – but it was worth a try. He aimed carefully, then swore under his breath as his smartlink danced back and forth, trying to get a lock on the creature. Finally it seemed to select a piece that it considered suitably solid, and the round fired. He was gratified to see a jagged tear open in the side of the apparition, spilling whatever was inside it out. He didn’t know how much that might hurt it, but he figured that the stuff on the inside was supposed to stay there, so it probably wasn’t good for it.

Aswon closed the distance at a sprint, then jabbed at the spirit with his spear. It seemed clumsy in melee, unwilling to evade his attack and going instead for an offensive grab, not considering the massive advantage the spear gave him on a charge. As the blade struck and eviscerated the creature he felt a jolt of power through it. It made his hands tingle and he jerked back in surprise. The tip of his spear glowed a dull red, but faded after a moment. 

He moved back towards Hunter, calling out to him as he scanned the area.

“Change to regular ammo Hunter! Or perhaps explosive if you have any.” He saw the ork shake his head. “Don’t waste the good stuff, but gunfire certainly seems to work!”

He’d almost made it back to Hunter when a shout made him turn. Two of the spirits had appeared rising out of the ground much like the first, perhaps 90m from the causeway. They repeated the gesture the first had made, each one of them being targeted. Much like the first attack, the power dissipated on impact with the magical shield. Aswon was already running, while Hunter pummelled his first target with a few rounds, then a few more to finish it off. Aswon struck at his, once more driving the spear into the centre of the creature and gripping the shaft tightly as another kick of power coursed through it.

Back at the chopper Nadia secured the two newcomers into seats, wrapping seatbelts around them then using some strapping to hold them upright – and somewhat secure. Whilst she was trying to push some painkillers down Kai’s throat and make him drink some water she heard the clatter as the tracked drone rolled up the ramp, followed shortly after by the roaring engines as the vector thrust drone mated with the docking clamp and was nestled back into the tail boom. Second later she heard the massive turbines start and everything began to shake, so she ran to the rear ramp, checked it was clear and hit the button to raise it. Marius continued the pre-flight checks, waiting for the engines to warm up and the systems to stabilise, while she continued to lash everything down in the rear or otherwise make it secure.

At the lake, Shimazu and Tads dug faster and faster. Now they weren’t so much worried about the heat, as the sounds of combat. Hunters gun had sounded like faint popping noises at first – only carrying due to the near silence of the area. Now in a much lesser fashion to that experienced by Aswon’s monster rifle, the suppressor was filling with hot gasses that just couldn’t bleed away fast enough. The report of the gun grew louder and louder with each burst fired, and he seemed to be firing – a lot. Aswon sprinted back and forth as more of the spirits appeared, sliding out of the ground with an eerie smoothness and clasping their hands together before sending more bolts of mana at them.

He heard a cry of pain behind him and turned to see Hunter’s nose explode into a crimson mess, a hot river of blood flowing down the front of his armour as some of the energy found a way to penetrate the shield around him. He could spare little time though – the creatures arriving closer to him saved him from as long a run, but also gave him less time to react. And every time he struck one, there was that same jolt of power through the spear, but it felt stronger and stronger each time. The glow at the end of the spear intensified too, the crimson energy growing more and more pervasive. He looked at it magically for a second as he ripped the tip free from another foe, but couldn’t sense anything inherently evil about it, just a sense of power.

The foes kept coming, rising from the ground closer and closer. They weren’t sure why, but when they were about fifty metres away, a third appeared. Hunter’s gun steamed in the mist as the barrel grew hot, and a growing pile of plastic and brass grew to the right of him as round after round was ejected. He’d never fired so much in such a short time, and the shot counter dropped rapidly, making him glad he’d been lugging around the weight of the extended capacity magazines for so long.

Another batch of three appeared, and they each took down one foe, but the third battered at Hunter with another bolt, and he flinched as the energy wrapped around his head, pink tendrils of deadly force flickering across his vision. He weakened the target, then Aswon was there, a scything desperate swing that took off the back of its head before it could fling another assault at Hunter.

There was a pause for a moment, and Aswon took advantage of the lull to race back to their vehicle and check it was ready to go. Hunter prepared another magazine, ready for a quick swap when he needed to.

With a cry of triumph, Shimazu and Tads managed to finally prise the huge clod of earth free and levered it into the temperature controlled box, slamming the door closed and activating the controls. The sides spiralled in to enclose the ‘ground level’ part of the plant and chillers started to cool the top while heaters warmed the bottom. They abandoned their spades and other replaceable gear, and stared to slide down the bank into the water, flinching as the icy water invaded their clothes once more. Behind them the drone lifted again, engines cycling to 100% rated power and then beyond as they lifted the box and the cargo up into the air.

In the distance, they heard the dull roar of rotors, and hoped that it was Marius on this way to them and not a response team. Either way there was not a lot they could do in the water, so they waded deeper and deeper, then once more launched forwards and started to swim towards the causeway. Their arms tired from the digging, chilled despite their best efforts from the first dunking were struggling to keep their heads above the surface, while their legs felt leaden and lethargic. 

Aswon dealt with his first apparition, feeling another bolt of mana slam into the shield and be deflected away, then turned to slice the spirit that had thrown it in half. WHAM! Another jolt of power, but no time to examine it or worry. The sounds of the gun had intensified, with one three round burst now blurring into the last as Hunter serviced each target in a brutally cold manner, gritting his teeth past the pain. With the blood still oozing down his face, his red-stained teeth exposed by pulled back lips made for a frightening sight – at least to mortal eyes. The apparitions cared not though, and while he destroyed one, another flung a mass of mana at him.

The bolt hit, but this time drove though the shield square in front of his face and seemed to drive into his throat. He staggered back, the gun falling silent as he writhed in silent agony for a moment, before he could bring the barrel back on target to continue the assault. His vision swam and greyness surrounded the centre of his sight as pressure built up. He panted rapidly, trying to drive down the pain that seemed to fill his brain, worse than any dentist’s visit.

The foes were down, and based on how things had gone before, they had precious few seconds before some more appeared. He staggered back towards the vehicle, laboriously climbing onto the roof and wedging his legs into position before using the body of the vehicle to steady the wandering gun barrel. It took him several attempts to seat a new magazine into the well of the rifle, but finally he managed it and the display counted back up to maximum once more.

Aswon looked over and saw that Shimazu and Tads were struggling in the water, and ran over to them with a rope, neatly throwing the line over to them, the rope dancing and writhing on the surface of the water like a snake hunting its prey.

With cold and numb fingers they grabbed at the slick line, feeling it slide through their grip despite their best efforts. Aswon pulled as hard as he could, trying to give them forward motion before they slid off the end of the line. Slowly they picked up speed, and just when it looked like the line would pull completely out of their hands, they felt the ground beneath them and managed to stagger up the slope, Aswon grabbing each of them in turn and pushing them towards the rear of the vehicle.

More spirits appeared, and Hunter just blazed away this time. He was having trouble focussing, and wasn’t sure he could see clearly enough to target them clearly, so instead put out as many rounds as he could and hoped for the best. The gun’s advanced recoil dampening system helped, as did his sheer strength, but the padded stock still hammered into his shoulder as the forces mounted. He felt a bolt of mana hit him, and again, and again, sliding off the invisible shield that protected him until his head was surrounded by faint pink lightning and he couldn’t see anything. He kept the trigger down, sweeping the gun back and forth regardless.

Aswon dived into the front of the vehicle and started the engine, slamming it into gear and waiting for Shimazu and Tads to throw themselves into the rear. They shambled over, exhaustion clearly on their faces and echoed in their movements. The car lurched, then lurched again as they stumbled into the back. A third lurch told him the drone had landed on the cargo bed. Ahead of him the sky darkened for a moment as the vast bulk of the chopper roared overhead, reefing around in a tight turn and then nosing up at what looked like an impossible angle.

The move killed forward speed, and Marius dropped the nose quickly as they descended, making sure the tail didn’t hit the ground – or worse – Hunter. As they levelled out, he triggered the ramp which lowered down until it hovered about an inch above the ground.

Aswon wasted no time – he stamped on the accelerator and hoped that Hunter had a good grip, then released the clutch. The UAZ sprang forward, wheels spinning on the mud and dirt and the back end fishtailing. He realised with only a second to spare that Nadia stood on one side of the ramp, blazing away at the apparitions with her SMG while more fire from overhead told him that he’d not lost Hunter. He angled left a little, making sure he didn’t hit her and with a bounce and roar they hit the ramp and powered inside the vehicle.

Hunter felt the lurch and stopped firing, then as Aswon slammed on the brakes, he slid forward and down the bonnet, tumbling down onto the floor, with his arms cradled protectively around his gun. For a moment he thought he’d messed up and had fired into the side of the chopper, but then his brain fuzzily reported the different sound of 9mm rounds from Nadia’s gun to his more powerful rifle.

Marius threw power into the engines and they gained height and accelerated hard, sliding away from the mass of spirits that were closing in on their position. They slid now across the landscape, at a constant height and with smooth motion, but with the engines roaring they started to get left behind. One last fusillades of bolts splattered against the ward of the chopper, and they were gone.

They banked and Marius swung to a southerly course, heading for a straight run at the border – no tricks, no deceptive plans, no evasion – this was a fast getaway from the bank robbery, relying on speed to throw off their pursuit. He lowered the craft down and put all of his concentration of flying though, trusting the others to sort out what was going on in the back.

Both Nadia and Aswon were about to open their mouths and shout orders when they were cut short by Tads.

“You. Strip now! Shower!” Shimazu nodded and followed her instructions, pulling off his sodden clothing layers after layer until he was down to his pants and then ran into the living module and prised himself into the shower. His bulk and physique made it difficult, but he found himself highly motivated for some reason.

Tads had followed along, stripping down to a t-shirt and her knickers, showing no concern over the others seeing her mass of scarred and burnt flesh. Aswon came over with a blanket and wrapped it around her, then started to vigorously rub her to try and impart some warmth.

Nadia pulled Hunter into an upright position, and held a bandage to his nose and mouth, trying to stem the bleeding and give the wound a chance to clot. 

As the chopper settled down onto a new course and levelled off, Aswon’s eyes drifted over to the two unfamiliar passengers strapped into the seats at the side, along with the unfocussed smile of a still delirious Kai. He was just about to ask what had happened when a plaintive voice shouted out from the shower.

“How do I know when I’m not going to die of hypothermia?”


	113. 113 - Extraction under fire

Date Tuesday 20/04/2060, Location: 61.63316, 73.31843

Aswon ignored Shimazu’s questions and headed into the temporary greenhouse area that had been lashed together. Dodging around plant pots that had been taped down to a pallet, he moved the temperature controlled box into position and strapped it back down, then found enough space to sit cross legged next to it and start to meditate. Closing his eyes, he thought of home, of the hunts and joy of tribal life, a simple way of life living with the land. Breathing deeply he tried to think of only the good things, hoping that his calm and attitude would help give the area around him a positive aura.

As he settled deeper into his meditative state he felt something odd – a certain homeliness. Maybe the plants helped, or that he was with people who had been though some interesting times together and had fought against some pretty grim opposition. Either way, it felt nice, and he tried to embrace the feeling and spread contentment around him.

Kai watched from his seat as people moved around him, feeling his head throb from whatever drugs he’d been dosed with along with the vibration of the chopper as it flew through the cold morning air. He bellowed at Shimazu, telling him to get out of the shower and unstrap him and help him get sorted out. He watched as Shimazu squeezed himself back out of the shower, dripping water sliding down his legs and landing on the floor, then exploding up into the air in a mesmerising pattern as the vibrations of the floor plating made them dance around his feet.

Shimazu ignored Kai who was still making odd noises and had his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth, and grabbed some clothes, pulling them on over wet flesh. He was still cold, and didn’t care about being wet – he just wanted some layers between him and the bitter air and body-sapping coldness of the deck. Once he had some clothes on he got himself a hot drink, swigging the almost scalding coffee down as fast as he could to get some warmth into him and bring his core temperature up. As he stood by the heater in the back of the living module, he saw Tads dive past him into the shower, letting the warm water flow over her. He looked away out of respect – not only because of her nakedness, but also because she rarely let any part of her badly burned body show, even to them. 

Once he was warmed up a little, he moved over to Hunter who was still sitting propped up against the wall, his rifle across his legs with his hands loosely holding the weapon. He looked stunned, and his eyes kept losing focus – but he was doing his best to keep an eye on the two guests secured in their seats. He pulled the medkit out and started to attach the leads and sensors to Hunter, doing his best to keep clear of his line of sight.

It didn’t take long for the machine to beep and produce a report – internal bleeding caused by systemic shock, possible brain bleeds and lung damage. Shimazu read the report carefully and looked at the suggested drug regime, checking out the amounts suggested and post care plan, the carefully slipped the hypo-spray into contact before dispensing the drugs. A healthy dose of coagulants administered in several places to spread around the bloodstream, some low-level amphetamine analogues to perk up the system, some NSAIDS to help reduce the pressure and provide a little pain relief and a bit of plasma and blood expanders to bulk up the volume of fluids in his system.

It didn’t take long – in face less than a minute to see the effects of some of the drugs. His responses increased along with his colour and the breathing became less laboured – although his feet started to twitch, probably due to the uppers. Still, his bleeding had stopped, his pulse was high but steady, respiration was much better and he appeared out of the danger zone.

With Hunter stabilised, he moved on to Kai next, attaching the sensors to him and strapping the sampler to his arm to allow it to draw a small amount of blood for analysis. His thoughts were confirmed when the machine beeped a minute later, the screen rapidly scrolling as chemical after chemical was listed. He paused the display and scrolled back through, then gave a little grunt of understanding. 

Whatever drugs had been used on Kai – and presumably their two guests – was a derivative or related to Neurostun, a powerful sedative or tranquilising agent. Like many drugs, only a small proportion of what was used was actually the properly branded Yamatetsu version of Neurostun, rather than say the Pharmatech version of the product with just enough difference in the chemical structure to avoid patent infringement cases – but for those in the business, it was all the same really. Normally a gas that was used to knock out everyone in an area, it could also be fired from pistols and rifles in gel rounds or capsules designed to break on contact and soak through most fabrics into the skin and go to work on the bloodstream.

“You’ll be alright Kai! It’s just going to take a while for this to break down. No long term damage, just sit still and wait, ok?”

He wasn’t sure if Kai understood him completely, but there wasn’t a lot he could do about that. He scrolled down the display again and looked at some of the other chemicals mixed in – a bunch of them he’d never heard of, and had no idea what they did, but they hadn’t flagged major alarms in the med-kits computer, so he didn’t worry too much about them.

He looked over to the two guests in the seats just along from Kai, and saw them watching him. With their hoods down he could see both of them had a lean and gaunt edge to them. He had a short crop of brown hair and mid brown eyes, while she had her hair pulled back into a ponytail. Other than having his face covered in dried blood, they looked pretty unremarkable, just average people really. He moved over towards them, intending to check them over and ensure they were ok.

Both of them flinched back away from him, leaning as far as they could in their chairs and struggling somewhat against their bonds.

“Easy, easy there. Just trying to help out. Don’t worry.” He tried first in English, then repeated himself in less fluent Russian when they didn’t respond. They seemed to understand the Russian though, and let him approach them to check them out. He pulled out a set of gloves, then with an anti-septic cloth started to gently clear away the blood on the side of the boys’ face. He wiped carefully, expecting to find a wound underneath somewhere, yet despite the cloth turning a deep pink as it absorbed the blood, the boy’s skin was smooth and undamaged. He smiled and then backed away carefully.

Dropping into Japanese, he turned towards Hunter and called over to him, raising his voice over the noise of the chopper.

“Something odd going on here. The boy was covered in blood, but there’s no wound, no scar – nothing.” He headed over to Kai, and repeated his warning in Mandarin, hoping Kai would understand him.

Hunter thought for a moment, and didn’t like where it led. The only time they’d encountered something like that before was shape-shifters. And that was bad news, wasn’t it? After all, they’d just invaded a foreign country from one they were at war with, and stolen a rare and magical plant. And probably killed some people, too. He fired up his secure link and squirted over a message to Marius, warning him that there were two possible shapeshifters in the back of the chopper.

“Why am I not surprised. We seem to have all the luck.” Marius’ response managed to convey his level of sarcasm adequately, and even with his body aching as much as it did, he still smiled.

“What did you say then?” Nadia had moved over to Shimazu, and was trying to confirm what was going on. When Shimazu repeated himself, Nadia nodded and moved over to sit across from the two restrained guests, her SMG on her lap, held ready to respond. She fixed them with a stare and sat looking at them, keeping them covered from a different angle to Hunter.

Tads emerged out of the back door in a fresh set of clothes, still rubbing at her hair with a small towel. Glancing around, she saw Shimazu standing alertly next to Kai, with Nadia and Hunter both with weapons ready on the other side of the open space, staring at their guests. It certainly didn’t feel like a comfortable situation. At least Aswon was still chilled out, sitting in the greenhouse and softly singing to the plant.

“Shimazu – what’s up with Kai? Does he need help?”

“No, he’s just monged out.”

“So what’s different to normal?” The response was smoothly delivered, and she heard the snort of amusement from Nadia, Hunter and Shimazu. A moment later Kai broke out into a big grin, then looked slightly confused, as if something was bothering him a little. Still, the moment of levity helped a little, and she took the opportunity to head over towards Hunter and give him a quick examination. Dropping into astral space she examined his body carefully, shuddering slightly at the blackness of his soul and the frightening amounts of plastic, metal and ceramics that he’d stuffed into himself. Still, she got an idea of where the worst of the internal wounds were, and held her hands out over him, waiting for a nod of approval.

She summoned her power and cast her healing spell, the golden light washing over his head and chest, illuminating the rear of the chopper like late autumn sunlight spilling through a window. She moved her hands over him, guiding the power into him to revitalise his cells and repair the damage. The air was clean and pure, not tainted here, and she was able to guide the mana easily – unlike around the average city and certainly better than some of the places they’d seen. A minute later, the glow faded, the golden light easing off and she looked down with a certain amount of pride as Hunter rolled to his feet and moved around a little, testing himself for pain. He nodded at her with thanks, and gave her a big tusky grin, as everything he tried to do worked as expected. 

In the cockpit Marius sat in his chair, secured by the five point harness. His head lolled to one side and his eyes were closed, and to anyone that didn’t know him he looked asleep. But his mind was interfaced with the rigged systems on the chopper, controlling it with micro-adjustments and deft movements. Radar and lidar were his eyes and ears, and he felt the ground pass underneath him with more precision than his normal senses. As he flew over the terrain he saw more areas of land similar to the one they had left behind – systems of dykes and channels around large ponds and lakes, the twisted remains of pipelines and derricks, twisted hunks of concrete ripped apart by something in the past. He flicked through his sensors, confirming that everything was ok and continued the journey to the south, flying through low ground and between forests where he could.

Back in the makeshift greenhouse, Tads had gone to check up on Aswon.

“Hi Tads. Everything ok out there.”

“I think so. Hunter is better, Shimazu is good. Kai should recover soon. And we have two new guests. You ok, Aswon?”

“I am well. All is calm, and at peace.”

“Well, our guests have woken up, so I think it’s time to go talk to them.” Aswon opened and eye and squinted at Tads, then opened the other and looked at the pair in the seats, leaning against the side of the craft. Extending his vision into astral space he saw the aura – clearly an eagle, somehow disguised or in the form of a boy, next to the older woman. He took a deep cleansing breath. He couldn’t change what was, only what happened. Shimazu walked past him holding two mugs of steaming hot liquid – presumably tea? He took another breath and closed his eyes, trying to radiate calm and serenity around him.

Shimazu held out the mugs to each of the guests, trying to guide them into the right place so they could hold them in their arms. It was a struggle with their hands tied and taped together, but he wasn’t about to release them just yet – not until they had more story from them.

“Do you speak English? Here, have some of this to drink. Be careful, it’s hot.”

“Thank you. I speak English, little. Thank you.” The girl spoke, apparently for both of them. After she had taken a few sips of tea, she spoke again.

“A ty govorish' po russki?” Shimazu smiled at her, and held up a finger, thought for a moment then responded. 

“Ya nemnogo govoryu po-russki.” His pronunciation was off he was sure of that, but it sounded like “only a little” to him. She spoke again, firing out Russian thick and fast, and he again held up his hand and shouted for Hunter to come over and have a chat. The big orc moved over towards them and knelt down on the deck, keeping his head below theirs to avoid appearing too intimidating.

“Hi! How are you?” His mastery of the Russian language was far better than Shimazu’s, and the older girl looked at him closely for a moment.

“That of course depends on what you're going to do with us and how much you hurt us….”

“Oh don’t worry – we have no plans to hurt you.” She stared at Hunter as he spoke, examining his face and looking for clues as to whether he spoke the truth. It was hard in a face like his – it was one only his mother could love, and that only on a good day. She took a deep breath, then glanced at her younger sibling to her side.

“Can I offer you a deal?” Hunter nodded to her. “How about you stop somewhere and let us out, and we just walk away. We don’t ever tell anyone we were in your vehicle, we don’t ever tell anyone we saw you, or met you, or know anything about you, ever?”

“Well, that’s an interesting proposition, to say the least. Let me think.” He opened up his private channel to Marius and relayed what had been said. 

“Can you find out who they….” The voice paused for a moment, then continued “…sorry, ridgeline. Can you find out who they are and what they’re running from?”

Hunter turned back to the two captives, and gave them what might charitably have been called a smile. With gentle prompting and some easy-going conversation, he coaxed their story out of them. It was probably helped when he pulled out his knife and cut them free, then sat back down across from them, secure in the knowledge that his cyber-enhanced reflexes would manage to beat them on the draw if they tried anything. And if they did – well, they were in the air, Shimazu was to one side with his sword and Tads was with Aswon on the other side in the little greenhouse area. It probably wouldn’t be much of a fight.

She was Voiddelan, twenty three years old, and from the Town of Murvalenko. Her brother Yaan was seven years younger than she was, and she’d looked after him for several years since they’d lost their parents. They’d lost their house when their parents died – supposedly in an accident. However she didn’t believe the story, hinting that both of her parents were somewhat dissatisfied with the way the country was operated and run.

Things had come to a head when for some reason the police had taken an interest in Yaan, telling him that he had to join the militia and would be trained to defend the country. One night they’d snuck out of the boarding house they’d taken up lodgings in, carrying only a spare set of clothes, some food and a few personal possessions and had struck out for the border. She didn’t seriously expect to make it, but she had to try – they weren’t going to take her brother, no matter what.

While she talked, Hunter and Shimazu watched them, picking up on their body language and facial expressions. Voiddelan did all of the talking, with Yaan not saying a word. He alternated between looking at his older sister and around the chopper. Even when questions were directed at him, he just turned to look up at his sister, who answered for him.

“So who were those people, back at the farm? The ones with the capsule guns?”

“Trackers. Members of the police force. They specialise in hunting down people identified by the secret police.”

“How were they following you?”

“They followed our trail.” Her answer bordered on sarcasm, as if the answer was obvious, but then amplified her answer. “They are TRACKERS. It’s their job, and they are well trained. When you are on the run through the countryside, you leave a trail, unless you too are very skilled. We, are not.”

Shimazu moved into the greenhouse with two fresh cups of tea to give to Tads and Aswon. They accepted them gratefully, then Aswon pitched his voice low, using Shimazu as a shield.

“Hey, just mention to Hunter quietly – the boy is a shapeshifter, an eagle. She looks normal, but he’s definitely a shifter.” Shimazu stiffened slightly, then commanded his body to relax, and pushed out a wide smile then turned and headed over to Hunter to relay the message. Hunter listened, and threw Shimazu a sharp glance, then turned to make eye contact with Aswon. Aswon just nodded calmly at him, getting a curt nod in return from Hunter.

“Marius, turns out the boy back here is an eagle shapeshifter, at least according to Aswon or Tads. Does that change anything from your point of view?” He called again over the secure link, then listened for the inevitable sigh. Afterwards though there was a pause, then Marius answered in the negative. A moment later though Nadia wandered back from the cockpit area and took a seat, casually holding her sub-machine gun in the general direction of the two refugees.

Hunter chatted with them for a few more minutes, asking some of the same questions again to see if he got the same answers, then excused himself for a moment. Moving around the corner to break line of sight, he checked that everyone had their earbuds in and was receiving him.

“So, do we just get over the border and drop them off somewhere?”

“Ja. I favour the airport at Tara. It’s close enough to the town that they can walk there and make something of their lives, and be away from us.”

“What about the smuggler stop, the old service station. They might have a better chance of getting some work with a crew than just in some random city,” suggested Tads.

“We could, but it was a pretty horrible place, and we don’t know how often people stop there. They might have more chance at the quarry,” responded Aswon.

The conversation wandered back and forth for a minute, weighing up the pros and cons of each place they could leave them. Certainly it was clear that nobody wanted them to stay with the team as a long term thing. Shimazu suddenly piped up over the link

“Um… eagle shapeshifter feathers. That’s pretty rare right. Like, if we had some, could we use them as a component in a magical enchantment. Maybe on something like my sword?”

“We could, technically. But we’d have to get him to change, and it might hurt when we pluck it. And that also means he’d be giving us a magical link to himself, and I don’t think he’d be happy with that – certainly I wouldn’t want to give anyone a link to myself if I could help it. That’s why I’ve been so careful about checking for those people in Iran trying to track us, and keep putting up wards on our vehicles. And I am not going to forcibly take something like that from someone that hasn’t hurt us.”

The conversation went back and forth again, this time discussing the morality of harvesting magical components from people against their will, and just how much they had to do to be counted as an enemy.

“Shimazu – there’s also two things to consider. If we say that he’s a shifter, then they know that we’re magical, which we haven’t confirmed yet. They may suspect, but they don’t know. And the other thing is that HE might not know. And finding out something like that can be a shock. And shocks for people like that can….well they can make life interesting. Something to consider, perhaps.”

Shimazu nodded, and wandered over to the UAZ deep in thought. He saw the pile of clothes that had been stripped off and dumped in a pile and absentmindedly grabbed at them to move them elsewhere. They were stuck, so he tugged more firmly, then put serious effort into it and gave them a yank. There was a tearing sound, and the pile of frozen clothes tipped over, the fabric of the seat and a chunk of foam frozen to the bottom. He looked around guiltily and then quickly pushed the mound of clothes upright again, putting them back as he’d found them, and then moving away from the car. Someone else could do that, and have to deal with Marius…

Hunter moved back towards their guests, and crouched down nearby.

“So, why were the secret police after him? He’s just a boy?

“He is, but he’s special. Special enough that they won’t let him go.”

“Special enough that he could leave you behind quite easily I think, but doesn’t want to.” Her face blanched of colour as she heard the hidden meaning in his voice, and she sat bolt upright, her hands hovering over the release mechanism on the seat belt. For a moment he thought she was going to bolt, but then she sighed and her shoulders slumped in defeat.

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“We were being hunted because of what he is. You saved us from them, but we don’t know what you’re going to do with us either. We have no reason to trust you.”

“Good girl.” She looked up in confusion at him, hearing the genuine warmth in his voice, no trace of condescension or anger. “You’re right not to trust anyone, least of all us. Go with your gut. But for now – do you want some food?”

She stared at him from under lidded eyes, trying to work out if this was a trap. Whatever, it was she couldn’t work out what her options were, so she just nodded instead.

Soon there was a big steaming pan of porridge bought out, and Hunter served three large bowls, making sure to eat some quickly to show them it was safe. The two piled in with gusto – ignoring the spoons and shovelling the hot food into their mouths as fast as they could.

“Whoa, slow down there! You’ll give yourself indigestion, or cramps. And if you have been on the run and not eaten properly, you’ll make yourself sick.” They slowed down, marginally, but still piled the food into their mouths at a rapid rate. “Besides, there is PLENTY more where that came from.”

Voiddelan and Yaan looked up as the genuine peals of laughter filled the back of the chopper from Aswon, Shimazu, Nadia and Hunter, with only Tads looking at them sternly. The guests couldn’t work out why people were laughing, but it wasn’t aimed at them – and they did have hot fresh food in front of them, even if it was heavy on the oats.

“Hey Hunter. The rifles from the people chasing our friends. Have they been bug-scanned? Or any of their other kit?” Hunter closed his eyes for a moment, then shook his head.

“No – and we should have done it before. Let’s get that sorted now, though.” He grabbed the bug scanner and ran it over the rifles and ammo, then the credstick IDs taken from the hunters. Doing so let him examine the unusual looking rifles though – each was a single shot weapon feeding from a short magazine, taking a wide capsule into the mechanism and then firing them with a jolt of highly compressed gas from the cylinder attached to the underside of the barrel. He found some spare rounds, the capsules having a strange gel-like surface to them. Alongside them were a couple of more mundane pistols, fairly heavy in calibre and with standard copper jacketed rounds.

Last of all, he picked up one of the credsticks they had been carrying and gave it a careful examination. It looked similar to any other credstick – a small cylinder made of smooth metal, a small hole at one end to attach to a keyring or chain, and a cap at the other end. Flipping the cap open he saw the universal interface that would slot into a reader for a transaction at any kind of shop or terminal. After checking all three for bugs and finding them clean, he grabbed their deck and fired up the reader program – time to see how much money they’d been carrying.

He slotted the chip, then stared at the error message – “Error 97B, no device present.” What? He went back through the steps, steps he’d done time and time again previously. No – he’d not done anything wrong or different – he’d run the program and inserted the credstick just fine. But for some reason it wasn’t even being picked up by the terminal. Strange. He put the credsticks down and the gear away, then sent a message out to everyone over the comms.

“All the gear is clean, no bugs found. Something wrong with one of the credsticks when I tested it, but nothing important. Oh – speaking of being tracked, Tads – those things that attacked us at the lake. Can they track us?”

“I really hope not – but I can’t say for sure. I think that they will be tied to either the lake itself, or an area a few hundred metres around it, that it would mark the edge of their domain or territory. That’s commonly how spirits are bound, especially ones tied to the land. But these were not normal at all. They were twisted in some way, and I’ve never seen a spirit like that before – dripping mana, wet and dishevelled, screaming and multiplying so fast. I mean, they might be really common around here, but I’ve never seen or heard of them before, so I really can’t say. But I hope not. And besides, the ward should really keep them out!”

She turned her gaze towards their guests.

“Speak of which, we should have felt a twinge when he came onboard. Nadia – was it through the back door on the side, or up the ramp?”

“I dragged them up the ramp. Why?”

“Wards can be set one of two ways over doors. You either make them so when the door is opened, it creates a hole in the ward, so you can move magical items, creatures or spells through the ward. Or you can make the door open and the ward remain across the space, forming a barrier. We made the back left door open a hole, so we can bring things in and out – but the ramp has a solid barrier across it, at least in astral space. So when you dragged them in, we should have felt it.”

“Ahh, but if I have my timings right, I think you were slowly freezing to death on the island whilst frantically digging up a plant, and we were being assaulted by magical spirits that were bouncing off your shields. We might have missed it in the excitement.” Aswon spoke calmly, trying to relay his thoughts as unemotionally as possible. Anything to keep the area clear of hostility or conflict that might harm the plant in the centre of the containment unit. Tads nodded at him as she considered his words – he certainly had a point.

“Stand by, twenty five kilometres to the border.”

“Ok you two – we’re near the Russian border, and have to get across, and that might not be so easy. Buckle up and hang on.”

Voiddelan and Yaan followed Hunter’s instructions and watched as the team moved swiftly. Aswon lashed himself down to the floor with some cargo straps, and ensured that nothing else was loose around him. Nadia strapped herself in opposite them and slung the gun’s strap over her shoulders, while the others headed out of their sight, squeezing down the side of the living module and into the cockpit area, where they swiftly strapped in to the seats. A moment later, Shimazu hit the quick release and ran out of the cockpit, back the way he’d come.

“Shimazu, what’s wrong?”

“The car, Hunter. Nobody lashed down the car. If we turn suddenly it’s going to fly around in the back and smash everything to pieces!” He headed back and frantically started to ratchet the UAZ down into position, bedding the sturdy hooks of the ratchet straps into the cleats that ran down the cargo bay in parallel lines – thankfully strapping down cargo was something the military needed to do a lot, and their system had been refined over years of practice. When he was done, Shimazu jumped in the driver’s seat of the UAZ and fastened the seatbelt, figuring it was just as secure as any other seat.

Ten kilometres from the border, Marius gave a twitch as his ‘scalp’ tingled. He focussed on his systems, flicking through the different sensors, and picked up a pack of birds on his radar. Strangely enough they weren’t showing much of a vector change, which he’d expect given the speed he was going at and the range they must be at to have registered on his sensors at all. He narrowed the radar beam with a twitch of a phantom muscle, and got a range estimate. Four kilometres away. How were birds giving him a radar return at four thousand metres? He checked the readings again, splitting his attention between not flying into hills and trees and checking the range returned. No – they were right, which meant that these birds were much bigger than they should be.

He barked a warning out to the others, then warmed up the heavy machine gun in the nose, patching control through to the rear station and hoping that Hunter would get the hint. He squinted at the rapidly oncoming silhouettes and tried to work out what they were.

The others looked around them suddenly as Marius shouted the warning so unexpectedly, peering out through their windows to spot the threat. In the nose turret, Tads had an excellent view and spotted the shapes in the distance, and peered through the window focussing intently on the tiny shapes – not noticing the gun moving next to her head. Three metres behind her, Hunter slid the optical cable from the controls into his datajack, feeling it sync with his Smartlink. It felt odd to not have the gun in his hand, but not as weird as having the feed from the sensors overlaid over his normal eyesight. He closed his eyes, finding the image much less confusing to have the sensor feed floating over the darkness instead and studied the shapes.

“I don’t mean to alarm you, but we’re in trouble,” Tads voice called up from the bubble ahead, barely audible over the roar of the engines. “I can see a couple of Siberian Firebirds and what looks like two Thunderbirds! And they’ve seen us!” Ahead of them, the birds wheeled sharply and moved towards them, dropping into formation.

“The firebirds have powers much like a spirit – they can cause strange accidents and breakdowns, make people forget what they are doing, lose concentration on things like grenades and explosive, and they can also move fast and leave a trail of fire!” She concentrated as she called out the information, and placed her shielding on the helicopter itself, Marius and Hunter – the only people she could see as she twisted around in her chair.

“The thunderbirds are bigger and tougher, and they can throw massive balls of lightning as well – I think that might be an issue for the electrical things.” Marius heard her and couldn’t help but feel a trickle of concern through his mind. Electrical attacks were a rigger’s worst enemy – not only would the lightning stand a good chance of damaging the systems on the chopper, but the feedback through the jacks into his brain would be excruciating and potentially deadly. And if he lost control at this speed, and they hit the ground….well at least it would be quick for everyone. He also made the effort to close his eyes, fighting against the rigger interface to control his body. Using only the vehicle sensors he could at least rely on what he saw, unlike his normal vision.

Tads twisted back and watched as the birds grew larger in her view. They were definitely flying in formation, closing now and spreading to bracket the helicopter and outflank it. She wasn’t sure how long they would be able to match their speed, but if they got to the sides and out of sight from her, there was much less she could do. She drew power swiftly, gathering it into a massive ball of seething mana and then focussed it, compressing it down into something she could hurl at her foe. A moment to confirm her aim, and she released it, struggling to control the backlash and the draining effect it had upon her mind. The ball of mana slammed into the thunderbird on the left, homing unerringly on its soul no matter how much it twisted to avoid it. The effect was devastating – one moment it was trying to evade, the next it was unconscious – plummeting from the air and twisting through space like a crazed sycamore seed, until it smashed into the ground below.

The second thunderbird screamed in rage, and as its beak opened wide a crack of lightning emerged from it, spreading wider and wider as it lanced through the air. Marius had no time to dodge or take evasive action, and the blast of lightning hit the side of the chopper, sending arcs of power out in every direction. Blue and white flares of coruscating energy jabbed out like savage forks, crawling across the metal skin of the craft. The sheer bulk of the chopper helped through, dispersing the power around it, a massive floating faraday cage that kept the vulnerable people inside safe. In the back Aswon watched as lightning arced across the windows and tried to concentrate on the beauty of the sight, rather than feeling the fear. Calm. Serene. All was well. 

Hunter swung the gun over to lay the sight on the thunderbird and mentally pulled the trigger. The machine gun spat out a burst of fire, ten rounds each 12.7mm in diameter, flying through the air at over three hundred metres per second. His aim was true and the rounds impacted the bird, stitching down from the head along the body and out past the tail. The punishing recoil from the continuous firing was soaked up first by the heavy duty springs they had gathered in Batumi from Yosh, the shipwright, and then further by the mount itself, engineered by the aeronautical designers of the Red Army who had planned to mount a gun this size or larger.

The muzzle of the gun stayed resolutely on target, and his fire nearly cut the beast in half. It too plummeted from the sky, clearly dead and with sprays of blood forming carmine clouds in the freezing air. Over the sounds of the gun chattering, he heard the yelp of surprise from Tads, who had not been expecting the retort of the gun next to her head. Hunter grinned to himself, wondering how annoyed she would be. 

The three firebirds burst into flame, arcing down and across the flight path of the helicopter. Each turned into an indistinct blue, a phoenix of incandescent light that left a trail of flaming wash behind them. They swooped in a complex pattern, arcing up and down, from left to right and formed a vortex of fire that looked too small for the bulk of the chopper to fly through.

Tads watched, gauging the moment and trying to estimate the distances involved. Her stunball was normally plenty big enough to deal with a number of foes, as the Mafia goons and many others had learnt to their cost. This though – this was harder. Moving so fast and in three dimensions made her mind ache as she tried to work out exactly the right time. She waited a moment more and then launched another ball of mana ahead of her. He timing was spot on, and two more foes arced down from the sky, leaving a fiery contrail behind them as they impacted into the ground at over a hundred kilometres an hour.

Marius gritted his teeth and tensed muscles, feeling like he was running an obstacle course. The massive helicopter reacted, the engines screaming as they hit the redline and went beyond their design specifications. The body of the craft swung up, arcing higher and higher, flipping around the rotors and performing a barrel roll. It was a trick that was impressive enough in a small attack chopper, the mark of a manoeuvrable aircraft and a skilled pilot. In the massive Mi-6 it was an awe-inspiring display of control. The chopper arced through a complex pattern, dodging through the complex web of fire and sliding through the gap created by Tads taking out two of the firebirds.

In the chopper everyone but Marius took a deep breath, trying to get their stomach to settle back to its proper position. A sea of small items fell from the air where they’d been lifted by the extreme roll, leaving a scene of devastation behind them. Aswon looked at the sea of dirt and stone scattered around the greenhouse, and shook his head to dislodge a few twigs and leaves that had landed on him.

A shudder ran through the craft, and a meter long rent opened up in the left hand side of the chopper as a massive talon sawed through the metal skin. It didn’t strike any control runs or systems, and Marius clawed the chopper to the side, dislodging their attacker – whatever it was. 

“Hang on!” He managed to shout, then thrust the controls around. The abused chopper hurtled through a spin, the tail whipping around while the nose of the chopper barely moved. In a moment they were sliding backwards through the air at over two hundred knots, and they saw the massive form of a greater thunderbird, angling up for another attack. As its beak opened, they saw the glimmer of light at the back of the throat as the lightning built up in intensity. It was easily half as big again as the first two creatures that had attacked them, and Marius knew they wouldn’t be able to take a hit like that.

Applying full power to the rudder and rear rotor he managed to slow their spin for a moment. It was no more than a tenth of a second probably – but it was long enough. Another long burst ripped out from the nose as the heavy machine gun spat heavy rounds at their assailant, guided by Hunter’s efforts. He wasn’t experienced with the big gun, or firing from a moving platform, but the cybernetic enhancements gave him a chance, and a chance was all he needed. The rounds sawed through a wing, and the bird started to drop to the side in a dive that would be hard to recover from. A second later it fell unconscious as Tads blasted it with power, finishing the job. The chopper resumed its spin, until a few seconds later they were heading back towards the border, everyone inside shaking their heads and blinking rapidly from the effects of pulling the sharp maneuverer. 

The last firebird wheeled over and accelerated away from them, slipping down their flank and heading back in country.

“Marius, turn, I can’t see it!”

“Nien! We head for the border, let it run!”

She was about to argue, not wanting to leave a foe like that to their rear. As she thought about their tactics though she realised something was odd. Nothing had gone wrong with their craft. No malfunctions, no errors, no strange readings. No doors suddenly opening or systems depressurising. Sure, their wards were pretty good – but not that good. Something was very strange here.

The crossed the last kilometre swiftly and passed over the invisible line marking the border between Yakut and Russia. A second later the radio blared into life.

“Unknown aircraft. You have entered Russian airspace. Identify yourself or be destroyed!” Marius figured that it was only the fact that they were in a Russian helicopter kept them from being dead already. As he checked over their system he felt a tickle down his spine, icy cold fingers stroking and caressing him. The sensation was new, the rigged system of the aircraft being subtly different to that of the truck and the helicopters he’d flown before – but he recognised the problem. X band radar had the chopper locked up – meaning there was at least one full size SAM battery down there somewhere. He was a good pilot, but he wasn’t sure he could dodge a missile, and he didn’t think the magic users could do anything about a technical threat like that.

“Border guards, this is flight Lima Sierra one one five Romeo. We have come under attack by magical creatures and were forced into Yakut airspace approximately ten miles east of this position. Mayday, mayday, mayday. We have sustained damage and require assistance!” He gave one of the legitimate call signs that he’d picked up from his friend in Constantinople, and keyed up the transponder to match. 

“Lima Sierra One One Five Romeo, you are not authorised for this area. Turn back or we will fire upon you!” Marius thought fast – it didn’t sound like they were buying his deception, or they didn’t care. Perhaps a new approach…he let some anger leak through into his voice and responded again.

“Listen, border guards. Look at the side of my fraking helicopter! Some massive lightning spewing bird just took a chunk out of a Russian helicopter! Aren’t you guys supposed to be defending us from these evil creatures? Aren’t you supposed to shoot down this shit to keep us safe?”

A moment passed, then another. With every tick of the clock, he got further into the Russia, further away from that cursed magical country.

“Lima Sierra One One Five Romeo, you are instructed to land. Proceed to co-ordinates five niner dot five one six seven nine by seven three dot zero eight six niner three. Failure to comply will result in your termination. You are instructed to land at the south end of the clearing, facing the tree canopy.” As if to underscore their point, Marius felt an additional fire control radar lock onto him. It was in tracking mode at the moment, not fire mode – but that could change in an instant. 

“Roger, will comply, heading to designated landing spot.”

He throttled back and called over the comms to the rest of the team.

“We have to land, they have us locked up. Someone better get their thinking head on and work out a story, and we’d better get all of our gear hidden too. Move it, people!” He slowed a little more, trying to extend the flight time for the craft to give them a precious few seconds to do whatever it was they were doing. As he flew forwards he caught the odd flash of movement on the ground as soldiers turned to keep him locked up with their shoulder launchers. They definitely were surrounded and outgunned – time for a different kind of fight.

The comms net burst into chatter as the team tried to work out what to do, and the helicopter slowly started to descend into the clearing designated for them. As they neared the landing site, Marius saw another of the quad barrels ZSU anti-aircraft systems tracking them. It was positioned at the north edge of the clearing, which put it right on their tail – if they tried anything funny it would rip them to pieces, and their only gun would be facing the wrong way. 

The massive helicopter slowly descended, the grass in the clearing blowing outwards from the enormous downwash, and around them handfuls of soldiers emerged from the tree cover to form a perimeter.


	114. 114 - Do you know who we are

Date Tuesday 20/04/2060, Location: 59.51679, 73.08693

The wheels hovered for a moment above the grass, then slowly touched down as Marius eased off the power.

“Don’t worry team, I’ve got a plan. Just roll with it, we’ve got this. Tads. I need you to make the back of the chopper look like a special forces craft on the inside. Lots of equipment hanging on the walls and stuff. Make the jeep look like cargo boxes, that kind of thing. You up to that?” She snorted and stared at Kai for a moment, then started to draw in the power required for a major illusion – something that would stand up to close scrutiny.

The engines started to wind down, and the massive rotors slowed. Around them were several knots of soldiers, standing in groups of three with rifles nestled in the crooks of their arms. On the other side of the clearing several more troops could be seen hefting shoulder launched missiles, whilst at the north end the ZSU quad gun was tracked in on the rear of the chopper. Marius cracked the rear ramp, letting it slowly lower to the ground.

“Remember folk, we’re Russian special forces, on a secret mission. It’ll be fine. And we can always drops the Brigadier’s name if it starts going south. You ok, Tads?” He looked with concern as she suddenly slumped to the side, her hand reaching out for the structural member nearest to her. However, the inside of the chopper flashed, then changed dramatically. Cold white fluorescent tube lighting illuminated racks of black body armour, climbing harness, bizarre looking scientific gear, things with red and green flashing lights on them, and rack after rack of guns. It was as if they’d stepped into a scene from a movie. 

Kai strode down the ramp, bold as brass. Only the tension in his shoulders told the people behind him how much he had to concentrate to stop his legs being wobbly with the faint after-effects of the capsules full of drugs he’d been shot with. Shimazu stalked down the ramp with him, one pace to the right, one pace behind, with his hand on his sword hilt. Hunter stood at the top of the ramp on one side, Tads clung onto the other side as casually as she could manage, trying to calm her breathing and get rid of the massive headache that had appeared as a result of the spell.

As Kai and Shimazu strode clear of the ramp and to the side of the tail, a senior-looking Russian officer and his entourage approached him. There were a pair of riflemen, a sturdy fellow with a radio backpack, someone carrying some large folio cases, and a beefy man with just a sidearm formed up in a loose gaggle around the officer.

“Ahh, there you are. Well done, and thanks for your assistance. I think if you’d not been holding the border so firmly, they would have chased us over. We’ll just assess the damage and be on our way, out of your hair.” Kai spoke so matter of factly, and with such sincerity and aplomb that the officer and several of his men were making micro-nods of agreement until the words had truly sunk in.

“No! We’re detaining you. Yes, detaining you. We need to see your identification and travel permits.” Even saying that seemed to be an effort, making them feel uncomfortable with challenging Kai’s authority.

“Did you not see the fight? The huge winged magical beasts, the enemy of our country, trying their best to destroy us? Just kilometres away from here? Didn’t you see them trying to attack us? Don’t you feel it’s your duty to protect Russian citizens from the enemies of the State?” Kai just sounded so reasonable, it was hard to argue against him – and as he asked each question, a plaintive note in his voice, once again they found themselves nodding along with him.

The officer was just about to speak again, when a flash of light caught the attention of Kai and Shimazu. Streaking across the clearing from north to south, a fiery streak of intense light raced only a metre above the clearing. First one, then two, then three of the soldiers holding their missiles and facing towards the chopper were engulfed. The fireball had turned, approaching them at a staggeringly fast rate, and now it came towards them they could see the wings and long sinuous neck, the form of a firebird travelling as fast as it could while supernatural flames billowed out from it. It was halfway towards them before the soundwave of the exploding missiles managed to overtake it, causing the soldiers near the chopper to start to turn, to realise that something was wrong.

Time seemed to slow. Marius yelled a warning over the comm-net, his reactions still tuned to the speed of the mechanical systems in the chopper. The others heard him starting to shout a warning, and were looking up – but far too late to be able to respond. All apart from one person.

Shimazu felt the strange sensation of his reactions accelerating around him. It was like zooming in on a picture whilst at the same time pulling back away from what he was looking at. The centre of his vision became hyper-focussed, whilst his peripheral vision extended and he just seemed to take in more of the situation around him. But mostly what he took in was that there was a very fast, very large, very on-fire bird aiming straight towards them, travelling at several hundred kilometres per hour. Years of training kicked in, and his sword was in his hands without conscious thought, just as his legs propelled him for first one, then another stride towards the target. The sword rose in front of him, and extended towards the foe, angling to about thirty degrees.

It put him, and his raised, razor sharp blade directly in harm’s way. It was not the rational move – but it was the one he made. And it was not the move the creature expected either. It had no time to bank or change direction, no chance to avoid the impact. It struck the sword head on, and it took all of Shimazu’s might to keep the blade from being ripped out of his hands and sent flying through the air. His sinews bulged, and the impact made him slide backwards across the mulch of last year’s leaves and this year’s freshly growing moss.

For the Siberian firebird though, things were a lot worse. It struck the razor sharp edge of the sword with enough force that the blade was forced to saw through its beak, neck and body with barely a moment’s notice. The creature quite literally cut itself in half upon the raised blade, killing it instantly. It lost control of the fiery nebula wrapped around the brightly coloured body as the mana field it instinctively channelled and controlled broke down.

It detonated with the force of small bomb. Which was unfortunate, as it was centred upon Shimazu, and right between the Russian soldiers and Kai. The three explosions from the far side of the clearing rumbled and were met with a fourth explosion, the death throes of the firebird, sending a rolling shockwave around the woods and startling a thousand small birds into the air.

The explosion covered several metres, lancets of white and orange flame erupting in every direction. Shimazu’s supernatural reflexes let him get an arm raised to cover his face, but was blown back several metres, rolling across the ground with the force of the blast. Kai was similarly blown back off his feet, his flak jacket absorbing the brunt of the impact. The Russian soldiers were likewise thrown back from the explosion, being driven to the ground by the unexpected devastation that was visited upon them. The jet of flame seemed to engulf them and then intensify – fresh explosions rocked the clearing, creating a secondary echo that rolled off towards the hills.

As the smoke cleared slightly, driven upwards by the heated air, they could see that at least three of the Russians were down or seriously hurt. From the massive gaping wound on the side of the officer and the flames still trying to catch on his uniform, it looked like his sidearm had cooked off with the rounds in his pistol detonating sympathetically from the intense heat of the blast. The radio operator was only just better off, with fumes erupting from his radio as the heat made the high-capacity batteries rupture and blow. The trooper carrying the folio case was dashed to the floor, his head slamming into the ground and striking a rock, blood running from the wound freely while his skin down one side of his face was red and raw from the blast. The other troopers were more fortunate, shielded from the blast by their comrades or lucky enough to be standing another metre further away from the blast. 

Marius was glued to the sensors, watching the reaction of the troopers gathered around the clearing. Most of them had dropped into combat positions and had their weapons raised, thinking it was an ambush or a grenade that had gone off. The chopper made a variety of odd noises as he flexed and tensed, his wish to be back in the air translating to various mechanical systems activating around the craft. Hunter and Aswon, though, grabbed the small fire extinguishers and ran out of the back hatch towards the burning grass and smouldering people, aiming the cones at the flames and smothering them.

“MEDIC!” Kai bellowed, pointing at one of the command group riflemen, who was aiming his weapon straight at his chest and still trying to process what had gone on. “Go get a medic and stretcher, NOW!” His voice rippled and resonated as he modulated power through his vocal cords. The trooper turned and ran for the woodline, his body obeying the ‘command voice’ after years of drill and training. Kai tensed for a moment as he felt a strange magical sensation, then relaxed as he recognised Tads extending her magical shield over the four of them now outside whilst she waited at the top of the ramp, still clutching at the struts to support herself.

“You three over there, look north. You three – watch east! There could be more of them!” Aswon pointed at the nearest groups of soldiers and in the direction he wanted them to watch, barking out orders like he was back on active duty. He lacked the magical control that Kai possessed, but did have years of training and experience. He also stopped watching them, getting on with his business, and the subtle reinforcement that he just expected the order to be obeyed added further weight. At least two of the three in each group did turn to scan the skies, looking for more foes.

Hunter dropped the fire extinguisher and pulled out his knife, sawing at the straps holding the radio onto the trooper’s back.

“Easy now, lie still. We need to get this off you, before another cell ruptures. Sorry, sorry, I know it hurts. Lean forward now, nearly there…” He worked swiftly, ignoring the guns pointed at his head by the soldiers around him. As he cut the last strap loose he gave a massive heave, sending the radio flying away from them. On landing, they could hear a hiss of high pressure gas being released along with a foul chemical smell. Hunter kept the radio-man pinned down gently, telling him not to move while he gently peeled back the collar of his uniform to reveal the deep blistering all up the back of his neck.

Kai had moved to the officer and knelt behind his back, supporting him and stopping him from rocking in either direction. He too had pulled out a pocket knife and was sawing away at the fabric around the wound, struggling with the sturdy material. A quick assessment of the wound and it was clear that the blast had damaged the man’s hips and was deep – already bright red blood was flowing freely into the deep cavity. It probably wasn’t life-threatening unless he went into shock, but he could end up permanently disabled from this if they weren’t careful.

“I need the medikit please, we need to stabilise him quickly, then treat the chap with Hunter. But this is the more critical.” Shimazu ran for the first aid kit, returning at a sprint. They worked fast between them, their previous experience letting them drop into mutually supporting work. Kai attached the leads and sensors, supporting the patient and keeping him still, then reading off the diagnostics. Shimazu, who was more free to move, donned some sterile gloves and started to irrigate the wound and then sprayed a coagulating agent into the blast hole before it could refill.

With gentle but precise movements he attached the scanner over the wound, letting the computer scan the flesh and then checking as the micro-laser pulsed and cauterised the worst of the tears and gashes. Blood expanders were applied, along with anti-bacterial agents and a dose of one-shot repair bots – tiny machines that would break down their own bodies to latch onto the damaged bones and shore up their structural integrity. They were clunky and crude compared to what was available in a major hospital, and Shimazu had heard that some corporations had managed to get reliable nano-technology working in a field format – he wished he had some of those.

They worked quickly but surely, patching up the wound and making sure it was clean and hygienic. Fortunately the explosion had no metal or chemical debris to deal with, making it unnaturally clean. When they were done the inside of the wound was lined with a thick layer of hardening flesh-foam, covering the raw surface, but there was still a significant hole in the man’s side.

While they were working, Aswon dropped into astral sight, assessing the man. He ignored the bright jagged auras of the people at the side, still showing intense fear, confusion and anger, focussing instead on the officer. He had some ‘ware scattered throughout his head – at least his eyes were replaced, along with the near universal data-jack in the side of the neck. There were some implants through his body following his nervous system, almost certainly something to boost his reaction speed in combat. The implants were more than he ever wanted in his body for sure, but not as heavy as the modifications that Hunter or Marius had gone through.

“Some essence loss, but most remains. It should be doable, with care.” Kai nodded with understanding, not turning from his work on the patient. When he’d finished the current task though, he did look up, aiming for the only other person in the group who had been armed with only a sidearm – assuming that he was some kind of special rank.

“We’re going to call in our specialist to help deal with this, from the chopper.”

“Specialist in what?” the Russian responded, his thick accent making his words difficult to understand.

“Alternative healing. Your officer needs her help to make sure he’ll walk again properly after that blast.” The man nodded, and they waved Tads over. She stumbled down the ramp towards them, wavering slightly as she crossed the intervening distance. As she crouched over by the body, Hunter reached down and grabbed the strap on the back of her jacket, supporting and steadying her. 

Kai and Shimazu moved on to the other two wounded men while Tads attended to the officer. They ignored the mounting golden glow that intensified behind them, just like they ignored the gasps of the men surrounding them. Slathering on burn cream, applying a dermal stapler to close the gushing head wound, cleaning the area with sanitising gels and fresh bandages, they didn’t see the orb of magical energy hovering over the wound, knitting flesh back together and revitalising the body. They didn’t need to though, they’d seen it before. 

Another group of troops came running over towards them, two riflemen carrying a stretcher and a combat medic, struggling with his massive backpack. As they arrived the slowed to a halt, exchanging looks with the troopers already there. The riflemen stood around looking uncertain, stretcher in one hand and their rifles in the other, whilst the medic moved around and assessed the wounds, quickly finding there was nothing to do.

Hunter gave a heave as Tads finished her spell, lifting almost her entire weight. The spell seemed to have really taken it out of her, and she looked around with her eyes unfocussed. Keeping a tight grip on her and doing his best to disguise her state from the onlookers, he started to guide her back towards the chopper. The Russians stirred a little, not feeling it was quite right to be letting what should have been their prisoners wander around so freely. Nobody wanted to be the first to move though – not when their prisoners not only seemed to be quite handy with a blade, but also with not only a medical emergency and clearly the wielder of arcane powers.

“Right, you there.” Kai pointed at the trooper with a sidearm. “Until your officer here is back on his feet properly, you’re in charge. We need your men to keep an eye out on the perimeter and be ready in case the enemy make another incursion across the border. You should probably think about getting a transport over here for the wounded – they’re fine now, but could do with an afternoon to recover and get some rest.” The man listened, and whether he was taken in by the act of command, or that it just made good tactical sense, soon pulled out a small tactical radio and started to bark commands out to people. As the team listened to him, it became clear that the Sergeant was in fact the Captain’s driver and general hatchet man – certainly nobody seemed to argue with his orders or ask for the officer to confirm them.

“Now – you there. What’s your name?”

“Svenski,” responded the confused medic. He didn’t know what had happened here, but these people were ordering the troops around and having their orders followed. Working on the basis that only the nail that sticks up gets hammered, he decided that unless he got told otherwise, he’d treat them like officers from some other unit.

“Well Svenski, the captain here has been treated with 1cc of nor-adrenaline for the shock, and some type B plasma expanders…” Kai reeled off the treatment that had been applied to each of the three wounded individuals. “Oh, and of course our specialist here has called upon the spirit of the Rodina to heal the Captain. He’ll still be tender for a day or two, but he should be fine.”

The medic nodded, furiously jotting down notes, and glancing down at the three casualties. All three were slightly vacant looking from the painkillers, but were in good shape and clearly had been treated well. He watched as Kai crouched down by the Captain, kneeling on the scorched earth and gently helping the officer to sit up.

“Sorry to have to rush this, Captain, but we’re on a time-sensitive mission. Army command needs what we have managed to steal from the enemy, and we need to move quickly. What we’ve managed to steal will help with the upcoming offensive, and will save many lives. We need to move out, and fast.”

“Mission? What mission?” The officer tried to concentrate, but it was hard to focus with the drugs coursing through his system. He studied Kai’s face, considering his words. They sounded right, and reasonable. Was there a secret missions? Well, if it was a secret, it stood to reason he wouldn’t know, right. No! Wait, he should have been warned. Shouldn’t he?” Emotions warred across his face and he seemed to hedge his bets a little.

“Of course. I will need to see the cargo though, for my report to divisional command.”

Kai held his poker face still, then nodded at the man.

“Of course. Here, let me help you up. Be careful, but you should be able to walk as long as you are careful. What unit is this?”

“I am Captain Jakeri, commander of the 896th Border Guards Company, 89th Guard Motor Rifle Brigade, 20th Army. Who are you people?”

“Sorry Captain, but that is need to know information. Let’s just say that you’ve stumbled on a highly classified Spetsnaz operation, and the less you know officially the better. But, we’ll walk you to the chopper and let you inspect the cargo, for your report. I’m sorry though, we need to keep this quiet, so we’ll escort you while your men stand guard here. None of the Russians saw him activate his transmit button, relaying his words to the team. They just saw him carefully help the officer to rise, finding with a great deal of surprise that he could walk, if he was careful.

By the time the slowly moving group had made it to the ramp the others had re-arranged slightly. Aswon stood by the greenhouse, guarding the plant. Hunter was by the top of the ramp, looking like he was on guard, but mostly making sure that Tads didn’t fall over or pass out. If her illusion dropped, the chances of them getting away with this was much reduced. They carefully moved the officer around the “cargo containers”, holding their breath in case he saw something that didn’t look right. He moved around the jeep and their two guests though, not even questioning what he saw, until he was able to look at the storage box.

It looked impressive, with the cooling fins, pumps, dials and gauges, the faint vibrations of the motor. The officer stood, staring at the box, not quite sure what to say now.

“As you can see, the temperature controlled environment is holding up for now – but we only have limited battery life and we need to get back to central command. But the magical plant inside is being kept just like the enemy keep it, and we feel this will be key to brewing up a defence against their spirits and strange creatures. We need this intelligence. Our troops need this intelligence. And we can only get this back to command if you can stop these creatures from chasing us.”

“What can I do to help?”

“Keep the sky safe behind us. Can you do that, Captain? Can your unit continue to hold this sector against aerial assault and keep the line?” The Captain threw a shaky salute at Kai, then gave him a shaky smile. He wasn’t quite sure of anything anymore, but this certainly sounded like he needed to stop the enemies of the motherland invading and recovering this plant. Whatever it was.

Kai escorted him back down the ramp, waving over the riflemen and medic to them and instructing them to get the Captain to the vehicle, to keep him warm and safe and listen to his orders to help keep the area secure.

With another salute from the bottom of the ramp, the Captain was ushered away between the two burly riflemen who helped him limp towards the open door of the BMP. Hunter hit the button to close the ramp as Kai strode up it, and then informed Marius that they were all secure. A moment later as Marius watched from the sensors, troops started to move, heading towards the north edge of the clearing. The ZSU started to swing around, the barrels of the quad mounted heavy machine guns slewing up into the air to point towards Yakut and the border. He needed no further orders, and the engines started immediately, the rotors spinning as soon as his gauges read even a marginal level.

As they clawed their way up into the air, ponderously rising above the trees, Hunter keyed up his map and marked their current location on it, annotating the marker with notes about the unit, their arms and armour. He felt the nose of the chopper sink slightly as they transitioned into forward flight, and saw the map slowly start to shift as they picked up speed.

The journey back to Tara airport was quiet and uneventful fortunately, and they slowly settled down after the excitement of the border crossing. Tara airport was just as quiet as when they had first encountered it, and they settled down on the same pad as they had used before, wondering if they would get the same service. Sure enough, a full minute went by before Tariq shuffled out of the shed and started to head their way. He’d covered a good ten metres or so before looking up to see who it was, then promptly turned on his heal and head back away from them, towards the building.

In the back, Yaan and Voiddelan had their faces pressed up against the window, looking out at the area around them. Kai came back to check on the cargo and Aswon, and they twisted round to face him as he came past.

“Hey, where are we? In Russia now?”

“Yes, at a place called Tara. It’s a good two hundred kilometres inside the border, though we’re going much further in. It should be safe enough though, if you want to get out here.” The siblings looked at each other for a moment, then she answered.

“I think this is far enough. Thank you for taking us over the border, and for stopping the hunters. I don’t know how much further we could have run. But yes, we’ll get out here. Is there a city nearby?” Aswon rose from his position and wandered into the living module, and they could hear him rooting through things, with the occasional avalanche of small items falling from a locker as he opened them – the result of the extreme manoeuvres taken during the crossing.

“Well, Tara – it’s a good hour or two walk from here, but after the journey you’ve been through, I think that won’t bother you. And it’s a large town, not a city – but there should be work there, and somewhere to stay. But here, it’s not much, but its some petty cash to get you started.” He handed over a few hundred Rubles from their stash of random hard currency they’d acquired. It really wasn’t much once the exchange rate was factored in – but the cost of living was certainly going to be low out this far from the main cities, and it was likely to get them a week’s worth of food and maybe a roof over their head for a few days.

“And here, take this with you.” Aswon passed over a large rucksack, stuffed full of gear. “There’s a couple of changes of warm clothes for both of you, a couple of spare pairs of socks, a pair of water bottles and a washkit, enough oats to keep you in porridge for a week. Oh, and for you…” he pointed at Voiddelan, “there’s a small pistol for self-defence, and some ammo. For you…” he pointed at Yaan “…do as your sister says and stay out of trouble. Have you ever shot a pistol actually?” She shook her head at him wordlessly.

Tariq had reappeared with the hose, and was mooching towards them, and it appeared that they would have plenty of time to cover some basics. They offloaded from the rear ramp, and Hunter came back and patiently explained the basics of shooting. He emphasised the details of trigger control and the position of the safety – Aswon and Kai snorted at the subtle reference to Nadia, while the kids just nodded and listened carefully.

The fuel tanks had been topped off by the time they were done, and Kai stopped them just as they were departing.

“Look, I know we said we’d never met and you’d never seen us before right – but just on the offchance, here’s a number. We travel a lot, so could be anywhere, but you never know…” He thrust the card into her hands and then waved them off. They returned his wave, then turned and headed for the airport hut and the road beyond it that presumably led towards Tara itself. Kai tried to call Ludmilla, but the phone call didn’t even go through, let alone reach her. He frowned, but wondered if it was just cell-reception that was the issue as they were still fairly far out of town.

They were well in the air and headed back west when Kai called out to the rest.

“So, how much did the fuel cost us?”

“I don’t know, I thought you paid?”

“No, I was with the kids sorting them out. I saw him take the fuel hose off and walk off, and thought you’d sorted it, Hunter?”

“Pfft, not me. Did ANYONE pay?” There were a chorus of negatives from the rest of the team, and they discovered that nobody had exchanged any money at all for the fuel, or indeed offered or had been asked for payment. Maybe Tariq was going to take the hose back and then come back with the cred-reader?

Kai tried to call again, with the same results. He sent a text message instead, hoping that it would get through whatever relays or security protocols were in place. The message disappeared into the ether, and all he could do was wait until they were nearer a place with better coverage to try again.

The chopper had not long passed the small town of Krutinskiy on the shore of the Ozero lake, about 200km west of the airport when Marius felt a strange trickling sensation down his side. Like getting a stitch. Suddenly the pain flared up, and his side cramped – at least that’s what his brain told him. In the real world rather than the translated experience of the rigger environment, alarms started to go red across the cockpit. Master alarms gave a low strident buzzing, and the chopper suddenly started to shake in a noticeable fashion.

They sagged and dropped to one side as one engine completely failed, and Marius fought against the controls to get them back on course. A part of his attention activated the comm system while the rest of him tried to diagnose the problem and work through it.

“Alarm on the port engine, showing complete loss. Hydraulics are bottoming out, and the pitch control on the main shaft is down. I’m going to have to put her down and work out what’s wrong. Check for obvious physical damage.”

The team started to look around them, making sure they hadn’t been hit with something, or that no small sabotage charges had been snuck aboard. The chopper continued to lurch through the sky, side-slipping as Marius fought against the controls. As he looked around for a clear flat area that he could land in that wasn’t on a road or in a settlement, the shuddering stopped. A bare second later, all the alarms winked out, and he heard – and felt – the port engine spinning back up to speed. The chopper righted itself and started to pick up speed again as everything returned to normal.

“Marius! Fly level and not too fast, I’m going out of body!” Tads didn’t wait for a response, and pushed her mind clear of her body, letting it slump against the seat behind her. There was no time to discuss it – but she had a horrible feeling about this. Her astral form rose through the body of the chopper, pushing through the ward – her aura attuned to it during its construction ensured that it was no impediment to her. 

She pulled herself along the chopper, making sure she didn’t lose contact with it. She didn’t understand the astral mechanics of it, but it was a phenomenon she was aware of – but somehow relativity mattered. As an astral traveller, she could travel ‘normally’ as a spirit through the world around her – seeing the details of the world and her environment clearly, and moving as swiftly as a top flight athlete – without her body to slow her down, she moved with the dexterity and grace of her mind. Or, she could move ‘fast’, channelling all of her power in movement. Measured against the speed of the world, she could travel kilometres in a second, covering vast distances in a short time – such as her race to try and help Saito. But, while travelling this fast, she saw only the vaguest of details as the mana field distorted and flowed around her. It took major things like a city or a mountain to show up, and it could be difficult to navigate.

The problem here was that the chopper was doing over a hundred kilometres per hour – faster than she could move at ‘normal’ speed, but way slower than her ‘fast’ speed. While she was ‘in’ the chopper, in a metaphysical sense, she was attached to it and moved over and through it. But if she lost contact then she was ‘in’ the world, and would sync to it – and the chopper would leave her behind. Then she’d have to travel swiftly to a point in front of it and slow, hovering patiently and waiting for it to move through her position, and then make a grab for it and try to synchronise her aura to it again. 

It was for this reason she carefully moved up the top of the massive hull, climbing towards the engines to see if any critter or spirit was using its power to try and take them down. She knew from experience that an awful lot of spirits had the ability to cause or enhance ‘bad luck’. Things would break around them, or fail in the worst possible way. Depending on what it was, it could be as inconvenient as a snapped shoelace to…well, an engine failure on an aircraft in flight. She thought that was pretty bad.

She saw a flash of movement from the engine – a spirit of some kind quite clearly. She didn’t know if it had seen her, but it was definitely coming out of the right side engine – she guessed that was the port one. But then to her surprise and dismay, it ducked down into the craft, ignoring her ward as if it wasn’t there at all. It just entered the craft in complete ignorance of the magical defences she and the team had spent a full day labouring on. She ducked back inside the chopper and scrambled back into her body, resynchronising her aura and trying to remember that her meat form couldn’t float or fly.

“ASTRAL ALERT! Intruder in the craft!” she shouted, probably a little too shrilly. Well, better to warn them and apologise for screeching at them later if they all survived. Now they were warned, it was time to get some backup, and she started to call upon the air and wind around the craft, trying to summon a powerful wind spirit to stand with her and help her defeat whatever foe this was. She tried – but nothing happened. No spirit answered her call. A moment of doubt flashed through her mind, wondering if she’d done something to offend her totem again. Her thoughts flashed back to the square near the railway station. No! No, she had upheld the ideals of her totem. It couldn’t be that… think, think… She looked around, checking the astral environment out and trying to ‘taste’ it. She unstrapped and crawled out of the turret and past the front seats, still checking the environment out astrally. 

Marius didn’t know what was going on, other than the shaman was alarmed and that he still couldn’t explain the massive failure in the port engine or the equally bizarre restoration of power. It sounded like magical shenanigans was going on, and the thought made his teeth itch. It defied logic and offended his sensibilities, and also made him feel very uneasy. Trying not to dwell on it, he concentrated on keeping the bird level and smooth. Power was at 60%, well within the most economical and least stressful range, and he made sure that nothing was done that would put even the slightest bit of stress on the aircraft, trusting the magical members of the team to deal with the issue.

Aswon was still in the greenhouse, but had grabbed his spear and was standing ready. His breathing was deep and even, and it was clear he was still trying to remain calm and provide a neutral force to the area to keep it astrally clean. Shimazu had his hand on his sword and was looking around astrally, as was Kai – but neither of them knew what they were looking for. Neither did Tads, to be fair, but she at least had caught a glimpse of it.

That was good – as once again, all she really caught was a glimpse. As she was working her way back from the cockpit towards the cargo area, she saw the traces in her peripheral vision as the spirit sank into the guts of the aircraft, melding through the radio operator’s panel. The spirt was short and somewhat hunched over, and didn’t look that powerful – but it was also clearly not a normal spirit either. It was not like any form of nature spirit she’d ever seen, in fact.

She thought for a moment, then called out to Hunter to go grab her a bowl and put a little porridge in it. While he went off with a puzzled look on his face, she watched the console carefully, moving around it and trying to make sure the spirit didn’t disappear. 

A minute later, Hunter was back with some sloppy but serviceable porridge. Tads took it from him and carefully crouched down near the bottom of the panel, holding the bowl on the floor.

“Excuse me. If you’d like to come out, I have some food for you. We don’t mean any harm, we just want to know who you are. But this is for you, regardless.” She waited, and then stifled a breath as a nose protruded out of a dial, followed by some cheeks and then the rest of the face. It looked at her for a moment, then down at the steaming bowl. “Go ahead, it’s for you. I’m only holding it so it doesn’t slide away.

The spirit eased out of the console to the side of her, then materialised. Tads was even more surprised – in its material form it could be hurt by weapons, disrupted and attacked by anyone. As a result most spirits tended to stay entirely on the astral plane, or just manifest in the physical – appear in a ghostly nebulous form but without any physical presence. But the spirit was definitely here – she could tell when it laid hands on the bowl and took it from her hands.

He was only about a metre high, and appeared to be very elderly. A large nose stuck out from a deeply lined and wrinkled face framing sunken eyes. Huge hairy ears adorned each side of the face, wrapped in curly grey hair. It wore a pair of rough-looking trousers and a smock, and the outfit was topped with a cap of some kind. The spirit looked at her again, and then waddled off down the side of the living block, before pulling down on one of the fold-up bench seats in the main area, then laboriously climbing up into the seat to consume the bowl of food. His tiny legs swung underneath him, as he dug into the porridge and consumed it with gusto.

“Oh, tell the man driving the horse that one of his pins broke. I fixed it though.” Tads and Hunter could barely make out the words around the mouthful of food, but the meaning was clear. Hunter sent a message though to Marius, but got no response other than a strange grinding noise.

“So, what do we call you? I’m not going to ask your real name, but it’s rude to just say ‘hey’, so what name can we call you by?”

“Grandfather. Hrm. Where did the two other nice young people go?”

“Ahh, we were just helping them out. They left to go on another journey, somewhere else.”

“Oh, shame. I liked them. Very nice.”

“Is there anything you want? Is there anything we can do for you?” The beady eyes flicked around a little, and the spirit leant forward and lowered its voice.

“I’ve heard that porridge made with brandy is very nice?” It gave her a smile, managing to look both conspiratorial and slightly embarrassed at the same time.

“We don’t have any brandy, but we do have some vodka. I could try that?” offered Hunter. He reached in and took the now empty bowl, heading for the tiny little galley in the back of the module.

“I like him, he seems nice.”

“He has his moments. So, I’m very curious. We put up a nice strong ward around the helicopter, and you were outside, in the engines. But you got straight through the wards no problem. Is that something you can teach me?”

“No.”

Tads waited a moment, but he just sat swinging his legs, looking around him. No further explanation seemed to be forthcoming. 

“Are you staying with us long? Are you going anywhere in particular?”

“Yes and no.”

She waited again, but he seemed content that he’d answered her questions. She dropped into astral and examined him. If he wanted to be curt, so could she. She gave him a quick look over, trying to get a feel for what he was and more importantly how powerful he was. She figured he was pretty strong, at least as strong as the spirits she would normally try to summon. 

The spirit’s gaze fell upon the greenhouse, and he looked over with interest. A moment later he plopped onto the floor, and started to waddle over to it, Tads following along behind. Entering the area he saw Aswon staring at him, spear in hand.

“What’s this then?”

“A special box to keep the plant healthy. We don’t want to cause it any harm.”

“Oh, that’s nice. It’s nice in here though. I like it.”

“Goooood.” Aswon stared at him suspiciously. A quick glance to Tads. She shrugged. He returned his stare to the small elderly man standing in front of him. In his head he ran through the mantra…’don’t touch the box, don’t touch the box, don’t touch the box.” It seemed to work though, as instead he made a series of gestures in the air, as if directing an invisible orchestra.

Aswon frowned and dropped into astral at once, checking him out. His frown deepened as he tried to work out what had changed. If anything though, it just appeared…nicer in here. Slightly more positive and vibrant. The old man smiled at him, then turned and waddled off to another fold-down bench, and repeated the process of struggling into it.

Aswon checked over the area, trying to tune out the sounds of Tads explaining what seat belts were, and why it was a good idea to wear them, and that no Marius was a very good driver, but that meant that sometimes his horse jumped over very high fences and made everything fly in the air. He winced as the analogy was taken out into a dark alley and beaten severely, but still couldn’t see what the man had done. If he’d done anything. He tuned back in, and caught Tads explaining which four members of the team could see the spirit in astral space, and who to go to for help or if he had a problem.

He checked on the plant again, and the next time he looked up the spirit had faded away or moved. Tads was still sitting there, waiting patiently and gave him another shrug. There was nothing to be done at this point it seemed – they’d lost one set of hitchhikers but picked up another. 

The helicopter flew on, crossing fields and woods, rivers and roads. Sometimes small corporate enclaves appeared on the horizon as Marius gently banked them around to give a wide berth to anyone who would object to their presence. The kilometres marched by, and a couple of hours later they landed once more at Grigorie’s dilapidated service station.

There were two other vehicles present – a mid-sized panel van parked pretty much next to the station itself, and a battered and old looking tilt-wing jet, parked a good way down the car park. Both vehicles were dirty and battered, decidedly worse for wear and looked unremarkable.

Kai and Shimazu went to arrange for fuel, Kai trying Ludmilla once more on the phone but with the same lack of success. Inside they had the same response as they had previously – surly abuse and rudeness, but quick service as soon as they flashed their cash around. A couple of middle-aged women wearing street clothes were sitting in a booth at the far end, watching them carefully, while a short and dumpy human looked to be fiddling with some kind of small mechanical object. He glanced up, gave them a once over, then returned to trying to get a greasy O-ring off a component, muttering under his breath as he did so.

Refilling the chopper cost just over seventeen and a half thousand Nuyen, leaving their credsticks empty and depleted. As a team, they had a couple of hundred rattling around, and a few of them had some money put by from earlier scores – but they were now essentially broke. Once the chopper was fuelled up, they had a quick look at the maps and worked out what to do.

From Grigorie’s to the location Ludmilla had given as a drop off point was about 1240km – doable on their fuel tankage, but would leave them with enough to take off and travel a short distance only. It was a touch less to the Quarry, and there was fuel to be had there – and from the Quarry to Ludmilla was only 700km. If they went to the Quarry, filled up, they had enough to get to Ludmilla and back…

They hedged, and started off flying a course down the centre of the triangle. For at least a while it wouldn’t commit them to either course, though they would reach a point of no return after a few hundred clicks where they would need to commit to one or the other.

As they took off and started flying their route, Tads tried to summon a spirit again, seeing if an air spirit would answer her call and guard the chopper against further mishaps. Instead, Grandfather appeared at her side. What’s worse was that she felt that he appeared because he had heard her calling, not because she had called. It was a subtle difference, but it meant that he owed her nothing, and she had no bargaining power over him.

“Yes?”

“Um. It doesn’t matter. I was trying to get someone else.” The old man faded away, leaving nothing but questions in her mind behind him.

They flew for thirty minutes, and Kai hit the redial button one more time.

“Hello darling! I’ve been very busy!”

“Good afternoon Ludmilla. I’m hoping you’ve seen the updates, but just to let you know that we have your plant, alive and well, and we’re en-route now. We’re actually only a couple of hours away, if we come direct to you – but we need to sort out somewhere near you to get fuel.”

“Darling, don’t be silly. You can get some fuel here. Come to me, now, with the plant. We will meet, have some food, sort out your pay. It will be lovely. I will send you the exact co-ordinates and frequencies. Ciao!! See you soon!!! Bye!!!!” The connection was broken. He stared at the phone in his hand, wondering what it was going to be like to come face to face with her. Only one way to find out. A moment later the phone buzzed as he received a message, and shortly thereafter they banked slightly to the right and started on their journey.

Hunter entered the co-ordinates into the mapping software: 56.64946, 43.37541. The map zoomed over and displayed the standard resolution images, along with the option to purchase higher resolution details or become a premium member and go ad-free. He sighed and fought through the popups and looked at the area then keyed up the microphone and broadcast out to the team.

“Ok, the location is on the shore of the Volga, right by a massive reservoir. Looks like a hydro dam, easily 500m long, and a big substation next to it. I can see pretty big ship locks to the north east, so it still looks navigable to larger cargo vessels. I can see a hexagonal shape to the southern end of the dam, looks like it’s on top of where there’d normally be a tower or something, so I hope that’s the helipad. Marius, looking at the shadows you want to come in from the west or south – there’s a whole shitload of high voltage lines in the other directions. It’s on the edge of the town of Zavolzhye – about one point five clicks from the city centre. Around that, lots of arable land, looks like big fields, very regimented – so maybe lots of corp presence rather than local landowners.”

The team digested the information and had a quick look at the maps, but there didn’t seem to be any further information to glean from them at this point. They flew on, their journey uneventful as they flew over the Russian countryside. Squawking one of the transponder codes that Milo had arranged for them, they avoided any interference from civilian airfields, and they were not high enough to be in controlled airspace for the major airlines.

It was well after dusk as they arrived at Zavolzhye, and Marius followed the advice and came in from the south, overflying the edge of the city. It seemed like a typical small city, maybe 50,000 in population. Power didn’t seem to be an issue, but that was not surprising with the massive hydro station literally on the edge of the city. As they flew down towards the dam the true size of it became apparent – the dam was over half a kilometre wide, but the berming and banking on the side, the artificial quays and locks, the docks and repair yards easily took up over ten kilometres of the shoreline.

As predicted though there was the helipad, an octagonal reinforced structure, well-lit from angled lamps around the outside and with a helpful illuminated wind sock well clear to one side. Marius bought in the chopper slowly, checking out the pad and looking to the side with some concern on seeing the absolute rats nest of high voltage lines leading to the substation. The pad had no weight markings on it, so he couldn’t tell if it was rated for a bird as big as this. On the other hand, the Russians liked to build strong generally, so he should be ok as long as he was gentle.

They touched down carefully, Marius slowly lowering the power and letting the suspension gradually increase the weight on the pad in a smooth fashion. There were no creaks or groans, and everything seemed fine, so he went through the normal power down procedure while the team got ready to move the box down the ramp and out.

To the side of the pad, on the north edge leading to the dam, was a small low built structure, set well back from the landing pad. It had the look of a military bunker – squat and low, with heavy reinforcement ribs running down the sides. A large set of blast doors opened, and a single man walked out, dressed in smart black trousers and jacket with white shirt and matching gloves. He waited patiently, the edge of his hair blowing in the wind and the rotor-wash.

As the rotors slowed, and he saw the rear ramp starting to lower, he strode over towards them.

“Good evening, welcome to the Lady’s residence. Do you require assistance with your goods?”

The team were carefully moving the box down the ramp, supporting the weight between Aswon and Shimazu.

“Actually yes, that’d be great. We really don’t want to drop it or tip it over.”

“Assistance will be summoned.” The head tilted for a moment, and he seemed to gaze into space for a heartbeat. “Staff are bringing equipment to assist you.”

“Now that’s efficiency,” they heard Marius mutter from the rear. “Headware computer and commlink. Nice.”

Moments later the blast doors slid open again and two men pushed out a large trolley with bulbous tyres. The moved the trolley into position and stood aside, letting the team slide the plant container onto the centre. 

“Please follow me, and I will take you to the Lady.” The besuited man turned and headed to the door, briefly holding his hand to a scanner at the side and then swiping an access card through a reader. Obediently the door whisked open, leading them into a short corridor that terminated at a large freight elevator. The team followed along, pushing the cart, while the two lackeys in jumpsuits followed along behind them. A quick glance showed them as being unarmed or armoured, with minimal cyberware on display – just a datajack in each.

The journey down from the helipad was only a floor, but as the door opened the noise rise was incredible. The area beyond the doors led to a gantry that overlooked the generator hall, and they could see the enormous turbines sitting in the vast concrete box that had been constructed, pipes easily five metres across feeding into and out from them. More jumpsuited worked moved around the space, checking on machinery and performing maintenance.

The butler led them on though, walking the length of the power hall and into what appeared to be a large complex built onto the side. They saw side passages leading off, all in the same uniform construction style – heavily reinforced ribs of concrete forming a distorted pentagram. Many of the passages were labelled – ‘stores’, ‘engineering’ and ‘laboratories’ were all passed, as the butler led them further and further into the complex.

They reached another heavily reinforced door that required further identification. As the massive door slid open, they could see a marked change in the décor – instead of bare cerma-crete walls and floors, the area beyond had a standard office style carpet and there was wooden style panelling on the walls. The lighting was recessed into a drop ceiling rather than being LED strips bolted to the roof.

They were led through what felt like an admin area, then took a sharp turn into another corridor, where the details of the furnishings were again dialled up a little. The carpet became thicker, the wood effect walls were replaced with real wood, the lighting changed from a practical white to a slightly warmer colour. Finally they reached a large wooden door covered with ornate carvings. Instead of another ID check, this time the butler knocked three times with a pause between each, then reached down and swung the door open widely and moved in to stand at the far side.

“My Lady, Kai and Party.” His rich baritone rang out like he was announcing the arrival of visiting dignitaries, and he waved for the team to enter. As they walked in they could take in the room around them. It was large, easily ten metres to a side, and covered in carved wooden panelling. A couple of suits of armour were visible, tapestries and paintings hung on the walls, and there was gold, silver and gem-encrusted jewellery and decorations dotted around the room on display stands. In various places swords, axes or other primitive and old-looking weapons were hung on stands or directly attached to the wall.

Leaning to one side in a large and luxurious looking piece of furniture was a middle-aged woman dressed in a long and flowing dress. A cigarette was in a long ivory holder, the fumes rising in a slow and lazy plume before being whipped away by the artfully concealed air-con in the ceiling.

“Darlings! You’re here. How lovely to meet you at last. And this is my plant, I hope?” Kai nodded to her. “May I see it?”

“Of course, but only for a short time if you please.” It was Aswon that responded. “We have learnt that the temperature of the plant is crucial to its survival, as well as the aura of the surrounding area. We would hate to have succeeded in your request only to have it wilt upon arrival.” As he spoke, he unclipped the panel on the front of the box and opened it up to display the contents to her. With a bulge of his muscles he shifted the trolley first one way and then the other to allow her to see it from a different angle, and then started to attach the cover again, conscious that the cold air was escaping into the warm room already forming a layer of condensation on the edge of the case.

“The aura of the surrounding area?” She raised the cigarette holder to her lips and took a deep draw, letting the smoke escape slowly from her nose as she listened to Kai’s response.

“The plant it seems is psychically sensitive. Changes in the mood around it will affect it. Taking it somewhere where there is death, misery, pain and suffering is likely to kill it – as is, somewhere heavily polluted or barren. For instance, a sterile laboratory with no living material might cause it to suffer shock. We constructed a greenhouse in our transport to provide plenty of biomass around it to try and avoid this issue.”

“I see. While positive emotions are good? Just as bad?”

“Generally good, though we have limited experience. However, from what we have seen a home, with people who love and laugh, growing plants, positive thoughts and hope – these are all good.”

“What about really dirty banging sex?”

“I..um…errr. I’m not sure.” Aswon shook his head to try and get the sudden image that had appeared out of his mind. “I suppose if people are having fun or there is generally positive feelings, then that would help.” The rest of the team seemed equally thrown off track at the unexpected departure from expected behaviour.

“Marvellous. Well, that seems to be fine. Let’s get that taken away to somewhere more appropriate to store it then, shall we?” She arched an eyebrow at them, but the butler had already given a microscopic wave to the two minions who had trailed after them, and they moved around to carefully push the trolley back through the door and into the complex behind them. Clearly, this was a rhetorical question, so the team moved out of the way to give them plenty of space. “Come, come, sit and we shall drink and sort out business.”

“Now then, drinks will be here momentarily, but let’s discuss your pay for the mission…”

The team settled down into the indicated plush chairs and settees and Kai perched on the edge of his seat – game time.


	115. 115 - Ludmillas next offer

Date Tuesday 20/04/2060, Location: 56.64946, 43.37541

“So, you did well, and I am pleased with your performance.” She waved a hand languidly in the air, and the uniformed butler moved up to the side of Kai, holding a silver tray in his white-gloved hand, holding a single jet black unmarked cred-stick in the centre. Kai didn’t notice the cred-stick for a moment, so engrossed was he with the tray.

About 450mm across, the tray was a mass of delicately carved engraving, fluted edges, and embossed crowns. Polished to a high sheen, he could see the hand rolled edges and the slight variations that told him it was handmade rather than machine punched. After silently evaluating the age and potential value, his eyes flicked around the room – concentrating more on the other decorations rather than their hostess.

A Monet. A 17th century set of armour. A tapestry of muted colours and repeating motifs that indicated Persian origins. All around the room were objects and items of significant age and value – assuming they were real. He carefully took the cred-stick from the tray with a small nod of thanks to the butler, and was just reaching for the cred-stick reader to check it when he saw the others stiffen and look at him. They were quite right of course – he’d let himself be distracted by the antiquities. Bad form to check the money in front of a client like this. Instead he just tucked the stick into his top pocket.

“I couldn’t help notice the egg over there. I wonder if I might see it?” He gestured to a heavily decorated silver egg in a display case. She considered him for a moment, then smiled at him.

“Why, of course. Some gloves for Kai here, please.” The butler went to the corner of the room and opened a drawer, returning with a pair of white gloves on the same silver tray. Crossing the room, he waited for a moment by the display case. The door popped open, and he reached inside for the egg, carefully transferring it onto the tray and then crossing the floor once more to Kai.

Moving very carefully, Kai took the egg, cradling it in his hands and let the light play across the surface. A repeating diamond pattern was prominent around the circumference of the egg, with a crest worked into the centre. Curved legs wrapped around the base of the egg to hold it upright, and fine parallel lines of delicate metal filled and shaded the empty space. It was a fairly plain item to look at, but exceptionally fine workmanship.

“Most impressive. I believe this is the 1909 Alexander the third Commemorative? Most people seem to think this is still one of the lost pieces.” He turned it back and forth for a moment, gauging the weight, before he let out a little sigh, and carefully lifted the piece back onto the tray, watching the butler return it. “Exquisite.” He spoke quietly, and without hyperbole, and that seemed to make the statement carry more weight. Ludmilla smiled at him and this time two dimples showed at the side of her mouth. It changed the shape of her face a surprising amount, and she somehow seemed warmer.

“I’m glad you like it. Now, I have another little task that I am considering. As you seem to have done so well with the previous task, I think you might find this one to your liking as well.”

“Kai – 50% up front this time!” Hunter transmitted over his internal comms, and Kai gave a little start as the noise blared in his earbud. He covered the movement with a scratch to the side of his chin and a sage nod, then shot a quick baleful glance at Hunter. He was just about to reply when Aswon cleared his throat and beat him to it.

“Forgive the intrusion, my lady.” He turned slightly, making it clear he was addressing Kai, and not intruding on the conversation between Kai and Ludmilla. “I just wanted to remind you that we had indicated that we would at least speak with the other party in this area, for our friend to the south, and discuss the work.” Aswon stared at Kai for a moment, then sat back in the chair once more and left Kai to run the negotiation.

“Ahh yes, of course, thank you for reminding me. Well, as my friend here said, we do have another job that we indicated that we might be available for, and we don’t want to let them down – much as we wouldn’t want to let you down. So we’ll gladly listen to the offer, but depending on the timescales involved, we may need to do some other little task first, or plan our journey around that.”

“Well, this job is not that pressing, though there are some time factors involved. I have heard, you see, of some creatures that are most intriguing to me, and potentially very useful. Down in the deserts of Libya, there are a rumoured species – some call them glow scorpions, others green-back scorpions. I’m not even sure if they have a proper taxonomy.” She pondered for a moment. “My, that would be an interesting thought. Well, regardless of what they are called, they are a species that exist only in the deep desert by all accounts. Quite dangerous to other creatures, but with some very interesting developmental characteristics. I would like a pair recovering, a breeding pair. And I’m willing to pay quite handsomely.”

“We want money. She has money. She wants something for her petting zoo, and will pay for it. I see no issues.” Marius kept his face impassive while he sent the message over the comm-link using his internal cyberware. It was clear he was in favour of the mission.

“Scorpions. Dangerous foes, very dangerous. Most of them have a very potent sting I believe.” Tads closed her eyes for a moment, thinking about stories she had heard. “Sorry, beyond that I don’t really know. Not many scorpions where I’ve lived.”

Shimazu and Hunter seemed either not too bothered, or to be playing their cards very carefully and not committing their opinions yet. Aswon was the next to speak.

“Would a clutch of eggs meet your criteria? They might be easier to obtain and certainly easier to transport than two live specimens.”

“Commendable initiative there. I think they would do just fine, as long as they were viable.” Ludmilla thought for a moment. “Yes, that would be more than acceptable to me.”

“Then that makes the chance of success much higher, I think. The other question I have is to the politics and risks in the area, given what goes on there. I mean, the last thing we need is to get caught up in Desert Wars.”

“Well, this early in the season it’s mostly the friendlies and warmup competition, and that’s mostly much further west in the area around Tunisia, of course.”

“Desert Wars?” Tads looked around at the team, confused. “Who is the war between?”

There was a moment of silence amongst the others, as they wondered how to answer that. It really underscored the difference in backgrounds between them – Tads had grown up in a forest village without any of the exposure to the sixth world that most of the rest took for granted. Aswon had the same background – albeit much warmer and drier – but also had many years experience as a well-travelled mercenary as well. He took the first stab at answering her question.

“So, let’s not go over why it started or quite how – as there’s two main camps of thought, and they are wildly different. But in the Saharan desert, every year, all of the mega-corporations and several of the larger nationals send team of combat troops into the desert in the latest hardware, and take part in war games. The early rounds are done with laser taggers, computer identification of hits, dummy rounds and non-lethal options – but as you go further through the games, they become more and more lethal. It’s also recorded and transmitted worldwide to a crowd numbering millions and millions, and is one of the most popular shows going.” Tads looked at him with horror at the concept of televised corp-sponsored killings sank in.

“But you should be quite safe, I think darlings, as I said – this early in the season they should be much further to the west than the area I’m looking at. But as the season goes on, they’ll spread through the area and it would become much more difficult, I think.”

“That sounds like it’s a strong incentive to move quickly. Of course, we’d like to have a look at the logistics of this I think. Is there perhaps somewhere we can go to discuss this and avoid taking up any of your precious time?”

“Of course, Kai. I’ve had some rooms made available for you, so you can stay the night and consider the offer. I hope you’ll be comfortable.” The butler moved to the door and opened it wide, clearly indicating that the decision had already been taken. The team filed out into the corridor and then followed him as he moved through the VIP section of the building, leading them to a luxury suite.

A number of opulent bedrooms were laid out around a common area, with en-suite bathrooms between each pair of rooms. None of them had an outside window, and they were all solidly built, and there was only one door out of the suite into the corridor – whether that was to contain people inside, or allow the people inside to defend themselves was impossible to tell. Perhaps both.

Aswon turned towards the butler as he started to close the door.

“Excuse me, a question?”

“Yes sir?”

“I was wondering if it was possible to request a particular type of food. Our shaman here has expressed a curiosity about truffles. I wonder if that’s something the Lady carries in her kitchen?”

“I will make arrangements sir.” A moment’s pause, a slightly defocussed moment just like the one they saw on the landing pad. “Some will be available tomorrow, sir. Will there be anything else?”

“No, thank you. That’s fine.”

“If you do need anything sir, please just press the call button.” He pulled out a small remote from his pocked and passed it over to Aswon, then backed out of the door, closing it quietly. 

They checked out the suite, poking around and working out who was having which room, appraising the décor and looking at the artwork. It looked on the surface like a luxury hotel – but a bit of checking revealed the reinforced plasteel walls and structure behind the thin veneer. Mid way through, they heard a loud trumpet fanfare emerging from one of the rooms followed by the deep rumbling of a full set of kettle drums being played with gusto. Cautiously checking the noise out, they found a stream of cast off clothes scattered over the edge of a deep bath inset into the raised floor. Lying on the bottom of the bath, already covered by the rising water lay Hunter, naked as the day he was born.

He waved at the onlookers, then gave them an ‘ok’ sign, apparently not bothered by his body being on display. They had a moment of concern as he stayed under the water, until they remembered that with the air tank built in, he didn’t need to breathe for some considerable time. Strings broke in as the rest of the orchestra reached their queues, and classical music blasted out of the hi-performance speakers, making the surface of the water ripple like a huge speaker cone. They left him to it, and came out to find Tads poking Kai in the chest with a bony finger.

“Did you not remember what I said, Kai? No? No memory of it?” Kai looked bemused, and was slowly backing away from the prodding finger, trying not to look like he was backing off. “I told you not to let him into the chopper. I TOLD you SPECIFICALLY not to let them inside to look around. Do YOU know how hard it was for ME to alter that illusion? Do you?”

Realisation flooded into Kai’s face as he realised what she was talking about, then the look of mild alarm returned as he bumped into the wall and ran out of room to escape from the finger that was prodding at him. Tads continued to lambast him for another thirty seconds, making sure that he understood that she wasn’t impressed with his decisions taken with the Russians.

They spent a few minutes more examining the suite, finding out where the controls for the lights and audio were, and finally closing the door to Hunter’s room to give him some privacy – or at least give them some privacy. As they closed the door, the sound of music stopped completely, and they realised that the suite was extensively soundproofed. They put on some music in the background, just to provide some noise rather than the slightly unreal silence.

“Right – I think at least one of us needs to head back to the chopper, probably one of us who can see that spirit. And possibly we shouldn’t go alone.” They looked around at each other, then Tads waved to Aswon, indicating that she’d come with him. They got up, and headed towards the door, but on opening it found an armed guard outside. He was smartly dressed, but carried an obvious gun. As he turned towards them, his hand was on the grip of the heavy pistol, but his face remained neutral.

“Sir, ma’am? May I help you?”

“Oh, ahh… we need to get back to our vehicle. We have a situation that we need to deal with.” The guard frowned a little.

“I can get someone to check on your craft if you wish, but I assure you it’s being taken care of and well looked after.”

“No, no – it’s not like that. It’s something we need to take care of that’s inside.”

“I see. Could it be something we do via a remote link? I can arrange for an engineer to set up a direct feed from your craft’s internal sensors through to the suite.”

“Sorry, but that won’t work at all, a video link just can’t… well it just won’t work.” Tads and Aswon shared a look – the big weakness of video cameras in the sixth world of course was that they didn’t show up any form of astral activity at all.

“I see,” he said, quite clearly not seeing, but not arguing. “Please return to the suite, and I will make some arrangements.” Tads and Aswon complied with his request, gently closing the door behind them and then crossing to the sinfully soft furniture laid out around the centre of the room and filled in the others on what had taken place.

Marius just shrugged at them, clearly filing the spirit under ‘magical problems’ and thus out of his area of expertise and responsibility. He and Nadia turned back to the map they had pulled up on the low table between the seats. At first they had thought it was a slab of black quartz, but it turned out to be a media centre and the main computer for the suite – presumably so visitors could work on presentations or communicate with their peers. But for now, it showed a large map stretching from Russia down through the Mediterranean and to the north coast of Africa. Overlaid on it were a series of large circles, shaded from green to amber.

“What’s that?” asked Aswon.

“Fuel radius. Trying to work out how many hops it would take us to get down to the target site and back. I’m working on the assumption we can file legitimate flight plans for a lot of this, and thus refuel at commercial airports where possible. But we still have to plan the hops carefully and choose which countries we fly through.” He highlighted the rings in turn, narrating as he did so.

“So I think from here to the Quarry, as a known safe base, where we can get some work done. Repair the rip in the side, get some cages made up for the critters. Then from there, about a thousand clicks down towards Sevestapol and grab some fuel there. It’s a shame – it’s about 1500 to Constantinople, so we’re just beyond our max range. But Sevastapol to the Constantinople is easy, then another 700 down to Crete. Fill up again, then another 700 or so to Libya. If we’re heading to the north part of the desert, we can get there and back on one tank, though there’s little margin. If we have to go further south, we need to tank somewhere there, or take a bunch of barrels of Avgas in the back and refuel by hand.

Marius rolled his eyes, then shot a look at Kai who was just opening his mouth.

“Don’t say it. I don’t like it, it’s a bad idea. I don’t want to do it. But look – there’s just desert. No infrastructure. Nothing. So if we have to, we have to. But either way, we get there, land, drive around in the off-roader, you guys grab this scorpion thing, we load them up and then just reverse the route. But, it’s a long journey mind you, and it won’t be cheap.”

“What’s the bad news?” Kai looked at the map and tensed in anticipation. It didn’t look that far when you could see three continents on the map at once.

“Worst case, we’re talking 4000 kilometres each way. And that’s going to run up a fuel bill of nearly two hundred thousand. Kai made a whistling noise and sat back in his seat, staring up at the ceiling. “And that’s before we get into any mission gear like cages.”

“Cages are the least of our problems. We’ll possibly need radiation suits, Geiger counters, a whole different type of survival gear. The desert is a very unforgiving place. Trust me. I know.” Aswon spoke calmly, but was already searching for some example items on his comm-link, trying to find some examples of the gear he thought they would need.

“Radiation? Why is there radiation there? I don’t see any power plants?”

“From missiles, Tads. The country of Libya pretty much ceased to be when they launched an attack at Israel. Apparently they had different totems and were sworn to destroy each other, and Libya thought it would be supported by its allies in the area. They started the fight by attacking Israel with chemical weapons, directing a terror assault on the population. But Israel launched a full attack on them when they declared hostility, and went for a massive escalation of power. No tanks, no boats, not even really any planes. Certainly no troops on the ground. They just launched some long range missiles tipped with nuclear warheads, and turned a large part of the country to glass. Then issued a statement saying they had a bunch more, and the next person to get feisty would be living in a radioactive hellhole.”

Tads blanched, shaking her head as she contemplated the death toll that would have resulted from what she was hearing.

“Both sides lost a lot of people – but Israel had been living under threat for years, and they had bomb shelters and gas masks which blunted the attack to some degree. The United Nations was still a thing back then – it was like a big merc police force or something, had a blue uniform. But anyway, they sent in troops to maintain peace and render humanitarian aid, but by then it was just a case of getting people out of the country before it collapsed into anarchy. Now it’s just desert and ruins.”

“That’s awful. The deaths of so many people – you do know that astral space will be twisted and torn down there, don’t you? It’ll be worse than that chemical plant we drove past…”

“It won’t be nice, I’m sure – but it’s also been over fifty years since this took place. We learnt about it on a training course, discussing asymmetrical warfare. Not important though, but a lot of the horror will have drained away by now, unless you’re right on top of a blast site. I agree though, we want to be careful – but it might not be too bad.”

“How long would it take if we went by truck, and what would be the fuel cost there?” Kai was rubbing the bridge of his nose now, trying to work out the costs involved in the mission.

“Ground route would be a minimum of five, maybe six thousand kilometres each way. Cost of fuel would be around twenty five grand though, so a bit over 10% of the flight cost. But, if you look here, we have to cross a number of hard borders – in and out of Israel is tough – really tough, and we have to go through a lot of unfavourable terrain. It will also take us more than three times as long, and we’re a lot more likely to run into problems on the ground than in the air.”

The conversation flowed back and forth for a while as they worked out alternate routes, trying to work out the optimum balance between speed, cost and risk. It was a problem with a huge number of imponderables, and after twenty minutes of discussion they were still not much closer to a definite answer.

“I have concerns over carrying these scorpions, assuming we find them. I don’t like the idea of having some of the most poisonous creatures on the planet locked up in a vehicle with us – whether that be in the air or on the ground. So I think flying is better just because it cuts the time in half.”

“Actually, not quite that much. We won’t be able to fly the route non-stop, while we could probably drive it – assuming you’re willing to let someone else drive your truck again.” Nadia poked Marius in the ribs gently as she spoke, but her smile took away any rancour and made it clear she was teasing him.

“Why can’t we? I’m sure I can stay awake that long and fly well, and I can nap while we are refuelled!”

“Don’t be silly. You might feel like your reactions are sharp, but they won’t be, not after the first shift in the cockpit. And besides, that’s not the point. If you file a commercial flight plan, then international aviation rules will apply to your routing. You have mandatory rest stops added in, and a limit to daily flying hours as a registered cargo pilot. They just won’t give you clearance otherwise.”

Marius frowned as he realised she was right – he was too used to working for the biggest corp on the planet, for whom international law was seen more as a guideline or request. When Saeder-Krupp told you to fly a helicopter for eighteen hours, you flew the god-dammed helicopter and did your job!

“Also Tads,” Aswon interjected, “if we gave you the time and resources, I’m sure there are spells you could learn that would either sedate, stun or control the animals, vastly reducing the risk. And as long as you can either stay awake to keep the spell up, or if we can find another foci for you to use to support you – time isn’t an issue so much. Nadia nodded vigorously to that suggestion, clearly in favour of anything that reduced the risk of carrying live cargo.

“If we are taking this job, then there’s something else we can look at possibly?” They looked over at Nadia, waiting for her to make her point. “If we get an external hook fitted to the helicopter, which will be generally useful, I’m sure – we can airlift the truck back to the ranch, and leave it there to be looked after by the family. And then you don’t have to pay rent at the quarry.”

They mulled over the idea, and soon Marius and Nadia were planning the logistics of the move. If they demounted the module from the trailer, it would – just – fit in the back of the chopper. Then they could with some finangling attach the chassis for the trailer on top of the chassis for the truck, and sling both of them underneath. It would be ungainly, but workable, as long as they didn’t run into any trouble at least.

“Hey, here’s an idea. This lady seems to be after magical plants and critters for some reason. I would guess research from the things she has said and the laboratories we passed. But…” Tads paused for a moment, then looked at Shimazu. “We do have four very strange leech critters. Maybe we should let her know about those and see if she’s interested?”

“Hey! What the hell does this have to do with my leeches?” Shimazu responded indignantly, “You leave them alone!”

“Well, ok, if we need to leave the leeches alone, maybe we can get Kai to sell those shares finally, or we really should follow up on Germaine’s contact. We don’t want a repeat of last time do we, Aswon?” He shook his head, his dreadlocks shaking vigorously from side to side.

Kai ignored them. At first they thought he was just not responding to the jibe about the shares, but when they leant over they saw he was working through the various countries they would fly over or to, and looking at the visa requirements for each, trying to get a feel for the costs and administration involved in each.

While he was busy with that, Aswon decided to do a little research on Desert Wars. A surface level search revealed that Desert Wars, the event, was run by Desert Wars, the company. Or rather it was run by Desert Wars (Africa), a separate entity to Desert Wars (Asia) and Desert Wars (America). All three had ties to Combat Sports LLC, which looked like a holding or umbrella corporation. Aswon found some articles explaining how rights were assigned from the different outfits to each other to ensure maximum tax relief, but it got far too technical for him very quickly – but it seemed plain it was a serious corporation with deep pockets.

However, while the corporation was a large and serious entity, no doubt the people working at the bottom had a chance of being somewhat flexible – he wondered if they could perhaps weasel, bribe or steal a legitimate pass to be in the area as part of the organising crew. Having the right to be flying around the desert would certainly de-risk the entire expedition, providing they could find the right person to lean on.

The subject of radiation hot spots came up again, and a little investigation was done on that. Mostly it seemed they could rely on the structure and thickness of the armour on the craft they were in to keep most of the effects at bay, provided they weren’t anywhere too hot. A quick search for some images of radiation suits made it clear that wearing one of those while trying to move around in a fifty degree desert day would be a quick route to dehydration and death unless they were very careful!

A knock at the door stopped further discussion. When they opened the heavy door to the suite, the guard stood outside with another similarly dressed man.

“So sorry to disturb you. We’re ready to accompany you to your craft now if you wish, and our engineers have routed a fibre line from the landing pad to this suite, so you can stay in touch. If you’ll come with me, please?”

Tads and Aswon grabbed their jackets and left the suite, following the first guard while the second took up a position outside the suite in his stead.

“Is Hunter still in the bath?”

Shimazu went and checked, the classical strains of Bach flooding from the bathroom as soon as the door was opened. He glanced in quickly, then closed the door and returned.

“Yes Kai, still in the bath. I’m not sure he’s actually come up from the bottom yet. But he’s got a big smile on his face and he winked at me, so I’m pretty sure he’s ok.”

They settled back on their seats, availing themselves to the bowl of fresh fruit and enjoying the taste of real grapes, waiting for Aswon and Tads to give them a call from the chopper.


	116. 116 - Choosing the next mission

Date Tuesday 20/04/2060, Location: 56.64946, 43.37541

Tads and Aswon made it back to the chopper with their escort and cautiously poked their head inside, both scanning first the normal view and then the astral. There was no sign of the spirit, or anything else unexpected, no disruption or taint of astral space that they could detect.

Slowly they checked the chopper out, starting at the back of the cargo hold and working forward.

“Hello? Grandfather? We’ve come back to keep you company and make sure you’re ok?” Her voice echoed off the metal walls, reverberating around the tomb like quiet of the chopper. She listened quietly, and then heard a considering hum from Aswon, and moved over to his position, at the rear of the living module.

Wordlessly, he pointed at a stack of clothing on the bunk, all neatly folded and with the socks bundled together in pairs. As he straightened up from examining them, he saw the blanket carefully folded under the mattress on the bunk above, then started to spot a dozen other little touches. The tea towel hanging up to dry, perfectly folded over the rail on the field oven. Salt and pepper pots turned to line up so the labels could be seen. The cap closed on the bottle of washing up liquid. It appeared that their spirit had definitely settled in.

Tads continued her search, and checked out the back seat of the car, spotting the still frozen pile of clothes on the back seat. She reached over and grabbed the pile, then with a heave pulled them towards her. A moment later she fell back out of the car, a pile of frozen clothes in her hands along with a mass of ripped furniture foam stuck to the bottom and a look of surprise on her face. Aswon heard her “ooof” as she landed on the decking, and quickly strode over to her to ensure she was ok. When he saw the ripped seat he sucked air in between his lips noisily and shook his head at her, before wandering off, muttering as he did so.

“Marius is going to be upset with you…. You bet he will. Oh yes.”

“But, but…but…” Aswon ignored her, and continued to look around, biting the inside of his cheek a little to stop the smile from showing.

Frowning, Tads climbed to her feet and checked over the mound of clothes and ripped foam, then moved into the slightly warmer living module and put them in a tray to catch the water and positioned the whole mass near the heater, turning it onto its lowest setting. A minute of work and she had a blanket hung up in front, trying to keep the warm air constrained in one area and made two small nests for herself and Aswon to curl up in and keep warm overnight. After a moment’s reflection, she extended the one for Aswon considerably as she imagined someone that tall trying to call up in a ball.

The night passed without incident, colder and less comfortable for Aswon and Tads in their nest of blankets than it did for the rest of the team ensconced in the VIP wing of the facility, but it was restful none the less. The spirit did not show himself or give any sign of being present, and in the morning, the two of them made another bowl of vodka-flavoured porridge before they left the chopper, returning to the blast door and hitting the intercom to alert the staff. Within a few minutes, another smartly-dressed security officer escorted them back to the guest quarters where they arrived just in time for breakfast to be wheeled in.

Marius and Nadia looked tired, both grabbing large steaming cups of coffee and struggling not to yawn, the result of a night spent pursuing activities other than sleep, it seemed. Nobody offered any direct comment, but there were a few sidelong glances and smiles between the others.

“You know, I’ve been thinking about what you said last night.” Shimazu said as he grabbed a bowl and started to load it up with slices of succulent fresh fruit.

“We said a lot of things last night. What in particular?” Kai asked.

“About the leeches. I think we ought to get one of the jars, to show Ludmilla. Explain that they’re magically reactive. Not to sell!” His eyes flicked around the table quickly, fixing each of the others with a stare for a moment. “Just to show her. She might be able to borrow one for a while, to do research on, I suppose. But she might be able to tell us more about them.”

“She may do. Yeah, she’s probably going to be interested. Why don’t you go get one of the jars?” Shimazu nodded at Kai, and grabbing a few more slices of fruit to keep him going on the way, headed to the door to make the arrangements.

Tads sat at the low table with four large plates arrayed in front of her. Carefully placed on each, separated by a moat of pristine white china, was – well, it was one of everything. Every single foodstuff provided for breakfast was carefully doled out and positioned on her place. Slowly and methodically, she worked through the hot items first, sampling each in turn and chewing them thoughtfully, making the odd note on her pocket secretary and then clearing her mouth with a quick swish of water.

Shimazu returned a few minutes later, bearing one of the large jars containing the leeches, wrapped in a towel to hide it from prying eyes. He carefully set the jar down on a table, and then returned to his breakfast. Within a few moments, all of Tads, Kai and Aswon had given him a very quiet and subtle look over, just to ensure that he did not have anything wrong with his aura, or had suffered some strange leech-related mishap on the way.

They sat quietly otherwise, enjoying the breakfast that would have done a luxury hotel proud and listening to the morning newscast. It seemed that out in the wider world the rumblings of the demise of Fuchi as a triple-A megacorporation were still being felt – their holdings being fought over by the other mega-corps like a frenzied mass of sharks. The news that morning though covered a massive purchase of shares on behalf of Fuchi in the Renraku company, reminding everyone that though downgraded in status, they were still a multi-national, multi-billion Nuyen company. The newscaster moved on to the appointment of a new member of the Corporate Court for Cross Applied Technologies, the newest mega on the block, before finishing with an update on the situation in Seattle where apparently the Renraku Arcology was still under military cordon. The current speculation was that the lockdown had now actually been caused after a rival corporation had launched an attack and reprogrammed the computer systems there to become hostile, forcing Renraku to abandon the facility.

There was a discreet knock on the door and Aswon rose after a moment to see who it was.

“Excuse me sir, I just wanted to check that breakfast was to your satisfaction?”

“Indeed, it was!” Aswon said with feeling, opening the door wide so the others could see the security officer standing at the threshold. “In fact, the only thing missing was to be able to drink fresh manjo juice and bask in the morning sunshine.”

“Alas sir, the ability to control the sun is beyond our power, much as we might wish otherwise. We do have some tanning booths in the gymnasium though which I’m sure would be available to you.” Aswon smiled but shook his head. “The Lady would also like to enquire as to whether you would have an answer with regards to her proposal, by eleven AM?” Aswon stepped back out of the way and turned to face Kai, cocking an interrogative eyebrow at him.

“Ahh yes, I’m sure we will do. Please do let Lady Ludmilla know that we would be happy to speak to her later and advise her on our answer.”

“Of course sir. Is there anything else you need?”

“Yes, actually,” Hunter said around a mouthful of sausage and bacon. “I’d really like to go for a run. Anywhere we can do that?”

“A…. run? We do have a gymnasium with several machines.”

“No, no, I can’t stand treadmills and being indoors. It’s just not the same as feeling ground underneath you and the wind in your hair. I mean just a track or path or something, where we can actually be outdoors.”

“I will make some arrangements, sir.” The security officer pulled the door closed as he backed out, leaving them alone.

“Yeah, I could actually go for a run, too.” There were general mutters of agreement, and one by one they headed off to go and grab a shower in their respective suites. At least having gotten into fresher clothes the night before for their introductions to Ludmilla they were still relatively clean.

Kai pulled out his phone and hit the speed-dial entry for Germaine, hoping that he’d be able to get through to her.

“Hello? Oh Kai, good morning.”

“Good morning to you, too. I just thought I’d give you a call and let you know we’re actually now up in the edge of Russia. I know last time we spoke you mentioned that you had a man up here that might need some help or have some work that needs to be done, and as we’re in the area it seemed like a good time to call.”

“Marvellous. Well, let me send you though his number now then. Vlad is a dear, dear fellow and has some lovely tales to tell. Do pass on my regards to him, will you. Oh, I should mention that you might want to be careful calling him – it can be a little noisy at times.”

“Thank you for the heads up Germaine, I’m sure it will be fine.” He flipped over his phone as it buzzed, and checked that the data packet had arrive ok – sure enough, there was the number and the name “Vladimir Gortleb”, along with a standard looking encryption key locked business card. He turned the phone back over as he heard Germaine continue to speak.

“Now, last we spoke, you mentioned a delightful little holiday location to me, Kai. Any news on that?” Kai thought for a moment, then prevaricated, describing how they were conscious of her high standards and that they had a desperate desire not to disappoint her with the experience, and that they needed just a little more time before it was ready.

“I see. Well, do they have a landing pad there?”

“I’m afraid not – there will be a helicopter landing facility there soon, I am certain,” Marius nodded his head vigorously at Kai, clearly already thinking about this, “but not yet I’m afraid. Will that be a problem? We can always raise the priority of the work?”

“No no, it will be fine. We’ll just take the Bentley instead. Well, I shall await your call then to tell me that it’s ready, and we shall arrange a date. Now I must go and attend to some business! I’ll speak to you later, Kai, and find out what’s going on with Vlad.”

She disconnected and Kai considered his options, then dialled up the ranch. The phone rang a few times, then Naena answered, telling Kai that Rusudan was at town, sorting out some things for the ranch. The others listened with half an ear, as Kai quizzed her on the state of the ranch and if they were ready to receive visitors. There were some snorts of amusement when Kai mentioned that Germaine might be a ‘high maintenance’ visitor that would demand extra attention, followed by another set of snorts as Kai clarified that yes, that meant they might need more towels. 

Kai started to listen more, and his smile faded a little, then returned, and if anything intensified as he listened. A few minutes later after telling Naena that she was doing a great job and to get ready for some visitors, he hung up and sat back in the comfortable embrace of the chair, spinning the phone in his hand while he gazed across the room. After a few moments, he realised that people were watching him and waiting for an explanation.

“It seems the town is doing pretty well now. People are a lot happier, and the two policemen have recruited a few deputies to help keep an eye on things, and to make sure that nobody else muscles in on the place. There’s been an election for a new town councilman or something, and some shopkeeper has been chosen that seems to make Naena happy. At least I think that’s what she said. But on the whole, the place is looking up.” He stopped spinning the phone and checked the display.

“Well, might as well give this Vlad fella a call then and see what’s going on.” He settled back and then introduced himself to the person on the other end of the line, going through the social dance of introductions. He was just describing how Germaine had described that he might be interested in some work when the phone blared, the tiny speaker crackling and distorting as some awful noise emitted from it. It went on for nearly three seconds, then abruptly stopped, and everyone in the room could just about hear the sound of someone talking in a normal tone of voice.

Kai chatted for a few minutes, asking questions about size of cargo and urgency, details on the nature of the cargo with regards to specialist handling and so forth, then telling his contact that he’d get back to him soon.

“Right folks – Mr Vlad wants some people to subtly head over to Stockholm, pick up four large powered freezers, each about a metre deep and high, and maybe two metres long, and then get them to Moscow for him.”

“Stockholm? That’s thousands of kilometres away, surely! There’s no way we’re going to make that kind of trip are we?” Hunter and Marius shared a confused look, listening to Aswon chunter about the distances involved and the cost of flying the chopper that far, and checked the maps, wondering if he was talking about somewhere different. 

“I don’t care about how far it is…did you say freezers? What’s in them? I bet its dead bodies or something.” Shimazu interjected. “I hope it doesn’t turn into something like that Golem job, with people chasing after us again.”

They spent a few minutes looking over the map, working out the distances involved and the routing they might take. From the dam, it was about 1500km to Stockholm – so they would certainly have to tank the second they made it there, if not somewhere before – nobody wanted to run out of fuel while crossing the Baltic Sea! From Stockholm it was a 1200km journey back towards Moscow, and then a fairly easy 400km hop back to the dam. All told it was going to take just over two full fuel loads, which gave them a baseline for their costs of around 40,000 Nuyen, plus the expense of any bribes or permits they needed to apply for. Shimazu was still unsure as to the job, assuming the worst about the possible contents of the freezers and the possible trouble that it might bring.

They were interrupted with a knock on the door of their suite – the guard had returned, and instead of a discreet pistol tucked into the holster in his suit he now carried a very obvious submachine gun on a three point friction sling. The team exchanged a few looks, but then followed him out of the suite and through the facility, emerging into the bright and cold spring morning from the side of the dam. They stretched out for a minute, warming up their muscles and then headed along the path at a slow jog, their breath making little clouds against the clear blue sky.

The guard trailed along behind them about ten metres, clearly accompanying them whilst giving them some privacy to continue their discussion. They rounded out a few ideas for how they were going to approach the job as they ran down the gravel track, the huge expanse of the Volga river to their right.

They had run for about ten minutes along the track, travelling at a steady pace and keeping the group together. Shimazu and Aswon were no doubt chafing at the bit to stretch their legs, but there was no way the rest of the group would keep up with them and have any chance of conversation.

A sudden flurry of froth exploded from the surface of the river, and a mottled green and brown head thrust out of the surface, bulbous eyes blinking as they sighted on their target. A dull and moist sounding noise echoed off the pilings at the edge of the water as the creature forced a gobbet of fluid out of the specially mutated tube with a flex of its muscles.

Shimazu barely had a moment between the emergence of the creature and the attack, but it was long enough for his reactions to kick in, and his legs dropped him into a roll to the side, clear of the path of the ball of phlegm. The rest of the group scattered, moving away from each other and several of them found their hands grasping at where holstered pistols should have been if they were ‘dressed for work’.

Three rounds struck the creature, stitching up from just above the waterline and rising along the narrow body in a neat line. Barely had the third round hit before the first exploded, ripping the creature apart sending gobs of flesh arcing through the air. Out of their peripheral vision, they saw the guard with the SMG shouldered neatly, his eyes tracking over the water for further threats, while faint wisps of gunsmoke rose from the end of the barrel.

The team formed up and glanced out at the remains of the spitting pike as it floated on the surface, the remainder of the five metre long body writhing sinuously in response to disjointed signals from the nervous system. A moment later another large set of jaws clamped onto the centre of the body from below, dragging it down beneath the turgid waters and out of view.

The team circled around, and started to jog back towards the dam, continuing their discussion and ignoring the water to their left and giving no sign of the attack that had taken place. Behind them the guard jogged along with them, his SMG covering the water and his eyes scanning the surface carefully, ready in case there was another attack on these strange visitors to the facility. 

Their journey back was uneventful, and they moved aside as they reached the door to allow their escort to reach the hand-scanner and keypad, clearing their way into the facility. Marius mentioned to the guard that he wished to return to the chopper soon to check on some engineering work, and the guard told him he would make the necessary arrangements. Soon they were back in the suite, each heading off for a quick shower.

By the time Marius and Nadia had freshened up, there was an escort waiting for them, one of the dam engineers by the looks of his jumpsuit and hard-hat. He escorted them back through the engineering section of the dam towards the helipad, occasionally waving to other engineers as they spotted him. Back at the chopper, he stood to one side and watched as Marius swarmed up to the top of the craft towards the top housing and rotor shaft.

With a little help from Nadia, they worked at the parts, checking over the assembly for damage. As Marius pulled on one of the locking pins to check it was secure, it came loose with a sudden ‘pop’ nearly sending him falling backwards from the top of the craft. The pin had snapped about halfway long its length, a bright flash of exposed metal showing where it had cracked under pressure. Carefully Marius lined it up from the outside of the housing, his eyes widening as he looked at the measurement.

The pin was barely long enough to hold in place – even a small amount of vibration would have rocked it free, and certainly the pressures of normal flight, let alone combat manoeuvers would have sent it flying off into space and releasing the parts it was designed to hold in place. If the spirit really had held this in place, then he’d prevented a major engineering casualty that would have grounded them.

They slid down from the top of the craft, and Marius showed Nadia the damage when they were back on the ground. The engineer came over for a look as well, gazing at the pin with interest.

“You want a hand with that? We can whip you up a replacement nice and easy?”

“You can? And thank you, that would be most helpful.”

The engineer led them back into the facility, heading down the stairs to one side and into the engineering spaces. A few minutes later they were in a large and very well equipped maintenance room. Marius looked around with envy at the computer controlled lathes and drilling machines, the spotlessly clean work areas and the rows of quality tools laid out on the pegboard, each part marked with an outline behind it. The engineer was true to his word, pulling out a titanium blank from his stores and then setting it tightly in the clamp on the lathe, before setting a scan going on the old part. Using the software on the system he extended the scan to include the missing part, before sending the completed image to the machinery.

While the computer carefully pared away metal and produced a tight spiral of titanium thread from the blank, Marius chatted with the engineer and complimented him on his workspace and facilities. His enthusiasm was genuine, and his knowledge of engineering and manufacturing obviously struck a chord with the base engineer. Soon they were chatting away like old friends, Marius listening as the man told him about some of the other engineering jobs they had ended up doing. It sounded like Ludmilla often had visitors landing with either battle damage or craft that had been pushed to their limits, and that the base team were well practiced with patching them up. Indeed it seemed like they approached it as an engineering challenge and something interesting to do rather than having to tend to the generators and equipment of the dam itself.

By the time the part had been manufactured and fitted, it was close to 11am, and they had to hustle back to the suite with their escort. On their return, Marius and Nadia found that Kai had already been in touch with Vladimir and had accepted the job, and under the glares of the others had managed to negotiate up from the initial offer of eighty thousand to ninety thousand with a ten grand bonus if the cargo was delivered inside the next week.

Another knock on the door precluded further conversation, and once more they found their smartly-dressed and subtly-armed guard-escort waiting for them. They grabbed their gear, not expecting to return to the suite after the meeting and followed their guide as he led them back into the main section of the dam, turning into the corridor they had seen the previous day that was labelled up as the laboratories.

Another heavy and soundproof door was opened for them, leading them into an observation room that looked down into some kind of lab. Ludmilla stood at the sharply slanted windows, watching as some experiment was being performed.

“Darlings, good morning! I hope you slept well. Do come in.” They entered the room, and the door closed quietly behind them, cutting out the faint noises of the dam and leaving only the quiet hum of the air-conditioning. As they closed in on the windows they could see that a small team was performing some kind of surgery on some African green-back monkeys in the brightly lit bio-lab laid out below them.

“So, I hope you have had a restful evening, and that your jog this morning wasn’t too exciting?”

“Indeed, a most pleasant evening, thank you. Your hospitality is most gracious, and we were very impressed with the prowess of your guard as well.” Kai smiled and laid the response on thick, watching Ludmilla carefully. She smiled at him again in a dutiful way as he said ‘the right things’. “We have had a discussion about your offer, and we wish to accept it, once we’ve carried out our small task that we mentioned previously. This should only take a few days, just a quick trip from here to the North West to deal with a little cargo, then back. Really should be no trouble.”

“Excellent! Excellent. I’m sure a delay of a few days won’t cause any problems at all. So, let’s get down to business shall we? I have two offers for you. The first would be for a simple cash payment – if you can bring me the breeding pair I’m after, then I can see them being worth half a million to me.”

The team tensed, and Kai tried to keep his face impassive. That was a lot of money for a retrieval of two critters – so either they were very dangerous, or the area was. Or both. On the other hand, if it went well, then half a million Nuyen bought the team a lot of upgrades.

“Or the other thing I had in mind was an experimental engine for your helicopter, and a cash payment or three hundred and fifty thousand.”

“What kind of experimental engine?” Marius asked, his interest piqued. 

“My researchers came across some pre-crash information, from an aviation company looking at the practicalities of using a diesel engine for aircraft.”

“Diesel?!?” Marius spluttered. “But…the weight, the power output.”

“Well, it’s true that it’s a heavy engine, and that diesel has a lower specific energy than Kerosene. But on the other hand, the fuel is lighter and the engine is simpler, leading to improved reliability. Also, compression-ignition engines have a higher fuel compression ratio which leads to being more efficient on a per-cycle basis, which in turn leads to greater range and cargo capability. My design engineer is predicting that anything up to a 30% increase in fuel economy may be possible eventually.

“Hmm.” Marius stopped and considered, and the idea bounced around in his head. Everything she said was true, though some issues came to mind. “But the engines while simpler, are also required to be stronger due to the reaction and method of ignition, which is why they’re normally used for truck engines where the weight doesn’t matter. Though again, the fuel being a compression ignition rather than spark ignition would make it considerably safer in the event of an accident.”

The discussion ranged back and forth for a few minutes as Marius gradually came around to the idea, with every downside of an aviation diesel engine appearing to have an equally strong upside in some area or another.

Several of the team tuned out as the engineering discussion got technical, and watched what was going on in the lab. A monkey was restrained on the table and hooked up to some kind of monitoring system, and had been given an injection. They could see the monitoring equipment clearly from the observation pod, and watched as the heart rate and blood pressure soared upwards while the monkey thrashed and writhed. As the seconds passed, the monkey flexed and strained, and the restraints slowly came away from the table, black cables on reels slowly playing out as muscles contracted under the hairy skin. On a separate display they saw the level of force required to pull against the resistance cords also spiralling upwards in a dizzy dance. 

Marius rejoined them, and hustled them over to one side of the observation pod while Ludmilla returned to her studies, watching the scene below in the lab with interest. He rapidly filled them in on his thoughts on the engine, and the deal proposed.

“Ok, here’s my thoughts. We do the run to Sweden, and go pick up the cargo from near Stockholm, takes a day, maybe two. Refuel, then head to Moscow to do the delivery. Top off the tanks, then head down in a few hops, covered as a commercial flight to North Africa. Find these critters, stun them, then get them packaged up and bring them back most of the way here, heading to the Quarry. We drop all of you guys off, who get the truck and head back to the ranch, with Shimazu and Hunter driving. Nadia and I bring the chopper here and drop off the cargo, then oversee the refit of the new engine, and we then fly back to the ranch to meet up with you.”

There was a minute’s animated discussion trying to work out if this prototype engine was to be trusted, or if it would even be economical, before they agreed that they would at least take the job to Sweden and agree to Ludmilla’s job, then work out the details from there.

“We’ve had a quick discussion, and worked out the top level logistics – and we can’t see any problem with this. We’re looking to do a very quick job for our contact nearby, should only take a few days, then we’ll be back and will take on your job to Africa.”

“Marvellous Kai, that’s good.” Below her in the lab, the monkey suddenly stopped struggling against the straps and resistance cords, and lay on the table panting heavily, its eyes wide and staring into space.

“By the way, my friend Shimazu here has something you might be a little interested in, as you seem quite keen on paranormal critters.” He nodded and stepped to the side, and Shimazu unwrapped the jar from the blanket, showing the large black leech attached to the side of the glass.”

“Oh, that’s an interesting looking specimen. What is it?”

“Well, we’re not entirely sure. It’s some kind of awakened leech. We know they secrete a corrosive saliva, and they inject an analgesic compound when they latch on to someone to drain their blood, and that can cause anaemia to the targets. And you don’t want to use salt or heat to get them to release from their target – that makes them go into a frenzy and actually burrow into the flesh further. Instead you need a strong source of UV light.”

“Where did you get such a magnificent specimen?” Ludmilla gazed at the creature with interest, getting her nose almost to touch the jar as she examined it minutely.

“Um. Let’s just say it was a one time opportunistic seller, in Turkmenistan. And we’ve not seen anything like them anywhere else.”

“And what does it eat?”

“Pretty much anything, but especially meat.”

“And you want to be careful, they leave you drained and weak if you’re exposed to them.” Hunter shot a glare at Shimazu as he spoke.

“They drain you? How? By what mechanism?”

“We think it was mainly blood loss – one of the creatures escaped from its jar somehow, and we think it was feeding on Hunter overnight, draining his blood. It certainly grew in size significantly by the time we realised something was wrong and found it. But it left him anaemic, listless and feeling very weak for some time afterwards.” Shimazu explained.

“And how many of these marvellous creatures do you have? And how many do you need?”

“Well, we’ve got four of them. And I don’t know about need. Only I seem to have any particular fondness for them. But I’m not really looking to sell them, but I thought you might be interested in the loan of one or two, for study.”

“No, that won’t do at all. I must have one. Name your price.”

“How about a prototype diesel engine?” Tads muttered.

“What was that?”

“Erm. I think in the interest of full disclosure, we don’t know what they are and what their powers are. They may be able to drain life force from creatures and such like, so you should take precautions.” Tads said, in a louder voice.

“How about we loan you the creatures for study, in exchange for some of the combat drugs you’re developing?” suggested Hunter.

“Hmm. I think we could manage that. Of course, we’d need to do a medical work-up on you to make sure you’re compatible and it’s safe.” Shimazu looked a little mulish for a moment, clearly not keen on the idea, but relented after he saw the others nodding their heads.

“Oh, there is one other thing I wondered.” Aswon interjected. “We ran into some strange ghostly creatures while on the mission to get your plant. If you wish, and have someone willing to have the spell cast upon them, I think our Shaman would be happy to set up a mind-linking experience and share our knowledge of what happened during the mission with you, so you have a record of it.” He glanced over at Tads who gave a tiny nod of her head.

“Ahh, now that also is interesting. Very interesting. Yes indeed I will take you up on that offer. Come now, let’s make some arrangements!”

A deal was quickly hatched, and soon the team found themselves heading down into the level below, where the science labs were actually located. As they wandered down, Hunter quickly realised with the help of his cybernetic spatial recogniser that they were in a facility built out of modular blocks with high order symmetry. Each of the labs was clustered around a central access corridor, with a similar layout including access facility and containment areas, the observation room above, operating utilities and so on – clearly they had been built as pre-fab modules and installed here separately.

The medical lab was equipped just as highly as the bio-chem lab they had seen, and soon several of the team were being subjected to a very thorough high-tech medical check, Hunter’s cyberware and bioware being catalogued and both he and Shimazu’s physical systems being mapped out. The technicians checked them over thoroughly, and declared them compatible with the drugs, with no issues found. After the testing, they headed out to find Marius, Nadia and Kai who were waiting for them in the central area, discussing and planning the mission ahead.

Aswon and Tads meanwhile headed into a different lab. This one was kitted out with a massive array of computers and a series of headsets and probes attached via fibre optic cables. A somewhat nervous-looking technician was waiting for them, his hands smoothing down his starched white lab coat repeatedly, betraying his discomfort with what was to come.

“Do not fear, there is nothing to worry about,” Aswon said, “our shaman here will cast a spell that will allow you to see my thoughts and memories. I will be able to see your mind too – but only what you explicitly choose to share. I cannot go through your mind, or see your secrets, or anything like that. It causes no pain or discomfort, and has no lasting effect.”

His explanation seemed to sooth the man somewhat, and he nodded. 

“I’ll just need a moment to get the equipment calibrated and set up.” Tads and Aswon looked at each other with a little confusion, unaware of what he was talking about. The man turned towards the computers and activated a series of commands, buttons and panels, and then reached for a bundle of fibre optic connectors ending in small plugs. One by one these were inserted into the back of his head – in a location similar to where Marius plugged in his rigger jack. Rather than one big bundle though, these ran up the side of the neck in two parallel lines. When they were all connected, the man reclined on a seat and relaxed. “I’m ready.”

Tads concentrated and cast her spell, linking their minds together. She felt the trepidation of the technician, but sensed him trying not to resist or disrupt the spell. After a moment she made the connection and relaxed somewhat, waiting for Aswon to begin.

He ran back through the memories of the ghostly female spirit and the attack on the vehicle, then the later assault on their position as they harvested the plant. He tried to express his memories clearly, letting the emotions seep through with his actions, and felt his heart race as he relived the battle and the magical assault, the fear as Hunter was battered with the spell and their relief at the timely arrival of Marius in the chopper.

When he was done, they lapsed into silence for a moment, then he heard a voice over the speakers, asking him to think again about the terrain they had been driving over when the attack happened. He complied, going through the memory and trying to remember the smaller details more clearly, ensuring he relayed not only the sights and sounds, but also the tastes and smells, the feel of the car, the emotions of the team. The voice guided him through the whole encounter, asking him to relive some parts two or three times, asking for additional details or clarification. This was followed by Tads going over her memories as well, although she made efforts to be discreet about the spear and the fear effect.

Eventually they were done, and Tads dropped the spell with a sigh of relief. She rubbed at her forehead gently – it appeared that casting and maintaining the spell for a while had left her with the edges of a headache. The technician sat up and slowly began to unplug the jacks from his head, returning them to the stand next to the chair. 

“Well, that was exciting – but rather you than me. Though I envy you the thing you can do with your heart rate!” Aswon nodded to him, then watched as the man keyed up a display and was surprised to see a rendering of his memories animated before his eyes.

“What is this?”

“It’s a simsense recording. As you were sharing the memories with me, I was reliving them as if they were my own – but the simsense recorder implant lets me then record that memory out to a chip for later playback. It’s not perfect, and to tell you the truth, I’m glad you didn’t get hurt – that always feels bad after a recording. But now someone with a sim-deck can play that chip and experience what you experienced. As a teaching and research tool it’s invaluable – you really can be put in a situation and see how you’ll react.”

A second technician entered, distracting them from their conversation. He approached Aswon, and handed over an insulated box. Inside the packaging was a small vial with a sealed one shot hypo-spray unit. A small handwritten card displayed the text “Anti-venom: Leiurus quinquestriatus hebraeus / Leiurus quinquestriatus quinquestriatus” in a neat script.

“The boss said to give you this in exchange for the recording, just in case you run into trouble.” Aswon sealed the box up and murmured a thanks, then asked for and received a copy of the simsense recording for his contact before then leading the way from the lab, closely followed by Tads.

Kai hit the button on his phone, dialling through to Germaine.

“Hello again! I just wanted to let you know that we’ve spoke with your friend Vlad, and have taken on some work with him that we’re just about to sort out.”

“You have? Marvellous. That is good to hear, I do so like people with a keen sense of timing.”

“Indeed. And we’ve also spoken with our people at the holiday location and they’re ready to receive you as a guest whenever you’re free. Now, I do have to tell you that it’s a little rustic, just to set your expectations. Is there anything special that you require? If so, please let me know and we can arrange it.”

“No, rustic sounds smashing. It’ll be like camping as a girl all over again! So – that’s fine then. Let’s say next weekend?”

“Next weekend would be great, I’ll let them know to be ready for you.”

With their business sorted, the team assembled and they headed back towards the landing pad, accompanied by one of the security detail. Just as they were boarding, they spotted the door open from the facility, and a man in chefs’ whites came running through, waving frantically at them.

Kai climbed back down the steps again to meet with him.

“Excuse me, Monsieur, I have here your dish, as requested.”

Kai looked at him in confusion, then took the small plastic box and opened it. Lying inside were two small black fungi, nestled on a bed of finely chopped salad arranged artistically – the truffle forming the heart of a flower while the fans of lettuce, cucumber and tomato fanned out like leaves, atop a stem made of celery and cress.

“Thank you. It looks wonderful, and I’m sure our Shaman will appreciate it. My compliments to your kitchen, and to the Lady of course.”

The chef bobbed his head, and then had to grab at his hat as the increasing downwash from the rotor started to make its presence known. He retreated back to the doorway with the security guard, while Kai climbed aboard and pulled the steps up and sealed the doorway.

Inside he showed Tads the truffles, but both he and Tads were surprised when Aswon gently pulled the box from his hand.

“Time for dinner later. First I need your help writing a report for the contact in China. The sooner we finish, the sooner you get to eat your fungus.”

Tads frowned at him but then sighed and reached for the keyboard.

“Ok, let’s get this done.”

The chopper gently lifted into the air, rising up vertically and then ponderously swinging around until it was clear of the pylons and cables from the nearby transformers and power regulators, and started to head south-east towards a meeting with Vlad.


	117. 117 - Heading to Sweden

Date Wednesday 21/04/2060, Location: 56.64946, 43.37541

“Hang on – do we need to go talk to the contact, or do we have all the details for the job?” Marius’s voice called over the speakers while his body was slumped in the pilot’s seat, held in place by the restraint harness.

“I think we’ve actually got all the details we need – location, phone number and contact details…yeah, we’re good to go. Technically there’s no reason to check in with him unless we want to check him out personally.” A few looks were exchanged, but nobody seemed fussed or raised an objection with Kai. “Ok Marius, swing us around, head sorta north-east. Hunter, can we have a course please?”

Hunter busied himself with the computer for a couple of minutes, working out courses, ranges and looking for fuel stops, then hit the intercom button by his seat in the electronics warfare bay.

“Course 282, range 750km, approximate flight time 150 minutes. I’m filing the flight plan now with Moscow regional so we’re covered as a legit flight – but it’s gonna take me ten minutes or so to wade through all these forms.” True to his word, Hunter started working through the archaic and convoluted process of filing in the flight paperwork tying in the transponder for the helicopter and the flight details. He hit a brief stumbling block when they realised that because they were going legit, there were a number of administrative hurdles to jump through.

“Folks – I gotta pay for insurance, flight certification and transit fees. I need some ID and a credit transfer from someone.”

“Can’t you use the funds on the certified credstick?” asked Aswon.

“No – it’s got to be tied to an ID, to complete the chain of responsibility. I didn’t realise doing things by the book would be such an arse….” Hunter sighed in frustration. “It’s going to come to about three grand, but it has to be sourced from an ID that checks out as legit, which means someone will be tied via the flight records to the chopper’s transponder and whatever we do.” They spent a few minutes working out whose ID was most likely not to raise any flags or issues, and how to do the transfer – eventually moving money from the charitable corporate account they had set up as a cover into the medical ID for Aswon set up while they transited Iran, then using that to file the necessary paperwork and details.

Once the bank transfers were done and signed off, the rest of the process was smooth – though lengthy, as Hunter completed pages and pages of online forms details their flight plan, cargo, intentions, air-worthiness details and a host of other information. Eventually he was done, and received the automated response from the flight authorities, advising him of his flight plan ID. With that completed, he passed the information to Marius, who appended the details onto the header for the aircraft, allowing the transponder to broadcast details for anyone looking to interrogate them.

In the back of the chopper Tads sat strapped into one of the seats and carefully opened the box, looking at the truffles and salad laid out inside. She carefully lifted a piece of truffle out, taking care not to let anything else touch it and contaminate the surface. She spent the next five minutes carefully sniffing it, wafting the slice under her nose and inhaling carefully, her eyes closed as she tried to mentally capture the scent. It was hard, as the chopper smelt of fuel, oil and sweaty bodies to a strong degree, along with a myriad of other smells like coffee and bog mud – but she’d gotten mostly used to them.

Next she moved onto a small and delicate nibble, letting the truffle roll over her tongue from one side to another. She gently bit down on it, then moved the smaller pieces around her tongue again, detecting a sharper and stronger flavour from the freshly torn surface. Again, she spent time trying to pick up on the subtle flavours and texture of the slice, working to fix it in her mind.

She chewed the first bit thoroughly, seeing if the flavour diminished much as she masticated the fungus, before swallowing it down and washing her mouth out with some bottled water. Once she had done so, she took another bite and repeated the process again, choosing a bit closer to what she thought was the root or stem instead, and trying to detect if there was any change in flavour. When she was done, she carefully set the box to one side, and then started to draw in some mana, concentrating and trying to conjure up a morsel of truffle from the astral energy, creating it as closely as she could to the memory of what she’d just eaten.

As she was testing her creation and letting the flavour roll through her mouth, a thought popped into her head.

“Kai, just a thought. How about trying to get in touch with those guys we met at the quarry with the hearse truck. You know, the guys who ship the dead bodies around. Wasn’t their team led by a Swedish guy? Just thinking we might get some local knowledge from him?”

“Hmm, that’s not a bad idea. Let me just finish looking at these borders we’re going to be crossing, and I’ll work something out.” Tads went back to her truffle experiments and Kai returned to his planning. The political situation to the west was a mess – following the awakening, the crash, two waves of global pandemics and the rise of the corporations, much of Eastern Europe had balkanised further, creating a horrible patchwork of small nations all fearful of each other and frequently ruled by dictators or parties propped up by corporate backers. Flying across or through them would create lots of extra hassle, but there was an easy answer – at least this time.

“Marius, once we’ve hit the fuel stop at Veliky Novgorod, I’m thinking we follow the Silk Road north towards St Petersburg, then break west and head out into the Gulf of Finland, ride the border between Finland and the Estonian republics and states and then head out into the Baltic Sea, straight across towards Stockholm. The fewer borders we have to cross and get ID’d on or challenged, the better, and I bet it’s a pretty common route too for independent operators.” Marius acknowledged, and Hunter worked out a new course and passed it through the systems to Marius and the autopilot.

Their journey north west was uneventful, Hunter spending most of the time working on the location of the pickup point and starting to fill in flight plan information for the Swedish end of things and their return flight. Tads continued to work on creating truffles and trying to zero in her reproductions, and the rest busied themselves with maintenance tasks.

A slight tailwind let them arrive at their destination about two minutes ahead of schedule, and they saw an airstrip laid out not far from the main highway heading north. It was a pretty decent length runway, and there were a series of VTOL or chopper landing pads to the side – all appearing full at the moment. Beyond that, a large bank of fuel tanks were laid out in a line, and there was a small administration building with the control tower jutting from the top – then nothing. No passenger facilities, no local services, no amenities. It was a clear this was mainly used as a fuel stop, not a destination, or even a transhipment point.

They called in and went into a gentle oval pattern, waiting for one of the square landing pads to become free. It only took a few minutes before an Osprey tilt wing lifted off, and they were granted landing rights. Marius put the chopper down with his customary grace and panache, and a local ground crew approached them, fuel hose over their shoulders. Negotiations were quick and painless, and they topped the tanks off, Kai paying the bill of 8685 Nuyen from the money received from Ludmilla. Ten minutes later, they were taking off again, and following the course worked out by Hunter to match Kai’s request. It took them about 40 minutes to cover the 200 kilometres to the shore and cross over to the flat and tranquil-looking water. The setting sun sparked off water, reflecting a myriad of colours rather than the blues and greens they were expecting, a reminder of the levels of pollution found in most of the major waterways these days.

They headed west over the water, chasing after the setting sun which slowly sank below the clouds and for a while bathed the front of the chopper in warm golden light. Automatic filters on the sensors took care of the glare for Marius, but the rest of the team were drawn to look out of the windows and stare at the islands passing below, the occasional ferry plying the waterways or private craft sailing back and forth. As the sun finally started to descend behind land, the sky deepened in colour, turning a progressively darker blue, and to their sides they could see a myriad of lights starting to appear from the villages and towns to either side of the gulf.

“Hey, are we going to get hit with that crew-rest nonsense you guys were talking about. Are we going to have to build in rest stops and things?”

“Don’t worry Kai, not today. We’re doing a short enough journey that it’s all fine for a single day’s travel – though we’re pretty close to the limit. If we were doing a longer journey, then yes we need to start factoring in mandatory crew rest time and things like that.” Nadia responded before anyone else could, and then started to describe the various software packages they’d used with her father’s business for working out the scheduling of their drivers and delivery vehicles. She certainly spoke with absolute confidence, and nobody doubted her accuracy.

“The other thing we need to work out is where we’re putting this stuff. If they’re freezers, then I’m guessing they’re going to be quite bulky and boxy – so we might not have room to get them down the side of the jeep.”

“Is that a problem, Shimazu?” asked Aswon. “Surely it doesn’t matter too much.”

“I was more thinking if we did get stopped and searched, if they’re right at the back, any inspection crew coming up the ramp will reach them first – and we’re relying on Tads to try and hide them with her magic. But again, it’s the first thing they will pass, and we have to disguise them as something that they wouldn’t want to check out.”

“Hmm, I see what you mean. Maybe we can try to move the jeep then, edge it to one side?” They looked at the clearance, and realised that while they could indeed move the jeep closer to one side than the other, it wouldn’t make a huge difference. In the end they decided that they’d try and lift the freezers straight over the top of the jeep if need be to put them in front, or just leave them behind if they couldn’t. After all, it was only a problem if they were actually stopped and searched, and that meant they were in trouble anyway. A quick warning to Marius, and Shimazu got the jeep started and with some careful back and forth moving, managed to get it as far over to one side as he could, making it at least easier to get past on the other side – even if there might not be room for the freezers to get past.

They continued over the Baltic Sea in the dull twilight, serried patterns of whitecaps leading off in the water now they were in more open water. Occasionally they saw the navigation lights of other aircraft – the long range flights high up in the sky peeking through the breaks in the clouds, lower-level local traffic and the occasional long range drone. A couple of times they spotted fishing trawlers out throwing their nets overboard to being the night’s work, and one floating chandelier that could have only been a large cruise ship heading for Finland.

They were nearing the eastern edge of Sweden when Marius twitched in surprise. It felt like someone had just stroked down his spine with an icicle, resting it on the small of his back. Then he felt another stroke – the translated sense of the questing radar pulse from astern as it locked onto their craft. Now instead of cold, intense heat, like someone waving a red hot poker over his flesh, as X-band fire control emissions locked him up – then as suddenly as it had started, it was gone. He checked the sensors, but saw nothing at all, no blip on the surface of the sea or any craft in the air.

Every passing second took them closer to land though, and if they were stealthy enough that he hadn’t even seen them, that probably made them either military, or pro-grade Shadowrunners – and turning back to investigate either probably wasn’t a good idea. Instead he concentrated on their flight path into Sweden and the approach mapped out to Bromma airport. Bromma was only a couple of kilometres outside of the downtown area of Stockholm, but wasn’t the main international airport. That was Arlanda, 35km to the north. The airport there wasn’t constrained by historical buildings around it and had the room to sprawl and develop, extending the lengths of runways to deal with sub-orbital and semi-ballistic flights to international locations.

Bromma though was mainly a transport hub for freight, used by shipping companies and couriers and fitted their cover much better. They also hoped that the more industrial style of commerce would lead to a lower level of security and oversight, and less interest in their craft. The single runway there was big enough for the freight haulers, and was much closer to the pickup location they had been given.

“Attention everyone, we’re now over Swedish soil. Approximately sixty kilometres to the airport, maybe fifteen minutes, depending on landing clearance. We’re going to have ground crew near us, so make sure we look clean.” Marius’s announcement prompted the others to get up and double check their gear, making sure that guns were tucked away and other contraband was hidden and that there was nothing to evoke curiosity on display.

Tads concentrated for a moment, calling on the spirits of the sky to come to her, aiming to have the spirit ready to guard and conceal them if anything happened. Looking out of the window she called the mana to her hoping the spirit would appear on the wing, able to keep up with them without being inside the chopper itself. A nebulous wisp of cloud and hazy air appeared as she expected, but also a disgruntled looking wizened old man manifested in front of her, hands on his hips.

“What are you doing?” he demanded, an edge of anger in his voice. “You want to bring outsiders into our house?”

“No, I was going to get it to stay outside-“

“Oh, I see. Saying I’m not good enough, eh?” It interrupted angrily. “Feel like I can’t look after the place, is that what you’re saying?” Tads felt the anger radiating from the spirt, and with a wave of her hands let the energies of the spirit out on the wing disintegrate, returning it back to the astral plane and releasing it from her service.

“I’m sorry grandfather, I didn’t mean to upset or disrespect you. I just wanted to keep the house safe and make sure we were not taking your for granted.” The hearth spirit made a snorting noise, and gave her a dirty look, then vanished, leaving her sitting in her seat alone. “Well, that’s not great,” she muttered to herself.

They closed in on Stockholm, circling the city to approach from the west down a very specific heading. Marius followed the routing like he was on a rail, while Hunter handled the radio traffic, communicating with Bromma Air Traffic Control.

As they closed in on the city, the quality of their comm-link signal improved, and Aswon sent over the report to Han Lee. It was a pretty good document in his opinion – certainly he’d poured hours of effort into it describing the area, the power line and the effects of the manasphere on the area. He also made sure that in the cover note it clearly indicated that there was a simsense recording of the visit available, which could be couriered over or delivered securely some way that would contain lots of additional information. The data-packet still took a while to send over the cellular link, but was faster by far than trying to send it over the very bandwidth-poor network in Russia that they’d been relying on.

They slotted into the approach path, and soon Marius had them on the ground, landing at the eastern end of the airport in an area designated for private craft. Even before the rotors had stopped, a bunch of technicians and refuelling crew had assembled at the side of the area, waiting to enter.

“How long are we planning to stay here again?” Marius asked.

“We were thinking of staying here until about 6pm – make sure it’s properly dark then, and gives our contact time to get the goods to the pickup point.” Kai responded. Marius finished unhooking himself from the rigger interface and safety harness. 

“I’m going to stretch my legs then and check on the ground crew.” He exited the chopper and headed over to the crew, greeting the team leader in English.

“Welcome to Bromma. I’m guessing you want the tanks topping off. While that’s going on – want a general clean up? Wipe and clear the windows, make sure the filters are good, visual check for damage, that kind of thing?”

“Sure, that sounds good. And yes please, fill up the tanks.” Marius responded somewhat absently while he scanned around the area. “But first things first…”

“Toilet is over there through the red door, turn left.” The airport worker responded with a big grin. “Don’t worry, it’s often the first question we get asked.” He turned to the rest of the team and nodded. Half of them grabbed the large hose and headed over to the fuel inlet, while the other half headed to the side where a large set of steps on wheels was located, and started to push this towards the craft. Marius looked back over his shoulder just before he went inside, but everything looked in order, and he went to find a toilet that didn’t fold out of the wall or have a shower nozzle over the top that occasionally dripped cold water onto your head while you were trying to concentrate on other things.

Hunter also took advantage of the better comms signals and updated his routing and mapping information, letting the computer cache the overheads available to him and interrogating databases on flight plan filing for several of the Balkan states – just in case they head to divert. He soon had a number of alternate routes worked out back towards Moscow via a number of different routes, with a variety of stopping points at regional airports built in. With that done he sent a text to Julius to see how he was – but didn’t get a reply within a minute or two and guessed he was busy with something.

The quality of maps was somewhat variable – at least the free ones were – and that put him in a bad mood, and when he started to come across a number of different procedures for each country he started to mutter under his breath and occasionally let out a curse. 

“What’s up, Hunter” Tads asked, coming forwards to make sure that they weren’t under attack of some kind – or that the spirit wasn’t enacting some kind of revenge for some perceived slight. Hunter explained, showing her the matrix pages and the different forms in use by each country, mixing up the order the questions were asked in, making it more difficult to just copy and paste the data between them. “That does look frustrating. Can’t you make the machine do it for you? Isn’t there a program of it of some kind?”

Hunter looked at her like he was about to say something – but then closed his mouth and a considering look crossed his face. Nadia leaned over from her seat and glanced at the page.

“You know, I think she’s onto something there. I bet all the data entry fields probably have tokens and attributes. We just need to write a helper-app that can interrogate the host and recover the attributes, then reach into a custom database we can write to grab the details. Maybe from a profile, that we can swap between for different transponders?”

Tads looked in confusion as the two of them started to speak some kind of foreign language as far as she was concerned. She had no idea what a primary key insertion was or a nested select clause, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to – but they seemed happy enough to pass the time, so she left them to it.

Aswon meanwhile had taken a ratchet strap from the box and was carefully working at it with his knife, slowly cutting through the strap and pulling at the loose edges and fraying them carefully, grabbing bits of it with some pliers and straining to pull them as much as he could.

“What are you doing?” asked Kai. “Don’t we need that for securing cargo?”

“I was thinking, when we do our pickups and dropoff, we need to have a cover story for why we’ve stopped. Even if we leave an illusion in place at height while we go down, it’s going to need some reason for it.” He waved the frayed end of the strap towards Kai. “Hence this.”

“I don’t get it.”

“If anyone calls on the radio, we tell them we had a strap break, and we have cargo shifting around loose in the back, that we need to secure. Flying is making it move and could be dangerous, so we’re just hovering while the loadmaster replaces the damaged strap. And now we have a damaged strap if we need to show an inspector.”

“Ahh, I see. Great job Aswon, good thinking.” Kai spread the word to the team, and they started thinking about the pickup.

Kai and Marius came to find Tads, and the three of them thrashed out the plan for the actual pickup. Marius would fly the course as normal, then slow as quickly as he could to a stop, and let Tads throw up an illusion of the chopper in a hover, while he dropped altitude as fast as he could and put the bird down, aiming to have the ramp already open by the time they reached the ground. The rest of the team would load the cargo, while he stayed ready, the rotors spinning and Tads concentrated on the illusion. If they were challenged over the radio, he would report in that their load had shifted in the cargo bay and was off centre, and their loadmaster was trying to lash it back down into place – hopefully that would buy them enough time to finish loading, power up and get back airborne to merge with the illusion, and then they could drop the spell and resume their flight eastwards.

With everyone aware of what their role was, Kai made the call to the number given to him by Vlad, arranging for a pickup at 18:30. The voice at the other end of the line made a curt acknowledgement and hung up before he even had a chance to say goodbye, but hopefully that was because they were busy making arrangements, rather than being an asshole.

Their two hour window came to an end, and Hunter radioed through to the tower for departure clearance. He listened for a moment, then asked for clarification, a deepening frown forming on his face.

“Ok, standby departure, will look into this now.” He changed from the tower frequency to the internal comms. “Ok – we can’t have departure clearance because there’s an outstanding bill to pay for services. Who did what?”

There was silence for a moment, then a chorus of replies over the team net as they all denied knowledge of any billable activities – except for Marius. A moment passed, then he spoke, almost hesitantly.

“I did take up the ground crew on the offer to clean the windows and declog the filters. How much is the bill?”

“Departure control, this is Kilo-Hotel-Foxtrot-Whisky One-Niner. Please can you clarify the amount owed?”

“Certainly, the outstanding amount is nine hundred and eighty three Nuyen.”

“HOW MUCH?”

“I can provide you with an itemised bill?”

“No, no – that’s FINE. Here, transferring credit now.” He stabbed a credstick into the terminal and keyed in the authorisation code for the charity, watching as funds were sucked from the account.

“Kilo-Hotel-Foxtrot-Whisky One-Niner, you are cleared to taxi to pad four and power to 20%, hold for final lift-off clearance.”

“Roger, departure control.” Neither Marius nor Hunter spoke, but a moment or two later the engines started up and the sounds of pre-flight activity from the cockpit increased. A few drops of rain landed on the windscreen as a weather front closed in on the airport, the dark raindrops slowly cascading down the windscreen.

They slowly lifted off into the black sky, heading west into the weather front and following the flight path out of the city. As soon as they cleared the outer suburbs, they swung to the north, circling the city in a clockwise direction until they hit the bearing for the meet. The team – except Tads - did a last check over of the loading bay and ensured the vehicle was lashed down tightly, and that guns and ammo were to hand in case the pickup proved to be a setup or they got raided by a third party.

Tads headed into the kitchen area instead, and carefully boiled up some water on the tiny gas burner, then made a fresh batch of porridge in a container. When everything was secured again, she sat down on one of the chairs and placed the bowl of steaming porridge on the table next to her.

“Grandfather? Grandfather, I have something for you? And I’d really like to talk to you.” The spirit manifested out of the wall, giving her a dirty look. “This is for you, and also I wanted to apologise for earlier. I was trying to keep us safe, and I didn’t want to demand anything from you. That would have been rude. And also, we’re heading somewhere to make a collection of goods now – and I may have to cast some spells on the chopper to hide us and keep us safe. I wanted to make sure you were ok with that.”

The spirit snorted at her, and continued to frown at her earnest expression for a moment. Then it reached over and materialised into the real world long enough to pat her on the back of the hand, before grabbing the bowl of porridge and starting to scoop it up hungrily.

It was barely ten minutes flight time to reach the location, and they started to descend. On the map they saw the approaching town of Bollmoroa scrolling towards them on the display, with a large golf course to the north of the main highway around the town. Just past the border of the golf course was a large forestry plantation, arcing around a large guest house or small hotel of some kind. The co-ordinates highlighted had them dropping right by the edge of the forestry, as far away as possible from the hotel, and Marius monitored their progress carefully.

“Tads, stand by, beginning descent in five, four, three, two, one….now!”

“Illusion in place and holding position.”

The helicopter dropped quickly as Marius expertly manipulated the controls, the rear ramp already dropping as they raced towards the ground. The wheels and the ramp hit the moist grassy meadow at the same moment, and the rest of the team peered out of the rear into the gloomy twilight. On the astral plane, Aswon could see the life signs of the smugglers as clear as day, clustered around a vehicle nestled in close under the trees, and the others could make out the faint movements as they headed their way.

As the smugglers emerged from cover, they fanned out, their submachines guns held ready but not raised in threat. Their vehicle rolled slowly forwards, four large and bulky looking cargo units strapped into the back. Each box was about two metres long, and a metre high and wide, and looked to have a small refrigeration unit built into one end, a few glowing lights showing on the control panel. 

The off-road vehicle carefully swung around and backed up to the ramp, stopping just millimetres away from the back of the chopper. As the team moved down to meet them with no weapons visible or signs of threat, the escort let their submachine guns fall on their slings and started to swarm over the cargo, loosening the ratchet straps and then carefully lifting the top modules from the truck and lowering them down to the waiting hands below, relaying the cargo from the truck into the chopper. Unloading continued smoothly, the bulky and unwieldy modules proving to be a bit of a pain to shift from one vehicle to another, and the seconds ticking by.

If felt longer, but only took two minutes from start to finish to get all four containers trans-shipped, and the two teams separated. Not a word had been said by either side, both of them content to concentrate on getting the job done as quickly as possible. One of the team turned though and pulled out his phone, taking a quick shot of the team as they moved the cargo over the UAZ and into the hold, presumably as proof of cargo handover. Aswon couldn’t help himself, and turned to pose, giving them a big beaming grin as the camera clicked.

The ramp started to rise and Marius slowly applied power, the chopper starting to ascend into the air and the team at the rear moved to secure the cargo, strapping it down into position. 

“Marius, movement ahead!” Tads called from the nose turret, “Over by the building!” Sure enough, a lone figure had appeared from a side door, waving a torch around in their general direction. Powerful as the beam was, the range was still far too long to see them except as perhaps a very dark shape moving in the air – none the less, Marius applied a bit more power, racing them back to altitude and merging with the illusion hovering above. With a sigh of relief, Tads dropped the spell, and Marius lowered the nose, swiftly gaining speed and following their previous course east.

In the rear, Aswon grabbed the bug scanner, and they moved over the four cargo modules in a methodical slow sweep, checking every part of them for stray emissions from homing beacons or GPS trackers – but the cargo seemed clear. With their fears allayed, they examined the modules more carefully. 

Each was a smoothly moulded plastic container with a thick hinged lid. They were weighty, having taken four of them to move easily, and had the small refrigerator unit at one end on the long side. They looked to be similar in fact to a family chest freezer, but more rugged and robust. Each lid was secured with a security cable with a snap-off plastic lock, each with an individual serial number. Hunter checked over the power inlet and frowned, then moved to the side of the chopper and grabbed one of the power leads that interfaced with the choppers systems.

“Um, guys – we have a bit of a problem here. Different shape plugs, no earth pins… and I think these run on different voltages. We’re not going to be able to plug straight in, even if we stripped back the wires and jury rigged them.”

Marius tried to offer some advice over the comms system, but it was clear that the problem was complex enough to require his personal attention. He set the auto-nav on the chopper, following a straight and simple course east bound and asked Nadia to come sit in the co-pilot’s seat and monitor the systems while he went into the back and had a look.

They gathered their tools and had a look at the two electrical systems, trying to work out how to convert the power from the onboard low voltage high current DC system to the required high voltage low current AC required by the freezers. Between Hunter and Marius they worked out a convertor, having to cannibalise several gadgets from their stores for the required convertors and modules, power supplies and transformers and then linking them together in a horrible mess of gaffa-tape and breadboard based circuitry.

They were still in the early stages of construction when they heard Nadia shouting from the cockpit – her voice full of alarm. Marius raced forward, leaving Hunter to continue the assembly and slid himself back into the pilot’s seat, manually scanning over the instruments while one hand fumbled for the rigger jacks, getting ready to plunge the spiked connector into the socket on the back of his neck. Several red lights flashed across the display, and the flight computer displayed information on the alarm.

“Ok, X-band radar, 1.4 degree bandwidth, at least 200 kilowatts power…crap, that’s a fire control radar, means we’ve been illuminated and locked up.” The jack slid home into the connector, and his voice stopped as the response override stopped his meat body from moving, as his consciousness took on his “new” metal body form. Nadia grabbed him as he started to collapse and slide off the seat as his muscles all relaxed, struggling to get him strapped into his flight harness.

He checked the sensors, looking down the bearing of the radar signal, but not seeing anything initially. He wondered for a moment if he should energise his own sensors to get a lock up on whatever was out there – but decided against it as it could easily be seen as a hostile act. Of course, locking up another craft with your fire control radar wasn’t exactly friendly – but it had been long enough that if they were intending to fire, they would probably have already done it.

The chopper continued to fly east, and a fuzzy signal appeared on the sensors as he got closer to the source. His systems identified it as a fishing trawler, no more than three to four hundred tonnes and probably only twenty metres in size. He discounted the information instantly – no fishing trawler carried a radar with X or K band radar rather than general purpose navigation radar. That meant whatever the “trawler” was, was either military or private security, and probably built out of stealth materials to some degree and brimming with electronic deception and counter measure equipment.

He thought quickly, and decided that probably his best move was to ignore it – make out he hadn’t even detected the inbound signals and just continue to fly his filed flight plan. As a “legitimate” flight, he shouldn’t be worried about being tracked or interrogated electronically, and it might fit their cover better to not react quickly to such signals anyway – as if a bored or sleepy pilot wasn’t paying attention to his systems.

They flew on, the bearing changing rapidly as they flew near the “trawler” and then started to open the range again. Abruptly the radar ceased, and the warning lights went out, all the alarms stopped and they flew on much as before, three hundred metres above the cold and unforgiving waters of the Baltic Sea. Marius reset the autopilot and then jacked out long enough to adjust himself and get comfy and to reassure Nadia that she’d done the right thing, explaining what each of the systems was and describing why he’d done what he had from a tactical point of view to her.

In the back, Hunter was just about finished the bodged power convertor and was getting ready to plug it in and test it when Aswon raised his hand in alarm, shushing the others and listening carefully. He moved around carefully and ended up putting his head directly against one of the freezers, trying to cut out the background noise of the chopper to isolate whatever had caught his attention.

“Ahh, I think it’s ok, but it’s a good job you are almost finished. It sounds like liquid settling in the compressor. I just heard the sound of fluid gurgling and it made me a little nervous.” Aswon shrugged, but moved to help Hunter carefully move their lashed up rig into position and then connect up the power leads one at a time. Fortunately, the wiring held and the freezers activated one after another, their panels lighting up and kicking the pumps into gear and starting to drive the refrigerant through the heat exchanger.

They flew on, the kilometres streaming by uneventfully. Once again they saw fishing trawlers – this time genuine ones – ferries and cargo vessels steaming along beneath them, and the occasional high altitude track of commercial jets far above them – but their progress was uninterrupted and they made good time with the prevailing winds behind them. As they approached the Russian border, they were hailed and asked for their flight ID and visa details.

“St Petersburg approach, this is commercial freight flight, Kilo-Hotel-Foxtrot-Whisky One-Niner. We have transit clearance with refuel at Veliky Novgorod, continuing at Flight level 1 to Moscow international freight terminal.”

“Standby Foxtrot Whisky One Nine.” The radio went quiet for a few seconds, then a few seconds more. Just as Hunter was about to transmit and ask if there was a problem, the controller came back. “Foxtrot Whisky One Nine, confirm your flight plan ID?” Hunter read out the sixteen character code carefully, supplying the date and time of filing alongside. Once more the radio went quiet. The rest of the team had also stopped what they were doing and was listening in, wondering if they were going to find life getting interesting all of a sudden.

“Foxtrot Whisky One Nine, got it here. You’re cleared at Flight level 1, winds generally 260 at 5 knots. St Petersburg control out.” Hunter, and the rest of the team relaxed, letting out breaths they’d been unconsciously holding onto. A minute later they crossed the beach and hit the turning point, gradually turning to a southerly course and heading towards the refuelling depot.

The refuelling stop went as smoothly on the way back as it had on the way out, just costing them another nine thousand one hundred and twenty Nuyen in fuel to top off the tanks. Their transponder and flight plan held up to scrutiny, and nobody gave them any hassle, so they were soon on their way south again, closing in on Moscow.

“So, where is the drop-off point, Hunter? Exactly I mean, not just ‘Moscow’?” Kai asked.

“It’s in the Otradnoye district on the north side of Moscow. It’s inside the very outer ring highway, but well outside the city itself – though I suspect we’ll not be allowed to fly direct to the destination without special arrangements. The actual drop off point is this industrial estate just to the north of the main train line here.” He indicated on the map, showing the low resolution image on screen and the mass of large industrial factories and warehouses clustered to the north of a major rail route with six parallel tracks.

“So, if we can’t drop off there, do we get them to come to the airport, or do we arrange a drop off elsewhere? Somewhere outside the city limits?”

“I would imagine they won’t want to go to the airport – too much official notice or chance of entanglements in my opinion, so probably outside the city. Let me have a look.” It only took him a few minutes to plot out the airports around Moscow and the flight routes open to them.

“If we head down the flight corridor to Sheremetyevo International, then bank east. Then continue around the outer highway and head for Chkalovskiy regional airport, which handles some local freight and such like. It’ should be easy enough for them to meet us at a smaller airport, and then go on our way?”

“Alright, that sounds good.” Kai activated his comms and relayed the plan to the rest of the team to see if anyone had any objections or issues with the plan, then gave the nod to Hunter when nobody did. Hunter got busy filing an update to their flight plan, putting in the refuelling stop at the airport and reserving the time slot for their transit around the perimeter of Moscow.

Kai meanwhile got on the commlink and called the drop-off contact, holding his hand cupped around the microphone on the phone to try and cut down on the background noise as much as he could. It rang a few times, then went to voice mail.

“Hi there, this is the courier. We have four boxes of frozen fish to deliver to you. We’d like to arrange for delivery of your produce at a local airport, as your original location was a bit… well, urban. Please let us know if that’s not ok, and we should be with you in the next two hours.”

About two minutes later, the phone range, the screen showing the number he’d just left the message with.

“You just called, and left a message with me.” The voice was thickly accented and sounded surly and more than a little angry.

“Ahh yes, this is Express fish delivery. We’d just like to meet somewhere out of town if we can.”

“Can you get the product to the location specified?”

“Well, I’m sure we can of course, we’d just rather prefer to…” Kai was interrupted by the man on the other end of the line.

“Then do so.” The line clicked off, leaving Kai blinking a little, and replaying the conversation in his head. There was something about the voice that indicated it was a man used to not being disappointed or argued with. He activated the comms again, and cleared his throat.

“Ok team, checked in on the job, and we’re dropping off at the original location. Hunter, let’s rework the plan for that.”

“Hmm, ok – I see this bit of woodland just outside the outer highway ring, we can probably drop to a hover and offload the vehicle and the freezers, just like we loaded them. Get some of the team to drive the jeep in to the meet, while the chopper heads on to the airport. But of course, we’re not going to be in support range of each other, and that means only two people going to the drop-off.”

“How far is the drive?”

“About seven klicks in to the industrial estate for the drop off. About thirty five from there to the airport.”

“Ok, that’s doable. Shimazu and I will go and do the drop, the rest of you stay with the helicopter and head to the airport.”

They worked out the route and looked at the freezers and the clearance for the UAZ, realising that they’d have to get the jeep down the ramp smartly, then carry the freezers down and into it. With the weight and bulk of the freezers, they’d be at the limit of capacity for the UAZ, but they figured with the typical care most Russians seemed to show for their vehicles, that wouldn’t be out of character.

By the time they entered the more controlled flight corridor near Moscow, they were ready, and had their equipment sorted and were ready to go. Once more, Marius bought the chopper down in a fast but controlled descent, touching down gently in a large clearing near a few burnt out cars abandoned some time ago. Swiftly the reversed the UAZ down the ramp and swung it around, then backed up to bring the load bed as close as possible. 

It was more of an effort with less people, but still only took them three minutes to offload the freezers into the back of the truck and lash them down with straps. Tads bought out a large tarpaulin and covered the load bed with the help of the others, then holding onto the corner, started to mutter and concentrate. A moment later the tarp and the freezers disappeared, just leaving a beat up looking truck sitting there, low on the suspension and looking as battered and rusty as a thousand other vehicles in the area.

Kai grabbed his taser and jacket and jumped in the car, not bothering with any more armour than that which drew a dirty look from Shimazu who had packed on an extra layer, and had both his sword and hand-cannon in easy reach.

Quickly the bird powered up and continued on the journey, heading east towards the airport, while Shimazu carefully drove the jeep out of the woods and onto the small and badly potholed road leading south. Once he reached the main road, he found out that while it was wider and better lit, it wasn’t much better maintained, and he had to drive carefully to avoid dislodging the load – which apparently infuriated the other drivers of Moscow. 

As they drove into the city they saw the grey and brown blocks of hi-rise tenements, large bulky factories and massive signs of urban decay. It was a grim and soul-destroying sight, with very little signs of beauty or love anywhere in the environment.

The drove down the agreeably straight main road, passing a few signs of civilisation such as Stuffer Shacks and McRonalds stores, before eventually reaching the turnoff for the vast industrial estate they were aiming for. As Shimazu signalled and turned into the wide sweeping turn designed for heavy lorries, he saw a flicker of movement up high. A dark figure was watching them over the roof parapet, and he nudged Kai to check him out.

As Kai watched, the figure raised a hand to his mouth, presumably passing on information via phone or radio to someone. They threaded their way into the estate, spotting a few more lookouts each of which seemed to be watching out for them from alleyways, roofs or advertising hoardings. 

Grey concrete walls topped with razorwire loomed up on either side of them, guarding huge boxes of bland and brutal architecture. They pulled up at the co-ordinates, at what looked like a steel foundry or other heavy manufacturing plant. As they pulled to a halt, a roller shutter rose noisily in the side of the building and a dozen men emerged, all holding pipes, steel picks or bats of some kind. In the centre was a better dressed man, just tapping a cigarette out of a pack and raising it to his lips, lighting it and sucking in a lung full of smoke with great gusto.

Kai got out of the car carefully under the scrutiny of the men, and gave them a smile.

“Good evening, gents. I have a delivery of frozen fish for you.” The smoker in the centre of the group nodded, then gestured with his hand to the back of the truck, his cigarette leaving a trail of smoke as he did so.

Shimazu climbed up on top of the truck, working by feel around the freezers and the flaps of tarpaulin. When he had a good hold on the edge, he grabbed his phone in one hand and sent a text to Tads ‘drop spell now’. A few moments later, the material appeared in the world, and with a heave he tugged it to one side, unveiling the contents with all the gusto of a stage magician. Several of the thugs gave a start as metres of blue material and four large freezers appeared in front of their eyes, and Shimazu gave a little smile. 

Moving around to the back of the truck, they handed off their various weapons to a designated carrying minion or just left them on the floor, then swarmed over the vehicle, carefully lifting down the freezers one after another under the steely eye of their boss, who just stood watching, slowly smoking his cigarette. Four guys were carrying the first freezer into the warehouse as the last was being offloaded and stacked by the side of the truck. The boss turned towards Kai and Shimazu, flicking the ash off the end of his imported Marlboro.

“It is done. You go now.” Without pausing for a reply or confirmation, he turned and wandered into the warehouse, disappearing into the darkness of the facility. Kai and Shimazu climbed into the vehicle and carefully backed out into the road, swinging the UAZ around as the first group of men came back for the last freezer. Kai grabbed a quick photo through the window of the truck, then forwarded it onto Vlad, then called him.

“Hello Vlad. We’ve just made delivery, I’ve just sent you a confirmation picture. All delivered ok, on time, and with no official notice.”

“Excellent work my friend. It is good, like Wheat in the Sunset. Now I can wait for their call, with head on pillow, like a virgin.” Kai frowned, trying to work out just what the hell that was ‘like’, but no picture came to mind.

“Good, well if you want to send through the cash, I’ll forward on the details to you now.”

“Da.”

Kai slotted his ID, sending over his contact details for ‘Dr Arban Erdene’, the medical doctor they had worked with when travelling through Iran. It was linked to the medical charity they had set up, which meant it should be easy to rinse the funds through and use for something else.

“I have the details. I will tell Germaine, I am Happy, like Larry.”

“Is there anything else we can do for you?” Shimazu shot him a dirty look, shaking his head and trying to remind Kai that they had a job already, down in Africa.”

“No, all is good. NO! Wait, yes. I have one thing to ask, like Last Leaf of Autumn Falling. I have something to take to Germaine.”

“Ok, yes, we can do that. Do we need to come to you for this?”

“Da, is only a small thing. Not an issue, but I must make sure it reaches her intact. Will be a low paying job, just a few thousand. You can do this for Vlad?”

“We’ll be on our way to you shortly, I’ll text you arrival time when we’ve met up with the rest of the team.” Shimazu tensed, his hands gripping the wheel of the UAZ in frustration as he heard Kai agree to do some other side mission for someone, taking them somewhere else. The plastic on the wheel creaked in protest as his massive hands started to deform the surface.

“This is good.” Vlad disconnected, and Kai pocketed his phone then turned to smile at Shimazu.

“Don’t worry, it’s on our way, and it’s just a personal delivery – like a letter or a parcel or something. It’ll help pay for the fuel. It’s all cool.” Shimazu grunted, then turned his attention to the navigation system as he started to thread his way out of Moscow and onto the main roads leading east towards the airport.

An hour later, they arrived at the freight gate for Chkalovskiy airport, and after slotting their IDs at the gatehouse were directed to the western edge of the airport where the helicopter depot was. It wasn’t hard to spot their vehicle – the MI-6 dwarfed all the other vehicles there, easily out massing them by a factor of two. As they drove over the rough finished concrete, the rear ramp lowered, and they saw Hunter and Nadia standing one to each side, looking out and down at them, each with a hand behind their back – presumably holding weapons. A quick wave and a thumbs up from Kai, and they relaxed slightly, and Shimazu slowed and carefully drove up the ramp, bringing the vehicle to a stop on the slotted metal tracking in the back of the cargo area. Already the ramp was rising up behind them to seal them inside.

“All good everyone,” shouted Kai as he carefully climbed out of the jeep into the cargo hold, squeezing himself through the narrow opening in the door. “We’re going to rest up here I think, then head back south, we have one little tiny pickup for Germaine from Vlad, to drop off on our way south, and we’re all done.”

The silence in response to his statement was deafening. 

Kai checked on his phone, querying the bank details for the charity.

“Hey – but good news. We’ve been paid the ninety grand from the job!”

Aswon looked up at him from where he had been cleaning his rifle.

“That was supposed to pay one hundred. Not ninety.”

Kai’s smile seemed to slide a little to one side as he cast his mind back.

“I’m sure he’s just going to give us the rest when we get to him for the pickup of this next job. It’ll all come out right, I’m sure.”


	118. 118 - Back to the Quarry

Date Wednesday 20/04/2060, Location: 55.88864, 38.05461

Kai watched as the rest of the team turned away from him and returned to their tasks, getting ready to bed down for the night or finishing their meals.

“What? What?? Come on, it was on the way… and it’s extra cash.” Nobody responded to him, so he shrugged. Hey, at least no one was arguing with him.

Marius got on the radio and arranged for a pad space for the night, and a few minutes later a small but powerful tractor tug latched onto them and pulled the chopper over to some space just off the flight line, nestling them in next to a couple of traffic choppers and what looked like an air ambulance. The rotary wing section of the airport was to the west of the main runways, separating them from the freight traffic a little – between the distance and the double layer of structure around the living accommodation, the noise was attenuated enough that sleep wouldn’t be an issue, at least.

A technician had run out a power line from the building and connected it to an inlet by the side of the nose, providing power from the airport into the chopper and letting them run their equipment without draining the batteries, presenting Marius with a datapad to touch his thumb on and accept the overnight berthing charges and airport terms and conditions. 

The team settled down, reverting to their long established watch schedule by default, and soon gentle snoring washed back and forth from one bunk or hammock to another. Around them the unsleeping activity of the airport continued, large and small freight aircraft bringing in supplies to transfer and feed the voracious appetites of the city of Moscow and its millions of citizens.

Aswon awoke after about three hours sleep and gave a stretch – always an impressive sight given his height and that when he yawned he displayed his implanted teeth so prominently. Nodding to Shimazu who had gently shaken him that he was awake, he watched as the large man crammed himself into his bunk, pulling a blanket over him and another over his head to block out the light. He lay for a few minutes, working on his breathing and listening to the slumber of those around him, thinking about how lucky he was that he always seemed fine with just a couple of hours compared to how grouchy everyone else got. It certainly made things like watch schedules or stag duty much easier to cope with. 

After a while he got up, and eased quietly out of the sleeping area into the back of the chopper, and did a few stretching exercises to loosen up. He figured nobody was going to be happy with him going for a run up and down the runway or even the flight line, so his morning jog was out. He mused for a minute or two on what to do, then felt a little rumble in his stomach as it too woke up and realised he was up and about for the day now. He was halfway back to the kitchen when he realised he didn’t have to have porridge – again – and that there were other options. After a moment though, he did head into the kitchen and make a fresh bowl of porridge up, mixing it nice and thickly.

As it started to cool, he hunted quietly through the cupboards, looking for the bottle of Vodka. Pouring a generous amount in to the steaming bowl, he mixed it in thoroughly to the stodgy mixture of oats and milk.

“Grandfather? Morning Grandfather! Breakfast is ready.” The spirit poked its head out of the wall, and looked over at him. The initial look of suspicion vanished as it spied the bowl and the spirit fully emerged, materialising into physical form and gleefully grabbing the bowl from him.

“Hmm… nice. I like this.” He squatted down on a small box of equipment, balanced the bowl on his knees and started to munch on the 40% proof porridge with obvious glee. Aswon thought about trying to engage him in conversation, but decided against it – he didn’t want to be sprayed in porridge after all. Instead he wandered the craft for a while, looking out of the windows of the cockpit, and the various unobstructed windows in the rear, watching the area outside with interest. The helicopter area was almost deserted, with only the occasional patrol by a security guard and his dog. Clearly very few helicopters flew at night, and he wondered why for a few minutes, craning to look over at the main runway and watching several planes landing and taking off. 

On his next wander of the craft he found the empty porridge bowl lying on the floor, with a splatter of spilt oats around it. With a small sigh he tidied the bowl away and wiped up the mess with a cloth – clearly Grandfather wasn’t much for cleaning up after himself. Aswon returned to his patrol, until he shift was up and he went to gently shake Hunter to take over.

“Hey Hunter, I’m heading out for a bit. Shouldn’t be long. Going to get some fuel and stuff.”

“Murmph.” Hunter rubbed the sleep from his eyes and struggled up from his bunk, having to slide out from the narrow space on his side. Clearly the designers of the vehicle had not put crew comfort at a premium, or had some kind of recruitment policy that meant only accepting recruits under 125 kilos and 1.7 meters. 

Hunter left him be to finish waking up, and headed into the back to drop the ramp. A huge gust of bitterly cold wind whipped through the helicopter as the massive slab of metal dropped to the concrete. The thin skin of the chopper hadn’t done much about the absolute temperature, but the sudden gust of wind made the apparent temperature drop like a stone, and Aswon pulled on his jacket, hastily sealing the fastenings before more of his body heat was wicked away.

He carefully drove down the ramp onto the rough concrete, then hit the button to close the ramp behind him. Once the craft was buttoned up behind him, he drove towards the gate out of the airport, presenting his ID to be logged out.

“Where are you going?”

“Just out to the nearest town or something, I need to get fuel for this vehicle, and some fresh supplies from a supermarket.” he managed in basic Russian. He offered his ID stick to the guard who slotted it into the data terminal, examining the screen carefully.

“And when will you be back, Dr Keanjaho?”

“It depends how far away the fuel station is, I suppose. Probably an hour or so? Can you recommend anywhere?”

The guard finished logging him out, then directed him along a route to the north and the town of Shchyolkovo. Nodding his thanks, Aswon headed out into the quiet pre-dawn night, driving quickly along the deserted roads. It didn’t take him too long to find the fuel station and fill up the tanks on the UAZ to the brim, then push on into the town centre and find a supermarket that had an all night section. He had to slot his ID again to get access to the brightly lit room, but from there he could wander up and down the aisles and see the pre-packed goods displayed behind the armoured glass, hitting the buttons to select the products he wanted. When his shopping was complete, he presented his ID again to let the Nuyen debit be authorised, then a series of clunks and shudders echoed around the room as the various vending machines released their goods letting them fall into the collection area below.

He gathered up the supplies and swiped out of the area, then carefully drove back towards the airport and the same guard shack he’d left from. Despite the cold and the early hour, the guard still insisted on doing a proper ID check and going through his bag and the car, looking for contraband. Aswon, having listened to the others talking about Russian culture and operations was prepared for this.

“I thought about you while I was shopping, and it seemed like a lonely and cold job standing guard out here. That bag is for you, just a little thank you. There is some self-heating protein soup in there, along with a bottle of Vodka and some chocolates and things.”

The guard grunted and gathered up the bag of bribes, retreating to his guard hut and leaving Aswon to return to the chopper and carefully manoeuver the UAZ up the ramp backwards, ready to quickly deploy again.

Back inside, Hunter was just in the process of waking up Tads for the dawn watch and grabbing a last 90 minutes. Tads did her usual morning prayers, muttering to herself quietly and staring at the sky and the ground outside the window, occasionally making weird mystic gestures or throwing her hands in the air. Aswon kept respectfully out of her way, and stocked up the kitchen area with the fresh food he’d purchased, then settled down with a data pad and started to read while he waited for everyone else to wake up.

Slowly the team roused, and soon everyone was tucking into a fresh breakfast, grunts of appreciation heading Aswon’s way. Tads by now had just gotten into a routine of sampling everything she could get her hands on, and was slowly chewing individual items slowly and thoughtfully, checking the packaging and trying to analyse the taste, texture and composition as she did so.

Midway through breakfast, Hunter’s phone rang, and he wandered off to the cockpit to take the call. Returning a few minutes later he shared the news.

“Hey folks, that was Julius – my mate from Ares. Turns out he was on a big company night out last night, which is why I couldn’t get hold of him. Turns out his department got an “attaboy” for helping with some analysis and stuff, and getting Ares some new contracts in the Shirvan autonomous zone. Seems like our little job there has paid off for Ares some way. He also mentioned there’s a possibility that Knight Errant might pick up the police contract in the area.” Tads looked confused at the mention of a second company, and her mouth pursed as she got ready to ask a question – but Hunter saw the look on her face and continued to explain.

“Knight Errant are a security company, owned by Ares. They do all the security at Ares facilities and stuff like that, but they also bid on police contracts – their biggest rivals are Lone Star. But if Knight Errant get a police contract, it means Ares have a greater control over the area, and if they’re running the police, it really helps out Ares and all the other sub-companies of Ares compared to the other mega-corps and stuff.”

“And having the local police run by a company you have friends working for is probably not a bad thing either,” Aswon offered. Hunter grimaced and waved his hand in an up-down motion though.

“Remember though, Jules works for Ares, and in the mapping and strategy office in one country – he won’t have anything to do with Knight Errant directly. I mean, he might be able to introduce us to someone perhaps, or slowly put the word out to a friend of a friend. But he’s not a way to skip arrest or something….”

The others pondered that for a moment while they ate. Aswon swallowed a mouthful of food, then asked Hunter a question.

“Not that it’s a problem – but why did you contact your friend?”

“Well, we were in the same country. It wasn’t really for anything specific, but just being over there made me think of him. Just a checkup really.”

“Oh. Well, here’s a thought – he works with maps and things. Does he know anything about Desert Wars? Could he get you some information?”

“That’s a good question Aswon. I don’t know – but it’s worth an ask.” True to his word, Hunter started to compose a message to his friend immediately, asking for any information he might have that was not restricted and might be known by an insider to the company. A few minutes later he got a reply, indicating that he was looking into it.

“I have another question for you as well Hunter,” said Tads, “can you have a look around for information on the lifecycle of scorpions while we’re doing our next bit of flying? We might not get the specific information on these death scorpion things we’re going after, but we might get some general information on them as a species that would be helpful?” Hunter nodded, making a quick note on his pad.

This prompted a general discussion about possible ways to capture and crate scorpions, how to transport them and stop them from killing anyone or themselves. They soon realised they really didn’t know that much about scorpions at all, other than one very limited and painful experience in the deserts near the Dekita oil-fields, and that underscored the importance of the research Tads had asked Hunter for.

When they’d worked out that they’d wandered into the realms of pure speculation, Kai broke off and placed a call to Vlad, arranging to meet him at midday.

“Yes, yes, I like. It will be good to meet at lunch, like picnic, yes?” A massive noise burst from the speaker once more, making Kai wince in pain as the device distorted and clipped the audio. He waited for the noise to stop, then gingerly moved the phone back towards his ear.

“Ok, that sounds great, Vlad. We’ll meet you at lunchtime then. Now, we’re coming in our chopper – do you have a heli-pad?” He waited, and there was no response for several seconds. Just as he was about to speak again, asking if Vlad was still there, he heard the voice come back, for the first time sounding vaguely hesitant.

“I have lots of flat ground. Hard, like concrete? You can land on that?” It was clearly a question rather than a statement, but Kai reassured him that he had a very good pilot and it shouldn’t be a problem. They concluded the call, and Kai went to inform the rest of the team about the appointment. 

Hunter soon had the course worked out and the paperwork in order – a fairly short journey of 380km almost due east and following the M7 road from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod. He took the paperwork and headed into the flight ops building to file it in person, returning shortly afterwards.

“No problem. I gave them a ‘processing fee’ of a hundred Nuyen for a permit to overfly the city and head straight to the docks, and then drop off and pick up cargo from the area, but I don’t think they really cared what we were doing after she got her bribe.”

After clearing up the breakfast gear and securing the chopper for flight, they were towed back out to the helipad and were soon up into the air, heading east through the cold, crisp morning. There were a few wisps of cloud high in the air, but otherwise it was stunningly clear and visibility was excellent, with them able to see clearly over a hundred kilometres from their cruising altitude.

In the back, Kai and Shimazu went through the materials they had gathered from the Russian farmhouse, pulling out the wooden doll they had found. Kai cleared some space on the map table and they turned on all the lights, to get a good look at it.

“Hmm. Made of wood, typical Matroshka doll from what I can see,” murmured Kai as he rotated the item in his hands, peering carefully at it. “Brightly painted, fairly common peasant dress costume. Painted in bright reds and greens mostly.” He carefully twisted the doll and separated it into two halves, and Shimazu pulled out the smaller figure inside. They slowly worked through all the dolls, noting the different patterns using a similar recurring theme as they worked down to the 8th and smallest doll, turned from a single piece of wood.”

“They don’t appear to be magical in themselves” muttered Shimazu, “But there is some kind of aura about them. Nothing bad though. If anything, it feels homely?” He sounded a little hesitant saying this, but Kai nodded in agreement.

“They’re also incredibly well made. Look here, at the thinness of this lip, and how thin the turning is. They’ve been well looked after, but this is great quality workmanship. Now, they’re not massively valuable as items – certainly I’ve never seen them going for big money at an auction house. But I reckon these are some of the finest examples I’ve ever seen, so if we can find a collector they’d be worth top-end money to them. Shimazu nodded, then a thought struck him.

“Grandfather? I have a question for you?” A face extruded from the wall in front of Shimazu and looked around in case there was any Vodka flavoured porridge on offer, before nodding to Shimazu to ask his questions. “Are these dolls precious to you? I mean, do they have any particular meaning?” Grandfather looked down at the dolls laid out neatly in a line, shaking and reverberating slightly as the chopper thundered through the air.

“Oh these. Oh well yes.” His lined and wrinkled face looked sad, and his eyes gazed off into the distance.” They belonged to little Katie. Poor little girl. And they belonged to her mother before her, and her grandmother before her. They’d been in her family for a long time. Not any more though.” 

They asked Grandfather about Katie, and he told them a little about the family of farmers that had lived in the house for generations, working the land and raising crops and livestock to feed the local towns – until the revolution came, and the bad people with it. The spirit grew silent, presumably dwelling on the night when someone had attacked the family and killed them, then tried to burn down their farmhouse.

Kai coughed, and interrupted his musings.

“Well, do you have a really strong tie to them? I mean, we want to treat them nicely, don’t get me wrong. We’re not about to use them for firewood or anything. Just I was wondering about these and thinking they would make a superb gift for someone lovely. Someone who would really appreciate the craft and workmanship of these, and have somewhere safe to keep them and admire them.”

The spirit made a shrugging gesture, then shook his head.

“Not really. They’re pretty, and they remind me of the family. But I don’t have any particular reason to keep them or care for them.”

“So you don’t mind if we give them to someone we like, as a gift.” Again the spirit shook his head.

Kai wandered off to find Aswon and Tads, and asked them for their thoughts on the spirit, and if it meant what it said or if there could be something he needed to worry about.

“Personally, I think he sounds more like a Domovoy than a free spirit. Everything I’ve seen so far seems to fit anyway. Not that that’s much – I mean, grandfather, the place feels kind of homely, he appeared after we took things from the farm, we were in Russia. Certainly fits the pattern.” Aswon’s brow furrowed as he tried to think of anything else he knew about them. “That’s all I can remember from talking with a Russian mage I used to work with on ops in Estonia a while back.”

“Domovoy?” Kai switched his attention to Tads. “I mean, it sounds like it’s from your neck of the woods. Or at least you have more chance of knowing than anyone else…”

“Well, the spirits of our people are very different. But yes, I’ve heard of them. They are a kind of hearth spirit, just like Aswon said. In traditional Russian houses they were a sign of good fortune, and people in the house would put out food and drink for them, and make sure there was a little stool by the fire.” She mirrored Aswon, he brow furrowing as she tried to remember songs and tales from her youth. “I think when you moved to a new house, it was traditional to invite the Domovoy in, and make sure there was fresh hot food for them as soon as you arrived, and you had to make them welcome and understand this was their new home.”

“Sounds ok so far.”

“They were generally guardians and protectors of the house – rarely straying outside and not caring about the world in general, only about their family and structure. Some of them could have unusual powers through, there are tales I half remember about people breaking into houses and coming to unpleasant ends as a result of the Domovoy attacking them.”

“Clearly didn’t happen at the farmouse though…”

“No, maybe he wasn’t powerful enough, or maybe the attackers had magic too. Could be a variety of reasons. He’s not beyond us now in terms of power – or at least not from what I can see. But there could be some nasty surprises, so I would rather we stay friends.”

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t planning anything.” Kai smiled and nodded a thank-you to them both. The chopper leaned to one side, changing course quite radically to the south and straightening up on the new course. “I’ll go see what that’s about.”

What it was about, it turned out, was their approach to Nizhny Novgorod. Traffic control was apparently diverting them south to the Oka River, and they had instructions to fly a course along the river until it met the Volga, and avoid overflying the residential areas. It only added a few minutes to their flight time, though a casual observer wouldn’t have thought so from the look on the face of their pilot. Even with his conscious mind effectively ‘in’ the machine and the rigger interface locking down his body movements, there was enough control to make the corners of the mouth make it quite clear what his impression was.

Vlad’s place was nestled right on the banks of the river, on the very eastern end of the town. The river was nearly two kilometres wide at this point, with a massive spit of land in the centre, and a number of cuttings, inlets and lagoons scattered around. The dockyard was right by one of the spits of land, and was sheltered from the current somewhat, yet still deep water thanks to the inlet beyond it. As the chopper circled, they saw a mid-size merchantman at the side of the river, the bows pointing straight towards the dock and a number of workers moving about with massive hawsers and chains.

The yard itself was chaos. Pallets of equipment, steel plates, chains, bulkheads, propellers, engine parts, buckets of paint – they all lay around the area scattered without thought or care it seemed. Marius picked the largest spot and bought in the bird for a smooth landing, trying not to think about the horrible scene outside. As the rotors slowed, they saw a large but somewhat elderly-looking guy sauntering towards them from one of the aisles formed by the junk and supplies lying around.

The team climbed down to meet him, responding to his broad wave of hello with return waves, nods, or half bows.

“Hello comrades, I am Vlad!” He was human, and perhaps in his fifties or late forties, stocky and with broad shoulders. His hair was receding on the top of his head, and his unkempt beard and moustache were shot through with grey hair. Powerful-looking arms stuck out from the rolled up sleeves of his heavy cotton shirt and the ubiquitous jeans and work boots finished his ensemble.

“I am Aswon!” was blurted out in response.

“You land like buzzard from the sky. How are you? I hope you are good, like fine day?”

“We’re very well, thank you” responded Kai. He was distracted for a moment when there was a sharp intake of breath from his left hand side, causing him to turn in alarm. Marius was standing with a look of horror on his face as he watched the activity at the edge of the water. It looked like the dock workers had finished attaching chains and massive tow ropes, and now half a dozen squat and powerful looking tractors took up the strain and started to drive inland. As the slack was taken up, the boat ponderously headed for the shore before coming to a stop as it impacted against the shallow beach.

Engines revved, and smoke billowed out from the exhausts as the drivers cranked up the revs. There was a lurch and a shriek as metal was dragged across sand and rock, and the nose of the freighter rose up out of the water. The drivers fed more power into their vehicles, and ponderously the freighter was dragged up onto shore using brute force, ignorance and a lot of shouting and wild gesticulations. It listed a few degrees, but the bottom was somewhat flat, clearly a river-going design rather than something for the open ocean.

“We’re good, thank you. I hope you’re happy with the job performance?”

“Indeed, I am happy, like Larry. I got word that delivery is all intact and healthy. Very happy customers. So now I need to talk to you about next delivery.”

Aswon coughed heartily, and for a moment between racking coughs, it almost sounded like someone was saying “tenkay”. He waved in apology though, and managed to get his coughing under control, and Kai returned his attention to Vlad.

Vlad reached into his shirt and pulled out a small padded envelope, about big enough to fit in a computer tablet. He handed this over to Kai, then reached back into his pocket and pulled out a plastic envelope and small fabric bag.

“Envelope is to be delivered to Germaine, as soon as you can. Envelope is money to pay for delivery. Bag is your bonus from last job.” Kai took them and nodded, stuffing them into his pocket without checking them. He saw several of the team tense up as he didn’t check the money or goods, but smiled and carried on regardless.

“Thank you, that’s great. Now, we’re off on a mission at the moment for someone that is going to take us some time. But when we come back up this way, would you have any more work do you think?”

“I think I would have work for you, yes, hmm? Yes, Vlad would be like Job Centre for you.”

“Kai schooled his face and was about to speak again, when someone else beat him to the punch.

“Oh no!” It wasn’t Vlad that responded, but Shimazu. He raised a hand and pointed, just in time for everyone in the team to shut off their augmented senses or even manage to cover their ears. Down by the water’s edge, one of the cranes was swinging around, a massive piece of metal slung from the hook with huge chains. It ponderously swung closer and closer to the ship’s superstructure, but it was far too late for the crane operator to do anything about it…

“DOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGG!” The sound was deafening, ringing out across the river and into the city, but not before echoing around the dockyard. They suddenly realised what the noises were that had caused their commlink speaker to fritz out on previous conversations, and realised that this boded quite badly in terms of organisation in the boat yard.

“Hey you! Be careful with ship! Is not like little boy playing with toy!” Vlad bellowed in the direction of the crane once the noise had abated.

“Well, Vlad, it seems like you’re quite busy and have things to do. So why don’t we get on with delivering this message, for you, and we’ll see you on our way back.” Vlad nodded at Kai and then stormed off, shouting an inventive and ever changing tirade of abuse at the crane operator, who was shouting back at Vlad, informing him that he was drunk, so what did he expect?

Once inside the chopper and with the engines spooling up, Kai checked the envelope and pouch more carefully. Inside the plasticised envelop was around three thousand Nuyens worth of hard currency in mostly Russian bills. The bag he carefully tipped out into his hands, then smiled as the small pile of brightly flashing gemstones slid out into the cup of his hand.

Hunter and Tads crowded around and carefully poked at the pile of stones, examining them closely.

“Mostly small, simple cuts, not much occlusion in the gem. Quite nice, like the sort of thing you’d put in engagement rings and moderate jewellery. Probably a couple of grands worth there, so that’s probably our bonus money.” Hunter craned forwards, his retinas turning in circles as his cyber-eyes zoomed in and out examining the loot.

Tads meanwhile suddenly darted in and grabbed a stone from a cluster, in the fold of Kai’s hand, She peered at it closely then nodded, returning her attention to the rest and slowly pushing a finger though the pile, looking for something else.

“What are you doing, Tads?”

“This one – oh and this one – they’ve been mined by hand one way or another. Not blasted with explosives or drilled.”

“So?”

“So that means that magically they’re pretty good. They could be used in creating magical items or potions, as they’re still magically whole. Once something has been damaged by an explosion or gathering and processing mechanically, it’s magically ruined.” She glanced at Kai.

“Ahh, so good for magical recipes huh? Ok, let’s take this steady then.” Kai laid the bag out and they moved to the map table to check over the rest of the pile.

They flew south, heading towards the quarry. The journey of just under seven hundred kilometres took them about two hours, with nothing of note along the way. As they closed in on the quarry, they radioed ahead and got clearance to land and a code to squawk, making sure the defences didn’t see them as some kind of aggressor. Kai sent a message to Germaine, asking if they could arrange a meet and was delighted to find that she was at the ranch and was actually out riding a horse at the moment on the extensive grounds to the rear of the building. He told her that hopefully they would catch up with her soon.

They landed at the quarry, experiencing the same white-out as they had the first time the chopper had landed here – but at least this time Marius was expecting it. He touched down gently, and killed the engines quickly, trying to avoid sucking any more of the fine dust into the engine filters as he could. Moments later one of the small but powerful trucks rolled out through the illusion covering the cave entrance and hooked up to their nose wheel, then started to tow them inside. 

As they rolled past, they saw they were to be berthed in pod three this time, with “Sandstorm” in pod one and “Project 17” in pod two. The journey was shorter than when they had been in pod six on their first visit, and the cavern was at the end of the main entrance tunnel. Tads called out to Grandfather and warned him about the spirits of the earth that were to be found in the base, and that he should take care outside the chopper in case he got into trouble. Aswon also warned him about damaging any of the rocks – not that he thought he would, but it wouldn’t do for mistakes to be made…

The team headed down to the mess hall, walking through the vast tunnel delved into the limestone hill. Nadia stuck close to Marius, holding onto his arm quietly and looking around at the odd darkened side tunnel, clearly remembering her last visit. Almost with thinking about it, the rest of the team spread themselves on either side of her, keeping her in the centre of the party as they wandered towards the recreation area.

As they walked down the approach tunnel, they could hear the sounds of wild shouting and apparently lots of excitement. It got louder and louder, and as they walked into the low-ceilinged chamber, they saw a crowd gathered around one of the tables, cheering with excitement and seemingly having a great time. They could also make out a frantic set of banging noises coming from within the crowd. Sharing glances with each other, they started to move in towards the crowd, giving them a once over as they approached.

On one side was a human woman, wearing a set of cargo trousers and a tight fitting top that showed off her figure. She didn’t sport any obvious cyberware past a datajack, and a casual look in the astral showed no power or abilities present – though it was a little dazzling as he gazed over at the group. Their emotions ran high, creating a surge of excitement and expectation, colouring astral space just as much as pollution would. Unlike the toxic wastes they often found themselves in though, the positive background of the party like atmosphere made it like looking into a bright day, forcing him to squint and struggle with the brightness of the area He moved his gaze onwards to her companion though, who certainly did have some power and was a significant source of the astral glare – by the looks of things, it was a free spirit of some kind, materialised and standing by her side, hands in the air and whooping with glee.

It was dressed in an ornate and intricately decorated robe, sequins flashing, mythic symbols densely packed and a pointy hat at a rakish angle jammed onto the head, its astral appearance matching the one on the physical plane. It was hard to gauge the power without having a proper look and risking detection, but they estimated it was probably as powerful as most of the magically active members of the team were.

Slightly to the right of this pair was a group of three more people, all screaming and shouting just as loudly. The first was a delicate-looking Asiatic female, with a massive shock of bioluminescent green hair erupting from her head in all directions. Next over was a tall and lithe-looking Caucasian elf, wearing what looked to be a sailor girl outfit. On the astral these two seemed perfectly mundane, their auras tinged with excitement and anticipation as they cheered and whooped at whatever was in front of them. 

Last in the group was another wild oddity – what appeared to be a tanned and heavily mottled skin and a somehow unsettling American-Indian complexion faded into insignificance when looked at astrally – where the horns, scales, claws and slitted eyes became immediately obvious and significantly more pronounced. Shimazu could not help but gasp in surprise as he took in the scene laid out before him in astral space.

Noting Shimazu's sudden intake of breath, Kai, Aswon and Tads all reflexively refocussed their attention on the astral plane to see what had caught his attention so - each of them almost seeming to stumble as they were hit by the combination of near-tangible party atmosphere and the surprise of finding a small dracoform and a free spirit jammed elbow to elbow with their crewmates in the crowd. It was a toss-up as to which group demanded more attention, and the mundanes in the team were just as distracted as they took in not only the physical appearance of the two groups, but also had to contend with all of the magically active members of the team suddenly stopping and staring. 

As they moved closer though, they saw there were two more people sat next to each other on the bench seat, frantically bashing at a lever placed in front of them. On the left, closest to the woman and spirit in the robe was a slender man wearing a flight suit. On the right was a female human wearing combat fatigues, her hair pulsing through the colours of the rainbow as she too hammered on a lever. In front of them was some kind of apparatus, a big hand holding a massive dollop of some creamy white sauce, which moved first one way and then another, all under some kind of ticking timer.

As one of the competitors managed to hammer his lever harder, the arm full of gloop slowly moved closer to their opponent, while the timer continued to tick and buzz, presumably counting down until it launched the mess on a ballistic trajectory into someone’s face.

“Five Nuyen on the man in the flight suit!” shouted Aswon, trying to get into the spirit of the game. One of the team on the right looked at him then raised a thumbs up, clearly accepting his bet.

It only lasted another twenty seconds or so – a buzzer sounded and the gloop arced through the air into the face of the woman on the right, winning Aswon his bet. The crowd clapped and cheered, and the guy in the flight suit handed a napkin to his opponent with a big grin on his face. She didn’t seem too upset though, clearly taking the defeat with some grace.

Both of the other teams turned though, and sized up the newcomers, and the team noticed that the free spirit suddenly had raised his masking, appearing now as just a mundane being. Introductions were made, with the team on the left being ‘Storm’, the gent in the flight suit, ‘Dear’ in the combat trousers and tight top, and ‘Magnifico’ in the robes. The team on the right were Minnie, still wiping cream from her face, Nezumi with the green hair, Lola the elf and Chrysocolla the dragon. The team responded with their own handles, getting nods and smiles in return.

Kai went to the chef and put down a couple of hundred Nuyen on the counter, asking for some bowls of mixed gumbo for the teams in general, and a big bucket of beers from the fridge, and this seemed to go a long way to breaking the ice with the other two teams. From the conversation, it was clear that both of the other groups were smugglers too, with the group of three probably being Sandstorm and the group of four being Project 17.

Marius and Storm got chatting, with Marius guessing from the flight suit that he was their pilot – soon discovering that he was right. Yet as he chatted to him, he kept looking the guy over for where his jacks or rigger interface was, but couldn’t see it. It wasn’t unheard of for people to have them in different places to be subtle, but it was a little unusual. Shortly afterwards, Minne came and joined in their conversation, revealing that she was their team’s driver. She clearly sported cyber-eyes, a datajack and as she talked her hair seemed to change colour in time with her mood or activity.

Having found a couple of kindred spirits, Marius was soon explaining how he was a pilot and that he’d not long built his craft, and soon enough had offered to show them both his pride and joy. Checking that Nadia was ok staying with the rest of the team he led them off out of the rec-area and down the tunnel towards pod three. As they rounded the corner into the pod, he was rewarded as they both stopped and stared in amazement at the enormous chopper in front of them. Flabbergasted with the size of it, they approached with curiosity, and questions bubbling out of them which Marius was only too happy to answer. 

Once they’d got back on an even keel and had grown accustomed to the size of the chopper, they noticed some of the ‘challenges’ that Marius was going to face – but he found that they were not dismissive or condescending in their approach, nor trying to score points by comparing their vehicles with his in some pissing match, but more a genuine interest in comparing approaches to control of their vehicles and using their equipment.

During this, Marius discovered that Storm actually flew his bird dead-stick – that was, hands on with no cyberware involved at all. Now it was his turn to be amazed. If he managed to smuggle successfully, without the advantages of being part of his machine and feeling it move around him, that made him one hell of a pilot!

Soon he was engaged upon a reciprocal visit. Minne drove Project 17 around in a large articulated lorry with an extended cab – that very much reminded him of the truck that Rocket and his team used. They probably had a forty ton capacity, and would be quite well armoured – along the same lines as their own Russian truck, but the accommodation looked a lot more comfortable, with wide beds and deep mattresses. They also had an electronics bay and computer system that looked cutting edge, and if he wasn’t mistaken the truck had what looked like an ex-military ECM system. Even though it was a pretty large target itself, with those in operation, it would probably be quite hard to detect by airborne sensors from surveillance drones.

Moving onto Pod one, Storm showed them his Westland cargo chopper. It was a much smaller sized craft than their own MI-6, probably capable of moving cargo rated in the hundreds rather than thousands of kilograms. However it’s smaller – or rather ‘normal’ sizing would make it far more manoeuvrable and flexible in terms of landing spots and probably maintenance as well. Marius also noticed the giant conformal fuel tanks that had been carefully custom fitted to the sides. Strange angles were present along the length, and he guessed they were computer designed to reduce the radar cross-section. They also looked to be detachable, and he figured that if they did get into a furball, they could be ejected to make sure the craft was as nimble as possible. Checking out the cockpit, he saw that there was a top of the line heads up display and the normal bank of equipment such as radars and radios – but sure enough not a datajack or rigger jack in sight.

Back in the rec area, the teams were mingling and chatting, slowly getting to know each other over the pile of beer and gumbo that Kai had provided. Aswon seemed fascinated by the dragon, and was trying to engage him, her or it in conversation but finding it a bit of a struggle. The creature seemed quite stand-offish at first, and answered all of his questions with either a ‘yes’ or ‘no’, or seemed unwilling to discuss more open questions at all. 

Slowly though, under persistent questioning the creature seemed to open up a bit more. Aswon, being his usual self, made no attempt to hide his emotions and make clear his amazement and admiration for the dragon, and his emotions appeared to be bordering on what might be termed “fan-boy”. Chrysocolla seemed to hint that the entire team were on the run from some corporation somewhere – hardly a surprising or unusual revelation for a team of smugglers – and were pretty tight knit as a result.

Hunter and Nadia chatted a little with Dear, who was the electronics operator and operations manager for Sandstorm, and seemed to manage all of their logistics. Tads and Magnifico sat at the other end of the table, quietly discussing the earth spirits each of them had seen in or around the quarry, and sharing some thoughts on magical theory, both giving away little about themselves but happy to discuss magic in a wider setting.

Kai was chatting with Nezumi and Lola, putting on his normal charm routine but finding that Lola was also hitting his buttons, bending forwards and flashing her cleavage at him from time to time and sitting so the skimpy sailor’s outfit showed off her figure to full advantage. He was surprised to see as she brushed her snow-white hair away from her face that she had cat-like ears, which only made her seem even more intriguing.

Just as Marius, Minne and Storm arrived back from their examinations of their craft, Marius felt a buzz in his pocket. A text from Milo, appeared, malformed and incomplete. He checked the comm-link and hit sat phone, and saw that they had very poor signal here – unsurprising given how deep underground they were. He excused himself and wandered towards the entrance until he got enough signal to get a decent comms-link. Messages started to appear in his inbox, the usual spam and alerts that were an everyday feature for anyone living in the sixth world, so he ignored them and hit the speed-dial for Milo.

“Hi Milo, It’s Marius. Your message got trashed, I was out of coverage for a bit. What’s up?”

“Heya. It’s more what I can do for you. Have you got ok reception now?”

“It’s not great, let me move out a bit more. But yeah, I got ok signal now.”

“Well, I heard some news on the grapevine I thought you’d probably want to know about. It turns out that there’s been a sighting of a ‘Jason Webb’, a former ZetaImpChem employee in Southern Russia somewhere. Let me send you the file now.” An indicator appeared on the display link, showing a file was being transferred over. “It seems that ZIC is offering a bounty for information leading to his whereabouts. It’s only five kay at the moment, but they’re throwing that out for anyone who has a solid lead or timeframe for a sighting.”

“Scheisse.”

“You said it, buddy. It seems your friend Hunter has some people who want to have a chat with him. I thought you’d want to know.”

“Yeah, thanks Milo. Thanks a lot. I’d better go tell him and the others. I’ll get back to you soon, probably. And if you hear anything else…”

“Yeah, you’ll get a message. Don’t worry. Now you go talk to your buddy and work out what to do, and what to get your best bud Milo as a thank you drink…” The line went dead, and Marius hurried back to the rec area, looking at the data file on his comm-link. 

He arrived back in the rec-area not even out of breath after his brisk walk. If he’d been less distracted he would have appreciated the runs and training he’d been doing and how they were having an effect. However he had more worrying things on his mind. He headed over to Kai, and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, then made a circling motion with his hand. Kai looked annoyed until the clenched jaw and tension in the German’s shoulders hit him – Marius really was worried about something.

Kai gathered the rest of the team, and they made their excuses and said goodbye to the other teams, heading back to pod three, full of questions. Marius didn’t answer though, instead getting them all back safely inside the chopper and safe from prying eyes. He started to quickly rig up a the rollout screen on the wall, hunting round for a cable to connect to his commlink. 

While he was distracted, Tads called out quietly.

“Grandfather? Grandfather. Oh, there you are. I just thought you might want to know. There are two other teams here at the moment, and they both have some odd members in them.” The spirit looked at her blankly. “Well, one of them has a spirit, much like you maybe. And the other has some kind of dragon creature. It’s possible they might come here to visit, so I thought you should know.”

Marius cleared his through as he got the link working, and then quickly recounted the conversation with Milo. As he did, Hunter grew still and his expression became blank, focussing 100% of his attention on Marius. All the humour and sarcasm was gone, and he suddenly looked much more dangerous than normal.

“Milo sent me this file, apparently it’s floating around in the Shadows for interested parties.” He hit the button, and the file displayed on the larger screen. It was clearly the image from the fighting pit where Hunter had destroyed his opponent so thoroughly. The small image from the camera phone had been zoomed in on Hunter’s face, and the image had a weird soft focus look that signified heavy manipulation and AI based reconstruction.

In the bottom corner of the image was the ZetaImpChem logo, along with a short and terse message informing private contractors and independent resources that there was a bounty for information on the whereabouts, modus operandi, aliases or travel history for the individual pictured.

“Oh, that’s not good. Not good at all.” Hunter said quietly.

“Well, sure, it’s not good. But it could be worse right?” asked Kai, smiling and trying to put things in perspective.

“The code down there shows the priority for the tasking, which is higher than I thought it would be. But it also indicates that there’s an ongoing case file, and that multi-stage operations are authorised. That means that if they get any info, they will pursue it. Which means Shadowrunners coming after us.

Silence descended on the team as they contemplated that.


	119. 119 - Cloudy with a chance of death

Date Wednesday 20/04/2060, Location: 55.88864, 38.05461

“Well, we’ll just have to be careful I guess, and try to keep a low profile.” The others looked at Kai, who just shrugged. “There’s nothing we can do here realistically, except try to stay out of sight, relocate and drop off the radar, is there? So we do what we can, and don’t worry about what we can’t.”

Hunter looked like he was about to interrupt, so Kai continued quickly.

“I don’t mean we don’t worry about the situation. I mean we don’t worry about things that are completely out of our control, and that we can’t affect. We worry about the things we can do, and we DO something about those. Like laying low, and getting to Africa quietly, and spending some time in the desert where there’s nobody around but scorpions that won’t rat you out to the corp. Yes?” Hunter nodded, grudgingly. 

“So, with that in mind – what do we need to do to fix up the chopper for the next mission, or in general? Marius?”

“Well, we need to get a cargo hook installed, I think – something that we can use to suspend a load beneath us at the minimum, and ideally something with a winch or some ability to raise and lower loads and drop them off remotely.”

“And a toilet!” Aswon added. “And ideally a shower too. But definitely a toilet.”

“And if we’re taking out the truck module, can we put some beds in – something with a decent size would be nice.” Shimazu looked at Hunter for confirmation, and the big orc nodded emphatically. “Something you can actually turn over on would be nice, and big enough so you can sleep without your chest touching the bunk above.”

They discussed their options, working out how much of the cargo hold to sacrifice on amenities to make life more bearable and pleasant against the inroads into their carrying capacity and potential profits. The toilet would have to be an airline style one with a high pressure system to avoid unpleasant water leakage during combat operations, but the shower could be something a little less high tech and more off-the-shelf, and the bunks would be relatively easy to get and attach to the original fittings designed for the folding bench seats down each side of the hull. Kitchen fittings and such like would have to come later, they all agreed.

The conversation went on to the journey back to the ranch, trying to decide who would fly and who would drive, and what routes would be taken for both vehicles. Kai suggested that after the truck had been dropped off at the ranch, the occupants could make their way to Baku relatively easily on the east coast, and then catch the train across the country to Batumi.

“Why Batumi?” asked Marius.

“Well – we’ve been there before, so we’re aware of the lay of the land. But we know the guy at the top of the hill is into the shadow scene, and will be open to negotiations. I’m sure he can grease palms or make arrangements for us to get the chopper refilled at the International Airport nice and easily, and that saves us having to hunt around.” Aswon frowned at Kai as he spoke, but waited until he’d finished before he spoke.

“I’d much rather we file a flight plan and just fly down there, and not involve the crime boss personally. I’d prefer not to involve him at all.”

“Ok – but I worry about the legitimate flying. Every time we do, we leave a paper trail and electronic footprint behind us, and tie someone’s ID to one of the transponder IDs on the chopper, and both a start and end location. I just think that’s bad.”

The rest of the team considered this, seeing both sides of the argument. It was always going to be a fine balancing act of course – trying to remain covert and off the radar, without making things too hard for yourself, and avoiding setting off scanners and sensors by having no legitimate identity at all. In the end though, they realised that for now they would have to risk flying a few properly filed flight plans as the chopper was just not stealthy enough. Maybe once the electronics and avionics had been upgraded, they could do something – but until then, no.

“Oh, don’t forget about the island stop those smugglers gave us – the guys we met in Constantinople. They should be good for getting us some fuel and a place to stop.” Tads reminded them. “And hopefully we can work out a route that will tie in to how far we can fly each day as well, without wearing Marius out.”

“Or not more than Nadia already does anyway,” Hunter added quickly. Both Nadia and Marius shot him a glare, but Hunter looked unrepentant. At least he seemed to have cheered up a little, if he was making quips again. 

“Alright, alright… so let’s see… how much do you reckon we need to spend on getting some toilet and washing facilities, beds and some storage stuff and the hook fitted to the chopper? Any rough ideas, Marius?”

“I’d have put it around 25-30K, at a guess. Please tell me we have that much?”

“Oh yes, after Ludmilla’s paycheck, we’re a touch over 230K in the team slush fund. So, let’s go for 30K, which leaves us 200k left. How much fuel do we need to get us there and back?”

“Allowing for some flying around down there, and non-direct routes, I think about 110K.” Everyone winced as they thought about the voracious appetite for fuel the massive chopper had. It was going to constantly eat away at their profits, making life very difficult unless they could do something about it.”

“Ok, that’s not great, but there’s nothing we can do. So – let’s see. Shimazu and Hunter to drive the truck, with Nadia and Aswon. If Shimazu and Nadia do days, and Aswon and Hunter do nights, we have someone astrally aware all the time. Works?” Everyone nodded as he looked around, though Nadia didn’t look thrilled, knowing what was coming.

“Once the truck is back at the ranch, Nadia, you’re to start work on setting up base facilities and getting things ready.”

“Yes. How much money are you giving me?” She fixed Kai with a very direct look. “This will not be cheap, and you will get only what you pay for.”

“Will fifty thousand do for starters? That leaves us with forty to cover emergencies and equipment while we’re away?” Nadia nodded, pulling out her tablet and starting to make notes about things she needed to sort out.

“I’ve got another idea. It might sound a bit silly, but bear with me…” The team looked at Tads, wondering what kind of crazy she might come out with now. “Belts. We should all get belts, really good ones.”

“Belts?” Asked Aswon quizzically, “What’s wrong with the ones we have now?”

“I was thinking if anyone ever ends up working near the ramp or doors, while we’re mid-air – say if we’re escaping from somewhere, or being chased by security or thunderbirds…. Having a belt that you know can take your weight, and that you can throw a clip around might be the difference between life and death.”

“Surely a harness would be better?”

“Oh yes, of course. But sometimes we don’t have time to plan, and to climb into something like that – you need to get some firepower on the target straight away. I just thought it was something easy we can do that might really help.” There were a few smiles at the thought, but they generally agreed that wearing a good sturdy belt might indeed make all the difference.

The rest of the evening passed quietly – Hunter and Nadia planning the routes and working out details for the ranch, Marius doing some research on modules for the chopper and Tads repeatedly summoning batches of magical food to put in the truck, concentrating on non-perishable food that would keep the ranch supplied well. Several times the three researchers had to venture towards the opening of the tunnels to get a signal for their devices and download the next set of results or articles to read offline, back in the comfort of their pod – but they made generally solid progress.

On Thursday morning, they team managed to snag the base repair team early on, and secure their services for the day. With the tool trucks, some mobile lifting equipment, the UAZ and a lot of straining, grunting and effort, they managed to pull the living module out of the chopper and into the pod, then lift it and get it secured back onto the chassis of the 6 X 6. The remounting took a lot longer than they thought it would – lining up the mating points for the long securing pins proved to be very tricky, and there was considerable swearing involved before they managed to mate the components back together.

By lunchtime though, the truck was ready to go – loaded with the supplies to take back to the ranch and some travelling gear, while the rest of the equipment was reloaded back into the chopper. Tads looked over at Marius and smiled at him.

“Hey, just want to check. I presume that when they get the truck dropped off at the ranch, that you’re ok with Rusudan and Naena using the truck to run errands around the farm?” Marius looked at her sharply and was about to speak when she continued. “Oh, and there’s a thought. They could use it to teach Eteri and Vardo how to drive. I mean, they’re about the right age to learn, and it won’t matter if they hit anything after all. That’d be fine, wouldn’t it?” Marius turned a funny shade of mottled red as the concept of teenagers learning how to drive in his precious truck sank in.

The sniggers from the rest of the team covered his very determined and abundantly clear thoughts on Tads’ proposals and demands that the truck be locked, sealed and declared an exclusion zone from anyone that he hadn’t personally vetted and approved. Shimazu, Aswon, Nadia and Hunter grabbed their personal weapons and mounted up, turning the truck around in the pod and waving goodbye to the rest, while Marius continued to shout at them demanding they look after the truck and ensure that neither of the youngsters were even allowed IN the truck, let alone to drive it…

They left the quarry, heading down the main highway and towards Volgograd and merging in with the general goods traffic travelling down the New Silk Road. Shimazu drove at a steady pace – slower than Marius generally travelled, but he was still not as used to handling the large truck and without the direct connection to the truck’s systems via the rigger implant, his control was less precise. Hunter grew noticeably nervous as they passed through Volgograd, but they stayed well clear of the ZIC plant that sprawled down the Volga, and with the tinted windows and powerful ward on the vehicle, the actual threat was minimal. The traffic was chaotic in the city, but after some fits and starts, they made it through unscathed and headed south west on the A153.

They were about 150km past Volgograd when Shimazu called out to the others, an edge of suspicion in his voice.

“Hey, look at this. There’s traffic on the horizon, all braking. And I can’t see any traffic on the other side of the road.” Nadia looked up from her tablet and checked out the road, while Aswon and Hunter squeezed through from the back into the cab to look as well. The road was wide but only a single lane on either side here, faded double white lines marking the centre of the cracked and rough highway. The plains stretched out on either side of them, flat and featureless to the horizon with the odd barn or farmhouse sticking up from the endless acres of soy-crops. Ahead of them a shallow rise was studded with a small thicket of trees, guarding the crest of the twenty metre high hill that stood up from the plains like a pimple.

Shimazu slowed, and as they crested the hill, Aswon gave a sharp intake of breath. Ahead of them, spreading across the landscape was an angry roiling cloud of twisted chaos, the astral realm torn and disrupted by some horrific power. In the physical world, far in the distance a few vehicles had stopped, scattered across the road or crashed to the side – and others were slowing or had already come to a stop.

“It’s too soon for that storm cloud, isn’t it? That was in a valley, much further down the road?”

“Yeah Shimazu, a good way down.” Aswon checked the map. “Yup. It might have moved of course, but often these things follow mana lines or areas fairly consistently. But this is far worse than that. It’s not a storm, it’s a rift.”

Hunter and Nadia looked at the two magically active team members, waiting for one of them to remember they were there, too. After a few seconds, Hunter coughed, just to jog their thought processes.

“Oh, sorry. Um – how to put this easily.” Aswon pondered for a moment while Shimazu let the truck drift to a halt on the loose gravel and scrub to the side of the highway. “Where the world is horrible, either polluted by things we have done to it, or where humanity has committed evil acts, it twists the astral realm. So where a factory spills toxic waste into a river, or a family has a vicious argument and it spills over into a fight, it leeches through the barrier between planes and affects the astral realm. Sight becomes clouded, manipulating mana becomes more difficult, spirits become angry and more difficult to bargain with.”

“Yeah yeah, we’ve heard this bit before. And listened to Tads complaining about it.”

“No – this is important. It’s all relative. If that toxic stream stays like that for years, or the fight becomes a fight with knives and someone is killed, the astral realm twists further, becomes even more affected. I’ve heard Hermetic mages refer to it as a background count, a way they can factor in how it will affect their magic, as if they can put numbers on everything. But the more violence is done – either to the world or each other, the worse it gets.”

Hunter nodded impatiently, waiting for Aswon to get to the point. As far as he could see, there had just been a car crash, and there was nothing more going on – except that it had spooked both of the adepts.

“There are some things that have happened, that are so strong, or so violent that they don’t just twist the astral realm – they shatter it. The camp at Auschwitz. The site of nuclear weapon strikes. Mass war graves in Bosnia. The Chicago Shattergraves. Magic doesn’t just become difficult, it becomes almost impossible. For someone who has talent, just being in the area causes them to be affected and magically drained, their blood vessels rupturing, their organs failing, their brain almost frying in their skull. They are affected by the psychic death echo of the act that has taken place.”

“Ok, that sounds bad. I can see that.”

“Well, whatever has happened here, is on that scale. I don’t know what has caused this, but there is a pall across the land from one side of the horizon to the other. “

“Won’t the magic ward thingy stop it? It worked great with the storm.”

“Oh, it will protect us – for a while. But it’s a thing of magic too. It will be drained and attacked, fed upon and slowly diminished until it fails. It buys us time – but when it fails, whatever the cause is, will affect us, too.”

“What do you mean the cause?”

“Something must have caused this. Something we can’t see. I’m torn between a massive release of FAB-III or something like a radiation leak or toxic gas release.”

“FAB?”

“Fluorescing Astral Bacteria. It’s like bacteria that causes infections to a normal person – but it feeds on talent and infects mages and shamans – and yes, adepts. As it grows stronger, they grow weaker until they die, and it moves on to the next host. If it gets strong enough, it splits into two, and the cloud gets bigger and bigger.”

“Well none of those sound good. The truck’s ex-military though – isn’t it sealed against stuff like that?”

“It is, and the doors and windows have seals yes – but it’s also quite old, and I don’t know how much I trust them.”

Nadia was looking ahead, and pointed at a motorbike that had decided to drive on ahead. It swerved around a truck that had stopped, and accelerated down the road. Aswon and Shimazu watched as it approached the edge of the cloud, and as the rider entered there was a flash. This time the gasp of indrawn breath was from the other two.

Hunter and Nadia watched as the biker seemed to wobble for a moment, and then just explode – as if someone had inflated them suddenly and cataclysmically. They expanded and a split second later there was just a red mist of rapidly accelerating gore exploding outwards from the motorbike, which wobbled for a moment and then heeled over to the left and ploughed off road into the scrub before tipping over falling to the side, belching blue smoke as the engine revved wildly and the rear wheel spun in mid-air.

“Ok, I vote we go nowhere the fuck near that, whatever it is,” murmured Hunter, slightly aghast at the suddenness of the messy death. 

The other three nodded, and looked around them.

“Left turn, Shimazu – time to go off-road and see how far this goes. Without getting any closer I think.”

“I think this is as close as any of us wants to get Aswon”. Shimazu pulled off to the left, the truck lurching through the shallow drainage ditch and started to churn through crops in the field bordering the road, running south east and parallel to the edge of the storm as the team kept a careful eye on it, wondering just what had caused it and how far it went.


End file.
